Leon’s answer stopped them both cold.
“You don’t know?”
Shawn stepped forward, unable to wrap his head around it.
“Didn’t you say he needed money?”
“The Master isn’t a businessman, Shawn.”
Leon leaned back against the rusted shelf, posture loose, like he was talking about the weather.
“He cares about sincerity.
And yes, he cares about the price too.”
“I need to knock on his door with an offer he can’t walk away from.
That means bringing the right sincerity and the right numbers.”
Lori laughed.
The sound bounced around the empty convenience store, hollow and sad in a way that had no right to be funny.
“Sincerity…”
The tears came without warning, sliding down her face.
“We have nothing left.”
Shawn’s chest tightened looking at her.
He was about to say something, anything, when Lori snapped her head up.
That heartbreaking fragility in her eyes vanished.
Something harder took its place.
Desperate.
Decided.
“The house.”
She stared at Leon, each word deliberate.
“I can sell the house.”
“Lori, no!” The words tore out of Shawn before he could stop them.
“That’s your home.
That’s Rick’s—”
“It’s just a house, Shawn!”
She cut him off.
“If Rick comes back, we can build a hundred new homes.
And if he doesn’t…” She swallowed.
“Then it’s just an empty box full of ghosts.”
The words hit Shawn like a blade to the sternum.
He stared at her pale face, and the guilt nearly buried him alive.
He pulled in a slow breath.
Made a decision.
“My savings too.”
He looked at her, voice steady.
“Every cent I have.
I’m pulling it all out.”
“Lori — this is what I owe Rick.
I didn’t protect him.”
Lori’s body swayed.
Her lips moved and nothing came out.
She gave one hard nod.
“I’ll call the realtor today.”
She looked at Leon one last time.
Then she turned and walked out.
The engine fired up outside, the sound rising and fading until silence swallowed everything again.
Leon reached into his pocket, pulled out a cigarette pack, and held one out to Shawn.
Shawn took it without a word.
Neither of them lit up.
“She’s a good woman,” Leon said.
“She’s the best.” Shawn’s voice was barely above a murmur.
“So are you.
Good brother.”
Shawn went rigid.
He turned his head slowly.
Eyes sharp, guarded.
“What are you getting at?”
Leon didn’t answer.
He glanced toward the door where Lori had left, then asked the question like it weighed nothing at all.
“You love her.
Don’t you.”
BOOM!
Something detonated behind Shawn’s eyes.
He surged forward and grabbed Leon by the collar, slamming him back into the shelf.
The rack shrieked under the impact.
A few cans of expired beans tumbled off and clattered across the floor.
“Say that again.”
Shawn’s face was twisted, eyes gone red, like a cornered animal that had finally turned.
Leon didn’t fight back.
Didn’t even flinch.
He let Shawn’s knuckles press into his throat and kept his voice completely flat.
“I’ve got eyes, Shawn.
I’m not blind.”
“The way you look at her.
The way you stepped in front of her just now without thinking — that’s not a man protecting his buddy’s wife.”
“You don’t know a damn thing!”
Shawn snarled, close enough that the spit hit Leon’s face.
“I know that if you keep going like this, you’re not helping her.
You’re destroying her.”
The words cut straight through.
“Let’s play this out,” Leon said.
“The TCM doctor pulls it off.
Rick wakes up.
He comes home.
What does he walk into?”
“A grieving, fragile wife.
And his best friend circling her like a vulture.”
Vulture.
It hit Shawn like a fist to the chest.
His strength went out of him all at once.
The grip on Leon’s collar loosened.
Leon pressed in, quiet and relentless.
“You think he wouldn’t see it?”
“Rick’s a cop.
You know what cops are good at?
Reading people.
He’d look at you once and know exactly what’s been living in your head.”
“You want him to wake up to something that hurts worse than the bullet?”
Shawn let go.
Staggered back two steps.
He looked like someone had yanked out his spine.
I’m not…” The words came out hollow.
“Your body’s been more honest than your mouth this whole time, Shawn.”
“You think Lori doesn’t feel it?
She’s drowning in grief.
She doesn’t have the bandwidth to deal with it right now.
But she’ll surface eventually.
And if she reaches for you in that pain, if you let yourself be what she grabs onto , when Rick comes back, she’ll hate you.
And she’ll hate herself even worse.”
Shawn sank to the floor.
He pressed his face into both hands, shoulders shaking.
“I just…
I wanted him to get better.
I wanted his family to be okay…”
He was choking on it.
Sounded like a kid who knew he’d done something wrong but couldn’t say what.
Leon studied him.
His tone shifted , softer now, carrying something that almost sounded like sympathy.
“I know.”
“That’s why I’m telling you.”
“He’s your brother, Shawn.”
“When he crawls out of that hell, he needs someone he can lean on.
A real brother.
Not a goddamn replacement.”
Leon crouched down in front of him and looked him straight in the eye.
“Be the man he needs you to be.”
“Protect his family.
Keep them safe from everything that could hurt them.” A beat.
“Including you.”
It landed like a beam of light breaking through a boarded-up window.
Shawn raised his head.
The turmoil in his eyes , all that guilt, that desperate hunger , slowly cleared.
What came through in its place was something he hadn’t had in a long time.
Clarity.
Like he’d finally found where he was supposed to stand.
“Yeah.” His voice was rough.
“You’re right.”
He got to his feet and smoothed out his shirt , the one he’d crumpled grabbing Leon , like he was straightening out the mess inside himself at the same time.
“I need to go handle my finances.”
The cop was back in his voice.
Crisp and decided.
He walked out without looking back.
Leon watched him disappear through the door.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
Done.
He’d locked in the funding to kick off his end-of-the-world operation, and he’d defused a future disaster while he was at it.
If Shawn had knocked Lori up, that would’ve been a knot impossible to untangle.
Fortunately, things hadn’t gone that far yet.
The timing was right.
The course correction would hold.
Leave was over.
Time to head back to the prison , and deal with those ravenous women waiting in the female block.
➤ Next: A Batch of Emergency Supplies