Chapter 17 - The Silent Auction
The plan was reckless enough that Gabriel hated it immediately.
That was one reason Chloe thought it might work.
Luca believed Beatrice was still captive at the Saint Agnes Hotel.
Vincent had arranged her escape through a service stairwell while Luca's men changed shifts.
The video call had been recorded before the escape.
Luca did not yet know Beatrice was gone.
According to Vincent, Luca had already left the hotel to attend a charity auction at the Bellwether Museum.
The auction was hosted by the Costello Foundation.
Gabriel was supposed to appear.
Luca expected him to cancel because of the kidnapping.
Gabriel decided to do the opposite.
"You want to walk into a ballroom full of two hundred people while Luca thinks he controls my mother," Gabriel said.
Hale nodded.
"Yes."
"And you think he will just confess?"
"No."
"Then what exactly are we accomplishing?"
Nina answered.
"We force him to move."
Rocco leaned against the hood of a car.
"Luca is strongest when everyone is hidden."
"Private rooms."
"Back corridors."
"Family conversations nobody records."
Hale nodded.
"So we put him somewhere public."
Chloe looked at Beatrice.
"And she stays away."
Beatrice immediately signed no.
Gabriel saw it.
"No."
Beatrice folded her arms.
"I agree with her," Chloe said.
Beatrice glared.
"Sorry."
Chloe signed.
Too dangerous.
Beatrice answered.
Dangerous for whom?
"For you."
Beatrice's hands moved harder.
Everyone keeps saying they are protecting me.
That is how this started.
Chloe stopped.
Gabriel watched.
He knew enough now to recognize protect.
His expression changed.
Beatrice continued.
I will choose my risk.
Chloe translated.
Gabriel looked at his mother for a long moment.
Every instinct in him was screaming to lock her in the safest room he could find.
Chloe could see it.
Then he did something harder.
He signed slowly.
Your choice.
Beatrice stared at him.
Her face softened.
She nodded.
Hale sighed.
"I hate this family."
Rocco smiled.
"You get used to us."
"I hope not."
The Bellwether Museum ballroom glittered under chandeliers three hours later.
Guests in evening clothes moved between silent auction tables.
Waiters carried champagne.
A string quartet played near the marble staircase.
Nothing about the room suggested kidnapping, murder, or federal corruption.
That was exactly why Luca had chosen to be there.
Chloe wore a black server's uniform borrowed from the catering team.
It was close enough to her Il Canto clothes that she felt strangely calmer in it.
Gabriel wore a tuxedo.
Beatrice wore silver silk and pearls.
She had insisted on the pearls.
"He needs to recognize me," she had signed.
Hale placed officers throughout the museum dressed as staff and guests.
Nina remained in a surveillance van outside.
Rocco stayed near the service corridor.
Vincent stood beside the main staircase with a drink he never touched.
Chloe hated trusting him.
She hated that Beatrice seemed to trust him a little more than before.
Not forgive.
Trust enough for one task.
There was a difference.
Gabriel stood beside his mother near the foundation display.
For once, he kept his phone in his pocket.
He watched her hands.
Beatrice signed.
Luca at two o'clock.
Gabriel followed her gaze too obviously.
Chloe stepped between them.
"Don't look."
Gabriel frowned.
"I'm new at this."
"You are terrible at this."
Beatrice smiled.
Luca stood near a sculpture across the ballroom.
He wore a white pocket square and his black family ring.
He was speaking with a judge, a banker, and two city officials.
His face showed no sign that anything had gone wrong.
Then he saw Beatrice.
The smile disappeared.
Only for one second.
It returned before anyone else noticed.
But Chloe saw it.
So did Beatrice.
Luca excused himself and crossed the room.
"Beatrice."
He kissed the air beside her cheek.
She did not react.
"What a surprise."
Gabriel stepped closer.
"Is it?"
Luca looked at him.
"You told everyone she was resting."
"She changed her mind."
Luca's eyes flickered toward Chloe.
"And the waitress."
Chloe smiled.
"Still waiting on that compliment about my career choices."
Luca's gaze hardened.
Beatrice signed.
He looks sick.
Gabriel recognized sick.
He almost smiled.
Luca noticed.
"What?"
Gabriel looked directly at his mother.
Then, carefully, he signed.
Yes.
Beatrice's eyes lit with wicked amusement.
Luca's face changed.
He finally understood what was happening.
Gabriel was learning.
His private advantage was disappearing in real time.
"How touching," Luca said.
Gabriel's voice stayed calm.
"You should have learned too."
Luca laughed.
"I never needed to."
Beatrice's expression became cold.
Chloe translated before being asked.
"She says that was your mistake."
Luca looked at her.
"Was it?"
"Yes."
The answer came from Gabriel.
Luca's eyes shifted back.
Gabriel continued.
"You spent years believing silence meant ignorance."
"You thought my mother didn't know what you were doing because she couldn't hear you."
"You thought Leo was harmless because he couldn't hear you either."
Chloe felt the room inside her go cold.
Luca's smile faded.
"Careful."
Gabriel took a glass of water from a passing tray.
"Why?"
"Because grief makes people say stupid things."
Beatrice signed.
Ask about Raymond.
Gabriel recognized the fingerspelled R and the name shape Chloe had taught him in the car.
He looked at Luca.
"How is Raymond Cole?"
Luca's face barely moved.
But his right thumb rubbed the black ring.
Once.
Twice.
"Who?"
Chloe watched his hand.
"The man paid twenty-five thousand dollars four days after my brother died."
Luca looked at her.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Of course not."
"You should be careful accusing people publicly."
Chloe looked around the ballroom.
"Public is new for you, isn't it?"
Luca's eyes sharpened.
A museum employee approached the microphone on stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the silent auction closes in ten minutes."
Applause moved through the room.
Luca glanced toward the stage.
Then toward the service corridor.
Rocco saw the look.
He touched his earpiece.
Hale moved closer from the other side of the room.
Luca noticed nothing.
Beatrice signed to Chloe.
He will run.
Chloe nodded slightly.
Then Beatrice added something else.
Table seven.
Bread.
Wine.
Under the heart.
Chloe frowned.
She knew Table 7.
She knew bread and wine.
But under the heart?
Beatrice touched the center of her chest.
Then she pointed down.
Chloe understood.
The hollow center of the table.
The ledger was beneath the center support.
Not in the tabletop.
She looked at Gabriel.
He had been watching.
He did not know all the words.
But he saw the number seven.
"Table 7," he whispered.
Beatrice nodded.
Luca heard him.
His face changed.
The entire plan snapped into motion.
Luca turned toward the service corridor.
Rocco moved to block him.
Luca shoved a guest into Rocco's path.
Glasses crashed.
People screamed.
Hale shouted for everyone to stay where they were.
Luca ran.
Gabriel started after him.
Chloe grabbed his sleeve.
"Beatrice."
He stopped.
The old Gabriel would have chased the threat.
This Gabriel looked at his mother first.
Beatrice signed.
Go.
Gabriel hesitated.
She pointed at Chloe.
With me.
Then toward him.
Go.
He nodded.
"Stay with her."
This time it sounded like a request.
Chloe nodded.
Gabriel ran after Hale and Rocco.
Vincent moved toward the opposite exit.
Beatrice caught his arm.
She signed something.
He could not understand.
He looked helplessly at Chloe.
"What?"
Chloe translated.
"She says don't follow Luca."
Vincent frowned.
"Why?"
Beatrice signed.
He wants the restaurant.
Chloe's pulse jumped.
"He heard Table 7."
Vincent's face drained of color.
"Il Canto."
He reached for his phone.
Before he could call, every phone in the ballroom buzzed at once.
An emergency alert had not gone out.
This was something else.
Guests looked down at their screens.
A link had been mass-texted to the event list.
Chloe opened it.
A video began playing.
Gabriel's face appeared.
It was security footage from years earlier.
He was standing in the Valenti warehouse beside the sealed crate.
A caption appeared over the video.
GABRIEL COSTELLO ORDERED THE TRANSFER THAT LED TO ANTHONY COSTELLO'S DEATH.
A second clip appeared.
Gabriel's car near Leo's university on the night Leo died.
Another caption.
THE SAME VEHICLE WAS SEEN NEAR THE DEATH OF LEO BENNETT.
Guests began whispering.
Cameras rose.
Reporters near the entrance started recording.
Beatrice looked around the room.
She could not hear the whispers.
But she saw the faces turn.
Luca had not run because he was afraid.
He had run because the next attack was already scheduled.
Vincent looked at Chloe.
"He's framing Gabriel."
Chloe's phone buzzed again.
A private message this time.
Unknown number.
Luca.
THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME WHERE THE LEDGER IS.
Chloe's blood went cold.
A second message appeared.
May you like
BY THE TIME GABRIEL CLEARS HIS NAME, TABLE 7 WILL BE ASH.
