Chapter 9 - What Ray Stole
Cormac shoved the microfilm into June’s apron.
Patrick’s men surrounded them.
Patrick stepped forward.
“Give it to me.”
June smiled.
“No.”
Cormac glanced at her.
She was terrified.
But fear had become familiar.
Patrick raised a gun.
“June.”
“You keep saying my name like we’re friends.”
Patrick aimed at Cormac.
“Give me the film or he dies.”
June looked at Cormac.
Cormac shook his head.
June reached into her apron.
She handed Patrick a strip.
He left.
Five minutes later, June removed the real microfilm from her bra.
Cormac stared.
“What did you give him?”
“The plastic strip from the label maker.”
Cormac laughed.
Actually laughed.
June smiled.
“Never underestimate a waitress with office supplies.”
The microfilm contained enough evidence to destroy the original Riley organization.
Including records implicating Cormac’s father.
Cormac read them without excuses.
“My father deserved prison.”
June studied him.
“And you?”
Cormac met her gaze.
“I’ve done things I’m not proud of.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
He told her.
The violence.
The extortion.
The businesses.
The compromises.
He did not sanitize himself.
June listened.
When he finished, she said, “I don’t know what to do with that.”
“You don’t have to do anything.”
“I care about you.”
Cormac’s face changed.
June almost wished she could retrieve the sentence.
“But caring doesn’t erase what you’ve done.”
“I know.”
“And if we survive this, I’m not becoming some crime boss’s girlfriend who looks away.”
“I would never ask you to.”
“Good.”
She stood.
“Because I’m too old and too big to squeeze myself into somebody else’s life.”
Cormac rose.
His expression was almost offended.
“Too big?”
June sighed.
“Forget it.”
“No.”
“Cormac.”
“You think that matters to me?”
“It matters to the world.”
“I’m not the world.”
Silence.
He stepped closer.
“You walk into a room and I notice you before anyone else.”
June’s breath caught.
“You argue with me when armed men won’t.”
“That may indicate poor judgment.”
“You feed people who can’t pay. You loved a complicated man for twenty-seven years. You’re standing in a diner somebody shot up twice and worrying whether your waitress gets her vacation.”
His voice softened.
“I don’t want less of you, June.”
She could not answer.
So Cormac did something unexpected.
Nothing.
He didn’t kiss her.
He didn’t touch her.
He simply let the truth sit between them.
Then June’s phone rang.
Ray again.
“I can get out.”
“Where?”
“Patrick’s old packing warehouse.”
Cormac immediately began organizing men.
Ray interrupted.
“June has to come.”
“No,” Cormac said.
Ray heard him.
“She has to.”
“Why?”
“Because Patrick’s holding someone else.”
June’s stomach dropped.
“Who?”
Ray whispered the name.
Eddie.
Then he added:
“And Eddie is the one who betrayed us.”
A photograph arrived.
Eddie sat tied to a chair.
Behind him stood Declan.
May you like
And beside Declan was someone June recognized from Ray’s funeral.
The doctor who had pronounced Ray dead.
