Chapter 3 - SOMEBODY KNEW MY NAME
I had spent twenty-four years being invisible.
That ended the moment someone threatened me for feeding Gabriel Hayes.
Leo locked every door.
Two men searched the alley.
Gabriel stood beside the counter reading the note again.
I grabbed my coat.
“I’m leaving.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“That wasn’t a request.”
“Neither was mine.”
His expression hardened.
“You walk outside alone after someone just threatened you, you won’t make it to the corner.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know exactly that.”
Benny suddenly reached beneath the register.
Gabriel’s men reacted.
Benny quickly raised both hands.
“Relax. It’s a security monitor.”
He turned an old screen toward us.
The alley camera showed the sedan arriving three minutes earlier.
A hooded man stepped out, threw the brick, and returned to the passenger seat.
Gabriel leaned closer.
“Freeze it.”
Benny did.
The man’s face was hidden.
But the sedan wasn’t.
Leo stared at the license plate.
“That’s one of ours.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“It belongs to the warehouse fleet,” Leo continued.
“Who can access those cars?”
Leo hesitated.
“Management. Captains. Security.”
“How many?”
“Maybe twelve.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“Now do you understand why you’re not leaving?”
Unfortunately, I did.
Twenty minutes later, Gabriel’s men brought my backpack from the employee room.
Inside were my nursing textbooks, a half-eaten granola bar, three pens, and the overdue electricity bill I had been avoiding.
Gabriel picked up the bill.
I snatched it away.
“That’s private.”
A strange expression crossed his face.
“Someone threatening to murder you is acceptable, but I’m not allowed to see your electric bill?”
“Correct.”
For the first time that night, his mouth almost smiled.
It disappeared immediately.
“We’re going to the storage locker.”
I shook my head.
“You are.”
“You’re coming.”
“Why?”
“Because Rosa required you to be present for the letter.”
“That doesn’t mean she wanted me dragged into your war.”
“She already dragged you into it seventeen years ago.”
That shut me up.
Union Terminal had been abandoned for nearly a decade, but the old storage level remained accessible through a private service corridor.
Gabriel brought only Leo and me.
No convoy.
No additional guards.
The brass key opened locker 317.
Inside were three boxes.
One contained photographs.
One contained financial records.
The third held children’s clothing.
Gabriel lifted a tiny blue sweater.
Something broke in his expression.
“My mother knitted this.”
He searched deeper.
Then he found another photograph.
Rosa stood beside two boys.
One was unmistakably Gabriel at about twelve.
The other looked slightly younger.
Same dark hair.
Same eyes.
Same face.
Gabriel stared at it.
“I was an only child.”
Behind the photograph Rosa had written:
MY SONS. GABRIEL AND ELIAS.
Leo whispered, “Jesus.”
Gabriel turned the photo over again as if the words might change.
I opened one of the ledgers.
Names.
Payments.
Dates.
Then one entry caught my eye.
PAULIE MORENO — PROTECTION / E.H.
The final payment had been made three days before Paulie was poisoned.
Gabriel saw it.
His voice dropped.
“E.H.”
Leo suddenly looked toward the corridor.
“What?”
A faint click echoed outside the locker.
Gabriel shoved me behind the concrete wall.
The lights went out.
May you like
And from the darkness, a man’s voice called:
“Gabriel, your brother would like his box back.”
