Chapter 6 - THE NIGHT WE STOPPED RUNNING
Z
By the following morning, I was done being protected.
Ethan disagreed.
Loudly.
“No.”
I slammed my coffee mug onto the kitchen island.
Margaret calmly buttered toast.
Elena pretended to study her phone.
Declan stared at the ceiling.
“You have an extremely limited vocabulary before breakfast,” I said.
“You’re not going.”
“Patrick wants me.”
“Exactly.”
“He wants the ledger.”
“And you have it.”
“Exactly.”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
I pointed at him.
“See? I can use that word too.”
Margaret smiled into her coffee.
The plan I proposed was dangerous.
Admittedly.
Possibly stupid.
Also admittedly.
But Patrick believed the digital key contained the only usable copy of Dad’s evidence.
He didn’t know I had spent half the night reading the physical ledger.
And Dad had built a failsafe.
Every page contained a handwritten code.
Elena remembered the phrase Dad used whenever we played hide-and-seek as children.
Three knocks. Two doors. One way home.
3-2-1.
Using that sequence, Ethan’s cybersecurity team opened the data key.
Inside were copies of payments, recordings, photographs, offshore accounts, and names reaching from Chicago construction companies to city officials.
Patrick had spent seventeen years building power under different corporations.
Adrian’s father, Roman Marconi, had been his partner.
Adrian himself had apparently learned only part of the truth.
“They’re going to kill each other eventually,” I said.
Ethan leaned over the table.
“I’m comfortable waiting.”
“I’m not.”
“Rachel.”
“My father spent his last night trying to make sure this evidence survived. Daniel died because he learned about it. Elena nearly married into this because nobody told us the truth.”
I pushed the ledger toward Ethan.
“I’m done letting men decide what I’m allowed to know.”
His jaw tightened.
I knew I had won.
He knew it too.
The plan was changed.
Copies of the digital files went to three attorneys, two investigative reporters, and a federal prosecutor whose name appeared nowhere in the ledger.
Automatic release was scheduled for midnight.
Then Ethan called Patrick.
He put the phone on speaker.
“I have Javier’s ledger.”
Patrick was silent.
Finally:
“Where?”
“Navy Pier. Eleven tonight.”
“You always were theatrical.”
“Come alone.”
Patrick laughed.
“So should you.”
Ethan looked at me.
“We’ll see.”
At 10:48 that night, Chicago wind sliced through my coat as I stood beneath the dark Ferris wheel.
The pier was mostly deserted.
Ethan stood ten feet away.
No visible guards.
Of course, that meant there were probably thirty.
The ledger rested inside my bag.
A black sedan arrived.
Patrick stepped out.
Another vehicle followed.
Adrian Marconi emerged.
My stomach tightened.
“What is he doing here?” I whispered.
Ethan didn’t look surprised.
“Patrick never planned to honor the deal.”
Adrian approached.
His face was bruised from the church.
“Rachel.”
“Not a great wedding.”
His eyes hardened.
“I loved your sister.”
“Interesting way of showing it.”
“She lied to me.”
“So you kidnapped her?”
“This city has different rules.”
“No. Men like you just say that when normal rules become inconvenient.”
Ethan glanced at me.
Patrick sighed.
“Can we proceed?”
I removed the ledger.
Patrick’s expression changed.
For the first time, I saw hunger.
Not greed.
Fear.
“You destroyed my father’s family,” I said.
“Your father made choices.”
“So did you.”
I held the ledger over the edge of the pier.
Dark lake water moved below.
Patrick stepped forward.
“Don’t.”
“Interesting.”
“Rachel.”
“Seventeen years of murder and betrayal, and this is the first time you sound nervous.”
Adrian reached for his gun.
Ethan moved.
“Try it.”
Adrian stopped.
Patrick looked at Ethan.
“You would start a war over her?”
Ethan’s answer came instantly.
“No.”
Something in my chest sank before he continued.
“I’d end one.”
The first shot came from behind Patrick.
Adrian staggered.
Everything exploded.
Men rushed from the shadows.
Ethan grabbed me and pulled me behind a concrete barrier.
Gunfire cracked across the pier.
“What happened?”
“Roman.”
“What?”
“Adrian’s father sent men.”
Apparently the Marconis had discovered Patrick planned to betray them too.
Chicago crime politics.
Wonderful.
I crawled lower.
Ethan covered me with his body.
“Stay here.”
“No!”
He looked at me.
“I mean it.”
“So do I.”
I grabbed his coat.
“For once in your life, Ethan Callahan, stop running toward bullets!”
His face did something unexpected.
He smiled.
Actually smiled.
Then kissed me.
Hard.
Brief.
Terrifying.
My brain stopped functioning.
“That was incredibly inappropriate timing,” I whispered.
“I know.”
Then he was gone.
The fight lasted less than three minutes.
It felt like an hour.
When the silence came, police sirens were already approaching.
Part of Ethan’s plan.
The evidence had been sent before we arrived.
Patrick stood near the end of the pier with nowhere to go.
Adrian sat against a barrier clutching his bleeding shoulder.
Ethan approached his uncle.
Patrick laughed.
“You called the police?”
“Federal agents.”
“You became respectable.”
“No.”
Ethan looked toward me.
“I became tired.”
Patrick’s eyes followed his gaze.
His face changed.
“You think she changes what you are?”
Ethan said nothing.
Patrick smiled.
“You’ll destroy her eventually.”
“No.”
I stepped beside Ethan.
Patrick looked at me.
I answered for myself.
“He doesn’t get to decide my life.”
Patrick’s smile widened.
“Neither do you.”
I held up my phone.
A red countdown showed thirty seconds.
“What is that?”
“The release timer.”
His face went pale.
“Rachel.”
“All the files go public at midnight.”
“You don’t understand what you’re doing.”
“For once, I do.”
Ten seconds.
Patrick lunged.
Ethan stopped him.
Federal agents rushed forward.
Seven.
Six.
Five.
Patrick shouted my name.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
My phone vibrated.
FILES SENT.
Patrick Callahan stared at the screen.
For seventeen years, powerful men had feared him.
May you like
At midnight, their fear stopped mattering.
His secrets belonged to everyone.
