Chapter 7 - The Unmasking
For forty-five agonizing minutes, I sat in the safe room with Eli held close to my chest.
The security monitors went dead ten minutes after Gabriel locked the door, leaving me in complete digital isolation. The only sound in the room was the steady, heavy thud of my own heart and the quiet breathing of the infant asleep in my lap.
I didn't cry anymore. The fear that had paralyzed me during the Hammond kidnapping was gone, replaced by a fierce, burning resolve. Gabriel had told me he loved me. He had called Eli our son.
I wasn't just an accountant hiding in a safe room anymore. I was the woman who belonged beside Gabriel Kane.
Suddenly, the heavy electronic lock on the steel door chimed.
CLICK. CLICK. WHIRR.
The heavy reinforced door slowly swung open.
I stood up instantly, grabbing a heavy brass paperweight from the safe room desk, preparing to swing with everything I had.
Standing in the doorway, soaked in sweat, rain, and blood, was Gabriel.
His black shirt was torn at the shoulder, covered in dark stains, and his face was bruised—but he was standing tall. Behind him, Mason was wrapping a white bandage around his own forearm, looking exhausted but victorious.
"It's over, Claire," Gabriel said softly, his voice trembling with exhaustion.
I dropped the paperweight onto the desk. I didn't care about the blood on his shirt, the mud on his boots, or the smell of gunpowder clinging to his skin. I ran across the steel floor and threw my arms around his neck, burying my face against his chest.
Gabriel wrapped his arms tightly around my waist, lifting me off my feet, burying his face in the crook of my neck. He held me so hard my ribs protested, but I didn't care.
"You're alive," I sobbed into his collar. "You came back."
"I promised you I would," Gabriel whispered, his lips pressing against my temple, my cheek, and finally finding my mouth in a deep, fierce, desperate kiss that tasted of rain, iron, and absolute devotion.
When he finally pulled back, breathing heavily, Mason stepped forward with a solemn expression.
"The perimeter is cleared, boss," Mason reported. "All eight hitmen are accounted for. State police and federal agents are at the front gate handling the cleanup. Harrison’s entire syndicate has been dismantled."
Gabriel nodded once, keeping his arm securely wrapped around my waist. He looked down at Eli, who had woken up and was staring up at us with wide, curious blue eyes.
"Is he okay?" Gabriel asked softly.
"He slept through the whole thing," I smiled through my tears.
Gabriel reached down, taking Eli into his arms while keeping his other arm locked around my shoulders. He led us out of the panic room, down the hallway, and into the sunlit conservatory at the back of the house where the morning mist was finally burning away under a clear blue sky.
"Claire," Gabriel said, stopping beside the high glass windows looking out over the gardens. "Two years ago, when my brother and his wife died in that terrible accident, I thought my life was over. I thought my only purpose left on this earth was to protect Eli and run this cold empire until someone finally put a bullet in me."
He turned to face me, his gray eyes shining with an emotion so deep, so raw, that it took my breath away.
"Then you brought my boy home through twenty-eight miles of hell," Gabriel continued, taking my hand in his. "You bled for him. You fought for him. And in doing so, you brought warmth back into a house that had been cold for a decade."
He dropped to one knee on the marble floor—the king of Chicago’s underworld kneeling before a quiet accountant in a sweater.
"I don't want you to be my employee, Claire," Gabriel said, pulling a small black velvet box from his pocket and opening it to reveal a magnificent oval-cut diamond ring that caught the morning light like a star. "I don't want you to be my protected guest. I want you to be my wife. I want you to be Eli's mother. I want to spend the rest of my life making sure no one ever hurts you again."
Tears streamed down my cheeks, blurring the sight of the man who had stolen my heart.
May you like
"Yes," I choked out, dropping to my knees beside him, throwing my arms around his shoulders. "Yes, Gabriel! A thousand times yes!"
Gabriel slipped the diamond ring onto my finger, pulling me and Eli into a tight, warm embrace as the morning sun flooded the conservatory with golden light.
