Chapter 12 - What Fear Looks Like
"Julian!"
Maya crawled to him as Derek and two security men pushed into the room.
Gunshots thundered down the back stairs.
Vale escaped with Elena.
Sophie remained under the table, screaming.
Maya pressed both hands against Julian's side.
Blood pushed between her fingers.
"Stay with me."
He looked up at her, strangely calm.
"You came alone."
"You got shot and that's your opening line?"
"Bad decision."
"Which one? Mine or yours?"
"Both."
Derek dropped beside them. "Through-and-through. Ambulance is coming."
Julian grabbed his sleeve. "Get Sophie out. Find Elena."
"You're bleeding."
"I noticed."
Maya leaned closer. "Stop talking."
He looked at her bloody hands.
"You're shaking."
"So are you."
He was.
That scared her.
At the hospital, doctors took him into surgery.
Maya sat with dried blood on her clothes while Sophie slept against Nico's chest in the waiting room.
Nico cried without making a sound.
When he finally looked at Maya, he said, "He got her back."
"Julian did."
"No. You did. If you hadn't gone in, Vale would have moved her again. Derek tracked the burner he took from you."
Maya laughed bitterly. "So my stupid decision worked. Great lesson."
Nico looked at his daughter. "Vale told me if I warned Julian, he'd mail me one of Sophie's fingers."
Maya closed her eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said. "About your mother. About the binder. Everything."
"Help us fix it."
"How?"
"Tell me who Vale trusts."
Nico thought.
"Nobody. But he stores old records at a private archive company in Cicero."
"Name?"
"Prairie Box Storage."
Derek appeared from the hallway. "Julian's out. He's stable."
Maya nearly collapsed from relief.
An hour later she stood beside Julian's hospital bed.
He looked pale and furious to be horizontal.
"You look terrible," she said.
"You always know what to say."
"You were right."
"About?"
"Going alone. It was stupid."
"Write that down."
She almost smiled.
Then he said, "I'm sorry about Rafael."
Maya's face closed.
"Don't ask me to forgive you because you got shot."
"I'm not."
"Good."
"I don't deserve easy forgiveness."
She looked at him for a long time.
"No. You don't."
Derek entered holding a clear evidence bag.
Inside was the cassette Maya had left at the church.
"We listened past the part where you stopped it," he said.
Maya frowned. "There was more?"
Derek nodded.
He placed a small recorder on the table and pressed play.
Rafael's voice returned.
"If Julian ever hears this, tell him I know he warned me too late, but he did warn me. He made a mistake. I hope one day he becomes better than the family that raised him."
Maya turned toward Julian.
He stared at the ceiling.
A tear moved into his hair.
Then Rafael's voice continued.
"The person with the original files is Elena."
May you like
Maya stopped breathing.
"She has had them all along."
