Chapter 10 - The Table Where Everything Began
Dean sat beneath the same amber lamp.
The restaurant had not opened yet.
Chairs remained upside down on half the tables.
Morning sunlight cut through the tall windows.
Dean looked terrible.
Unshaven.
Blood dried beside his temple.
His expensive coat was missing.
In one hand he held a glass of water.
The other rested beneath the table.
Jonah entered first.
Lucas hated that.
Mara hated it more.
“Stay behind cover,” she had ordered.
Jonah answered, “Dean came for me.”
Mara replied, “Criminal procedure does not care about your ego.”
“This isn't ego.”
“What is it?”
Jonah had looked through the glass doors.
“An ending.”
Now he stood twenty feet from Dean.
“You broke into my restaurant.”
Dean smiled.
“Add it to my bill.”
“Your bill is extensive.”
“Sit.”
“No.”
Dean laughed.
“You always were dramatic.”
“That's rich coming from the man hiding beneath a breakfast table.”
Dean's smile vanished.
His hand remained out of sight.
Jonah noticed.
“So what do you want?”
“Stella.”
“No.”
“I wasn't asking you to give her to me.”
“Then use better nouns.”
Dean leaned back.
“I want her to understand something.”
“She understands enough.”
“You think she knows you?”
Jonah said nothing.
Dean smiled.
“You think she sees the noble Jonah Pierce.”
“I don't care what she sees.”
“Liar.”
Dean looked around the restaurant.
“You've been waiting years for someone to prove you're not your father.”
Jonah's eyes hardened.
Dean had touched something personal.
Good.
That was why he'd done it.
“My father has nothing to do with Stella.”
“Everything has to do with everything.”
Dean removed his hand from beneath the table.
Empty.
Lucas relaxed fractionally.
Then Dean placed a phone down.
“Raymond kept files.”
Jonah stared.
“On your father.”
“What files?”
“Proof that Victor Pierce ordered two men killed in 2009.”
Silence.
Jonah's father had died in 2013.
Rumors existed.
No proof.
Dean pushed the phone forward.
“You give me one thing, you get the password.”
“What thing?”
“Forty-eight hours.”
Jonah almost laughed.
“To run?”
“To disappear.”
“No.”
Dean's eyes narrowed.
“You'd rather learn your father was a murderer?”
“Those aren't connected.”
“They are to me.”
Jonah stepped closer.
“You still don't understand.”
“What?”
“You don't have anything left to negotiate with.”
Dean's face tightened.
“I have things that can hurt you.”
“So publish them.”
That answer unsettled him.
“Send them to every newspaper.”
Jonah continued walking.
“Send them to Reed. Send them to Mara. Put them on billboards.”
“Stop.”
“If my father committed crimes, truth doesn't become less true because you use it as a threat.”
Dean's eyes flashed.
“Stop.”
“And if you're lying?”
Jonah stopped at the edge of the table.
“Then you're just a frightened man holding a phone.”
Dean stood violently.
Lucas stepped forward.
Jonah lifted one hand.
Wait.
Dean's face twisted.
“You think you're better than me.”
“No.”
“You said it at the restaurant.”
“I said I don't hurt women.”
“Stella isn't innocent.”
Jonah's expression changed.
Dean continued.
“She knew things.”
“She didn't.”
“She saw transfers.”
“You kept her frightened so she wouldn't ask questions.”
Dean laughed.
“She needed controlling before Northline.”
Jonah's jaw tightened.
“Careful.”
“There.”
Dean smiled.
“That anger.”
He stepped closer.
“You want to hit me.”
Jonah said nothing.
“Go ahead.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because that's what you understand.”
Dean's smile disappeared.
“You understand pain.”
Jonah's voice remained calm.
“So the worst thing I can do to you is let you live long enough to understand consequences.”
Mara entered.
“Dean Calloway.”
Dean turned.
She held her weapon lowered but ready.
“You're under arrest.”
He laughed.
“For what today?”
“Domestic assault. Kidnapping conspiracy. Financial fraud. Arson conspiracy. Obstruction.”
“That all?”
“We have room on the form.”
Dean slowly raised his hands.
Then his gaze shifted past Mara.
Stella stood near the entrance.
Jonah turned sharply.
He had told her to stay outside.
She had chosen otherwise.
Dean smiled.
“There she is.”
Stella's legs felt weak.
But she walked forward.
Mara whispered, “You don't need to do this.”
“I know.”
Dean studied her.
Without his apartment.
Without his money.
Without his expensive suits.
Without doors he controlled.
He looked smaller.
That realization stunned her.
“You did this,” he said.
Stella stopped ten feet away.
“No.”
His expression darkened.
“You betrayed me.”
“No.”
“You recorded me.”
“Accidentally.”
“You stole my files.”
“They were on my computer.”
“I gave you everything.”
Stella almost laughed.
“You gave me bruises.”
Dean's face changed.
The words hung in the restaurant.
No whispered excuse.
No euphemism.
No “we had problems.”
Bruises.
“You pushed me into walls.”
Dean stepped forward.
Mara lifted her weapon.
“Stay where you are.”
He stopped.
Stella continued.
“You broke my phone.”
“Stella—”
“You made me apologize for things you did.”
“Enough.”
“No.”
The word echoed.
Dean stared.
She had rarely said it to him.
Now she said it again.
“No.”
Her voice became stronger.
“You don't get to decide when I stop talking anymore.”
Something in Dean's face collapsed.
“You think Pierce saved you?”
Stella looked at Jonah.
Then back at Dean.
“No.”
Jonah heard the answer.
And strangely, he was glad.
“I saved myself the moment I finally said I didn't want to leave with you.”
Dean's jaw trembled.
“He gave you somewhere to hide.”
“He gave me choices.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“You wouldn't understand the difference.”
Mara stepped behind Dean.
“Turn around.”
He obeyed slowly.
Handcuffs clicked around his wrists.
Dean looked over his shoulder.
“This isn't over.”
For once Stella didn't flinch.
“For me it is.”
Mara led him away.
Outside, reporters had already begun gathering.
Dean disappeared into a police vehicle.
Stella stood inside L’Aurora, looking at the table.
The place where she'd fallen.
Jonah approached.
“You shouldn't have come inside.”
She raised an eyebrow.
His mouth twitched.
“Strongly believed you shouldn't have come inside.”
“Better.”
They stood quietly.
“Was it true?” Stella asked.
“What?”
“About your father.”
“I don't know.”
“Are you going to find out?”
“Yes.”
“What if you don't like the answer?”
Jonah looked toward the windows.
“Then I don't like the answer.”
She studied him.
That was one of the strangest things about Jonah.
For a man surrounded by secrets, he seemed less afraid of truth than most ordinary people.
Lucas approached holding Dean's phone.
“Mara's letting us see one thing.”
“What?”
“The file Dean mentioned.”
“Password?”
Lucas shook his head.
“Phone unlocked when they inventoried it.”
Jonah opened the folder.
One audio recording.
His father's voice.
Another man.
Victor Pierce said:
“Raymond, don't make me repeat myself. Nobody gets hurt. We do this clean.”
Raymond answered:
“Clean costs money.”
Jonah froze.
The recording ended.
Dean's threat had been a lie.
Or rather, another half-truth.
His father hadn't ordered a killing.
He'd been arguing with Raymond against violence.
Stella watched Jonah.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
But then Lucas scrolled further.
Another recording existed.
Dated three months after Jonah's father's death.
Raymond speaking to someone unidentified.
“Victor was weak. Jonah isn't. We'll have to teach the boy differently.”
Jonah stared.
The corruption hadn't started fifteen years ago.
It had started before his father died.
And Raymond's plan had always involved Jonah.
A man Jonah loved had spent years shaping him for reasons he never understood.
Stella touched Jonah's hand.
He looked down.
She didn't say anything.
Neither did he.
Sometimes comfort did not need language.
And although Dean Calloway was finally in custody, the largest truth remained ahead.
May you like
To become free of Raymond, Jonah would have to uncover what his own family had built—and decide whether he was willing to destroy it.
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