Chapter 13 - Cormac Riley’s Last Debt
Eddie Vale.
Again.
June wanted to scream.
Instead she drove to his apartment.
Cormac, still hospitalized, threatened everyone who allowed her to leave without protection.
June ignored him.
Ray came with her.
Eddie was gone.
But his apartment contained files proving he had worked for Voss for eleven years.
His gambling problem had been manufactured as cover.
He had been Voss’s observer inside June’s life.
Ray looked devastated.
“He was my best friend.”
June answered quietly, “Apparently we both had terrible taste.”
Ray almost laughed.
They found Eddie at the cemetery.
Standing beside the grave that bore Ray’s name.
He surrendered.
No fight.
No weapon.
He had been waiting.
“Why?” Ray asked.
Eddie cried.
Voss had threatened his daughter years earlier.
What began as coercion became habit.
Then money.
Then cowardice.
“I kept telling myself I’d stop.”
June looked at him.
“That’s how people become what they hate.”
Eddie handed them the final evidence.
Voss had maintained a contingency fund.
Twenty-six million dollars.
Cormac controlled the account without knowing it.
It was hidden inside his legitimate hospitality holdings.
Cormac could keep it.
Or surrender it.
The decision became his test.
June did not tell him what to do.
She sat beside his hospital bed and placed the documents in front of him.
Cormac read them.
“This money is clean on paper.”
“Yes.”
“No one could prove I knew.”
“Yes.”
He looked at her.
“You’re not going to tell me what you think?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if you become a better man because I demand it, then you’re performing.”
Cormac stared at the papers.
The next morning, he surrendered the entire account.
Not to June.
Not for praise.
To federal authorities.
He also provided records about his own organization.
Enough to expose crimes committed under his leadership.
His attorney nearly had a heart attack.
June confronted him.
“You could go to prison.”
“I know.”
“Why would you do that?”
Cormac looked at her.
“Because you asked what kind of man I’m going to be.”
“I didn’t ask you to destroy yourself.”
“I’m not.”
He touched her hand.
“I’m stopping.”
Cormac negotiated cooperation.
He would face consequences.
But because of evidence he supplied, prosecutors dismantled what remained of the organization.
Months of legal proceedings began.
June rebuilt Holloway House.
Insurance covered part.
Cormac’s legitimate company offered the rest.
June refused.
He expected that.
Instead, the neighborhood raised money.
Construction workers.
Teachers.
Retirees.
Families June had fed for free.
Mr. Alvarez contributed ten thousand dollars.
June cried when she saw the total.
Ray helped rebuild.
Their divorce was finalized quietly.
They walked out of the courthouse together.
June looked at him.
“Twenty-seven years.”
Ray nodded.
“Not all bad.”
“No.”
“Most of it was good.”
“Yes.”
They hugged.
Ray whispered, “Be happy, Junebug.”
She cried against his shoulder.
“You too.”
That evening, June visited Cormac.
He was no longer surrounded by armed men.
No empire.
No whispered fear.
Just a fifty-three-year-old man trying to learn how to live without power.
“You’re divorced,” he said.
“You’re observant.”
“I have talents.”
“Debatable.”
He smiled.
June sat beside him.
“Don’t ask me to marry you.”
Cormac nearly choked.
“I was going to ask you to dinner.”
“Oh.”
“Although your reaction is informative.”
“Forget it.”
“Impossible.”
She laughed.
Then kissed him.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
When they separated, Cormac rested his forehead against hers.
“I’ve wanted to do that since you told me not to shoot anyone in your kitchen.”
“That was a reasonable workplace policy.”
His phone rang.
He ignored it.
It rang again.
June sighed.
“Answer it.”
Cormac did.
He listened.
His expression hardened.
“What happened?”
He ended the call.
“Voss escaped during a medical transfer.”
June went still.
Cormac stood.
Then someone knocked on June’s newly installed diner door.
Three slow knocks.
They looked at each other.
The diner was closed.
Cormac reached for the handle.
June stopped him.
A folded piece of paper slid beneath the door.
May you like
On it were four words.
I SAVED RAY FIRST.
