Chapter 8 - THE MOTHER AT THE DOOR
Belle had never fired a gun.
Patrick knew it immediately.
He smiled.
“You won’t shoot.”
Belle aimed at his chest.
“Get away from my son.”
Patrick pulled Micah against him.
“Put it down.”
Micah’s lip was bleeding.
Belle saw the red mark across his cheek.
Something inside her went silent.
Not calmer.
Colder.
“Micah.”
“Yes, Mom?”
“When I say duck, duck.”
Patrick laughed.
“You think this is a movie?”
Belle fired.
The bullet hit the light above Patrick.
Darkness swallowed the room.
“Duck!”
Micah dropped.
Belle ran.
Renick came through the opposite door.
Two shots.
A scream.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Patrick was gone.
But Micah was free.
Belle crashed onto her knees.
She grabbed him.
He wrapped both arms around her neck.
“I knew you’d come.”
Belle cried into his hair.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For everything.”
Micah pulled back.
“You didn’t kidnap me.”
Even then.
Even now.
The kid could make her laugh.
Renick stood nearby.
Brinley ran into the room with Sully.
She hugged Micah.
“Bird boy!”
Micah groaned.
“Seriously?”
Everyone laughed.
For five seconds, they were simply people.
Then Declan found blood leading toward the tunnels.
Patrick had been hit.
They followed it.
The trail ended at the harbor.
A boat was missing.
Patrick had escaped.
But he had left something behind.
Boxes.
Hundreds of files.
Records stretching back thirty years.
Daniel’s evidence had been only the beginning.
Belle opened one folder.
Judges.
Police officers.
Businessmen.
Politicians.
Patrick owned pieces of Boston nobody had imagined.
Renick looked sick.
“This ends.”
Sully stared at him.
“How?”
Renick looked toward Daniel’s flash drive.
“We give them everything.”
Declan frowned.
“Federal authorities?”
“Everything.”
“You’ll destroy our organization too.”
“Yes.”
Sully stared.
Renick looked at Brinley.
“I’m done building a kingdom my daughter has to be afraid of.”
Belle watched him.
For the first time, she saw something other than Boston’s feared crime boss.
She saw a father.
And perhaps Renick saw something similar when he looked at her.
But Patrick was not finished.
The next morning, every major news station in Boston received a video.
Patrick sat behind a desk.
He identified Renick as the leader of Harrow.
He blamed every murder on his son.
He produced documents.
Forged, but convincing.
By noon, federal agents surrounded the Kavanaugh estate.
Renick looked through the window.
“Father’s forcing me underground.”
Belle shook her head.
“No.”
He turned.
“What?”
“You said this ends.”
“It does.”
“Then stop running like him.”
Renick stared at her.
Belle pointed toward the gates.
“Walk outside.”
“They’ll arrest me.”
“Yes.”
“And if Patrick controls people inside law enforcement?”
Belle placed Daniel’s flash drive in his hand.
“Then make sure the whole world sees what’s on that before anyone can bury it.”
Renick looked at the drive.
Then at his daughter.
May you like
He opened the front door.
And walked toward the federal agents with his hands raised.
