Chapter 4 - THE HOUSE WITH NO NAME
Gabriel’s Connecticut safe house did not look like a safe house.
It looked like something from a Christmas catalog.
White clapboard siding.
A stone chimney.
A wraparound porch overlooking a frozen lake.
No gates.
No visible cameras.
No men with rifles standing outside.
Which meant there were probably twice as many cameras and three times as many rifles as I could see.
We arrived just before dawn.
The boys slept through most of the drive.
Gabriel rode in the SUV ahead of ours.
He hadn’t tried to ride with us.
That mattered too.
I hated how many tiny things I had begun noticing.
Whether he asked permission.
Whether he lowered his voice around the boys.
Whether he remembered that five years of absence could not be erased with biology.
Inside, Dominic showed me the bedrooms.
“You and the boys upstairs. Gabriel’s across the hall.”
“Why across the hall?”
“He asked.”
“No.”
Dominic raised an eyebrow.
“Put him downstairs.”
A pause.
Then Dominic nodded.
“Done.”
I almost smiled.
Five years ago, nobody had said no to Gabriel Cross.
Now his own lieutenant didn’t even argue.
By eight, the boys were awake.
By eight-fifteen, Lucas had discovered the kitchen.
By eight-thirty, Gabriel Cross—who had once negotiated a union settlement while three armed men waited outside his office—was standing over a frying pan looking defeated.
“You’re burning them,” Noah announced.
Gabriel stared at the pancakes.
“I’m aware.”
“You should flip sooner.”
“I’m also aware of that.”
Eli climbed onto a stool.
“Mom makes Mickey Mouse ones.”
Gabriel looked at me.
I lifted my coffee.
“Good luck.”
For the first time since the gala, something almost normal happened.
Gabriel tried to make Mickey Mouse pancakes.
The first looked like a snowman after a traffic accident.
The second tore in half.
The third landed on the floor.
Eli laughed so hard milk came out his nose.
Gabriel stared.
Then laughed too.
I had forgotten that sound.
That was dangerous.
I went outside.
The air bit my cheeks.
The lake was gray beneath the winter sky.
A minute later, the door opened behind me.
Gabriel stepped onto the porch.
He stayed several feet away.
“Dominic says you want to leave.”
“I want my life back.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
I turned toward him.
“My life wasn’t glamorous, Gabriel. I taught art restoration three days a week. I packed lunches. I argued with three five-year-olds about socks. I knew the crossing guard’s birthday.”
My throat tightened.
“I built something peaceful.”
“And I brought this into it.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
No defense.
No excuse.
That made anger harder.
“You cheated on me.”
His face went still.
“I know.”
“You kissed her.”
“I know.”
“You divorced me.”
“Yes.”
“And now I’m supposed to trust you because you look devastated?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
“You should not trust me.”
I stared at him.
He continued.
“I want the right to earn whatever comes after distrust.”
I looked toward the lake.
“You were my husband.”
“I know.”
“You were supposed to be the one person I didn’t need protection from.”
That hit him.
Good.
“There is no excuse for what I did with Serena.”
He spoke slowly.
“I was arrogant. I was angry at you for asking me to leave the life my father built. I told myself you didn’t understand what walking away would cost.”
“You mean power.”
“Yes.”
“Money.”
“Yes.”
“Fear.”
His eyes stayed on mine.
“Yes.”
“And Serena admired all of it.”
“She worshiped it.”
“That must have felt good.”
“It felt easier.”
At least he didn’t lie.
He looked through the window at the boys.
“I chose easy over good.”
My chest tightened.
“And I have had five years to live with the consequences.”
“No. You haven’t.”
He looked at me.
“You didn’t know the biggest consequence existed.”
He flinched.
Before either of us could say more, Dominic opened the door.
“We have Venn.”
Gabriel’s expression shifted instantly.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Garage.”
Gabriel glanced toward me.
“Stay with the boys.”
I folded my arms.
“No.”
“Claire—”
“This is about my children.”
He studied me.
Then nodded.
“Dominic, put two men in the kitchen.”
We went downstairs.
Marcus Venn sat in a chair inside the heated garage.
No blood.
No bruises.
His wrists weren’t tied.
That surprised me.
Gabriel stood across from him.
“Who paid you?”
Marcus stared at the floor.
Gabriel waited.
It lasted almost a full minute.
Finally Marcus said, “Vincent Rourke.”
“For the photograph?”
“Yes.”
“The apartment?”
Marcus shook his head.
“That wasn’t me.”
Gabriel’s gaze sharpened.
“What did Vincent want?”
“To scare Claire.”
“Why?”
“To get her to run.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere away from New York.”
Gabriel glanced at me.
My skin chilled.
“Why would Vincent care where I live?”
Marcus finally looked up.
“Because of the Cross Family Trust.”
I frowned.
Gabriel went very still.
“What about it?”
Marcus looked almost sorry.
“The succession clause.”
Dominic swore under his breath.
I looked between them.
“What succession clause?”
Gabriel didn’t answer.
Dominic did.
“Gabriel’s grandfather created a controlling trust when the legitimate businesses were reorganized. If Gabriel dies without direct descendants, a significant voting block passes to the senior executive council.”
“Vincent.”
“He controls the council,” Dominic said.
I understood.
“If Gabriel has children?”
“The shares eventually pass to them.”
My blood ran cold.
“These are five-year-olds.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“To Vincent, they’re thirty-one percent of Cross Holdings.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Did Serena know?”
Marcus looked at him.
“Yes.”
Silence.
“How long?”
“Before the divorce.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
Marcus rubbed his palms over his trousers.
“She asked me to investigate the trust before you married her.”
“We never married.”
“She thought you would.”
My eyes narrowed.
“Before our divorce?”
Marcus nodded.
“She wanted to know what happened if Claire had children.”
Gabriel turned toward me.
Something terrible was forming behind his eyes.
“Why would Serena ask that before I divorced Claire?”
Marcus swallowed.
“Because she had already met with Vincent.”
The garage seemed colder.
Gabriel’s voice dropped.
“When?”
“Four months before the divorce.”
I stared at him.
Gabriel looked stunned.
Serena’s affair with him hadn’t begun as an impulsive attraction.
Not entirely.
Someone had been planning.
Marcus continued.
“Vincent needed you separated from Claire.”
“Why?”
“She was the only person who could convince you to sell the waterfront operations.”
I remembered.
The arguments.
The threats.
The night a brick came through our kitchen window.
I had begged Gabriel to leave the criminal side of the Cross organization.
He almost had.
Two weeks before I found Serena in his office, Gabriel had agreed to begin selling several companies connected to the family’s old network.
Then he changed his mind.
Marcus looked at me.
“Vincent believed Mrs. Cross was making Gabriel weak.”
Gabriel’s jaw flexed.
Marcus continued.
“Serena was supposed to get close to him.”
The room went silent.
Gabriel whispered, “The affair.”
Marcus looked away.
“It was engineered.”
For one insane second, relief tried to rise inside me.
Then I killed it.
Engineered did not mean forced.
Serena had been placed in his path.
Gabriel had still kissed her.
He had still signed the divorce papers.
He had still chosen.
Gabriel seemed to understand exactly what I was thinking.
“I did it,” he said quietly.
Marcus looked confused.
Gabriel never took his eyes off me.
“Whatever they planned, I made the choice.”
I said nothing.
Dominic stepped closer to Marcus.
“What’s happening now?”
Marcus’s face tightened.
“Vincent panicked when the boys appeared.”
“Why now?”
“Because Cross Holdings votes on the waterfront sale Monday.”
My heart jumped.
Gabriel had revived the sale.
The thing I had begged him to do five years ago.
Dominic stared at him.
“You didn’t tell me the vote was Monday.”
“I moved it up.”
Marcus looked toward Gabriel.
“If the sale happens, Vincent loses control of half his revenue.”
“And if I die?” Gabriel asked.
Marcus swallowed.
“He controls the interim board until the children come of age.”
My stomach twisted.
Gabriel stepped between Marcus and me.
“Don’t.”
Marcus’s face collapsed.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t finish that sentence.”
But he did.
“If the children die first, the succession clause disappears.”
The garage became very quiet.
Above us, faintly, I could hear my sons laughing in the kitchen.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
When he opened them, there was something inside them I had never seen before.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For them.
Then an alarm exploded through the house.
Dominic reached for his gun.
A voice shouted over the security radio.
“Perimeter breach!”
Gabriel turned toward the stairs.
Three sharp cracks sounded outside.
Gunshots.
I ran.
“Boys!”
Gabriel caught my arm.
“Claire!”
Another shot.
May you like
Then glass shattered upstairs.
And from somewhere above us, Eli screamed.
