Chapter 8 - The Bullet Meant for Mave
Brutus moved first.
His body slammed into Mave.
She fell.
The bullet missed her face by inches and struck the concrete wall.
Declan fired.
Margaret's gun flew from her hand.
Finn rushed forward and restrained her.
For one terrible second, nobody moved.
Margaret stared at her son.
"You shot at me."
Declan's pistol remained raised.
"You shot at her."
Something passed between mother and son.
Something final.
Margaret looked at Mave.
Then understood.
"Oh."
Declan said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Caleb slowly lowered his hands.
"Touching."
Mave grabbed the ledger.
"Why should anyone trust you?"
"You shouldn't."
Apparently dangerous men shared a vocabulary.
Caleb looked at Elias.
"I tried to burn Cerberus nine years ago."
Elias nodded.
"I know."
Mave stared at her father.
"You knew?"
"I discovered the truth later."
Caleb had betrayed Patrick initially.
That much was true.
But after seeing how Margaret expanded the network, he tried to dismantle what he had helped create.
Margaret framed him.
Officially killed him.
Then hunted him underground.
The three loud-suited men at the Copper Anchor had been Caleb's people.
They were there to contact Declan.
Not attack him.
"Who drugged Brutus?" Mave asked.
Margaret remained silent.
Declan looked at her.
"Mother."
She smiled faintly.
"I needed the sequence activated."
"You nearly killed Toby."
"I calculated the dose."
Mave crossed the room before anyone could stop her.
Her palm cracked across Margaret's face.
Silence.
Margaret touched her cheek.
Mave's voice shook.
"That was for Toby."
Margaret almost looked impressed.
Then the kennel doors exploded inward.
A second armed group entered.
Not Margaret's men.
Not Caleb's.
Finn cursed.
"Police!"
But they weren't there to rescue anyone.
The first officer aimed directly at Caleb.
The ledger had contained police names.
Somebody had warned them.
Declan grabbed Mave.
"Run."
They fled through the underground tunnel.
Elias and Evelyn followed.
Brutus stayed beside Mave.
Gunfire echoed behind them.
Caleb separated at a junction.
"Where are you going?"
"To make sure they follow me."
"You'll die."
He smiled.
"I already did once."
Then he disappeared.
The tunnel emerged beside a river.
Declan's backup vehicle waited.
Finn arrived minutes later with Margaret in custody.
"Caleb?"
Mave asked.
Finn shook his head.
No one knew.
They drove until sunrise.
At a safe house, Mave finally opened the ledger.
Page after page documented corruption.
But the final section contained something unexpected.
Legal trusts.
Victim compensation accounts.
Evidence packages.
Patrick Gallagher had built a contingency plan.
If the network collapsed, money seized through Cerberus would be returned to families harmed by it.
Declan stared at his father's signature.
"He knew."
Elias nodded.
"He knew he might die."
Mave turned another page.
A familiar name appeared.
EVELYN HART.
Beside it was a medical trust.
Fully funded.
Mave looked at her mother.
Evelyn began crying.
"Patrick arranged it before he died."
Mave's medical-debt nightmare had never been necessary.
The money existed.
Margaret had blocked access to force Elias out of hiding.
Mave looked toward Margaret.
"You used my mother's cancer."
Margaret did not answer.
Declan did.
"She's done."
His mother looked at him.
"You can't destroy this family for a waitress."
Declan's expression became almost peaceful.
"No."
He looked at Mave.
"I'm destroying what this family became because you taught me there was a difference."
Mave's chest tightened.
Margaret laughed bitterly.
"Love."
Declan's eyes sharpened.
"I didn't say that."
"No. You wouldn't."
Mave suddenly found the floor fascinating.
Brutus sneezed.
Finn smiled.
Even Elias looked amused.
"Can everyone stop?" Mave muttered.
Then Declan's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
"What?"
Silence.
Then:
"How many?"
He ended the call.
"The police commissioner is moving."
Elias frowned.
"Against us?"
"Against everyone. He's ordering raids on every Gallagher property. He's claiming the ledger is fabricated."
"Then release it."
Declan looked at Mave.
The decision was hers.
She stared at twenty years of secrets.
Publishing everything would expose criminals.
It would also expose witnesses.
Families.
People who had been coerced.
"We don't dump it."
Caleb's voice came from the doorway.
Everyone spun.
He was bleeding from the side but alive.
Mave stared.
"How do you keep doing that?"
"Healthy diet."
He limped inside.
"We authenticate it. We separate victims from perpetrators. Then we send the criminal evidence to federal investigators, journalists, and attorneys simultaneously."
Declan nodded.
"No single person can bury it."
Margaret finally looked afraid.
Mave saw it.
And smiled.
For the first time, the woman who had manipulated an entire city understood that the waitress she considered disposable was holding the one thing Margaret could not intimidate.
A choice.
May you like
Mave closed the ledger.
"Then let's finish it."
