Chapter 1 - THE DOOR OPENED
The bathroom door opened before Harper could pull her uniform over her shoulders.
She froze with one arm trapped in a sleeve.
Gabriel Ashford stood in the doorway.
For one brutal second, neither of them spoke.
His eyes went first to the blood on the white marble floor. Then higher, to the bruises spread across her ribs and back like fingerprints left by a storm.
Harper yanked the dress up.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't be in here. I'll clean this. I can explain."
Gabriel closed the door behind him.
He was taller than she expected, still wearing a black suit from wherever he had been, his tie loosened, his face unreadable. The newspapers called him the Devil of Beacon Hill.
Instead, his voice came out quiet.
"Who did that to you?"
"Nobody."
His gaze dropped to the finger-shaped bruises near her shoulder.
"Try again."
Harper backed into the vanity. "Mr. Ashford, please. I need this job."
"I didn't ask about the job."
Her phone vibrated on the counter.
She reached for it too late.
The screen lit up between them.
DEREK LAWSON: You can run from the apartment. You can't run from me.
Harper's stomach dropped.
Gabriel read the name.
"Lawson," he said. "Precinct Twelve?"
Harper said nothing.
Another message appeared.
DEREK: I know where your brother is.
"Noah."
She rushed for the door.
Gabriel caught her wrist; when she flinched, he let go.
"Your brother is eight, right?"
"How do you know that?"
"Mrs. Morrison told me who was working in my house."
Harper shoved past him. "He's alone. I have to go."
One of his security men was already coming toward them.
"Boss," the man said, "there's a Boston cop at the front gate. Says he's here for Harper Queen."
Harper stopped breathing.
The guard looked at his phone.
"Name's Derek Lawson."
May you like
Gabriel turned to Harper.
"Now," he said, "you're going to tell me why a police officer who beat you bloody just showed up at my house."
