Chapter 5 - The Midnight Deal
Back upstairs, Timmy was sitting at a corner booth with a massive plate of eggs, toast, and the last of the beef stew in front of him, eating like a wolf that hadn't seen food in a week. Benny stood nearby wringing his hands, half-apologizing and half-thanking Gabriel for not having his nephew shot.
Gabriel sat back down at our original table, but the atmosphere had changed. The intimacy of the first bowl of stew had been broken by the reality of the cellar.
“You have a soft spot, Norah,” Gabriel said, watching Timmy shovel food into his mouth. “In my world, soft spots are execution targets.”
“This isn't your world, Mr. Hayes,” I said, wiping down the counter nearby, though my hands were still slightly jumpy. “This is a diner in the South End. People here get hungry. People here make mistakes. Not everything is a conspiracy.”
Gabriel let out a slow, cynical breath. “You think a kid hiding in a basement is innocent. You think Benny is just an old man flipping burgers. But in this city, everyone wants a piece of the pie, and everyone is waiting for the man at the top to drop his fork.”
“Then why didn't you?” I asked, stopping my rag mid-wipe.
Gabriel looked up, his dark eyes sharp. “Why didn't I what?”
“Why didn't you let Leo drag him out into the alley? Why did you tell them to feed him?” I stepped closer to the table. “You came in here ready to trust absolutely no one, ready to shoot at shadows. But you sat down, you ate my food, and you spared a starving kid.”
Gabriel stared at me for a long, silent moment. The neon sign outside buzzed, flickering red against the rain-streaked window.
“Because,” Gabriel said slowly, standing up from the booth with a heavy, deliberate grace, “Rosa taught me that some things are still worth trusting.”
He reached into his inner coat pocket and pulled out a heavy, gold-plated business card embossed with a sleek, minimalist monogram. He laid it flat on the wooden table, pushing it toward me with one finger.
“What is this?” I asked, looking down at it.
“My direct number,” Gabriel said. “Not the office. Not the syndicate lines. Me.”
“I don't need protection, Mr. Hayes.”
“You think this is about protection?” Gabriel buttoned his dark wool coat, his enforcers moving into position behind him toward the front door. “Paulie is dead. The chef who poisoned him is dead. And someone inside my organization put arsenic in that Wagyu steak two weeks ago.”
My breath caught. “You know who did it?”
“I have three suspects,” Gabriel said, his voice dropping into a lethal whisper. “And none of my chefs can be trusted to cook for me anymore. My kitchens are battlefields.”
He took a step toward the door, then paused, looking back over his shoulder.
“You’re finishing your nursing degree in six months,” Gabriel said, dropping a final envelope of cash onto the table beside the card—enough to cover every tuition payment I had stressed over for the last two years. “Come to the penthouse tomorrow night. Cook for me again. And I’ll show you how deep the rot really goes.”
May you like
Before I could answer, Leo unlocked the front door, and Gabriel stepped out into the pouring rain, his black SUVs swallowing him up into the night.
I stood alone in the quiet diner, the gold card gleaming under the harsh light, realizing that the most dangerous man in the city had just offered me a job I couldn't afford to refuse—and opened a door I could never close.
