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Rainy ran her arm across the reception counter and growled while an empty vase was tossed against the wall where it shattered.
“Because he’d only drag out the rest of the riffraff while he was at it. Taking out the primary threat wasn’t the end of it. There were more. Many more. And they all would have taken their swing. It could be years of living under heavy security and locked up in that building. What kind of life would that be for any of you? Killion saw an opportunity and ran with it. He sacrificed himself to protect everyone he loved. Especially you and my grandchildren.”
Rainy began to sob. “So he set up that trap, then walked right into one himself –– sacrificing his own life –– leaving his family, his children… me? Where’s the logic in that, Dad? Make it make sense. For the love of God, make this pain make sense. He didn’t have to die, Daddy. He didn’t have to leave us…”
Cormack caught her in his arms as she began to collapse, overtaken by emotion, finally feeling the grief she’d pushed off for weeks. It had all suddenly become real, and it was too much to bear. There were footsteps behind her emerging from the shadows, but she didn’t care who they belonged to, she was too broken to give a damn.
Then a voice came from behind her. “It wouldn’t have worked unless I died…”
28
“I’m manufacturing the entire deal,” Killion said, releasing her from a long embrace. “It’s going down shortly. The team will get the big hit they need and go after him. They’ll get the closure they need, and the last monster will go down for good. With the evidence Cormack and I have planted and carefully laid out… this guy will never see the light of day again because all the corrupt assholes who helped him get this far will go with him. We took away all the power.”
“Then what?” she asked. “Are you going to stay dead forever? Hide here indefinitely?”
“As long as I need to,” he confirmed.
“What?” She backed away, and Cormack took a seat on the nearby lobby sofa. “You’re going to just… let your children grow up without you?”
“For now, if it means forever down the road,” Killion admitted.
“Do you know what it’s like growing up without a father? What you’re robbing them of?” Cormack cleared his throat as if to remind Rainy he was sitting there, but she didn’t care. “And what about your family?”
Killion shook his head like she’d hit another sore spot. “Another sacrifice. I’m hurting everyone I care about and putting their lives at risk just as much by being alive. I had to die for the rest of the world to see.”
“Okay, then. Let’s go with that… poorly thought-out plan. Why not keep us in the loop –– fool the rest of the world –– or at least… me. Keep me in the loop.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and stroked the length of her arms, pleading with her. “It needed to look real, Rainy. All of it. The funeral. The emotional stuff. They were watching, and they needed to see real. They aren’t amateurs we’ve been after. They’d have known it was a fake.”
“Oh, it was real alright. You should have heard the things people said about you. Grown men painfully cried for you. Your brothers aren’t okay, Killion. Everyone is grieving you and in so much pain. Where the hell would you get an idea like that and think it was a good one?”
“You,” Killion deadpanned. “When you left… before.”
Her eyes went wide. “This was revenge? Because this is about to be an entirely new argument if that’s where you’re going with this.”
“No!” he shouted over her. “Never. I would never do that to you.”
“Yet… you did.”
“Let me explain, Rainy,” Killion pleaded. “That pain, when you left, was… unbearable. I didn’t think feeling like that was possible. To the point I was grieving you. I needed to leave in a permanent way, provoke that kind of pain because I needed this guy watching our every move to see it all unfold.”
“I came here because I thought my father had something to do with this,” she said, pacing again.
“He did,” Killion shared. “Cormack was assumed dead for decades. So was my cousin Brody.”
“Brody’s in on this?”
“No. Just Cormack. I knew he would know how to pull it off in a believable way. So I went to him for help. Use Safe Haven. Whatever we needed to do.”
“You used Safe Haven resources?” She looked back and forth between the two men and began to nod. “Ah. I see. The little market. The getaway. The explosion… the dead bodies and DNA.”
“I called in some favors. John Does from a morgue were planted in the market. DNA was added after the bodies were recovered from the scene. It was easier than you think,” Cormack shared. “Killion owns the building. It’s buried in some shell corps with the old man who ran its name on it. He’s now retired to a beach in the tropics somewhere.”
“That easy, huh.” She shook her head. “What now? If you think I’m going to go back and act like I don’t know you’re alive and watch everyone we love grieve you… I won’t. I love you, but I can’t.”
“Right now, we watch it all unfold on the surveillance screens. Watch the arrest,” Killion said, pointing at a large TV screen on the wall as Cormack turned it on. “The show’s about to begin. We’ll figure out the rest later.”
Rainy let out a deep sigh. “Fine. But this isn’t done. This isn’t how it ends.”
