Chapter 12 - JUNE REFUSED TO BE A VICTIM
“June!”
The screen stayed black.
Victor used the distraction.
He hit me.
I fell into the desk.
Tomas dragged Raymond toward the hall.
I tackled Victor.
We crashed into a table.
Glass shattered.
He punched my ribs.
I drove him into the wall.
We weren’t trained fighters.
We were two middle-aged men fueled by hate and adrenaline.
It was ugly.
He grabbed a broken piece of wood.
I caught his wrist.
He slammed his forehead into mine.
Stars burst across my vision.
“Daniel!” Raymond shouted.
Tomas was dragging him toward the elevator.
Then a voice echoed from the stairwell.
“Drop it!”
June.
She stood at the door with a security officer beside her.
Victor froze.
I stared.
“You were on the screen.”
“Recorded video.”
Aaron appeared behind her.
“Her idea.”
June shrugged.
“I watch TV.”
Tomas fired.
The security officer shoved June down.
Raymond hit Tomas in the arm.
The gun went off into the ceiling.
I lunged.
Tomas ran.
June went after Raymond.
Victor grabbed my dropped weapon.
He pointed it at me.
Everybody stopped.
“Back up.”
I did.
June stared at the gun.
Victor’s hand shook.
Not much.
Enough.
“You’re done,” I said.
“No.”
“You are.”
“You think because you found some files, you win?”
“No.”
“You think the FBI cares about housekeepers?”
June’s jaw tightened.
Victor laughed.
“They care about headlines. They care about power. Tomorrow, I’ll be a cooperative witness. Daniel will be a criminal kingpin. Raymond will be a confused old man. You?”
He pointed the gun toward June.
“You’ll be nobody.”
Something changed in her face.
Not fear.
Fury.
“I spent my whole life being nobody to people like you.”
Victor smirked.
“My teachers didn’t remember my name. Landlords wouldn’t return my calls. Bosses cut my hours because they knew I needed the job too badly to complain.”
Her voice shook.
“But my kids know my name.”
Victor’s smile weakened.
“My mother knows my name.”
She stepped forward.
“People I cleaned up after every day might not have seen me, but I saw them.”
“June,” I said carefully.
She ignored me.
“I heard them. I watched them. I know where they put things. I know what doors they leave unlocked. I know what they say when they think the help isn’t listening.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying people like you make one big mistake.”
She took another step.
“You think invisible means stupid.”
Victor raised the gun.
“Stop.”
June stopped.
Then smiled.
“No.”
A phone rang.
Victor’s.
He glanced down.
That was all the security officer needed.
He slammed Victor from the side.
The gun fired.
The bullet shattered a window.
I tackled Victor.
The weapon slid across the floor.
June kicked it away.
Victor screamed and fought.
Then three federal agents entered.
Weapons raised.
“Hands!”
Everyone froze.
Aaron exhaled.
“I may have made some calls.”
Victor looked at him.
“You?”
Aaron smiled.
“Accountants are boring until they aren’t.”
Agents cuffed Victor.
He stared at me as they pulled him up.
“You think this ends with me?”
“No.”
“It doesn’t.”
“I know.”
He leaned close.
“They’re going to come for you too.”
“I know.”
That confused him.
For years, my greatest weapon had been that I had too much to lose.
Now I finally understood something Evelyn had probably known.
A man who is willing to lose everything is difficult to control.
Victor was led away.
Raymond sat against the wall.
June leaned against the desk, shaking.
I approached her.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Me neither.”
She laughed weakly.
Then her phone rang.
Hospital.
She answered.
Her face softened.
“Mom?”
I watched tears fill her eyes.
“She’s awake?”
A pause.
Then June covered her mouth.
“What?”
She started crying.
I prepared for the worst.
Then she looked at me.
“She’s okay.”
I closed my eyes.
For one second, the room became quiet.
Then an FBI agent walked over.
“Daniel Blackwell?”
“Yes.”
“We need you to come with us.”
June stepped forward.
“He helped us.”
The agent looked at her.
“I’m aware.”
“Then why are you taking him?”
I held out my hands.
“Because Victor was right about one thing.”
The agent cuffed me.
May you like
June stared.
I said, “This doesn’t end with him.”
