Chapter 12 - The Man Who Ordered the Fire
The basement beneath the basement had been built during Prohibition.
June had owned the diner for twenty-one years without knowing it existed.
At the bottom, they found a tunnel.
And Patrick.
Wounded.
Barely conscious.
Voss had shot him and left him there.
Patrick laughed when he saw Cormac.
“Brother.”
Cormac crouched beside him.
“Where’s Voss?”
Patrick coughed.
“Cleaning up.”
“Who?”
“All of us.”
Patrick revealed Voss had arranged Ray’s abduction, Evelyn’s disappearance crisis, the attacks, and even Patrick’s fake death years earlier.
He kept people alive when useful.
Killed them when not.
Patrick handed June a phone.
One message was queued.
A list of judges and police officials still loyal to Voss.
Enough to finish him.
Patrick died before paramedics reached him.
Cormac stood over his brother.
June touched his shoulder.
This time he covered her hand with his.
The evidence went federal.
Arrests began.
Declan cooperated.
Eddie did too.
Ray entered protective custody temporarily.
Evelyn agreed to testify.
For the first time, Voss was losing control.
Then June disappeared.
Not accidentally.
She let Voss take her.
Cormac discovered her plan too late.
She had left a note.
DON’T BE AN IDIOT. FOLLOW THE TRACKER.
Cormac swore for nearly a full minute.
Ray laughed.
“That’s June.”
The tracker led to an abandoned hotel.
Voss waited in the ballroom.
June sat at a table.
Untied.
Drinking coffee.
Voss looked irritated.
“This is terrible.”
“You kidnapped a diner owner and served instant coffee. That’s on you.”
He almost smiled.
“You’re remarkably calm.”
“I’ve had a bad two months.”
Voss wanted the original microfilm.
June had brought it.
But federal agents were already surrounding the building.
Cormac entered anyway.
Voss aimed at him.
June stood.
“Don’t.”
Voss looked at her.
“You care for him.”
“Yes.”
Cormac’s eyes found hers.
June continued.
“That doesn’t make me weak.”
She threw the coffee.
Voss flinched.
Cormac moved.
The gun fired.
June screamed.
Cormac fell.
Agents stormed the room.
Voss was arrested.
June dropped beside Cormac.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You threw coffee at a gunman.”
“It was hot.”
“You’re insane.”
“Shut up.”
She pressed her hands against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
Cormac smiled weakly.
“Bossy.”
“Cormac.”
His eyes closed.
At the hospital, surgeons worked for four hours.
June sat beside Ray.
An absurd scene.
A wife waiting to learn whether the man she had kissed while her husband watched would survive.
Ray handed her coffee.
“You love him.”
June stared at the cup.
“I don’t know.”
“You do.”
“What does that say about me?”
“That you’re alive.”
June cried.
Ray took her hand.
“I’m sorry I made you lonely while I was standing beside you.”
She looked at him.
That apology hurt more than all the others.
“I’m sorry too.”
“For what?”
“For thinking love meant we had to remain who we were.”
Ray nodded.
A surgeon appeared.
June stood.
Cormac had survived.
The bullet missed his heart.
June nearly collapsed.
She entered his room hours later.
Cormac opened his eyes.
“You look awful,” she said.
“So romantic.”
“I’m married.”
“Complication.”
“Yes.”
Cormac looked away.
June sat beside him.
“I need to finish that before I start anything else.”
“I know.”
“And you need to decide what kind of man you’re going to be if Voss’s network is gone.”
“I know.”
She took his hand.
“I won’t build a life with a criminal empire in the basement.”
Cormac looked at her.
“What if I burn the empire down?”
June squeezed his fingers.
“Then we talk.”
His phone vibrated.
Cormac glanced at it.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He turned the screen toward her.
A message from Evelyn.
VOSS WASN’T WORKING ALONE.
A photograph loaded beneath it.
May you like
June stared at the face.
It belonged to someone who had been sitting beside her at Ray’s funeral.
