The stool at the counter screeched against the linoleum. The first suit was standing up. His right hand dipped smoothly inside his jacket.
"Now," Gideon commanded.
June dropped the coffee pot. It shattered against the floor, a brown explosion of glass and scalding liquid that made the entire diner flinch. Before the sound had even registered with the patrons, June was already sprinting through the swinging double doors of the kitchen, the phantom word father echoing in her ears, and the thirty-one-day countdown officially beginning.