Chapter 10: What She Was Owed
She was in the small library on the second floor, working at the desk with her laptop and a stack of folders that she had apparently requested from the Romano accounting office, because Mia Carver had been confined to a safe location for forty-eight hours and had spent most of it catching up on quarterly reconciliations.
Gabriel stood in the doorway for a moment before she noticed him.
She looked up.
Read his face.
"Something happened," she said.
He came in and sat in the chair across from the desk.
He told her about Reeves.
About the two prior incidents.
About what Reeves had said regarding Daniel.
He told her all of it because she had earned the right to know, and because he was tired of deciding what people could and couldn't handle.
She listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she was quiet for a moment.
"Daniel's accident wasn't an accident," she said.
"Reeves says no."
"And you believe him."
"He has no reason to lie about that specific detail.
It doesn't help his cooperation agreement.
He volunteered it."
Mia set her pen down.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"I'm sorry about Daniel."
Gabriel looked at the desk.
"He would have been a better father than I would have been."
"That's probably not true."
He looked up.
"You stood outside a hospital nursery at two in the morning and made a promise," she said.
"Daniel would have done the same thing.
That's not a difference between you.
That's the same thing."
Gabriel was quiet.
"How did you know about the nursery?" he said.
"I didn't.
I guessed." She held his gaze.
"Was I wrong?"
He didn't answer.
Which was an answer.
She picked up her pen again.
"What happens now?"
"Reeves meets with a federal contact tomorrow.
Hargrove will be present.
The cooperation agreement will include everything — the convoy, the prior incidents, Daniel.
Sterling will be facing federal charges within the week."
"And Sterling himself?
Does he know yet that Reeves is talking?"
"Not yet.
He will by tonight."
"When he finds out—"
"He'll try something," Gabriel said.
"Yes.
That's why you're still here and not at your apartment."
She nodded slowly.
"Ptolemy is adjusting to the security team."
"I heard.
Apparently he bit Caruso on the thumb."
"I warned you."
"You did."
A small silence settled between them — not uncomfortable.
The kind of silence that existed between people who had moved past the point of performing ease and arrived at the actual thing.
"Mia," Gabriel said.
She looked up.
"When this is over — when Sterling is charged and Reeves has given his full statement and you're no longer a target — I'd like you to stay."
She was very still.
"With the organization."
"With the accounting office.
Same role.
Better pay.
And—" He paused.
"I'd like you to take over management of the Daniel James Romano Memorial Education Fund.
Officially.
With your name on it."
She looked at him for a long moment.
"That fund is anonymous," she said.
"It doesn't have to be."
"Daniel set it up to be anonymous."
"Daniel set it up because he cared about the children it helped.
I don't think he'd object to someone who carried his son through a warehouse managing it." Gabriel held her eyes.
"I think he'd consider it appropriate."
Mia looked down at her folders.
When she looked up, something in her face had shifted — not broken open, not dramatic, just quietly different.
The way a room looks when someone finally turns on a light that has been off for a long time.
"Okay," she said.
"Okay?"
"Yes to the fund.
Yes to staying." She picked up her pen.
"The pay negotiation happens after Sterling is arrested."
Gabriel stood up.
"That's fair," he said.
He was at the door when she spoke.
"Mr.
Romano."
He turned.
"Gabriel," she said.
It was the first time she had used his name.
She said it the way she said everything — carefully, like it mattered.
"Thank you for telling me about Daniel."
May you like
He nodded once.
He walked out and pulled the door almost closed behind him, leaving it open just enough that the light from the hallway reached her desk.
