Chapter 17 - The Blue Ledger
Everything happened at once.
Nico lunged for Stella.
Marin threw the recorder across the warehouse.
Hale reached inside his coat.
Stella moved before fear could stop her.
She grabbed the blue ledger off the table and ran.
"Stella!" Dean roared.
A shot cracked into the ceiling.
Federal agents poured through two side entrances.
"Federal agents! Hands where we can see them!"
Nico slammed into a stack of empty crates and disappeared behind them.
Hale dropped behind the metal table.
Dean chased Stella through a narrow aisle of shipping pallets.
Her ribs screamed with every step.
She heard him behind her.
Closer.
"You stupid little liar!"
Stella reached the warehouse office and yanked the door.
Locked.
Dean caught her by the back of her coat.
She spun and drove the ledger into his face.
He staggered.
For one second, she was free.
Then his hand closed around her wrist.
Old terror flooded her body.
Same grip.
Same pressure.
Same man.
But not the same Stella.
"Let go of me."
Dean laughed breathlessly. "You think you changed because Pierce gave you a room and a bodyguard?"
"No."
She twisted the way Mara had shown her in the clinic, pulled her wrist toward the gap in his thumb, and broke his grip.
"I changed because I finally heard myself say no."
Dean raised his hand.
Jonah appeared at the end of the aisle.
"Don't."
Dean froze.
Jonah walked toward them slowly.
No gun in his hands.
No raised voice.
That scared Dean more.
"Pierce," Dean said. "We can talk."
"You've had three years to talk to Stella. Four years to talk about Gabriel."
Dean backed away.
"Hale killed your brother. Not me."
"You helped cover it up."
"I was scared."
Stella laughed once. "Funny how fear only counts when it's yours."
Dean's eyes snapped toward her.
Hatred replaced panic.
He reached for something at his ankle.
Jonah moved.
He struck Dean's wrist against the pallet hard enough to send a small pistol skidding across the floor.
Then Jonah pinned him against the crates.
Dean choked out, "Do it. Everybody knows what you are. Do it."
Jonah's face went blank.
Stella saw the invitation hidden inside Dean's words.
If Jonah killed him, Dean would control the ending.
She stepped closer.
"Jonah."
He did not look at her.
"Jonah, don't give him the only ending he understands."
Slowly, Jonah released Dean.
Dean slid to the floor.
Two federal agents rushed in and cuffed him.
Across the warehouse, Hale was dragged from behind the table.
Nico was found trying to climb through a rear loading window.
Stella still held the blue ledger against her chest.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Park approached carefully.
"Ms. Hayes, I need that book."
Stella looked down at it.
Three years of her stolen life.
Four years of Gabriel's lost one.
Dozens of names.
Hundreds of crimes.
She handed it over.
Dean began laughing from the floor.
"You think that's the end?"
Everyone turned.
He looked at Jonah.
"Ask him what Gabriel wrote on the last page."
Jonah's expression changed.
Park opened the ledger.
May you like
The final page contained one handwritten sentence.
JONAH KNOWS MORE THAN HE SAYS.
