Chapter 11 - The Night June Disappeared
Rafe read Malcolm’s message once.
Then deleted it.
That surprised me.
“You don’t want to keep it?”
“No.”
“It could mean something.”
“It means exactly what it says.”
“You don’t know that.”
Rafe kept moving through the tunnel.
“Malcolm disappeared during an attack and sent an apology.”
“Maybe he was forced.”
“Maybe.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“No.”
His voice was flat.
Too flat.
I realized Malcolm’s disappearance hurt more than Damian’s betrayal.
Damian had belonged to his father’s generation.
Malcolm was Rafe’s choice.
His man.
His friend.
His brother in everything except blood.
Amelia led us through the tunnel to an old boathouse three blocks away.
Only four security men remained with us.
Rafe trusted none of them completely now.
That was the real damage betrayal did.
It didn’t only remove one person.
It poisoned everyone left behind.
A driver took us to a safe house in Brookline.
Rafe had the Harbor Seven evidence divided and copied.
Some went to attorneys.
Some to Amelia’s contacts.
Some to a federal prosecutor she trusted.
“You’re turning it over?” I asked.
“Insurance.”
“You realize some of it implicates your father.”
“Yes.”
“And potentially your companies.”
“Yes.”
“You could lose everything.”
Rafe looked at me.
“I can replace money.”
I knew what he meant.
He couldn’t replace June.
Hours passed.
No word from Damian.
No word from Malcolm.
At four in the afternoon, June called my phone.
Not Rafe’s.
Mine.
I answered immediately.
“June?”
“Mara.”
Her voice trembled.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know. I think near water.”
“Can you see anything?”
“Warehouse windows. Old cranes.”
Rafe moved beside me.
I put the call on speaker.
June continued.
“Damian keeps arguing with someone.”
“Harlan?” Amelia asked.
June went quiet.
“Aunt Amelia?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my God.”
“June, listen to me. Do they know you have a phone?”
“No. One of the guards gave it to me.”
Rafe frowned.
“Which guard?”
“I don’t know him.”
“Why help you?”
“He said Malcolm sent him.”
Rafe’s face changed.
I pointed.
“See?”
He ignored me.
June whispered, “Rafe, Damian’s scared.”
“Of what?”
“Harlan.”
“Is Harlan there?”
“No. Damian keeps saying Harlan changed the deal.”
“What deal?”
“I think Damian planned to trade the ledger to Harlan and leave.”
Rafe’s jaw tightened.
“With you?”
“Yes.”
“Why take you?”
“Leverage.”
“Of course.”
June sniffed.
Then lowered her voice.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Damian says Dad didn’t die because he left Meridian.”
Rafe went still.
“Then why?”
“Because he found out who Harlan really worked for.”
Amelia looked confused.
“What?”
June continued.
“I heard a name.”
“Whose?”
“Senator Cole.”
Amelia closed her eyes.
“Richard Cole.”
Rafe looked at her.
“Who?”
“Former defense committee chairman. Meridian’s political protection.”
The conspiracy became larger.
And uglier.
June whispered, “Someone’s coming.”
“June—”
“If I don’t call again, Pier Nine. Midnight.”
“June.”
“I love you.”
The line went dead.
Rafe stared at the phone.
He immediately began moving.
“We go now.”
Amelia blocked him.
“No.”
His eyes flashed.
“Move.”
“Damian expects you at midnight.”
“My sister is there now.”
“And Harlan expects you angry.”
“I am angry.”
“That is exactly why you wait.”
He looked ready to push past her.
I stepped between them.
“Mara.”
“No.”
“Not now.”
“Especially now.”
His face hardened.
“June is somewhere alone.”
“And running blindly into an unknown warehouse gets her killed.”
“I can’t sit here.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No.”
“Then pace.”
He stared.
“This is not funny.”
“I’m not joking.”
I pointed toward the chair.
“Sit.”
Something about that word stopped him.
Maybe because it returned us to the first night.
Hotel lights.
Blood.
His sister injured.
Me refusing to fear him.
He sat.
Not because he was weak.
Because sometimes strength meant letting somebody else hold the room for a minute.
I knelt in front of him.
“We find out where Pier Nine is first.”
“I know where it is.”
“Then we learn entrances.”
He nodded.
“Security.”
“Yes.”
“Cameras.”
“Yes.”
“Tides.”
I blinked.
“Tides?”
“There’s a lower dock.”
“Good. Tides.”
He breathed slowly.
Then looked at me.
“Why aren’t you afraid?”
“I am.”
That surprised him.
“Of me?”
“Sometimes.”
His eyes changed.
“Then why stay?”
“Because fear doesn’t get to make all my decisions.”
Something in his face softened.
His hand lifted.
Stopped halfway.
He was asking without asking.
I closed the distance.
His fingers touched my cheek.
Gentle.
Almost absurdly gentle for someone everyone thought was made of violence.
“Mara.”
“What?”
“If this goes wrong—”
“No.”
“Listen.”
“No.”
“You’re allowed to interrupt me constantly, apparently I’m allowed one turn.”
Despite everything, I smiled.
He continued.
“If this goes wrong, you leave with Amelia.”
“I’m not promising that.”
“Of course you aren’t.”
For one suspended second, neither of us moved.
Then he leaned closer.
Not enough to kiss me.
Close enough that I knew he wanted to.
I wanted to too.
But June was missing.
Malcolm might be a traitor.
Damian was waiting.
And Harlan was hunting all of us.
So I pulled back.
“After.”
Rafe looked at me.
“After?”
“After we get June.”
His mouth curved slightly.
“That sounded like a promise.”
“It wasn’t.”
“Shame.”
At seven, we received another message.
This time from Malcolm.
One photograph.
June sitting alone.
Alive.
Behind her was a window showing a bridge.
Malcolm included three words.
NOT PIER NINE.
Rafe stood.
“He’s helping.”
I looked at the image.
The bridge behind June wasn’t near Pier Nine.
Amelia recognized it.
“Chelsea.”
Rafe turned.
“Old Meridian freight terminal.”
Damian was sending Rafe to the wrong location.
Harlan was probably waiting there.
June was somewhere else entirely.
Rafe looked at Malcolm’s message again.
For the first time all day, hope entered his face.
Then another text arrived.
COME BEFORE 10.
AFTER THAT I CAN’T PROTECT HER.
Rafe looked at me.
I grabbed my medical bag.
He almost argued.
Instead he nodded.
May you like
We were going to bring June home.
And if Malcolm had truly betrayed Rafe, we were about to learn why.
