Chapter 7 - The Phoenix Rising
Harper raced up the stairs to the third-floor master suite. She punched the security code into the wall safe—a combination Gabriel had casually mentioned once while reviewing estate security—and retrieved the heavy satellite phone.
She dialed the direct secure line.
It rang twice before a harsh, breathless voice answered. "Vance? Talk to me."
"It's not Marcus, it's Harper," she said, her voice steady and clear above the howling wind outside.
There was a fraction of a second of dead silence on the line. "Harper? What are you doing with this phone? Marcus said the house was secure—"
"Marcus is hurt. Providence hit the North End warehouse," Harper interrupted, relaying the tactical layout she had memorized from the estate security blueprints. "They used your old shipping manifest from three weeks ago to track your route. Gabriel, it's a trap. If you take the primary exit onto Congress Street, you're walking straight into an ambush."
On the other end of the line, Gabriel stared through the windshield of his bulletproof SUV, where a blockade of unmarked cars had just materialized at the end of the Congress Street alley.
He gripped the steering wheel, a dark, dangerous smile touching his lips. She had saved his life. Not with a gun, but with a sharp mind and absolute composure.
"Copy that, Harper," Gabriel said, his voice dropping into commander mode. "Hold your position. I'm coming home."
With a roar of twin-turbo engines, Gabriel threw the Mercedes into reverse, shattering the ambush line as his security detail swarmed the alley, neutralizing the threat in a flurry of well-coordinated precision.
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Forty minutes later, the heavy oak doors of the Beacon Hill residence swung open. Gabriel walked in, his trench coat damp with rain, his eyes scanning the foyer until they landed on Harper standing at the foot of the grand staircase.
Without a word across the room, Gabriel crossed the distance between them in three long strides, scooped her up in his arms, and kissed her—a fierce, desperate, claiming kiss that swept away every remnant of her past.
