Chapter 14 - The Man Who Killed Michael
I stopped breathing.
Marco's arm shook.
The muzzle did not.
"Move left," he said.
"What?"
"Anna. Move left."
Voss laughed.
"Do it, Marco. Clean one last problem."
Dominic's eyes stayed on Marco.
"Don't."
Marco swallowed.
Blood seeped through his bandage.
"I said move left."
I did.
One step.
Marco fired.
The bullet passed my shoulder.
Voss jerked sideways.
His gun flew from Lily's back.
Dominic moved.
He hit Voss at the waist and drove him into a steel support.
I ran to Lily.
"Mommy!"
I ripped at the tape.
Behind me, fists hit metal.
Voss grunted.
Dominic cursed.
A gun skittered across concrete.
Lily clung to my neck.
"Don't look."
She buried her face against me.
Marco slid down the side of a container.
His pistol dropped.
I got Lily behind a forklift and went back.
"Stay with me."
He laughed weakly.
"Everybody keeps saying that."
"Then listen."
His eyes found mine.
"Michael."
My throat closed.
"Tell me."
"He confronted us. Me and Voss. I told Voss we'd scare him. Break his car. Leave a message."
"You knew Voss drove the car."
Marco's eyes filled.
"After."
"And you covered it."
"Yes."
My hand pulled away from his wound.
He grabbed it back.
"Press."
I hated him.
I pressed anyway.
"He killed Michael?"
"Voss drove. Hit him. Backed up. Hit him again."
Air left my lungs.
For one second I was back at the hospital, staring at a sheet over Michael's face.
Marco coughed.
"I moved the camera logs. Eleven minutes. Same method."
M-11.
The ghost account.
The cake.
The rabbit.
The panic room.
Michael.
All the same hole in the system.
Dominic shouted.
I looked up.
Voss had a knife.
Dominic caught his wrist with both hands.
They slammed into a pallet.
Marco reached for his gun.
He could not lift it.
I grabbed it.
My hands shook.
I pointed at Voss.
"Drop it!"
He looked at me.
For the first time, the man who had spent two years pretending to care for Ethan looked exactly like what he was.
He smiled.
"Anna."
"Drop it."
Dominic twisted.
The knife fell.
He punched Voss once.
Twice.
Then drove him face-first onto the concrete and kicked the knife away.
Sirens grew louder outside.
Voss laughed through blood.
I kept Marco's gun on him.
"What's funny?"
He looked at Lily behind the forklift.
Then at Dominic.
"You still think I chose that cake because of Ethan?"
Dominic froze.
Voss's bloody smile widened.
"Ask Anna who Lily's father was really working for."
My finger tightened around the trigger.
"Michael was tracing you."
"Eventually."
"What does that mean?"
Voss turned his face toward me.
"It means your husband entered Dominic Moretti's life long before Dominic hired him."
Dominic's hand stopped on Voss's shoulder.
I looked at Dominic.
He wasn't confused.
May you like
He knew.
