Chapter 2 - The Men Behind the Door.
The heavy oak doors opened three inches before Gabriel spoke.
"Quiet."
The word was barely louder than the rain.
The door stopped.
Luca Moretti eased his head through the gap.
He was thirty-five, clean-cut, gray-suited, and usually incapable of looking nervous.
Tonight he looked as if he had entered the wrong room at the worst possible time.
His gaze dropped to Norah sleeping against Gabriel's chest.
Then it returned to Gabriel.
"Boss," Luca whispered.
Gabriel raised one finger to his lips.
Luca nodded.
Behind him stood Owen Pike, one of Gabriel's security lieutenants.
Owen held a tablet against his chest.
"We found something," Luca said.
"You found volume," Gabriel replied.
Luca lowered his voice even further.
"Two men came through the service elevator using building credentials."
Gabriel's eyes sharpened.
"Whose credentials?"
"Mine."
A tiny silence followed.
Norah shifted against Gabriel.
Every man in the doorway froze.
Gabriel placed one arm more securely around her shoulders.
She settled again.
Luca looked at Owen as though breathing had become optional.
"Where are they?" Gabriel asked.
"Twenty-ninth floor."
"Armed?"
"Probably."
"Probably isn't an answer."
Owen turned the tablet around.
A grainy security image showed two men moving through a restricted corridor.
Both wore maintenance uniforms.
One carried a tool case.
The other had a long rectangular bag slung beneath his jacket.
Gabriel studied the image.
"That's a rifle case."
Luca nodded.
"That's what I thought."
Gabriel's free hand slid toward his waistband.
His fingers closed around the grip of the compact black handgun concealed beneath his vest.
Luca's expression changed immediately.
"We're handling it."
"You let them into my building."
"Someone cloned my access."
"That makes me feel much better."
Luca glanced at Norah.
"We need to move her."
Gabriel's hand tightened on the weapon.
"No."
"Boss."
"She hasn't slept in forty-eight hours."
Luca stared at him.
"There are armed men in the building."
"I heard you."
"And you're worried about waking the accountant?"
Gabriel's eyes went flat.
Luca immediately understood he had asked the wrong question.
"I'm worried about why armed men are here the same night she found my missing money," Gabriel said.
That silenced everyone.
Owen looked down at the tablet.
"You think they're here for her?"
"I think coincidence is what people call a plan they haven't understood yet."
Gabriel carefully shifted Norah away from his chest.
She made a small sound but did not wake.
He lowered her onto the sofa cushion and placed his jacket beneath her head.
Then he stood.
The softness vanished from him.
He drew the handgun.
Luca stepped back to let him pass.
"Lock this room," Gabriel said.
"From the outside?"
"Inside."
"Who's staying with her?"
Gabriel looked at Owen.
Owen straightened.
"I am."
"No one enters."
"Understood."
"Not even one of ours."
Owen hesitated.
Gabriel noticed.
"Did I stutter?"
"No."
"Then repeat it."
"No one enters. Not even one of ours."
Gabriel turned to Luca.
"Show me the twenty-ninth floor feed."
They stepped into the corridor.
The office doors locked behind them.
Luca moved quickly toward the security room.
Gabriel stayed beside him.
"Who knew Norah was here tonight?"
"Half the senior team."
"Who knew what she was working on?"
"You, me, Owen, Marcus, Elena from legal, and Victor."
Gabriel stopped walking.
Luca stopped too.
"Victor?"
"He asked why Northline's books were locked."
"And you told him?"
"I told him Norah was doing an internal review."
Gabriel stared at Luca.
"You told Victor Mercer."
"He's your CFO."
"That doesn't make him family."
Luca's jaw tightened.
"He's been with you fourteen years."
"So has my dentist."
They reached the security room.
Three monitors displayed stairwells, corridors, and elevator banks.
One screen showed the twenty-ninth floor.
Empty.
Luca frowned.
"They were there twenty seconds ago."
Gabriel leaned closer.
The image skipped.
Then repeated.
A cleaning cart rolled past the camera.
Exactly the same way twice.
"Looped feed," Gabriel said.
Luca swore under his breath.
Gabriel pulled out his phone.
"Call Owen."
Luca dialed.
No answer.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Gabriel was already running.
They crossed the corridor and reached the private elevator.
The indicator showed the car climbing.
Thirty-four.
Thirty-five.
Thirty-six.
Gabriel's penthouse occupied forty.
"Stairs," he said.
They took the emergency stairwell two steps at a time.
On thirty-eight, Gabriel's phone buzzed.
An unknown number had sent a photograph.
Norah was still asleep on the sofa.
Owen was nowhere in the frame.
Across her chest lay a white envelope.
Written on it in black marker were four words.
Luca stopped on the thirty-eighth-floor landing and held up a fist.
Gabriel heard it a second later.
A faint metallic scrape above them.
Someone was moving through the stairwell without using the emergency lights.
Luca pointed upward.
Gabriel nodded.
They continued without speaking.
At the thirty-ninth floor, a maintenance door stood open by two inches.
Gabriel pushed it wider with the barrel of his handgun.
Inside was a narrow equipment room.
A gray maintenance jacket lay on the floor.
Beside it sat an access-card encoder, still powered on.
Luca crouched.
"That's how they cloned my badge."
Gabriel scanned the shelves.
Plastic blanks.
A disposable phone.
A printed map of the penthouse floor.
One route had been highlighted in yellow from the service elevator to Gabriel's office.
A second route had been marked from the office to the roof.
"They planned an exit," Luca said.
Gabriel looked closer.
The office itself had a red circle around the sofa.
Not the desk.
Not the safe.
The sofa.
The place where Norah was sleeping.
His expression changed.
Luca saw it and immediately stood.
"We move now."
Gabriel picked up the disposable phone.
Its call log contained one outgoing call made seven minutes earlier.
No number appeared.
Only a contact label.
ACCOUNTING.
Gabriel's grip tightened.
"They knew exactly where she would be."
Luca looked toward the stairwell.
"Or someone upstairs told them."
Gabriel thought about every person who had watched Norah work during the last forty-eight hours.
Victor had stopped by twice.
Marcus had argued with her for twenty minutes.
Elena had delivered files personally.
Owen had carried food into the office.
Luca had moved in and out all night.
Even Gabriel himself had told three people not to disturb her.
The circle of trust was no longer a circle.
It was a list of suspects.
Then his phone vibrated.
The photograph of Norah appeared.
He opened the message.
Across her chest was the white envelope.
May you like
The writing looked fresh.
SHE KNOWS TOO MUCH.
