Chapter 18 - THE MAN BEHIND THE BADGE|
Reed took off his coat and draped it over a chair.
“You've been asking questions for weeks,” he said. “I thought it was time we stopped pretending you didn't know the answers.”
Emma kept the counter between them.
“My mother died of cancer.”
“Yes. But the circumstances around her final days were not as simple as you believe.”
“Did you help Vincent?”
Reed's smile disappeared.
“I helped maintain order.”
“You helped murder my father.”
“I didn't kill Daniel Hayes.”
“You gave Arthur his route.”
“I gave him information. I had no idea he intended to kill him.”
“That's what everyone says.”
Reed's eyes hardened.
“You think the world is divided into good people and bad people. Your mother thought that, too. She believed a recording could fix everything.”
“Maybe it can.”
He moved toward her.
“Give me the tape.”
“No.”
“Emma, don't be foolish.”
“I'm not the one who came to a diner alone to threaten a waitress.”
His hand slipped beneath his jacket.
Emma reached for the coffee pot on the counter.
Reed stopped.
“Don't.”
She lifted it anyway.
For one second, they stared at each other, separated by the same few feet that had stood between Emma and the knife in Dominic's booth.
Then the back door burst open.
Dominic entered with Victor and two plainclothes officers. Detective Reed turned, but it was too late.
“Put your hands where I can see them,” one officer ordered.
Reed's face twisted.
“You have no jurisdiction here.”
“We have a warrant for your arrest,” the officer replied. “And a recording of you discussing evidence tampering and conspiracy.”
Reed looked at Emma.
“You think this ends with me?”
“No,” she said. “I think it starts with you.”
The officers restrained him.
As they led him away, Reed leaned toward Dominic.
“You should have stayed out of your father's business.”
Dominic's expression was cold.
“I tried. That's how we got here.”
After Reed was gone, Emma set the coffee pot down. Her hands were shaking.
Dominic approached her slowly.
“You okay?”
“I threw coffee at a man with a knife, uncovered a family conspiracy, exposed a detective, and nearly got arrested for refusing to hand over a cassette.”
“That's a yes?”
“That's a very bad day.”
He laughed softly, then took her hands.
“I should never have let you get this close to my family.”
“You didn't let me do anything. I chose to come.”
“I know.”
“And I'm not going away just because the truth is ugly.”
Dominic looked at her as though he wanted to say something he had been holding back for years.
Instead, he asked, “What do you want now?”
Emma thought about the nursing school application buried in her apartment drawer. About her mother, who had spent her final months trying to protect her. About the man who had sat in booth twelve, waiting for trouble to find him.
“I want a life that doesn't belong to your enemies.”
“Then we'll build one.”
“Together?”
“If you'll have me.”
Emma studied his face.
“I don't know if I can trust you completely.”
“You shouldn't. Not yet.”
That honesty mattered more than a grand promise.
She stepped closer and kissed him.
It was brief, uncertain, and real.
When they separated, Dominic rested his forehead against hers.
“I love you,” he whispered.
Emma closed her eyes.
“Then prove it by helping me become the woman my mother wanted me to be.”
“I will.”
Outside, sirens passed through the rainy streets.
For the first time, Emma didn't feel as though they were coming for her.
But across the city, an envelope arrived at the office of the district attorney.
Inside was the original ledger.
May you like
And a note in a familiar hand.
YOU HAVE ARRESTED THE WRONG MAN.
