Chapter 6 - THE PRICE OF PROTECTION|
Catherine spent the next morning in a quiet house outside the city, surrounded by unfamiliar security guards and the smell of fresh coffee.
Gabriel had arranged the location through an old associate who owed him a favor. The house stood behind a line of pine trees, with no visible sign identifying its owner.
For the first time in years, nobody asked Catherine to attend a charity luncheon, sign a document, or smile beside Matteo for a photograph.
She should have felt relieved.
Instead, she felt as though she had stepped outside her own life.
Gabriel entered the kitchen carrying a laptop.
"Your husband is looking for you."
"That makes two people who know how to use a phone."
"He has been calling hospitals."
"How considerate."
"He also ordered his security team to stand down after learning Enzo had authorized the search."
Catherine looked up.
"Did he apologize?"
"No."
"Then he's still looking for himself."
Gabriel accepted the rebuke without argument.
He showed her the records Martin Sloan had sent overnight. Several transfers linked Arden Strategic to a company that owned the warehouse where the fire had occurred. The same company had purchased insurance on the building two days before the incident.
Catherine studied the figures.
"This isn't ordinary embezzlement."
"No."
"Someone planned the fire."
"Possibly."
She found another transfer.
"Why is money moving through a medical transportation company?"
Gabriel leaned closer.
"That's not a transportation company. It's registered to a private security contractor."
"Whose contractor?"
"Enzo's."
Catherine turned the laptop toward him.
"The same contractor was paid the day my father died."
Gabriel's expression darkened.
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Then Catherine asked the question she had been avoiding.
"Why are you helping me?"
Gabriel sat opposite her.
"My sister was engaged to a man who worked for the Baloris. When she discovered he was using her name to move money, she tried to leave. He threatened her family."
"What happened?"
"She died in a car accident three days later."
Catherine's breath caught.
"Was it an accident?"
"I never found enough evidence to prove otherwise."
"I'm sorry."
"So am I."
He looked at her directly.
"I don't want your gratitude. I want the people who made these decisions to stop believing they can bury every consequence."
Catherine closed the laptop.
"Then we need proof that can survive a courtroom."
"Yes."
"Not a leaked photograph. Not a rumor. Not a threat."
"Agreed."
"And we need someone who can explain the trust without being bought."
Gabriel nodded.
"Martin Sloan."
"Can you get him?"
"I can try."
A vehicle approached the house.
Every guard moved at once.
Gabriel stood and reached beneath his jacket.
Catherine rose behind him.
The front door opened.
Samuel Price entered, pale but uninjured.
"Mrs. Balori."
Catherine hurried toward him.
"You're safe."
"Mostly."
She hugged him before she could think better of it.
Samuel looked embarrassed, then gently patted her shoulder.
"Your husband sent me."
Catherine stepped back.
"To bring me home?"
"To tell you something he doesn't trust anyone else to say."
Samuel took a folded note from his coat.
Catherine recognized Matteo's handwriting.
I chose the gala. I chose Celeste. I have no excuse.
Beneath it, he had written another line.
I will not ask you to return. I only ask you to let me prove that I can protect you without controlling you.
Catherine read the message twice.
"That's a start," she said.
Samuel nodded.
"There's something else. Mr. Balori discovered that Celeste has been meeting Enzo privately for months. She isn't merely his business partner."
"Then what is she?"
Samuel hesitated.
"She's the person who signed the contract for the warehouse fire."
Catherine stared at him.
"Why would Matteo's mistress arrange a fire?"
Samuel's voice dropped.
"Because the warehouse contained the original documents proving that Matteo's father had a firstborn son."
Outside, a car door slammed.
A guard shouted.
May you like
Then the lights went out.
And someone inside the house whispered Catherine's name.
