Chapter 1 - THE MESSAGE THAT STOPPED HER HEART
Harper Monroe had survived six double shifts, three broken ribs, and countless nights of pretending everything was fine. But the message glowing on her phone frightened her more than anything Mitchell Reed had ever done.
Come home now. Your brother is here. Don't make me teach him what happens when you disobey.
Beneath the words was a photograph.
Her sixteen-year-old brother, Noah, sat on a wooden chair with his wrists tied together. Blood stained the collar of his gray hoodie.
Harper stopped breathing.
"No," she whispered.
Gabriel Rossi noticed her expression change. One moment she had been fighting the paramedic's attempts to examine her. The next, she looked as though someone had pulled the ground from beneath her feet.
"Harper?"
She clutched her phone against her chest.
"I have to leave."
The paramedic shook his head. "You may have internal injuries. You need to be evaluated immediately."
"Please. You don't understand."
Gabriel stood slowly.
"Then help me understand."
Harper glanced toward the restaurant entrance. Two security guards stood beneath the chandelier, unaware of the terror unfolding twenty feet away.
"If I don't get home, he'll hurt someone."
"Mitchell?"
She said nothing.
Gabriel held out his hand.
"Show me the message."
"No."
"Harper, whatever he told you about me—"
"You work together!" she cried.
The entire alcove fell silent.
Gabriel's expression hardened, but his voice remained controlled.
"That doesn't mean I know what he's doing."
Tears gathered in Harper's eyes.
"He's your right-hand man. He says everything he does has your permission."
Something dangerous flickered behind Gabriel's calm expression.
"Show me."
This time, Harper turned the screen toward him.
Gabriel studied the photograph.
Noah's frightened face. The ropes. The unfamiliar room.
Then his gaze settled on something behind the teenager.
A black-and-gold painting hung above the fireplace.
Gabriel recognized it immediately.
It was an original painting his late father had commissioned for the Rossi family's private lake house.
A property that had supposedly been locked and abandoned for eleven years.
Gabriel took out his phone.
"Leo. Get the cars."
Harper grabbed his sleeve.
"Please don't tell Mitchell I showed you."
Gabriel looked down at her trembling fingers.
"I won't."
Then he called the one person who could access the lake house security system.
His younger brother, Adrian.
The call connected after four rings.
"Gabriel?" Adrian whispered.
"Why is Mitchell at the lake house?"
Silence.
Then Adrian said something that made Gabriel's blood run cold.
"Because Mitchell isn't the one who brought the boy there."
"Who did?"
Adrian swallowed.
"Gabriel... Dad's old security code was used to open the gate."
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Their father had been dead for eleven years.
And someone was still using his private code.
