Chapter 5 - The Sniper's Second Target
Ronan hit me hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.
We fell behind a steel printing press as another shot cracked through the building.
Glass exploded.
Evan dragged Brendan behind cover.
“Alive!” he shouted.
Brendan had been hit in the shoulder.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Ronan pressed his hand against the wound while ordering his team to locate the shooter.
I sat against the floor, shaking.
The red laser had been on my chest.
Not Ronan's.
Mine.
Whatever I had discovered about my father had just made me a target.
Ten minutes later, the sniper vanished.
A getaway vehicle had been waiting two blocks away.
Brendan was transported to a private medical facility.
Ronan refused to leave him unguarded.
I sat beside Brendan's hospital bed two hours later.
He was pale but conscious.
“Tell me about my father.”
Ronan stood by the window.
Brendan looked between us.
“Your father was Thomas Callahan.”
“I know his name.”
“He was more than a bookkeeper.”
“What?”
“He audited financial networks for federal investigators.”
My world shifted.
“No.”
“He wasn't an agent. He was a forensic accountant. Quiet work. Financial reconstruction. He discovered Cormac had created offshore accounts to hide money from his own organization.”
“Why?”
“Cormac planned to disappear.”
Ronan looked toward him.
“Eleven years ago?”
“Earlier. Nearly sixteen.”
That meant my father had discovered Cormac's plan five years before Cormac supposedly died.
Brendan continued.
“Thomas tried to expose him. Cormac had him killed.”
I felt numb.
The car accident.
My mother's silence afterward.
The way she never spoke about his work.
Everything changed.
“Why was I placed at Bellweather?”
Brendan hesitated.
“Protection.”
I laughed bitterly.
“By the man who knew my father was murdered?”
“Victor wasn't always Cormac's man.”
Ronan folded his arms.
“Explain.”
“Victor helped your father investigate Cormac.”
Ronan stared.
“Victor Hale?”
“Yes.”
“But Victor has been funding him.”
“Because Cormac took something from Victor too.”
“What?”
“His daughter.”
Silence.
Brendan closed his eyes.
“Victor has been paying Cormac for eleven years because Cormac convinced him she was alive.”
Ronan asked, “Is she?”
“I don't know.”
I understood the leverage.
Victor wasn't a simple traitor.
He was being blackmailed.
Brendan had mirrored the payments to track Cormac.
But if Cormac discovered the surveillance, he could have forced Victor to escalate.
The sniper attack.
The war with Doyle.
The kidnapping.
“How does Maeve fit?” I asked.
Brendan looked at Ronan.
“Patrick Doyle helped Cormac disappear.”
Ronan's eyes narrowed.
“Doyle knew?”
“He provided the boat.”
“Why?”
“Because Cormac promised him control of Vale shipping routes.”
“And now?”
“Patrick wants out.”
That explained why Maeve was taken.
Cormac was punishing Patrick.
Ronan paced slowly.
“What does my father want now?”
Brendan looked at me.
“The ledger.”
“Why?”
“Because Nora can prove Cormac is alive financially.”
I frowned.
“A person can fake death records. But money leaves continuity.”
Brendan nodded.
“The offshore accounts connect directly to him.”
Ronan turned toward me.
“So you can destroy him.”
“Legally, financially, publicly.”
Brendan added, “Which is why he won't stop.”
Ronan's phone rang.
Victor Hale.
Ronan answered.
“Where are you?”
Victor sounded broken.
“I made mistakes.”
“Where are you?”
“Doesn't matter.”
“Victor.”
“I never ordered the sniper.”
“I know.”
Silence.
Victor exhaled.
“Cormac has Maeve.”
“We know.”
“He wants Nora.”
Ronan looked at me.
“No.”
Victor continued.
“He'll exchange Maeve for her.”
“No.”
“Ronan, listen—”
“I said no.”
I stared at him.
Victor said, “Then Maeve dies.”
The line went quiet.
Ronan ended the call.
I stood.
“You can't decide that alone.”
“Yes, I can.”
“She's innocent.”
“So are you.”
“She was kidnapped because your people were trying to kidnap her.”
His jaw tightened.
“That doesn't make you responsible.”
“It makes you responsible.”
Evan looked at the floor.
Ronan stared at me.
I continued.
“If Cormac wants me, then we use that.”
“No.”
“You have armed men, surveillance, resources—”
“And he has a sniper.”
“So we plan better.”
Ronan stepped closer.
“You were almost shot tonight.”
“And you were almost shot three nights ago. Yet you're still planning.”
He had no answer.
I softened my voice.
“I don't want to die.”
Something changed in his expression.
“I am terrified.”
He looked at my shaking hands.
“But I'm more terrified of doing nothing while the man who killed my father controls everyone around him.”
Ronan said nothing for a long moment.
Then he nodded.
“We make the exchange.”
The plan was simple.
Too simple.
Cormac chose an underground parking structure downtown.
Midnight.
I would arrive with Ronan.
Evan's team would cover exits.
Brendan stayed at the hospital.
Victor would provide the exchange coordinates.
At 11:56 p.m., Ronan and I entered the structure.
He wore a dark coat.
I carried a laptop containing a copy of the ledger.
My hands were cold.
Ronan noticed.
“You can still walk away.”
“No.”
“I won't think less of you.”
“I might.”
He almost smiled.
Then headlights appeared.
A black sedan stopped fifty feet away.
Maeve stepped out.
Hands bound.
A man held a gun behind her.
Cormac appeared beside him.
Ronan went still.
Father and son faced each other across concrete.
Cormac smiled.
“You look like your mother when you're angry.”
Ronan's voice was flat.
“Release Maeve.”
“Send Nora.”
I stepped forward.
Ronan caught my wrist.
I looked at him.
He slowly released me.
I walked halfway.
Maeve did the same.
We passed each other.
She whispered, “I'm sorry.”
“So am I.”
Then we continued.
I reached Cormac.
Maeve reached Ronan.
For one second, the exchange worked.
Then Cormac looked at the laptop.
“Password.”
“You get it when I'm safe.”
He laughed.
“You inherited Thomas's courage.”
“And hopefully his accounting skills.”
His smile disappeared.
Behind us, sirens suddenly sounded.
Not police.
Fire alarms.
Sprinklers activated.
Lights flickered.
Cormac's men scattered.
Ronan shouted my name.
Someone grabbed me from behind.
I elbowed backward.
A gun fired.
The lights went completely black.
When emergency lighting returned, Cormac was gone.
So was the laptop.
Ronan ran toward me.
I was alive.
Maeve was safe.
But Evan stood beside the exit, staring at his phone.
“Boss.”
Ronan turned.
Evan looked sick.
“The hospital called.”
Ronan's face changed.
“Brendan?”
Evan shook his head.
“Brendan disappeared ten minutes ago.”
Then he held up the security image.
Brendan had not been taken.
May you like
He had walked out willingly.
And Victor Hale had been waiting for him.
