Chapter 2 - The Unlocked Door
Outside the cathedral, the oppressive late-afternoon summer heat instantly replaced the air-conditioned cold of the sanctuary. A sleek, bulletproof black Maybach waited at the curb, flanked by three heavily tinted security SUVs. One of Gabriel’s men immediately opened the rear door of the Maybach. Paige climbed inside without a second of hesitation, pushing the massive, ridiculous volume of white silk and tulle aside to press herself tightly against the far passenger door.
Gabriel entered from the opposite side, his tall frame filling the luxurious leather interior. The heavy armored door shut with a solid, airtight thud. The driver pulled away from the curb instantly, leaving the cathedral, her weeping father, and the shattered wreckage of her wedding far behind in the rearview mirror.
For several long minutes, neither of them spoke a single word. Paige stared out the dark tinted glass, watching the city buildings blur past while the intense adrenaline that had sustained her began to rapidly drain from her nervous system. She was fully aware of her situation: she had either been kidnapped, rescued, or both.
Gabriel leaned forward, pouring two fingers of amber liquor from a crystal decanter built into the center console. He offered the crystal glass to her. Paige didn't move a muscle, refusing it with a cold glare. Gabriel casually observed that her hands were shaking violently. Paige snapped back, her voice sharp and laced with pure venom, stating that being trapped inside a soundproof armored vehicle with a notorious Mafia boss while wearing a stolen twenty-thousand-dollar wedding dress was not particularly conducive to emotional calm.
A faint, almost invisible smile touched the corner of Gabriel’s lips. He pointed out with dry humor that Colin had technically paid for the dress, which made it more of a mandatory parting gift. Paige ignored the joke and demanded to know where he was taking her. Gabriel replied calmly that they were heading to his private estate in the bluffs, where she would be completely secure.
Paige let out a bitter, mocking laugh. She asked him secure from whom. Gabriel dismissed Colin as a pathetic, cowardly bully who posed no real threat once stripped of his money, and added that the local police department did not concern him in the slightest. The only real concern, Gabriel explained, was anyone in the rival syndicates who might now view Paige as a valuable piece of leverage against the Rossy family.
Paige laughed even harder, the sound tinged with hysterical edge. She told him to stop pretending to be a mysterious, chivalrous benefactor. He had just walked into a church, publicly claimed her father’s debt, and declared her part of the transaction. She wanted the cold truth right now: did he intend to force her to marry him, sell her to the highest bidder, or make her work off the fifteen million dollars in one of his illicit clubs?
Gabriel set his glass down and leaned forward, his dark eyes locking onto hers with suffocating intensity.
He told her he wanted exactly what she wanted: Out.
He explained that he had watched her walk down that church aisle as though she were walking toward a firing squad. Paige mocked him, asking if he honestly imagined himself as the heroic rescue helicopter arriving in the nick of time. Gabriel replied calmly that he was not a helicopter; he was the man who burned the firing squad to the ground so they could never shoot at her again. Then, he reached his broad hand out toward her face.
Paige flinched violently, pressing her back as hard as she could against the leather door, bracing herself to be struck.
Gabriel did not touch her.
Instead, he bypassed her shoulder entirely, reached past her ear, and pulled the mechanical handle on the door, manually disengaging the child lock system.
At the very next red light, Gabriel said softly, Paige could open that door, step out onto the pavement, and walk away. He promised on his mother's grave that he would not send a single man to follow her. Arthur’s debt was officially settled in Gabriel's books and was no longer her burden to carry. She was completely free to return to whatever quiet life she had before Colin tracked her down.
Paige stared at the chrome door handle in absolute disbelief.
Gabriel explained his reasoning with brutal honesty. He had zero use for forced labor, and he certainly did not need to force terrified women to marry him. Colin was a pathetic, abusive aberration that Gabriel thoroughly despised. Taking Paige publicly from that altar had been a purely tactical move. It completely destroyed Colin’s social and financial reputation in front of his wealthy father, his business associates, and high society. Paige had simply been the perfect weapon Gabriel used to execute that humiliation.
The admission was cold, calculating, and transactional. But it was also the first completely honest thing anyone had said to Paige in weeks.
The heavy Maybach came to a smooth, complete stop at a busy downtown red light.
The door was unlocked. The street was filled with pedestrians.
Paige could open the door and leave right now.
She rapidly calculated her actual options in her head. She had exactly five dollars hidden in the heel of her shoe, no cellphone, no legal identification, and was wearing a twenty-pound, blindingly white Vera Wang gown that was utterly impossible to hide in. More importantly, Colin remained alive, humiliated, insanely wealthy, and ruthlessly vindictive. Gabriel might have broken his jaw on the altar steps, but the absolute second Paige stepped outside of Gabriel’s protective shadow, Colin would redirect every ounce of his rage and humiliation straight back toward her. He would hunt her down, and next time, there would be no wedding—only a shallow grave.
Gabriel did not pressure her. He sat silently on his side of the seat, watching the traffic light.
The driver waited. The light cycled from red to bright green.
Paige’s hand remained motionless in her lap. She did not reach for the handle.
Gabriel quietly instructed the driver to continue driving toward the estate.
Paige sank deeper into the plush leather seat, crossing her arms over her chest. She looked at Gabriel and asked what she was supposed to be in his world if she was neither his hostage nor his bride.
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Gabriel turned to face her, his dark eyes gleaming with a lethal new purpose. He told her she was going to help him destroy the rest of Colin’s corrupt family. Gabriel revealed that his intelligence team had uncovered her hospital records from two years ago when Colin broke her ribs. Gabriel knew that Paige understood the internal life, private habits, and financial secrets of the family in ways no outside investigator ever could. If she agreed to give Gabriel everything she knew about Richard's offshore tax accounts and illegal land deals, Gabriel guaranteed he would ensure Colin never breathed the same air as her ever again.
For the first time in two nightmare-filled years, the icy, terrifying knot inside Paige’s stomach began to loosen into something dangerously close to real hope.
