Chapter 14 - Rourke
Tove did not fire the second shot.
Mason Rourke did.
He stepped from the rear stairwell with his stolen service weapon aimed at Bryce.
Bryce went still.
Blood spread across the floor beside his hand where the bullet had struck.
Rourke looked at Cullen.
"Give me the girl."
Cullen pushed Mireya behind him.
"Come take her."
Rourke smiled without warmth.
"Marisol said the same kind of thing. Always brave when it was somebody else's life on the line."
Tove crawled backward.
"Mason, this wasn't the plan."
"There is no plan anymore. There's cleanup."
Tove's face changed.
For the first time, she looked afraid.
Cullen understood.
Rourke intended to kill all of them.
"You ran Marisol off the road," Cullen said.
Rourke's gaze flicked toward him.
"She wouldn't stop."
"You murdered her."
"I protected people who mattered."
Cullen noticed a tiny red light beneath Mireya's collar.
Her smartwatch.
Recording.
Mireya had activated the emergency function.
Smart girl.
Cullen kept Rourke talking.
"Two million dollars mattered that much?"
"It wasn't two million. It was access. Contracts. Political donations. People like Marisol never understand how power actually works."
Tove whispered, "Stop talking."
Rourke turned the weapon toward her.
"You first."
Tove froze.
That second was enough.
Vale's voice thundered from outside.
"Police! Drop the weapon!"
Rourke grabbed Mireya's coat.
Cullen hit his arm.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Vale and two officers crashed through the front door.
Rourke tried to raise the weapon again.
Three officers shouted at once.
He dropped it.
Cullen pulled Mireya to the floor and covered her body with his.
Tove began sobbing.
"He made me do it."
Bryce laughed weakly from the floor.
"You told him where Marisol was."
Tove looked at him.
Too late.
Mireya's watch was still recording.
May you like
And Tove had just answered.
"Because she was going to destroy everything."
