Chapter 6: Everything
She kept it in the lining of the duffel bag.
Not digitally.
Not on a drive that could be wiped or a phone that could be tracked.
Printed pages, folded small, sewn into the fabric with the same neat stitches she had used on Gabriel's arm.
She cut the lining open with a small pair of scissors from the windowsill and laid the pages on the bed between them.
Gabriel did not touch them immediately.
He looked at them the way he looked at things that required careful handling — the way he looked at a contract with language that could mean two different things depending on who was reading.
"Walk me through it," he said.
Hannah sat on the chair and pointed to the first page.
"That's the shell company.
Crane Import Solutions, registered in Delaware.
On paper it moves auto parts.
In practice it moves money — collections from the gambling operations, the loan business, protection payments — all of it laundered through the import accounts and distributed to a set of holding companies in three states."
"How much?"
"Over the three years I was tracking it?
Approximately four million."
Gabriel picked up the first page.
"These are the account numbers," Hannah continued.
"These are the holding company registrations.
These are the names of the men who signed as directors." She paused.
"Two of those names are county officials in Allegheny County.
One is a state licensing board member."
Gabriel set the page down and picked up the next.
"This is the distribution ledger," she said.
"Every payment, every recipient, every date going back 30 months.
I kept it because Crane told me to keep it.
He liked having records.
He thought they were only dangerous to other people."
"He was wrong."
"Yes."
Gabriel went through the pages slowly.
Hannah watched him.
She had the look of someone who had been carrying a very heavy thing for a very long time and was not yet sure whether setting it down was safe.
"Why didn't you go to the FBI?" Gabriel asked without looking up.
"Because two of those county officials have connections to the Pittsburgh field office.
I didn't know how deep it went.
I still don't." She paused.
"And because I was sick.
And because I was scared.
And because I had no money and no lawyer and no one who knew both my real name and what I was carrying."
Gabriel looked up from the pages.
"You have someone now," he said.
Hannah looked at him steadily.
"I don't need a protector."
"No," Gabriel said.
"You need a lawyer, a safe location, and someone with enough reach to make sure Crane doesn't get to you before this lands where it needs to land." He held her gaze.
"I can provide all three."
"And what do you get?"
The question was direct.
He respected it.
"Victor Crane has been trying to expand north for two years," Gabriel said.
"He's been making quiet moves on distribution routes that run through territory I control.
Helping you take him down is not entirely selfless."
Hannah considered this.
"At least you're honest about it," she said.
"I find it saves time."
She almost smiled.
It was small and tired and real.
Then her phone buzzed on the windowsill.
She looked at the screen.
The color left her face.
"What is it?" Gabriel said.
She turned the phone so he could see.
A text from an unknown number.
Four words.
*Found you.
Come home.*
Gabriel stood up.
"How long ago did this come in?"
"Just now."
He crossed to the window and looked down at the main street.
Tommy was still in the car across the road.
Nothing else looked wrong.
A woman walking a dog.
A man loading boxes outside the post office.
But Crane's men were good at looking like nothing.
"Pack the bag," Gabriel said.
"Gabriel—"
"Pack it now, Hannah.
We're leaving in two minutes."
She didn't argue.
She swept the papers back into the cut lining, folded it closed, and zipped the bag.
Her hands were steady.
He noticed that.
Even now, she didn't shake.
He pulled out his phone and called Tommy.
"We're coming down.
Eyes open.
We may have company."
"Already clocked a grey sedan," Tommy said.
"Parked half a block east.
Engine running.
Two men inside.
Neither of them is from around here."
Gabriel looked at Hannah.
"One exit," he said.
"Stay behind me."
She picked up the duffel bag and slung it over her shoulder.
"I've been running from these people for fourteen months," she said.
"I know how to move."
"I know," Gabriel said.
"But you don't have to run anymore."
May you like
She looked at him for just a moment — one brief, unguarded second — and something in her face broke open and closed again so fast that a less careful man would have missed it entirely.
Then she moved to the door.
