Chapter 8 - When the Lights Went Out.
The blast threw Mateo against the wall.
Gabriel grabbed Rory and pulled her behind the kitchen island.
Lena dropped beside them.
Glass rained across the floor.
Two masked men entered through the shattered doorway.
Mateo fired once from the hallway.
One attacker fell.
The other disappeared behind the living room wall.
Gabriel covered Rory's ears.
"Stay down."
She was shaking violently.
Lena whispered into her hair.
"Look at me, baby."
Another shot cracked through the apartment.
A bullet tore into a cabinet above them.
Gabriel crawled toward Mateo.
The security chief had blood on his forehead but was conscious.
"Rear stairs."
Gabriel nodded.
He moved Lena and Rory toward the bedroom corridor while Mateo covered them.
The emergency stairwell door was chained from the outside.
Someone had prepared the apartment before they arrived.
Mateo swore.
"We've been compromised."
The second attacker rushed the corridor.
Gabriel hit him with a fire extinguisher before the man could aim.
Mateo disarmed him.
The attacker wore a radio earpiece.
A voice crackled through it.
"Team two, report."
Gabriel recognized Sterling.
He picked up the radio.
"I'm here."
Silence answered.
Then Sterling whispered, "You should have given me the notebook."
Gabriel looked at Rory.
"You starved a child for a notebook?"
"I didn't starve anybody."
"You took her mother's money."
Sterling breathed hard into the radio.
"Arthur took everything from me first."
Gabriel heard panic underneath the words.
"Where is he?"
"Closer than you think."
The radio went dead.
Police sirens approached.
Mateo looked surprised.
He had not called them.
Minutes later, officers flooded the building.
Their commander introduced himself as Captain Ellis.
Gabriel recognized his name from Arthur's files.
Yellow sticker.
Vulnerable.
Gabriel did not trust him.
Captain Ellis insisted on taking the captured attacker into custody.
Mateo quietly photographed the man's face first.
By morning, the attacker was officially listed as having escaped during transport.
Gabriel was not surprised.
The DNA results arrived at noon.
The probability of paternity was greater than 99.99 percent.
Gabriel read the report twice.
Then he entered the bedroom where Rory sat coloring purple stars on a fresh sheet of paper.
Lena stood beside the window.
Gabriel knelt in front of Rory.
"The test came back."
Rory stopped coloring.
"Are you my dad?"
"Yes."
She stared at him with enormous eyes.
Gabriel expected a hug.
Instead she asked, "Why weren't you there?"
There was no accusation in her voice.
That made it worse.
Gabriel looked at Lena, then back at Rory.
"Because adults lied to each other and I failed to ask the right questions."
Rory looked down at her drawing.
"Mommy asked for food lots of times."
Gabriel's eyes burned.
"I know."
"You have a big house."
"I do."
"So why did we have crackers?"
Gabriel could not answer without hating himself.
He took the notepad from his jacket and placed it beside her drawing.
"I'm going to make sure nobody steals from you again."
Rory looked up.
"Food isn't the only thing they stole."
Gabriel went still.
"What else?"
Rory turned to the final page of the original notepad.
A purple star had been drawn around a single name.
MRS. VOSS.
Gabriel stared at it.
May you like
His mother had been dead for four years.
Or so he had been told.
