Chapter 12 - MARGARET'S GAMBLE
The real ring was inside a flour container.
Norah stared at her mother’s kitchen in disbelief.
Gabriel stood beside her.
“You’re certain?”
“She used to hide birthday money in flour.”
Norah opened the container.
Nothing.
Her stomach tightened.
Then she lifted the bag itself.
A small black object rested beneath it.
The ring.
Gabriel picked it up.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
His father had worn it every day.
Now Gabriel held it for the first time since he was twenty-three.
Norah watched the grief move across his face.
Then disappear behind control.
“He trusted Isabella with it.”
Gabriel said.
“And she trusted my mother.”
Norah replied.
They reconstructed what happened.
Thomas’s men reached Margaret first.
Margaret apparently claimed she knew where the ring was.
She agreed to cooperate if they left Norah alone.
Then she produced a replica.
Norah remembered seeing a small wax mold years earlier in her grandfather’s desk.
Samuel had prepared for this.
For decades.
Gabriel examined the real ring.
“Can you decode the access sequence?”
“Eventually.”
“We don’t have eventually.”
Norah turned the ring beneath a magnifying lens.
Tiny markings surrounded the inner edge.
Numbers.
But several were deliberately scratched.
Incomplete.
“Samuel removed part of the sequence.”
“Where’s the missing part?”
Norah smiled without humor.
“I’m guessing inside another puzzle.”
Gabriel sat beside her.
For the first time in hours, neither spoke.
Rain touched the kitchen windows.
The same kind of rain that had fallen when Norah woke against his chest.
That moment felt like another life.
Gabriel looked at her.
“You should leave.”
She blinked.
“What?”
“Take your mother when we recover her.”
“Gabriel.”
“Thomas wants you.”
“He wants the cipher.”
“He wants both.”
“Then I’m safer beside the person with thirty armed guards.”
“I currently have nine guards I trust.”
“Still better than my apartment.”
His expression did not change.
“This is not a joke.”
“I know.”
“He burned my headquarters.”
“I know.”
“He took my mother.”
“I know.”
“He will use you against me.”
Norah stopped.
That was different.
Not against the organization.
Against him.
She looked at Gabriel.
“You think I’ve become a weakness.”
His silence answered.
Norah’s voice softened.
“You put your arm around me because I fell asleep.”
“You were freezing.”
“You covered my mouth to keep me quiet during the attack.”
“You would have screamed.”
“I would not.”
“You almost screamed when a mouse crossed your office.”
“It was enormous.”
Gabriel’s mouth moved slightly.
Then Norah became serious.
“You can’t protect people by pushing them away.”
“That strategy has worked very well for me.”
“Has it?”
His eyes met hers.
Father dead.
Mother kidnapped.
Sister nearly killed.
Best friend possibly responsible for his father’s death.
No.
It had not worked.
Norah touched the ring.
“Besides, you still need your accountant.”
Gabriel looked at her hand.
Then at her.
“Norah.”
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Don’t say something dramatic.”
“I was going to tell you that you’re impossible.”
“That’s acceptable.”
Mateo entered carrying a laptop.
“We found the coordinates Margaret transmitted.”
Norah stood.
“Where?”
“Waterfront.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“The terminal?”
Mateo shook his head.
“Near it.”
He rotated the map.
An old hotel overlooked the shipping docks.
The Vale Grand.
Thomas Vale’s first property.
Abandoned for fourteen years.
Norah looked at the ring.
May you like
Midnight was approaching.
And Margaret had just led them directly to Thomas.
