Chapter 3 - The Missing Money
At nine the next morning, Gabriel sat across from Harper in the hotel restaurant.
She had slept three hours.
He looked as if he hadn’t slept at all.
Gabriel placed a photograph on the table.
“Recognize him?”
Harper looked.
“Trent.”
“Where?”
The photograph showed Trent leaving a warehouse.
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel placed down another.
Trent shaking hands with a bald man.
Harper’s expression changed.
“You know him.”
“His name is Dennis.”
“Dennis what?”
“I don’t know.”
“How do you know him?”
“He came to the apartment sometimes.”
“For Trent?”
“Yes.”
“What did they discuss?”
“They always made me leave.”
Gabriel leaned back.
“Think.”
Harper’s eyes narrowed.
“I’m not one of your employees.”
“No.”
“Then stop interrogating me like one.”
Gabriel paused.
“You’re right.”
Harper blinked.
He folded his hands.
“Will you help me?”
The difference mattered.
“Yes.”
“Tell me anything you remember.”
Harper thought.
“Numbers.”
“What numbers?”
“Trent talked in his sleep sometimes.”
Gabriel became still.
“He’d say numbers?”
“Container numbers, maybe. I never understood.”
“Anything else?”
“Pier fourteen.”
Gabriel’s eyes sharpened.
“What?”
“He once screamed at me because I answered his phone. Dennis was calling. Afterward Trent said something about Pier Fourteen.”
Gabriel immediately called Marco.
“Check Fourteen.”
Harper watched him.
“What exactly is being stolen?”
“Money. Merchandise.”
“What merchandise?”
Gabriel held her gaze.
“Things you’re safer not knowing.”
“Convenient.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Your criminal empire.”
“Yes.”
The blunt answer surprised her.
“You’re not denying it?”
“Would you believe me?”
“No.”
“Then lying wastes breakfast.”
Despite everything, Harper almost laughed.
Gabriel’s phone buzzed.
A message.
He read it.
His expression hardened.
“What?”
“Trent isn’t running this.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he isn’t smart enough.”
“That’s the first thing you’ve said today that I completely agree with.”
Gabriel almost smiled again.
Then Harper remembered something.
“There’s a notebook.”
Gabriel looked up.
“What notebook?”
“Trent keeps one taped beneath the bottom drawer of his dresser.”
“What’s inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never opened it?”
“The first time he caught me touching his things…”
She stopped.
Gabriel’s expression went cold.
Harper pushed through it.
“I learned not to touch them.”
“Where’s the apartment?”
“No.”
“Harper—”
“No. I know that look.”
“What look?”
“The one where you decide you’re sending men there.”
“I am sending men there.”
“Then Trent knows someone searched it.”
“He already knows you left.”
“But he doesn’t know I know about the notebook.”
Gabriel studied her.
“What are you suggesting?”
“I go back.”
“No.”
Harper stared.
Gabriel seemed to hear himself.
His jaw tightened.
“Bad choice of wording.”
“Very.”
“I don’t think you should go.”
“That’s different.”
“He could be there.”
“He works construction until four.”
“Unless he called out.”
“Then we check first.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
“You want to walk back into the apartment of a man who hurt you.”
“I want the last three years to buy me something besides concealer.”
That silenced him.
Harper stood.
“Are you helping me or stopping me?”
Gabriel looked at her for several seconds.
“Helping.”
Two hours later, they entered the apartment.
Gabriel insisted on checking every room first.
Harper waited by the door.
“Clear.”
She went directly to the bedroom.
Her hands shook as she removed the dresser drawer.
“Here.”
A black notebook was taped underneath.
Gabriel took it.
His eyes moved over the pages.
Dates.
Container numbers.
Cash amounts.
Initials.
Then he stopped.
“G?”
Harper asked.
“What?”
Gabriel turned the notebook toward her.
Several entries contained the letter G.
Beside them were large payments.
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
“This is someone inside my organization.”
A key suddenly scraped inside the front-door lock.
Harper went white.
“That’s Trent.”
Gabriel closed the notebook.
The door opened.
Trent walked inside.
He saw Harper.
Then Gabriel.
Then the empty dresser drawer.
His face changed.
“You stupid bitch.”
Harper flinched.
Gabriel stepped between them.
Trent stared at the notebook in Gabriel’s hand.
And panic replaced his anger.
“You have no idea what you just did.”
Gabriel’s voice was quiet.
“Then explain it.”
Trent shook his head.
“You think I’m stealing from you?”
“Aren’t you?”
Trent laughed nervously.
“I’m taking scraps.”
“For whom?”
“I can’t tell you.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
Trent backed into the wall.
“If I tell you, I’m dead.”
Harper spoke from behind Gabriel.
“If you don’t tell him?”
Trent looked at her.
She held his gaze.
For once, she didn’t lower hers.
Trent whispered:
May you like
“Then all three of us probably are.”
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