Chapter 6 - JUNE WAS NOT A STRANGER
June Callaway locked the kitchen before anyone reached it.
By the time Ronan came downstairs, Wesley and two cooks stood outside.
June had barricaded herself inside.
Ronan’s bodyguard reached toward his jacket.
Sadie caught his arm.
“No.”
He looked offended.
“She may be armed.”
“She may also be sixty-three.”
“Age doesn’t remove bullets.”
Fair.
Ronan ordered the kitchen cleared.
Then he spoke through the door.
“June.”
No answer.
“Open it.”
Silence.
Sadie stepped forward.
“June.”
Something moved inside.
Sadie tried again.
“My father’s name was Aaron Cole.”
A chair scraped.
Then June spoke.
“No.”
Sadie froze.
“What?”
“Your father was Michael Callaway.”
The world seemed to tilt.
Sadie had grown up believing Michael Callaway was her mother’s brother.
Uncle Mike.
Killed when Sadie was ten.
June continued through the door.
“Aaron Cole was your husband.”
Sadie’s pulse hammered.
“Yes.”
“And Poppy’s father.”
“Yes.”
June began crying.
Then:
“Michael was mine.”
Sadie stared at the wood.
“What?”
“My son.”
Her son.
That made June Sadie’s—
No.
Sadie’s mother had always said Michael was her brother.
Which meant—
June was Sadie’s grandmother.
The door opened.
June stood there pale.
No weapon.
Just tears.
Sadie did not move.
“You knew who I was.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because your mother made me promise.”
“My mother is dead.”
“I know.”
“So was the promise.”
June flinched.
Good.
Sadie was tired of dead people controlling living rooms.
June explained.
Michael Callaway served in a private security unit years before Sadie was born.
He became close to Sterling Cain.
Too close to Cain operations.
Sadie’s mother, Lena, hated it.
She left the family.
Changed Sadie’s records from Callaway to Cole after marrying Aaron.
Then Michael died during a Cain-related operation.
Lena blamed the Cains forever.
Years later Sadie married Aaron Cole, a military interpreter.
By coincidence—or maybe not—Aaron was recruited into Night Falcon.
“Who recruited him?”
June looked toward Ronan.
“Declan.”
Sadie’s anger rose.
Declan had never told her.
Then June said:
“He recruited Aaron because Aaron knew the same tribal dialect used by the contractors they were investigating.”
Night Falcon was not an assassination mission.
It was an internal evidence recovery.
Declan.
Aaron.
Four others.
They discovered Cain-linked private contractors moving weapons through humanitarian shipments.
Then someone gave away the team’s location.
Only one official survivor was reported.
None.
All six declared dead.
But June knew better.
“How?”
“Edwin told me.”
Marsh.
“He said Declan survived.”
“What about Aaron?”
June closed her eyes.
“He didn’t know.”
Sadie’s knees weakened.
Then why did Evelyn name June in connection with Aaron?
June answered.
“Because four years ago I received a bank transfer.”
Amount:
$500.
Sender:
A. COLE.
Sadie stopped breathing.
“What date?”
June whispered:
“Three months after his funeral.”
Aaron had been alive after the day Sadie was told he died.
Then June received one more payment a year later.
Same initials.
No message.
After that, nothing.
Sadie felt rage, hope, and grief collide.
Ronan asked:
“Why hide this?”
June looked at him.
“Because Edwin said if I spoke, whoever betrayed Night Falcon would know Aaron survived too.”
Then Wesley’s phone rang outside.
He answered.
His face changed.
“Mr. Cain.”
“What?”
“Airport police stopped Dr. Marsh.”
“Good.”
“No.”
Wesley swallowed.
“He isn’t carrying the flash drive.”
“Who is?”
“They found it in another passenger’s laptop bag.”
“Whose?”
The name made June sit down.
“Poppy Cole.”
Sadie stopped breathing.
May you like
Her six-year-old daughter’s name had just appeared on an airport evidence alert.
And Poppy was supposed to be sitting in first grade.
