Chapter 9 - The King Returns
Rocco didn't use the flip phone this time.
He walked into the local police station,
his clothes singed and covered in soot,
the ledger held openly in his hand.
The sheriff,
a man named Miller who had been on Thorne’s payroll for years,
looked up from his desk.
"You're that cripple from the street,"
Miller said,
reaching for his holster.
Rocco didn't stop walking.
He slammed the ledger down on the desk with enough force to crack the wood.
"Open it,"
Rocco commanded.
"And look at page forty-two."
Miller hesitated,
then opened the book.
His face went from arrogant to ghostly white in three seconds.
"This... this is..."
"This is the reason you're going to arrest Silas Thorne and every man he has on his payroll,"
Rocco said.
"And then you're going to call the FBI."
"If you don't,"
Rocco leaned in,
his eyes burning with a terrifying intensity,
"I will call my uncle Gino."
"And I will tell him that you were the one who had the ledger all along."
"You know what he does to people who keep his secrets,
don't you,
Sheriff?"
Miller began to tremble,
his hand shaking as he reached for the phone.
Within an hour,
the quiet town of Cedar Hollow was swarming with state troopers.
Silas Thorne was arrested in his velvet-lined office,
his face a mask of shock as the handcuffs clicked shut.
But Rocco knew the real fight wasn't here.
It was in Boston.
He found Elara sitting on a bench across from the smoking ruins of the bakery.
He sat down next to her,
his legs feeling heavy for the first time.
"It's over,"
he said.
"The town is safe."
"The debt is paid."
She looked at him,
her eyes searching his face.
"Who are you,
Rocco?"
"Really?"
"I'm a man who was lost,"
he said,
"and a man who was found by a girl with flour on her hands."
"But I have to go back."
"There’s a throne I need to tear down before someone else sits on it."
"Will you come with me?"
she asked,
her voice hopeful.
"No,"
he said,
reaching out to touch her cheek.
"Where I'm going,
there is no room for someone as good as you."
"But I'm leaving you something."
He handed her a deed.
It wasn't for the bakery.
It was for the entire block,
and a bank account with enough money to build ten bakeries.
"Ray's debt is paid,"
May you like
he whispered.
"Now I have to go pay mine."
