She did not believe him.

He could see that clearly.

But she took the shirt anyway.

He turned his back while she dressed, giving her the one thing frightened people noticed more than comfort—space.

When she finally whispered that she was done, he turned.

The black shirt swallowed her frame, hanging almost to her knees.

Somehow it made the bruises more unbearable.

‘Who hurt you, Harper?’

She pressed her lips together.

Rain battered the windows.

Somewhere below, a guard murmured into a radio.

The house felt too large, too quiet, too used to keeping dangerous things contained.

‘My ex-husband,’ she said at last.

‘Derek Lawson.’

Gabriel went still.

‘Detective Derek Lawson?’

Her expression changed.

‘You know him?’

‘Everybody in this city knows Derek Lawson.’

A humorless laugh escaped her.

‘Then you know he’s dangerous.’

‘I know he wears authority like a mask.’

Harper shook her head.

‘He’s worse than that.

People want to believe him.

That’s what makes men like him powerful.’

He asked about her family and learned there was almost none.

Their mother was dead.

Their father had disappeared years before that.

Harper had been raising her eight-year-old brother Noah since she was barely old enough to sign a lease.

Derek had entered their life charming, polished, and careful.

He had left it violent, possessive, and convinced she still belonged to him.

When Gabriel asked whether Derek knew where Noah lived, Harper’s silence answered everything.

He turned toward the door.

‘Mrs.

Morrison.’

She appeared almost immediately.

‘Prepare the blue room on the second floor,’ he said.

‘And the room beside it.’

Harper stiffened.

‘No.

I can’t stay here.’

‘You can.’

‘I can’t pay.’

‘I didn’t ask you to.’

‘I don’t want charity.’

‘It isn’t charity.

You’ll work here.

Only here.

No more crossing the city at midnight.

No more walking into the dark alone.

And no more leaving your brother where Lawson can find him.’

That made anger flash through her fear.

‘You don’t get to decide my life because you saw bruises.’

Gabriel looked at her.

‘No.

But I get to decide what happens under my roof.’

‘Why?’ she demanded.

His voice lowered.

‘Because when I was twelve, nobody opened the door for my mother.

I don’t repeat that mistake.’

The room fell silent.

Mrs.

Morrison took over with her calm, efficient authority.

A doctor came without questions.

Two of Gabriel’s people went to collect Noah from the Dorchester apartment Harper described.

An hour later the boy arrived in clean pajamas borrowed from somewhere in the house, clutching a battered stuffed dinosaur and trying very hard not to look frightened.

The second he saw Harper, he ran to her.

She dropped to her knees despite the pain and held him so tightly Gabriel had to look away for a moment.

Noah spoke into her shoulder in a whisper that still carried across the room.

‘He came by the apartment again.’

Gabriel heard it.

So did everyone else.

A moment later one of the guards entered with a ringing phone.

Gabriel glanced at the screen.

Derek Lawson.

He answered on speaker.

Derek’s voice flowed out smooth and cold.

‘Tell Harper to stop hiding behind rich men.

She took something that belongs to me.’

Harper went visibly pale.

Gabriel’s gaze shifted to her.

‘What did you take?’

Derek laughed