Chapter 6 - The Price of Protecting Juny
They reached the apartment too late.
The door was open.
Juny was gone.
Josie screamed her name.
Nothing.
A chair had been overturned.
One of the windows was broken.
Rafe's security team searched every room.
No one.
Then Josie's phone rang.
She answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“You have four hours.”
“What do you want?”
“The evidence.”
“You'll never get it.”
A child's voice sounded in the background.
“Aunt Josie?”
Josie nearly collapsed.
“Juny!”
“I'm okay.”
“Listen to me. I'm coming.”
The voice returned.
“Bring the original recording to the grain elevator.”
Rafe grabbed the phone.
“Gideon.”
The line went dead.
Rafe looked at Josie.
“Don't.”
She stared at him.
“I have to go.”
“We go together.”
“Then he will kill her.”
“I don't care what he wants.”
“I do.”
Rafe stepped closer.
“I won't let you go there alone.”
Josie's eyes filled with tears.
“For seven years, I believed I could survive anything.”
“You shouldn't have had to.”
“I can't lose her.”
“You won't.”
He said it with absolute certainty.
They assembled the team.
Nico insisted on coming.
Camila came too.
At the grain elevator, Gideon waited.
Juny sat in a chair.
She was unharmed.
Josie started forward.
Gideon raised a gun.
“Stop.”
She stopped.
Rafe stood beside her.
“Let her go.”
Gideon smiled.
“You always were sentimental.”
“You killed my father.”
“No.”
“You ordered the fire.”
“I ordered your father removed.”
Rafe's eyes hardened.
“You killed him.”
Gideon shrugged.
“Sometimes orders have consequences.”
Josie's hands curled into fists.
Gideon looked at her.
“You ruined everything.”
“No.”
“You found records.”
“Yes.”
“You found Nico.”
“Yes.”
“You convinced Rafe to question me.”
Josie said nothing.
Gideon smiled.
“I should have killed you five years ago.”
Rafe's voice went cold.
“You would have had to know where she was.”
“I always knew.”
Josie stared.
“What?”
“Your employment was never an accident.”
She felt cold.
“You hired me?”
Gideon nodded.
“I wanted you close.”
Rafe looked at Josie.
Gideon continued.
“You thought you infiltrated the Castellanos organization.”
“You did not.”
“You were placed exactly where I wanted.”
Josie stared at the floor.
The realization was devastating.
Everything.
Five years.
The coded records.
The access.
The files.
Her investigation.
Had someone guided her toward the truth on purpose?
“But why?”
Gideon smiled.
“Because I needed you to find the evidence.”
Josie looked up.
“What?”
“You were the perfect investigator.”
“Why would you help me?”
“Because when you found it, I could take it.”
The trap finally made sense.
He had allowed her to uncover everything.
Then he intended to steal it.
Gideon reached for the case in her hand.
“Bring me the tape.”
Josie walked forward.
Rafe whispered:
“Don't.”
She kept moving.
Gideon pointed the gun.
“Slowly.”
Josie placed the case on the floor.
Gideon opened it.
The case was empty.
His face changed.
“What did you do?”
Josie looked at him.
“The evidence is already somewhere you can't erase.”
Gideon raised the weapon.
Then the lights went out.
Nico attacked.
Everything exploded into chaos.
Rafe reached Juny.
Josie grabbed her sister.
Camila ducked behind machinery.
Gunfire echoed through the elevator.
Gideon ran.
Rafe chased him.
They reached the upper platform.
Gideon turned.
“You're making a mistake.”
Rafe approached.
“This ends tonight.”
Gideon laughed.
“You think killing me fixes it?”
“I don't need to kill you.”
He threw a small device onto the floor.
Police sirens grew louder.
Rafe looked down.
The device was broadcasting the entire conversation to authorities outside.
Josie had anticipated the need for proof.
She had wired the recording into the case before entering.
Gideon's confession had been captured.
He realized too late.
“You planned this.”
Josie stepped out of the shadows.
“No.”
Rafe looked at her.
She held Juny's hand.
“I survived long enough to learn.”
Gideon was arrested.
The conspiracy collapsed.
Within weeks, federal investigators dismantled the remaining network.
Dozens of accounts were frozen.
Several officials resigned.
Warehouses were seized.
And the Castellano empire changed.
Rafe voluntarily turned over financial records connected to illegal operations.
He wanted the family's legitimate businesses separated from everything else.
It cost him millions.
But he didn't care.
The city began seeing a different Castellano.
Not a weaker one.
A cleaner one.
One built on legitimate logistics, transportation, and construction.
Camila testified.
Her cooperation reduced her own charges.
She left the city afterward.
Before leaving, she met Josie.
“I don't expect forgiveness.”
Josie nodded.
“You won't get it quickly.”
Camila accepted that.
“But I won't forget that you protected Juny.”
Camila looked at her.
“I had no choice.”
“You did.”
Camila lowered her eyes.
Then left.
Weeks later, Josie returned to her apartment.
The old steel watch rested on the table.
3:14.
She wound it.
For the first time in seven years, the hands moved.
3:15.
Josie stared.
Then cried.
Rafe stood in the doorway.
She smiled through tears.
“It works.”
He stepped closer.
“Finally.”
She looked at him.
“I thought it would never move again.”
May you like
He reached for her hand.
“Neither did I.”
