Chapter 7
Gabriel replayed the recording.
Same sentence.
Same cut.
“Where’s the rest?”
Arthur looked away.
Caleb laughed nervously.
“Maybe there isn’t more.”
Gabriel turned.
“Your father knows.”
Caleb’s smile disappeared.
Arthur said:
“Lorenzo was sick.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“He was paranoid.”
“You recorded him.”
“For his protection.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
That phrase.
Protection.
The cleanest word available for control.
Olivia searched the card case.
“There are more labeled Father.”
Gabriel looked.
Seven cards.
Months apart.
He played another.
Lorenzo’s voice:
“You told Vincent I planned to remove him.”
Arthur:
“You did.”
Lorenzo:
“I said I was considering it.”
Arthur:
“Same result.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
Another card.
Lorenzo:
“You told Peter I called his son weak.”
Arthur:
“You did.”
Lorenzo:
“In private.”
Arthur:
“Privacy makes men careless.”
Gabriel stopped playback.
Exactly the same system.
Arthur had used Gabriel’s father as rehearsal.
Feed private doubts outward.
Turn capos against one another.
Make the boss depend more heavily on the adviser who “managed” the conflict.
Arthur watched Gabriel understand.
Then smiled faintly.
“Your father needed me.”
“No.”
“He called me every night.”
“Because you created half the fires.”
Arthur’s smile widened.
“And put them out.”
There.
Pride.
Gabriel looked at Caleb.
“What did your father promise you?”
Caleb said nothing.
Arthur answered cruelly:
“Don’t ask him. He doesn’t understand half of this.”
Caleb stared.
Arthur continued.
“He manages doors.”
His son’s jaw tightened.
“He thinks that makes him important.”
Caleb whispered:
“You said security would become mine.”
Arthur laughed.
“It already is.”
“No.”
Caleb looked around the hidden room.
“You said after Gabriel fell—”
Silence.
Arthur closed his eyes.
Too late.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“After I fell?”
Caleb realized.
Arthur turned on him.
“You idiot.”
Caleb’s face changed.
Arthur continued:
“This is why you were never ready.”
Same contempt Arthur used on Olivia.
Same weapon.
Make people feel small enough to obey.
Caleb stared at his father.
Then whispered:
May you like
“He planned to make you disappear after the gala.”
The room became completely still.
