Chapter 7 - The Reckoning in the Basement
Deep beneath the Moretti estate, hidden behind a heavy steel-reinforced door in the basement level, was a room that few outsiders ever saw. It was a windowless, soundproofed space where ledgers were balanced, disputes were settled, and accounts were permanently closed.
Gabriel stood beneath the harsh fluorescent lights of the basement room, rolling up his shirt sleeves past his elbows.
Sitting across from him in a metal interrogation chair was Nathan Shaw.
Nathan looked a mess. He was still wearing his cheap rented tuxedo from the wedding, his tie loosened, his hair disheveled, and sweat pouring down his pale face. Two Moretti guards stood behind his chair holding heavy leather straps.
Julian Cross stood near the metal desk, watching Gabriel with a cautious, calculating expression.
"Gabriel—boss—come on!" Nathan stammered, his voice cracking with panic as he tried to lean forward in the chair. "What is this? The wedding’s over! We’re family now! You took my sister off my hands just like we agreed!"
Gabriel walked slowly toward the chair, picking up a heavy steel ledger off the desk. He didn't look at the pages. He just weighed the book in his hand, feeling its dense, unyielding mass.
"Family," Gabriel repeated, his voice dangerously quiet. "You call what you did to Eleanor 'family'?"
Nathan swallowed hard, his eyes darting toward Julian for help. "Julian! Tell him! It was a business arrangement! She agreed to the debt settlement!"
Julian didn't blink. He kept his hands in his pockets, his face entirely neutral. "The boss knows about the Detroit contract, Nathan. And he knows about what happened two years ago."
Nathan went completely white. All the color drained from his face in a single second, leaving him looking like a corpse. "She... she told him?"
"She told me everything," Gabriel said, stopping two feet in front of the chair.
Before Nathan could speak another word, Gabriel brought the heavy steel ledger down against the edge of the metal desk with a deafening CRACK that echoed off the concrete walls like a gunshot.
Nathan screamed, throwing his arms over his head.
"You let men pour boiling chemicals down your sister's legs to pay off a poker debt," Gabriel said, his voice dropping into a lethal whisper that sounded like death itself. "You watched her live in agony for two years. And then you tried to hand her over to Detroit like a sack of garbage to save your own worthless skin."
"I had no choice!" Nathan sobbed, tears streaming down his face as he shook in the chair. "They were going to kill me! What was I supposed to do?"
"You were supposed to die," Gabriel said coldly.
He tossed the ledger onto the desk, turned to Julian, and pointed a finger at Nathan.
"Pack him a bag," Gabriel ordered. "Put him on a one-way freight train heading west across the Nevada desert. Give him five hundred dollars in cash and a bus ticket to the middle of nowhere. If he ever sets foot in Chicago again—if his shadow so much as falls across Moretti territory—you don't call me. You finish what the bookies started."
Nathan opened his mouth to scream, begging for mercy, but the two guards stepped forward, clamping a heavy leather gag over his mouth and hauling him out of the room before he could draw another breath.
The heavy steel door slammed shut, leaving Gabriel and Julian alone in the basement.
Julian adjusted his cuffs, his face smooth as glass. "That’s going to complicate our standing with the West Side syndicate, Boss. Nathan still owed them fifty grand."
Gabriel turned slowly, fixing Julian with a dark, piercing stare that made the underboss momentarily hold his breath.
"Tell the West Side syndicate their debt has been paid in full," Gabriel said, his voice cutting through the air like a razor. "And Julian?"
"Boss?"
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"If you ever keep secrets from me about my house again," Gabriel said softly, stepping close enough that Julian could feel the raw intimidation radiating off him, "you won't be putting Nathan on a train. You’ll be sharing his ticket."
Julian swallowed hard, gave a slow, respectful nod, and stepped back into the shadows. "Understood, Gabriel. It won't happen again."
