Chapter 3 - The Shadow of the Castello
Gabriel didn't hesitate. He stepped into the hospital room, his body shielding Hannah and Noah from the view of the hallway window.
“Marco,” Gabriel ordered quietly. “Move four men inside this room. Station two at the elevators and two on the roof. Nobody enters this floor without my personal biometric clearance.”
“Understood, boss,” Marco nodded, stepping out to coordinate the guards.
Hannah stood up, her instincts immediately flaring with alarm. “What’s happening? Is Noah in danger?”
Gabriel walked over to the bed, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You and Noah are safe here. My men hold this hospital floor. But our presence here has drawn attention.”
“The Castello family?” Hannah asked, remembering the name Gabriel had mentioned earlier.
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed slightly. “How do you know that name?”
“You mentioned them in the car,” Hannah said softly. “The family that took Evelyn’s sister.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened, but he nodded. “Dominic Castello has been looking for a crack in my perimeter for three years. For five years, I gave him nothing. I lived like a monk in an impenetrable fortress. I had no wife, no lover, no vulnerabilities.”
He looked down at Hannah, his eyes tracing the line of her cheek, the delicate collarbone visible beneath her simple blouse.
“And now,” Gabriel murmured, “I spent seventy-eight thousand dollars and brought an entire convoy to a public hospital for a twenty-two-year-old housekeeper.”
Hannah felt a sudden weight drop into her stomach. “I’m sorry... I brought this danger to you—”
“Don't apologize,” Gabriel commanded, his thumb stroking her jawline with surprising firmness. “Dominic Castello thinks he found a weakness he can exploit. He’s mistaken. He didn't find a weakness. He found his executioner.”
He turned to the lead security guard standing near the door. “Keep Miss Cole inside this room until I return. If anyone attempts to breach that door, kill them.”
“Gabriel, wait!” Hannah called out, using his first name for the very first time.
Gabriel paused at the threshold, turning his dark head to look at her.
“Please be careful,” Hannah whispered, her heart squeezing with a strange, intense fear that had nothing to do with herself.
Gabriel stared at her for a long second, a dark, dangerous warmth flashing in his gray eyes. “I always am.”
Gabriel walked down the grand marble hallway of the hospital’s executive wing, his heavy footfalls echoing off the walls. Marco walked three paces behind him.
“Where is Dominic’s lieutenant?” Gabriel asked smoothly as they entered the private service elevator.
“In the lower level parking structure,” Marco reported, holding a tactical tablet displaying live security feeds. “A silver sedan. Two men inside. They’ve been running digital surveillance on the hospital’s main server.”
The elevator doors opened to the dimly lit, damp concrete floor of the basement parking garage. Rain water dripped through the ceiling pipes, creating a eerie tapping sound in the quiet space.
Standing beside the silver sedan were two men in dark windbreakers.
The moment Gabriel stepped out of the elevator, the two men froze, their hands reaching instinctively toward their waists.
CLICK.
Before their fingers could touch leather, six Moretti enforcers emerged from the concrete pillars behind them, heavy silenced pistols leveled directly at their heads.
Gabriel walked up to the driver’s side window, his face completely void of emotion. He pulled a silver cigarette lighter from his pocket, flicked it open, and lit a dark cigar, letting the blue smoke curl around his face.
“Dominic sends his lowest dogs to do a scout’s job,” Gabriel said, his voice quiet, deep, and terrifyingly relaxed.
The driver swallowed hard, sweat running down his neck. “Moretti... we were just watching the area. We didn't break any peace treaty—”
“You brought eyes near my woman,” Gabriel interrupted calmly.
The driver blinked, caught off guard. “Your... your woman? The maid?”
Gabriel stepped closer, pressing the glowing tip of his cigar against the silver sedan’s side mirror until the plastic sizzled.
“Tell Dominic,” Gabriel whispered, his gray eyes turning to liquid ice, “that if he so much as looks at a photograph of Hannah Cole, I will not just kill him. I will burn every dock, warehouse, and estate the Castello name touches until there is nothing left of his bloodline except dust.”
Gabriel signaled with his hand.
Marco stepped forward, pulled the driver out of the window by his collar, and threw him onto the concrete, while the other guards disarmed the second man.
“Send them back to Dominic in their underwear,” Gabriel ordered smoothly, turning his back and walking back toward the elevator. “And tell my estate manager to prepare the master suite for guests.”
“The master suite, boss?” Marco asked in surprise. “For the girl?”
May you like
Gabriel paused at the elevator doors, his hand resting on the silver frame.
“Hannah and her brother are moving into the estate permanently tonight,” Gabriel said, his voice leaving no room for argument. “She will never sleep in a maid’s quarters again.”
