Chapter 7: Bring Me My Son
The photograph stayed on Gabriel’s phone.
He stared at it without blinking.
His mother was tied to a wooden chair.
Her white hair was disheveled. One side of her blouse was torn. There was a bruise beneath her left eye.
And standing behind her—
Antonio Costello.
Alive.
Smiling.
Gabriel’s father had been declared dead eleven years ago.
Gabriel had attended the funeral.
He had watched the coffin disappear beneath the ground.
He had stood beside his mother while she cried until she could barely breathe.
Now Antonio was standing behind her as if those eleven years had been nothing.
As if death had only been a vacation.
Gabriel slowly lowered the phone.
“Where?”
Leo looked at him.
“What?”
“Where did they take her?”
Leo shook his head.
“We don't know.”
Gabriel's eyes hardened.
“Then find out.”
Michael stepped forward.
“Gabriel.”
Gabriel turned.
“Not now.”
“You're walking into exactly what Antonio wants.”
“My mother is tied to a chair.”
“And that's why you need to think.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
For the first time since Chloe had met him, she saw something beneath the violence.
Fear.
Not fear for himself.
Fear for his mother.
Chloe looked at the photograph again.
Something bothered her.
She stepped closer.
“Wait.”
Everyone stopped.
Gabriel looked at her.
“What?”
“Give me the phone.”
He handed it over.
Chloe enlarged the photograph.
She studied the background.
A gray concrete wall.
A rusted metal pipe.
A narrow window.
A wooden beam.
Then she noticed something.
“There's writing.”
Leo leaned over her shoulder.
“Where?”
“Behind her.”
She zoomed in.
Three letters had been scratched into the wall.
S.V.M.
Michael frowned.
“Saint Vincent Medical?”
Chloe shook her head.
“No.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because the letters aren't painted.”
She pointed.
“They're carved into the concrete.”
Leo stared at the photograph.
Then his face changed.
“I know that place.”
Gabriel turned toward him.
“Where?”
Leo swallowed.
“South Valley Mill.”
Michael went still.
“That's impossible.”
“Why?”
Michael looked at Gabriel.
“Because South Valley Mill burned down fourteen years ago.”
Leo shook his head.
“Most of it did.”
Gabriel's voice dropped.
“What survived?”
“The basement.”
Silence.
Chloe looked at the photograph again.
“Then that's where she is.”
Gabriel reached for his gun.
Michael grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
Gabriel slowly looked at him.
Michael didn't release him.
“You don't go there with six men and guns blazing.”
“My mother is there.”
“And Antonio knows you'll come.”
“Good.”
Gabriel pulled his wrist free.
“Then he'll be waiting for me.”
Michael's expression darkened.
“That's the point.”
Leo stepped between them.
“Dad isn't trying to kill you.”
Gabriel froze.
Leo immediately regretted the words.
Gabriel turned slowly.
“What did you call him?”
Leo looked down.
“I said—”
“No.”
Gabriel's voice was almost a whisper.
“You called him Dad.”
Leo didn't answer.
Gabriel stared at him.
“You knew?”
“I found out.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
Gabriel's face went pale.
“And you never told me?”
“I couldn't.”
“You let me believe he was dead.”
“You were being watched!”
Gabriel took one step toward him.
Leo didn't move.
“I spent eleven years thinking my father was dead.”
“I know.”
“I buried him.”
“I know.”
“I built everything without him.”
“I know!”
Leo's voice cracked.
“Because every time I tried to reach you, someone disappeared.”
Gabriel stopped.
Leo's eyes filled with tears.
“You think I wanted this?”
“No.”
Gabriel looked away.
“But I wanted you alive.”
The room fell silent.
Chloe watched the brothers.
Then she looked at Michael.
“You said Antonio built everything around Gabriel.”
Michael nodded.
“What if that's still true?”
Gabriel turned.
“What do you mean?”
Chloe held up the photograph.
“Antonio didn't send this because he wanted you to know where your mother is.”
She pointed at the caption.
BRING ME MY SON.
“He wanted you to come.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Yes.”
“But not because he wants you dead.”
Michael's eyes narrowed.
“Then why?”
Chloe looked directly at Gabriel.
“Because he wants you to choose.”
“Choose what?”
“Your mother.”
She paused.
“Or your empire.”
Gabriel stared at her.
Chloe continued.
“He knows you'll choose your mother.”
Michael's face tightened.
“And when Gabriel walks into that building?”
Chloe looked at him.
“Antonio takes everything.”
No one spoke.
Leo slowly understood.
“The final name.”
Chloe nodded.
“The final sacrifice.”
Gabriel's expression changed.
His father didn't want him dead.
He wanted him destroyed.
There was a difference.
Gabriel picked up the ledger.
Then the second ledger.
He placed both inside a black leather case.
Michael watched him.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving Antonio what he wants.”
Leo stepped forward.
“Gabriel—”
“I'm bringing the ledgers.”
Michael shook his head.
“That's exactly what he expects.”
Gabriel looked at Chloe.
“No.”
Michael frowned.
Gabriel's eyes stayed on Chloe.
“He expects me to bring the ledgers.”
Chloe understood.
“You're not going to.”
Gabriel nodded.
“I'm going to bring him something else.”
Leo stared.
“What?”
Gabriel opened the leather case.
Inside was nothing.
Empty.
“Me.”
South Valley Mill stood beneath the Chicago night like the skeleton of something that refused to die.
Broken windows.
Collapsed brick walls.
Weeds growing through cracked concrete.
No lights.
No cars.
No guards.
Too quiet.
Gabriel parked three blocks away.
Only four people got out.
Gabriel.
Chloe.
Leo.
Michael.
No army.
No convoy.
No sirens.
Gabriel checked his weapon.
Michael stopped him.
“One more thing.”
Gabriel looked up.
Michael pulled an old ring from his pocket.
A black stone surrounded by silver.
Gabriel recognized it immediately.
“Antonio's.”
Michael nodded.
“He gave it to me when I was sixteen.”
Gabriel stared at it.
“Why do you have it?”
“Because he thought I was dead.”
Michael closed his fingers around the ring.
“He was wrong.”
Leo looked toward the mill.
“There's something you need to know.”
Gabriel turned.
“What?”
“The basement has two entrances.”
Michael nodded.
“Three.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Three?”
Michael pointed toward the abandoned loading dock.
“The third one wasn't on the original blueprints.”
Chloe immediately looked at him.
“Who built it?”
Michael's answer came quietly.
“Antonio.”
Gabriel looked toward the mill.
“Then that's where we go.”
They crossed the empty street.
Halfway there, Chloe stopped.
Gabriel turned.
“What?”
She pointed.
A small red light blinked on the roof.
Security camera.
Gabriel stared at it.
Then smiled.
Not warmly.
Not happily.
A cold, dangerous smile.
“He knows we're here.”
A speaker crackled somewhere inside the building.
Then a man's voice filled the night.
“Hello, Gabriel.”
Gabriel froze.
Antonio.
His father's voice.
Older.
Rougher.
But unmistakable.
Gabriel stepped forward.
“Let her go.”
A quiet laugh came through the speaker.
“You always were impatient.”
“Let my mother go.”
“Come inside.”
Gabriel raised his eyes toward the dark building.
“I'm coming.”
“Alone.”
Gabriel looked at Chloe.
She shook her head.
“No.”
Antonio's voice returned.
“I said alone.”
Gabriel pressed the microphone attached to his jacket.
“You don't get to give me orders anymore.”
Silence.
Then Antonio laughed.
“Still arrogant.”
Gabriel's face hardened.
“Still alive.”
Another pause.
Then Antonio said something that made Gabriel's blood turn cold.
“Your mother isn't the one you should be worried about.”
Gabriel stopped breathing.
Antonio continued.
“Ask Chloe what her brother found in my records.”
Chloe's face went white.
Leo looked at her.
“What?”
Antonio laughed softly.
“She hasn't told you?”
Gabriel turned toward Chloe.
“What is he talking about?”
Chloe shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Antonio's voice became almost gentle.
“Chloe Bennett.”
She froze.
“You thought Leo disappeared to protect you.”
A pause.
“He didn't.”
Gabriel looked at her.
Antonio continued.
“He disappeared because of what your brother discovered about your family.”
Chloe's breathing became shallow.
“My family?”
“Yes.”
Antonio laughed.
“Ask her, Gabriel.”
The speaker clicked off.
Silence returned.
Gabriel looked at Chloe.
She stared back at him.
“What does he mean?”
“I don't know.”
“Chloe.”
“I swear.”
Leo stepped between them.
“She didn't know anything.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“Then what did Leo find?”
Leo's face had lost all color.
“I don't know.”
Michael suddenly looked toward the mill.
“Move.”
A gunshot cracked through the darkness.
The bullet struck the pavement inches from Chloe's foot.
Gabriel grabbed her and pulled her behind a concrete barrier.
Another shot.
Then another.
Michael returned fire.
Leo crouched beside Chloe.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
Gabriel looked toward the building.
“Three shooters.”
Michael shook his head.
“Four.”
A fourth gunshot came from behind them.
Michael spun.
Someone had appeared at the end of the street.
A man in a long black coat.
He stood beneath a broken streetlamp.
And in his hand was a photograph.
He slowly raised it.
Chloe recognized the face.
Her brother.
Leo.
But younger.
Alive.
Standing beside a woman Chloe had never seen before.
The man smiled.
Then he shouted across the street.
“Chloe!”
She looked up.
“Your brother didn't find the Costello secret.”
The man lifted the photograph.
“He found you.”
Gabriel stared at Chloe.
Leo went completely still.
And from somewhere beneath the mill, a woman's scream echoed into the night.
Beatrice.
Gabriel rose.
“Mom.”
Then Antonio's voice came through the speakers one final time.
“Come inside, son.”
A pause.
“And bring the girl.”
The lights inside South Valley Mill suddenly turned on.
Every single one.
And Chloe saw what was waiting for them in the basement.
Dozens of photographs.
Dozens of names.
And in the center of the wall—
a photograph of Chloe as a little girl.
May you like
Beside it was a name she had never seen before.
COSTELLO.
