Chapter 6 - The Trap is Set
Harper’s jaw dropped in horror. "He... he did what?!"
"He used his authority as a police officer to file an Amber Alert warning," Gabriel explained calmly as they walked into his study minutes later. "He’s claiming you are mentally unstable, off your medication, and took Noah without legal custody."
"That’s a lie!" Harper cried out, her voice rising in
sheer panic. "I have sole physical custody! The court papers were finalized last year! He’s using the police system to hunt me down!"
"I know," Gabriel said, sitting down behind his desk. "It’s a smart move for a desperate man. By issuing an Amber Alert, every state trooper from Boston to the New York border is looking for your license plate and your face."
Harper sank into the chair, clutching her head in her hands. She felt like an animal caught in a hunter's snare. No matter how far she ran, Derek’s reach as a police officer seemed impossible to break. He was using the very law that was supposed to protect citizens to destroy her.
"I have to go to the police station," Harper wept. "I have to show them the custody papers. If they catch Noah, they’ll give him to Derek—"
"If you walk into a police station in Precinct 12," Gabriel interrupted sharply, "Derek’s friends will lose your custody papers before you even reach the desk. You will be locked in a holding cell, and Derek will walk out the front door with your brother. Is that what you want?"
Harper looked up, tears streaming down her face. "Then what do I do?! I can't fight the BPD!"
"You don't fight them," Gabriel said, his dark eyes flashing with a dangerous, calculating light. "I do."
He picked up his desk phone and dialed a three-digit extension. "Bring Captain Harrington to my private line."
Harper watched in stunned silence as Gabriel waited for the call to connect. A moment later, a voice spoke through the speakerphone—gruff, older, and clearly terrified.
"Mr. Ashford... sir. To what do I owe the call?"
"Harrington," Gabriel said, his voice as cold as ice. "One of your precinct detectives, Derek Lawson, just weaponized the Amber Alert system for personal revenge."
Silence hung over the line for three long seconds.
"Lawson?" Captain Harrington stammered. "Sir, he said his ex-wife took his kid—"
"His ex-wife is currently under my personal protection," Gabriel stated plainly. "And the child is safe in one of my residences. Lawson lied on a federal reporting document. He used state resources to stalk a woman he has physically abused for three years."
"Mr. Ashford... I didn't know—"
"You will cancel the Amber Alert within ten minutes," Gabriel commanded, leaning forward. "You will scrub her name from the state police registry. And you will place Detective Lawson on administrative leave pending an internal investigation."
"Sir, Lawson’s father was a deputy commissioner... his brothers are all in the department. If I suspend him without clear physical evidence of abuse, the union will—"
"The evidence is sitting in my house," Gabriel cut him off ruthlessly. "I have high-resolution photographs of Miss Queen’s back taken in my home last night. Scars, bruises, and fractures consistent with police-issued equipment. If you do not suspend Lawson by noon, those photographs, along with your offshore bank account records in Grand Cayman, will be sitting on the desk of the United States Attorney."
Captain Harrington swallowed loudly over the phone. "Ten minutes, Mr. Ashford. The alert will be canceled. Lawson will be suspended."
"Good boy," Gabriel said, and hung up the phone.
Harper sat in her chair, completely paralyzed by what she had just witnessed. In less than two minutes, Gabriel had dismantled a high-level police operation with a single phone call.
"He's... he's suspended?" Harper whispered, unable to process the news.
"For now," Gabriel said. "But suspension won't stop a man like Lawson. It will only make him enraged. He has lost his badge, his authority, and his leverage over you. He will become reckless."
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Gabriel stood up, walked around his desk, and stopped right in front of her. He reached down, taking her chin gently in his hand, forcing her to look up into his dark eyes.
"He will come for you himself now, Harper," Gabriel said softly. "Without his badge to hide behind, he will come with a gun. And that is exactly what I want."
