Chapter 6 - The Betrayal of Pembrook
Claire stared at the paper as if it had burst into flames.
Vivian Chase. Administrative Consulting Fee: $150,000. Source: Meridian Logistics Group.
Meridian Logistics was the shell company Gabriel’s investigators had tied directly to the syndicate that ambushed the Escalade.
"No," Claire whispered, shaking her head. "No, that doesn't make sense. Vivian runs a domestic staffing agency. She places nannies. She’s just a businesswoman—"
"Vivian Chase is a broker of information," Gabriel corrected smoothly, stepping closer. "She places young women with financial vulnerabilities into high-net-worth households. She plants eyes, ears, and occasionally, access. She didn't know they were going to target Elena and Lily that specific night—that was a tactical pivot by the hit squad. But she did sell the Varrick family's daily transit schedule, security rotations, and residential floor plans to Julian Vance three weeks ago."
Claire felt the kitchen spin around her. The fifteen thousand dollars in cash. The seventy-five thousand for the month. It wasn't an emergency salary paid by a desperate father; it was a setup.
"She sent me here," Claire breathed, horror dawning in her chest. "She knew I needed the money for my mother’s medical bills. She knew I couldn't turn down the fee. Did she... did she send me here to finish the job?"
Gabriel studied her face for a long, agonizing moment. He looked at the frayed cuffs of her sweater, the tired shadows beneath her eyes, the genuine panic and fury burning in her gaze.
"If she sent you to kill my daughter, you’re playing the longest, most convincing game of psychological warfare I’ve ever witnessed," Gabriel said dryly. "You spent four hours sitting on a floor humming a nursery rhyme while my daughter tried to die. Killers don't have that kind of patience, Miss Donnelly."
"Then why am I here?" Claire demanded, slamming her hand down on the counter. "Why me?"
"Because Julian Vance wanted a new operative inside this penthouse to bypass the biometric security upgrades I installed after the shooting," Gabriel said, his voice dropping to a dangerous purr. "Vance thought he could use your financial desperation to smuggle a listening device or a data drive into the master suite. He didn't count on you actually being a good teacher. He didn't count on you saving her life."
Claire’s hands began to shake. Not from fear of Gabriel, but from a white-hot fury. For years, she had scraped by, working three jobs, watching her mother waste away, playing by every honest rule in the book—while women like Vivian Chase sold children's lives for a corporate paycheck.
"What do you want to do?" Claire asked, her voice steadying into something cold and sharp.
May you like
Gabriel looked at her, and for the first time, a grim, respectful smile touched the corner of his mouth.
"I want to finish a negotiation," Gabriel said. "Are you ready to earn that seventy-five thousand dollars, Miss Donnelly? Because we have a trap to spring."
