Chapter 7
Rachel released the doorknob.
Claire stood frozen behind her.
Gabriel took the tire iron from Rachel’s hand and threw it aside.
“Turn around.”
Rachel obeyed slowly.
Up close, Gabriel looked exhausted rather than cruel.
Deep lines framed his eyes.
His hand was steady around the pistol.
“Let me see Mia.”
“You will.”
“Now.”
Gabriel’s gaze hardened.
“You are in no position to make demands.”
A cry came from behind the door.
“Mommy!”
Rachel lunged toward the sound.
Gabriel grabbed her shoulder.
“Stop.”
“If you touch her—”
“She is unharmed.”
“You kidnapped her.”
“I recovered her.”
“She is not property.”
“Tell that to the Mercer family.”
Claire stepped forward.
“Gabriel, this is between us.”
He laughed.
“You still believe everything is about you.”
“I helped Lucy.”
“You helped yourself.”
“I brought Mia for the tests.”
“You burned Elena’s records.”
“To keep the estate away from Walter Pike!”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“What does Pike have to do with it?”
Claire looked confused.
“You know he controls the trust.”
“No. Victor named Daniel as temporary trustee.”
“Daniel was removed after his injury.”
Rachel listened carefully.
“By whom?”
Claire swallowed.
“Walter Pike filed documents declaring Daniel mentally incompetent.”
“When?”
“Yesterday morning.”
Before Daniel’s injury became public.
Before Rachel found Mia.
Pike had known what was coming.
“He was at the sheriff’s office,” Rachel said. “He represented you.”
“I called him because he was Dad’s lawyer.”
“No,” Gabriel replied. “Pike was Dad’s fixer.”
A new voice came from the top of the stairs.
“And you were always too emotional to understand business.”
Walter Pike descended into the basement.
Two armed men followed him.
Claire stared at the attorney.
“You said you were helping me.”
“I was.”
Pike smiled.
“Just not in the way you assumed.”
Gabriel swung his pistol toward him.
The armed men raised their weapons.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Then Pike nodded toward the door behind Rachel.
“Bring out the child.”
Rachel blocked the entrance.
“No.”
One of the men seized her.
She fought him, kicking and twisting, but he forced her arms behind her back.
Claire tried to intervene.
The second man shoved her against the wall.
Gabriel kept his pistol aimed at Pike.
“You hired me to find Lucy.”
“I hired you to lead me to the evidence,” Pike said.
“You used Elena.”
“Your sister understood the arrangement.”
“She died because of it.”
“She died because she could not accept reality.”
“What reality?”
“That Victor Mercer chose his family over her.”
Lucy moved weakly on the hospital bed.
Her eyes opened.
“Uncle Gabe?”
Gabriel immediately looked at her.
Pike’s man struck him from behind.
Gabriel fell.
The pistol slid across the floor.
Pike picked it up.
“Sentiment makes people careless.”
He approached Daniel.
Daniel lifted his head.
Blood marked his lower lip.
“You arranged the attack.”
Pike smiled.
“I arranged several things.”
“You knew about Lucy.”
“I wrote the original agreements.”
Rachel struggled against the man holding her.
“What agreements?”
Pike turned toward her.
“Victor Mercer had a talent for turning disasters into investments. When Elena became pregnant, he created a private trust for the twins. One child would be raised within his legitimate family. The other would remain hidden while he funded research into her illness.”
“You mean he used Lucy as a medical experiment.”
“Victor called it treatment.”
“And my baby?”
Rachel’s voice cracked.
“What happened to the child I delivered?”
Pike’s smile faded.
“That was the unexpected complication.”
Rachel stopped fighting.
“Tell me.”
“Your daughter was born with severe respiratory failure. Doctors attempted to save her.”
“Did she die?”
Pike glanced at Daniel.
“Ask your husband.”
Rachel looked at him.
Daniel’s face twisted in pain.
“I remembered last night,” he whispered.
“What?”
“The blackout. Dad came into the room. He told me our baby hadn’t survived.”
Rachel could barely remain standing.
“You told me she was healthy.”
“He brought me another baby.”
“Mia.”
“Yes.”
“You knew from the beginning?”
“No. I was in shock. Dad said the doctors had stabilized her. He placed Mia in my arms and told me not to ask questions.”
“You saw the bracelet.”
“I saw the wrong name. Dad said it was a clerical mistake from the outage.”
Rachel wanted to hate him.
Part of her did.
But she could see the terrified young father he had been.
A man grieving one child while being ordered to accept another.
“Why didn’t you tell me our baby had almost died?”
“Dad said you might not survive the truth. You had lost so much blood. You were barely conscious.”
“So you let me believe nothing happened.”
“I was a coward.”
Pike sighed.
“This reunion is touching, but we have limited time.”
He signaled to the armed man.
The door opened.
Mia ran out.
“Mommy!”
Rachel tore free with a sudden burst of strength and dropped to her knees.
Mia crashed into her arms.
Rachel held her so tightly the child squeaked.
“I knew you’d come,” Mia sobbed.
“I will always come.”
She checked Mia’s arms.
A small adhesive bandage covered one elbow.
“What did they do?”
“They took my blood.”
Rachel looked at Pike.
“You will pay for this.”
“Unlikely.”
He turned to Claire.
“Where is the original inheritance letter?”
“I burned it.”
“No, you burned copies.”
“I don’t have it.”
Pike raised the pistol.
“Then I no longer need you.”
Daniel strained against his restraints.
“Leave her alone.”
Pike ignored him.
“The original letter establishes that Victor’s youngest surviving daughter inherits the controlling interest in Mercer Development. That is currently worth eighty-four million dollars.”
Rachel looked down at Mia.
Four years old.
Wanted for her blood.
Wanted for her name.
Wanted for money she did not know existed.
Pike continued.
“If Lucy dies, Mia becomes the sole beneficiary. If Mia disappears, the estate enters probate, where I remain executor.”
“You planned to kill both of them,” Claire whispered.
“I planned for uncertainty.”
Gabriel groaned on the floor.
Pike’s attention shifted.
Rachel saw her chance.
She whispered into Mia’s hair, “When I say run, go behind Daddy’s chair.”
Mia nodded against her.
Rachel looked at Claire.
Claire saw something in her expression.
Slowly, her eyes moved toward a metal tray beside Lucy’s bed.
Pike ordered one of his men to search Claire.
The man released Rachel and stepped toward her.
“Run!” Rachel shouted.
Mia sprinted toward Daniel.
Rachel seized the metal tray and slammed it into the nearest man’s face.
Claire pushed the second man into a cabinet.
Gabriel grabbed Pike’s ankle.
The pistol fired.
The bullet struck the ceiling.
Dust and plaster rained down.
Daniel tipped his chair sideways, knocking into Pike.
Rachel dove for the gun.
Pike kicked her hand.
Claire attacked him from behind.
He threw her off.
Gabriel rose unsteadily and tackled Pike.
The two men crashed against Lucy’s bed.
Alarms sounded on the medical equipment.
Lucy gasped.
“Stop!”
Everyone froze except Pike.
He snatched a scalpel from the tray and held it against Lucy’s throat.
Gabriel’s face went white.
“You need her alive,” Pike said. “So you’re going to step back.”
Gabriel raised both hands.
Rachel moved toward Mia.
One of the armed men caught her again.
This time, he pressed an arm against her neck.
Daniel shouted.
Pike dragged Lucy upright.
The young woman could barely stand.
“Where is the letter, Claire?”
“I told you—I don’t know!”
“I think you do.”
“I don’t!”
Mia crawled behind Daniel’s overturned chair.
Her fingers found the rope around his wrists.
She began pulling at it.
Rachel saw her but forced herself not to look directly.
“Pike,” Daniel said, “my father never trusted you.”
“He trusted me with every secret he had.”
“No. He made you think he did.”
Pike’s confidence flickered.
Daniel continued.
“The inheritance letter isn’t on paper.”
Claire stared at him.
“What?”
“It’s a video.”
Pike pressed the blade closer to Lucy.
“Where?”
“In Dad’s ledger.”
Gabriel looked confused.
“You said you didn’t remember where it was.”
“I remember now.”
Daniel turned his eyes toward Rachel.
“It’s beneath the pit.”
Rachel understood.
The dirt pit was not simply an unfinished construction site.
It had been dug recently.
Claire must have been looking for something.
“You knew?” Rachel asked her.
Claire shook her head.
“I thought Dad buried records somewhere on the property. Pike told me the location might be behind the shed.”
Pike had manipulated Claire into digging for evidence.
Then Mia saw her burning what she found.
“The ledger opens a digital vault,” Daniel said. “The video names both Lucy and Mia.”
Pike’s expression became hungry.
“Take us there.”
“Let Mia and Rachel go.”
“No.”
“You won’t find it without me.”
“I have Claire.”
“She doesn’t know where it is.”
Pike looked toward Mia.
She had nearly loosened Daniel’s rope.
Rachel needed more time.
Daniel seemed to realize it.
“The pit has two levels,” he said. “The visible bottom is false. There’s a steel box three feet beneath it.”
Pike motioned to one of his men.
“Prepare the vehicles.”
The man holding Rachel pulled her toward the stairs.
Pike forced Lucy forward.
Gabriel supported her despite the pistol aimed at him.
Claire followed.
Mia whispered, “Daddy, I got it.”
The rope fell from Daniel’s wrists.
He grabbed the leg of the armed man passing him and pulled.
The man fell.
Daniel seized his weapon.
Pike fired.
Claire screamed.
Daniel staggered.
A dark stain spread across his shoulder.
Rachel covered Mia with her body.
Gabriel pushed Lucy behind the hospital bed.
Daniel raised the gun.
Pike stood above him.
“Drop it.”
Daniel’s arm shook.
Then police sirens sounded outside.
Pike looked toward the basement window.
Blue and red lights flashed through the rain.
Rachel almost cried with relief.
Deputy Harlan’s voice came through a loudspeaker.
“The building is surrounded!”
Pike’s face remained calm.
Too calm.
He reached into his pocket and pressed a small black device.
A heavy door slammed down between the basement and the stairs.
Then an engine roared beneath the building.
Claire stared at him.
“What did you do?”
Pike smiled.
“You thought this clinic had only one exit?”
The rear wall began to rise.
Behind it was an underground vehicle tunnel.
A black van waited inside.
Pike grabbed Mia.
Rachel reached for her.
But the armed man struck Rachel across the face.
May you like
The room spun.
The last thing she saw before darkness took her was Pike carrying Mia into the van.
