A NAME THAT HIT LIKE A FIST
Alexander stared at him more closely. The jaw. The eyes. Something familiar—like a memory he’d buried deep in a forgotten file.
“I don’t know you,” Alexander said.
“No, you wouldn’t.” The young man stepped closer, gun shaking. “To you, I’m a line item. A rounding error.”
He swallowed hard.
“My name is Gabriel. Gabriel Talbot.”
The name slammed the air from Alexander’s lungs.
Talbot. Ohio. Five years ago. A family-owned manufacturing company—precision aerospace parts. Alexander hadn’t seen people. He’d seen patents.
Hostile takeover. Leveraged debt. Forced sale.
Assets stripped. Equipment sold. Patents absorbed. Factory shuttered.
Three hundred workers left without jobs.
Ricardo Talbot had begged for a meeting. Pleaded to protect pensions, livelihoods, dignity.
Alexander had never met him. Security had escorted him out.
Two weeks later, Ricardo Talbot drove his car into a bridge abutment at ninety miles an hour.
“Gabriel…” Alexander whispered.
Gabriel’s eyes filled, but the gun remained raised.
“You remember now? You remember my father—Ricardo?”
“I remember,” Alexander said quietly.
“He begged you,” Gabriel choked. “Letters. Meetings. Waiting for you like you were a god. He just wanted to save the pensions. Save his people. Save what he built. And you crushed him like he was nothing.”
Alexander tried to speak—
“No!” Gabriel screamed. The twins whimpered into Marina’s shirt. “After he died, my mom got sick from the stress. The bank took our house. We lost everything. I dropped out of college. And you? You built this castle.”
He gestured wildly with the gun, shaking with fury.
Then his voice fell, deadly calm.
“I came here to kill you. I watched this house for three days. I waited for you.”
Alexander stayed still, eyes flicking to Marina. She wasn’t watching the gun. She was watching him—pleading, not only for her life, but for what remained of his.
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“I wanted you to see,” he said. “I wanted you to feel powerless. I wanted you to know you can’t just pay people to disappear.”
Alexander swallowed.
