Chapter 6 - The Betrayal Inside Gabriel's Own House
The attack on the farmhouse lasted eleven minutes.
Eleven minutes of gunfire.
Eleven minutes of shattered windows and splintered wood.
Eleven minutes during which Claire learned exactly how terrifying Gabriel could become.
But she also learned something else.
He never left her side.
Even when Elias shouted that the east wall was compromised, Gabriel stayed between Claire and the windows.
When Evelyn stumbled, he carried her.
When the attackers breached the kitchen, Gabriel disarmed one with his bare hands.
Then everything stopped.
The attackers retreated.
Too cleanly.
Too quickly.
Gabriel noticed first.
“They weren't trying to kill us.”
Claire looked at him.
“Then what were they doing?”
“Driving us somewhere.”
“Where?”
“Into a trap.”
The farmhouse alarms suddenly died.
Elias looked at his phone.
“No signal.”
Gabriel's expression changed.
“There's a jammer.”
Then the lights turned off.
A voice came through the darkness.
“Gabriel.”
Claire recognized it.
Warren Pike.
“You've always been too sentimental.”
Gabriel looked around.
“Show yourself.”
A laugh echoed.
“The Bennett girl.”
Claire's stomach tightened.
“You want the notebook.”
“No.”
Pike's voice sounded amused.
“I want what she knows.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Pike continued.
“Ask your friend Elias how much he has already given me.”
Claire turned.
Elias froze.
Gabriel slowly looked at him.
“No.”
Elias swallowed.
“Gabriel.”
“Don't.”
“I had no choice.”
Gabriel's expression went cold.
Claire remembered the scarred hands.
The gray suit.
The way Elias always stayed near Gabriel.
“You betrayed him.”
Elias stepped forward.
“They have my sister.”
Gabriel stared.
“Your sister died.”
Claire's heart stopped.
Elias closed his eyes.
“She didn't.”
A door opened.
Two men entered with a woman between them.
She looked younger than Elias.
Terrified.
But alive.
Claire realized the trap.
Pike had kept her alive for years.
He had used her as leverage.
Gabriel looked at Elias.
“You should have told me.”
“I thought you'd kill her.”
“I would have brought her home.”
Elias began to cry.
Quietly.
Gabriel looked away.
“Get her out.”
The guards hesitated.
A shot rang out.
Elias dropped.
Claire screamed.
Gabriel caught him.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Pike's voice came through the speaker.
“That was for being loyal too late.”
Gabriel raised his head.
His eyes were empty.
“Pike.”
No answer.
Gabriel carried Elias to the floor.
Claire knelt beside them.
“He's alive.”
Gabriel nodded.
Then he looked at her.
“Take the notebook.”
“What?”
“Go with your mother.”
“I am not leaving you.”
“You need to.”
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“Claire.”
She shook her head.
“You don't get to decide everything.”
His jaw tightened.
“And you don't get to die proving a point.”
She stared at him.
Then she kissed him.
Neither of them expected it.
It was brief.
Desperate.
Real.
When she pulled back, Gabriel looked stunned.
Claire whispered, “Now you don't get to die either.”
For the first time in years, Gabriel smiled without hiding it.
“That's unfair.”
“You'll live.”
They escaped through an underground tunnel.
The notebook contained the location of File 417.
But when Claire finally reached the courthouse archives, she discovered the worst possible truth.
File 417 was gone.
Only a card remained.
SIGNED OUT BY: THOMAS BENNETT.
Claire stared at it.
“My father?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“It's a forgery.”
“No.”
She looked closer.
The signature was perfect.
But the date was wrong.
Thomas died three years earlier.
The file had been signed out yesterday.
Someone wanted them to believe Thomas was alive.
Claire whispered, “What if my father didn't die?”
Gabriel didn't answer.
Evelyn stepped forward.
“He died.”
Claire turned.
Her mother was crying.
“I saw him die.”
The room went silent.
“Then who signed this?” Claire asked.
Evelyn looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel's face darkened.
“Someone using Thomas's identity.”
“Who?”
May you like
Gabriel stared at the signature.
“Someone who has been alive inside our files for thirty years.”
