Chapter 8 - Midnight at Terminal Seven
The federal agents wanted Avery nowhere near Terminal Seven.
Cameron agreed with them.
Avery ignored everyone.
At 11:43 p.m., rain hammered the Brooklyn waterfront.
Terminal Seven rose ahead like a steel skeleton.
Calder had chosen the place deliberately.
Fourteen years earlier, Anthony Russo had discovered the first weapons shipment there.
Everything was ending where it began.
Cameron wore a bulletproof vest beneath his coat.
Avery wore one too.
“Stay behind me.”
“No.”
“Avery.”
“We discussed this.”
“This is not the diner.”
“I noticed.”
He stared at her.
Then, unexpectedly, he kissed her forehead.
“If this goes wrong—”
“Don’t.”
His eyes held hers.
“Fine.”
They entered together.
Calder waited beneath a hanging industrial lamp.
Maria and Anthony sat bound several yards apart.
Bradley Hayes stood nearby.
Avery stopped.
“You.”
Bradley looked ashamed.
Cameron’s expression hardened.
“I wondered who gave Calder the hospital location.”
Bradley lowered his eyes.
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“There is always a choice,” Avery said.
Calder applauded slowly.
“Look at you. The waitress finally found a spine.”
Avery’s old instinct surfaced.
Shrink.
Disappear.
Become smaller.
Then she remembered Bradley’s five-dollar bill.
The high-school laughter.
Every person who had decided softness meant weakness.
She stepped forward.
“I always had one.”
Calder’s smile vanished.
“Give me the original drive.”
Cameron lifted it.
“Release them.”
Calder pointed toward Anthony.
“He spent fourteen years destroying my life.”
Anthony laughed.
“You did that yourself.”
Calder struck him.
Avery flinched.
Cameron did not.
“Victor.”
Something in Cameron’s voice silenced everyone.
“You lost.”
Calder smiled.
“I have your family.”
“No. You have hostages.”
“And what is family if not the people whose suffering can control you?”
Cameron’s eyes became cold.
“That is why you never understood it.”
Avery looked at him.
Calder did too.
Then Cameron dropped the flash drive onto the floor.
And crushed it beneath his shoe.
Calder screamed.
He raised his gun.
Bradley moved first.
He grabbed Calder’s arm.
The shot went into the ceiling.
Chaos erupted.
Federal tactical teams breached the terminal.
Anthony knocked his chair sideways.
Maria kicked one of Calder’s men in the knee.
Avery ran toward her.
Cameron tackled Calder.
For several brutal seconds they fought across the wet concrete.
Calder grabbed a fallen weapon.
Avery saw it.
“Cameron!”
He turned.
Calder fired.
Bradley stepped between them.
The bullet struck Bradley’s vest and threw him backward.
Cameron disarmed Calder.
This time, when Calder fell, federal agents surrounded him.
Weapons trained.
No escape.
Calder looked at Cameron.
“Do it.”
Cameron stood over him.
“Kill me.”
For years, perhaps Cameron would have.
Avery could see that truth.
Calder smiled.
“You know you want to.”
Cameron looked toward Anthony.
Then Maria.
Then Avery.
He stepped backward.
“No.”
Calder’s smile faltered.
“You don’t get to decide what I become.”
Agents handcuffed Victor Calder.
Just like that, the monster who had haunted two families for fourteen years became an old man kneeling on wet concrete.
Avery ran to her parents.
Maria sobbed into her shoulder.
Anthony held both of them.
Cameron stood several feet away.
Always outside the circle.
Avery noticed.
She extended one hand.
“Cameron.”
He looked at it.
Then at Anthony.
Anthony rolled his eyes.
“For God’s sake, son. She’s inviting you.”
Cameron took Avery’s hand.
She pulled him into the embrace.
For a moment, none of them spoke.
Then Bradley groaned from the floor.
“Could somebody check whether I’m dying?”
Avery looked over.
A medic opened Bradley’s shirt.
The vest had stopped the bullet.
“You’re not dying.”
Bradley exhaled.
“Fantastic.”
Avery approached him.
“You saved Cameron.”
Bradley grimaced.
“I figured I owed you more than five dollars.”
She stared at him.
Then laughed.
“Still not forgiven.”
“Fair.”
Police lights painted the rain red and blue.
Calder was placed inside a federal vehicle.
Julian’s cooperation would expose the remaining network.
The evidence had already been duplicated and delivered to prosecutors.
The drive Cameron destroyed had been empty.
Calder had lost before the meeting began.
Avery looked at Cameron.
“You planned all that?”
“Most of it.”
“The dramatic drive crushing?”
“I improvised.”
“That was extremely theatrical.”
“I was making a point.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
His hand found hers.
“You kissed me.”
“One mistake.”
“Twice would establish a pattern.”
So she kissed him again.
Behind them Anthony groaned.
“I survived fourteen years underground for this?”
Maria elbowed him.
“Leave them alone.”
Cameron smiled against Avery’s lips.
And Avery realized she had never seen him truly smile before.
Not the restrained twitch she had occasionally earned at Rosa’s.
A real smile.
It transformed him.
Then Cameron pulled back.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
Her happiness faltered.
“What?”
His expression had changed.
“Your father wasn’t the only reason I started going to Rosa’s.”
Avery frowned.
“You said he was.”
“He was the reason I knew who you were.”
“And the other reason?”
Cameron looked toward Anthony.
Anthony suddenly became suspiciously interested in the ambulance.
Avery narrowed her eyes.
“Dad?”
Anthony muttered, “This part is probably better coming from him.”
Avery looked back at Cameron.
“What did you two do?”
Cameron sighed.
“Five years ago, someone saved my life a second time.”
Avery stared at him.
“What does that have to do with me?”
He reached into his coat.
And removed an old folded note.
May you like
Avery recognized the handwriting immediately.
Her own.
