Chapter 6: The Fall
We stepped out of the lobby just as sirens screamed closer.
We didn’t run. We simply walked out the front entrance. The guards behind the security desk were now fully alert, radios blaring about a breach. They looked from me to Maya. Then at the fire in my eyes. They didn’t move to stop us.
We stepped onto the sidewalk. Cool night air washed over us.
Police cars screeched to a stop. Officers bolted inside. None of them were there for us—they were racing to the penthouse.
I draped my jacket over Maya’s shoulders.
“You okay?” I asked.
She stared up at the building. Up toward the glowing 50th floor.
“He’s going to prison, isn’t he?” she asked.
“For a long time,” I said. “With the blackmail and the recordings? He’s done.”
She leaned her head against my shoulder. “I thought… I thought you’d call the police.”
“Cops take too long,” I said. “And lawyers make deals. I wanted to make sure he had nothing left to negotiate with.”
She looked at my hands. “Dad… how did you even know how to do all that? The guards? The locks?”
I looked at her. She wasn’t a kid anymore. Tonight, she had seen the man I used to be.
“I used to fix things,” I said quietly. “Before I fixed cars, I fixed problems.”
“I think,” she said, squeezing my hand, “that was your best repair yet.”
An Uber pulled up—the same one from earlier. The driver eyed us.
“Rough night?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said, opening the door for Maya. “But it’s over.”
As we drove off, I looked back at Sterling Tower, lit up with flashing red and blue.
I went back to being Frank the next morning. Cut the grass. Worked on the Mustang. But when Maya came over for Sunday dinner, she didn’t look at me like some boring old dad anymore.
She looked at me like the shield standing between her and the world.
And that was the only job that mattered.
