Chapter 5 - The Timepiece That Stopped at Midnight
“Change of plans,” Gabriel barked at the driver. “Highway 48 bus station. Step on it.”
The armored SUV swerved violently, its tires screaming against the wet asphalt as we took a hard left. I pulled Ellie tighter against my chest, shielding her from the violent motion of the car.
Ethan struggled against his handcuffs in the back seat. “No! Mr. Moretti, please! If we don’t go to the diner, they’ll burn it down! Everything I’ve built—the property value—”
Gabriel didn’t even look back. “Your property value means nothing to me, Ethan. My father’s legacy is in that box. The diner can burn.”
“No!” I shouted.
The word tore from my throat before I could stop it. Gabriel turned to look at me, surprised by the volume of my voice.
“You can’t let them burn it,” I said, my voice shaking with a fierce, desperate anger I didn’t know I possessed. “That building is my life. It’s where Frank proposed to me. It’s where we brought Ethan home from the hospital. Every chair, every cracked coffee mug—it’s all we have left of him.”
Gabriel stared at me in the dim light of the dashboard. “Mrs. Bennett, it’s a building. I can buy you ten new diners tomorrow.”
“I don’t want ten new diners,” I said, tears blurring my vision. “I want my home.”
Gabriel was silent for a long moment. He looked at the silver rosary in his hand, then at the tears spilling down my cheeks. He jaw flexed.
“Pull over,” Gabriel ordered the driver.
The SUV screeched to a halt on the shoulder of the dark highway. The two trailing security cars slammed on their brakes behind us.
“Get out,” Gabriel said to the two guards sitting beside Ethan.
The guards immediately opened the doors and stepped out into the rain.
Gabriel turned to me. “Mrs. Bennett, you and Ellie are getting into the third car. My men will take you to a safehouse. You will be completely protected.”
“What about you?” I asked.
Gabriel pulled a heavy black pistol from a holster under his suit jacket. “I’m taking this car to the bus station to get my father’s box. And my second team is going to Bennett’s Family Table to make sure Thorne’s men don’t light a single match.”
Relief washed over me so strongly I felt lightheaded. “Thank you, Gabriel. Thank you.”
He offered a grim, respectful nod. “Your husband protected my father, Mrs. Bennett. It’s my turn to protect his family.”
A guard opened my door, holding an umbrella against the driving rain. I started to slide out, keeping Ellie tucked safely under my coat.
“Wait,” Ethan said.
I stopped, looking back at my son in the dim shadows of the SUV. He looked pathetic. His expensive suit was wrinkled, his hair plastered to his forehead with sweat.
“Mom,” Ethan swallowed hard, his voice trembling. “Thorne’s men… they aren’t just thugs. They’re cartel enforcers. If Gabriel’s men go to the diner, it’s going to be a bloodbath.”
“Then you should have thought of that before you sold your soul to them,” I said quietly.
Ethan dropped his head, sobbing. “I’m sorry. Mom, I’m so sorry.”
For the first time in my life, I didn’t reach out to comfort him. The boy I had raised was gone, replaced by a greedy, terrified stranger who had tried to throw me into a nursing home to save his own skin.
I stepped out into the rain and hurried toward the third SUV.
Once Ellie and I were safely buckled into the warm, secure back seat, the driver locked the doors. Through the tinted window, I watched Gabriel’s SUV peel away, heading toward the old bus station. The second car sped off in the opposite direction, toward the diner.
“Are we going to be okay, Grandma?” Ellie whispered, her head resting on my shoulder.
“Yes, baby,” I promised, kissing her forehead. “We’re safe now.”
The driver pulled onto the highway, heading toward the city. For ten minutes, the only sound was the rhythmic thumping of the windshield wipers.
Then, my phone buzzed in my purse.
I pulled it out. It was a text message from an unknown number.
My blood turned to ice as I read the words on the screen.
We know where the old man went, Ruth. We’re at the bus station. Tell Moretti if he wants the box, he has to bring us the little girl.
I gasped, dropping the phone.
“Ma’am?” the driver asked, glancing in the rearview mirror. “Is everything alright?”
I looked at the back of the driver’s head. His neck was thick, covered in tattoos.
Gabriel had sent two cars away. He had left one car to take me and Ellie to a safehouse.
But as I stared at the driver’s eyes in the rearview mirror, I realized I had seen him before. He hadn’t been standing by the dining room doors. He had been the young man at the front gate—the one who told me my name wasn’t on the guest list.
The one who had let me inside just in time to hear Ethan’s speech.
“You’re not Gabriel’s man,” I whispered, pulling Ellie tightly against my chest.
May you like
The driver smiled, a cold, empty expression. The locks on the doors clicked again, sealing us inside.
“No, Mrs. Bennett,” the driver said, turning the steering wheel sharply down a dark, abandoned gravel road. “I work for Mr. Thorne. And you’re both coming with me.”
