Chapter 6 - Seventy-Two Dollars

"My roommate is there."

Chloe was already moving.

Gabriel blocked the door.

"You are not going anywhere."

"Move."

"No."

"Her name is Nora. She is twenty-six, she works nights at a veterinary clinic, and she thinks my biggest problem is that I never buy toilet paper. Move."

Gabriel did not.

Chloe shoved his chest.

Nothing happened.

"You brought me here," she said. "Now someone is outside my home."

"Which is why you are staying here."

"I am not one of your people."

"Tonight, that does not matter."

Chloe's eyes burned.

"It matters to me."

Beatrice stepped between them and signed to Gabriel.

Her roommate is in danger because of us.

Gabriel watched Chloe translate.

Then he turned to Mateo. "Send six men. Bring Nora here if she is home."

Chloe grabbed her phone. "I am calling her."

Nora answered on the fourth ring.

"Chloe? Why are you calling? I am trying to sleep."

Chloe nearly collapsed with relief. "Lock the door. Do not ask questions. Go to the bathroom and lock that too."

"What?"

A knock sounded through the phone.

Nora went silent.

"Chloe... someone is at the door."

"Do not answer it."

Another knock.

Then a man's voice.

"Police. Welfare check."

Chloe looked at Gabriel.

He held out his hand for the phone.

She gave it to him.

"Nora," he said. "Do you have a window in the bathroom?"

"Who is this?"

"A person trying to keep you alive. Answer the question."

"Yes. Fire escape."

"Use it. Go down two floors. Enter through any open window. Do not go to the street."

The knocking became pounding.

Nora whispered, "Oh my God."

"Move now."

They listened to breathing, metal scraping, a window opening.

Then wood cracked somewhere in Nora's apartment.

Chloe covered her mouth.

Nora gasped.

Footsteps.

Then the line went dead.

"Nora!"

Chloe grabbed Gabriel's jacket. "Do something!"

Mateo raised his radio. "My men are two minutes out."

Two minutes felt like a lifetime.

Gabriel stayed still while Chloe paced.

Beatrice took Chloe's hand.

Breathe.

Chloe shook her head. "I cannot."

Then Mateo's radio crackled.

"We have the building. Apartment breached. Nobody inside."

Chloe's knees weakened.

"Find her," Gabriel said.

Thirty seconds later, another voice came through.

"Found a female on the fourth floor. Safe. Shaken."

Chloe pressed both hands over her face.

She laughed once, a broken sound.

Then she started crying.

Beatrice hugged her.

Gabriel stood a few feet away, awkward and silent.

Chloe wiped her face. "I need to leave New York."

Gabriel shook his head. "Not yet."

"Excuse me?"

He pointed at the phone in her hand.

"They know where you live. They know your name. They know you can understand my mother. Until I know who 'they' are, disappearing alone makes you easier to find, not harder."

Chloe hated that he was right.

"How long?"

"One night."

"You said an hour at the restaurant."

"I was wrong."

Beatrice signed something.

Chloe almost smiled despite herself.

Gabriel looked suspicious. "What?"

"She says you should say that more often."

Beatrice nodded firmly.

Gabriel sighed.

Then Mateo walked in holding a clear evidence bag.

Inside was the dead shooter's phone.

"We got into it," he said.

"And?"

Mateo turned the screen toward Gabriel.

There was one recent outgoing call.

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