Chapter 8 - The Traitor

Leo kept the gun trained on Harper.
"Derek pays you?" she asked.
"Derek doesn't have enough money. Vincent Hale does."
Gabriel's rival. Public philanthropist. Private predator.
Leo demanded the drive and hospital file.
"Did Derek kill my father?" Harper asked.
Leo's smile thinned. "Your father escaped Ashford custody and tried to meet a federal agent at Castle Island. Derek found him first. Men like Derek don't leave witnesses."
Harper felt the world tilt.
Gabriel moved a fraction closer.
"Don't," Leo warned.
Behind him, Lena slipped between file shelves.
Harper kept him talking.
"Did Derek send the man after Noah?"
"Derek panics when he's losing control."
Lena swung a metal box into Leo's wrist.
The gun fired into the ceiling. Gabriel drove Leo into a cabinet while a guard kicked the weapon away.
Gabriel grabbed Leo by the jacket.
"Where is Hale?"
Harper stepped forward. "Don't. We need him talking."
Gabriel looked at her, breathing hard, then released him.
Leo laughed from the floor.
"You think evidence saves you? Check the Cambridge apartment."
Lena's phone rang.
Her face drained.
"Police just raided it. Mrs. Morrison got Noah out."
Harper nearly collapsed with relief.
"But they found a gun," Lena continued. "Registered to Gabriel."
Gabriel frowned. "Not mine."
Leo confessed enough during the struggle to expose how deep the betrayal ran. Hale had paid him for schedules, camera access, and information about Noah. Derek supplied police intelligence; Hale supplied money; Commissioner Sutter supplied protection. Gabriel's house had not been breached by force. It had been opened from within. That realization shook him more than the gun. Harper noticed and almost said something comforting, then stopped. She was not responsible for repairing every damaged man near her. Instead she asked Leo the only question that mattered: "How many people know where Noah sleeps?" Leo's silence answered before his mouth did.
"Ballistics match a waterfront homicide from last month."
When Leo called betrayal "business," Harper understood another rule of violent men: rename the harm until it sounds professional enough to excuse.
May you like
Leo started laughing harder.
"Now you're the one the police are coming for.