MY FATHER GAVE MY SISTER THE DINER I SPENT NINE YEARS SAVING. THEN HE HANDED ME A BROKEN SPATULA IN FRONT OF SIXTY PEOPLE. / Chapter 32 / 46

Chapter 32 - The Midnight Council

By two in the morning, the back room of the diner held seven people: myself, Grace, David, Sheriff Thomas, Mayor Henderson, and two elderly town councilmen who had been woken from their beds by deputies.

Mayor Henderson was shaking so badly he could barely hold his spectacles. "Fifty million dollars? Miller, are you insane? We have to wire that money to the Department of Justice immediately! Wash our hands of it!"

"The moment you initiate a federal transfer, Mayor, it goes into a forty-eight-hour escrow hold," Grace countered, stepping forward and placing her hands flat on the council table. Her voice held all the authority of her mother, but none of the cruelty. "Volkov has listening posts on the federal banking networks. The second he sees that money enter federal custody, he knows it’s gone forever. He’ll execute every person who signed the seizure order—starting with Benny, then you, then the town council."

"Grace is right," Sheriff Thomas muttered grimly. "We have six deputies, four shotguns, and two patrol cars left. We can't hold off a syndicate assault if they decide to turn Main Street into a war zone."

"So what do you propose, Benny?" Mayor Henderson asked, wiping sweat from his bald forehead. "You're a short-order cook, not a general!"

"A diner runs on supply lines and timing, Henderson," I replied, pointing to the municipal map spread across the wooden table. "Volkov’s men don't know this harbor. They don't know the shoals, they don't know the tide shifts, and they don't know the abandoned rail tunnels beneath the old foundry."

I tapped the black flash drive on the table.

"David knows the code to the auxiliary escrow gate," I continued, glancing at my father. "We set up an encrypted relay in the old pump house at the end of the industrial pier. We tell Volkov that Eleanor tried to double-cross him, but we are willing to release the offshore routing numbers back to his account in Montreal—under one condition."

"What condition?" David asked, his brow furrowed.

"He delivers Eleanor Vance to this dock," I said coldly. "Face-to-face. Unharmed."

Grace gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "Benny... you're using Mother as bait?"

"She isn't bait, Grace. She's the only witness who can tie Julian Vance, the municipal bond fraud, and Volkov’s cartel together for federal prosecutors," I said, looking my sister straight in the eye. "If Eleanor escapes across the Canadian border, she disappears forever. And as long as she lives free, this town will always have a target on its back. She built this nightmare. She’s going to stand in front of this town and answer for it."

David looked at me, a mixture of awe and profound shame in his weathered eyes. "Benny... if Volkov realizes it's a trap, he won't hesitate to kill us both."

"He won't realize it until the gates are shut," I said. "Because the man delivering the message to Montreal won't be me. It’ll be you, David. He knows your name. He knows Julian paid you off thirty years ago. He thinks you're still the same coward who took the money and ran."