Chapter 8
Rachel woke to Daniel calling her name.
Her cheek burned.
Rain blew through the open tunnel.
The van was gone.
So were Pike, his men, and Mia.
“No,” Rachel whispered.
She tried to stand.
The basement tilted.
Daniel caught her with his uninjured arm.
“Easy.”
“He took her.”
“I know.”
“You were supposed to protect her!”
The words escaped before Rachel could stop them.
Daniel flinched.
Blood soaked his shirt.
“I’m sorry.”
Rachel immediately hated herself.
He had been shot trying to save Mia.
But fear had turned every emotion into a blade.
Gabriel supported Lucy near the wall.
Claire pounded on the steel door blocking the stairs.
“Police are on the other side,” she said.
“We need to open it.”
Daniel pointed toward a control panel.
“The release should be there.”
Gabriel crossed the room and entered a code.
Nothing happened.
“Pike disabled it.”
Rachel searched the fallen men.
Both were unconscious.
One had a phone.
It was locked, but an incoming message appeared on the screen.
ETA to farm: 18 minutes.
“He’s going back to the pit,” Rachel said.
Daniel pressed a hand against his wound.
“He wants the ledger.”
“Then we know where he’s going.”
“We can’t get out.”
Gabriel looked into the vehicle tunnel.
“We can.”
They entered the dark passage.
At the far end, the tunnel split.
Fresh tire tracks led to the right.
Gabriel found an old utility cart plugged into the wall.
The batteries were weak, but the motor started.
Lucy lay across the back seat.
Daniel sat beside her while Rachel drove.
Claire clung to the side.
The tunnel climbed gradually.
After several minutes, it opened in a field behind the warehouse.
They heard police sirens at the clinic but had no time to stop.
Claire’s car remained where they left it.
Gabriel insisted on coming.
“Lucy needs a hospital,” Rachel said.
“She needs the evidence Pike is trying to destroy.”
“She can barely breathe.”
Lucy opened her eyes.
“I’m going.”
Her voice was weak but determined.
“Mia came because of me. I’m not leaving her.”
Rachel looked at the young woman.
Mia’s twin.
The resemblance hurt.
Lucy had Mia’s eyes.
But they carried twenty-two years of loneliness.
They crowded into Claire’s car.
Rachel drove.
Daniel called Deputy Harlan from the stolen phone and explained what happened.
The deputy ordered them to pull over.
Rachel ended the call.
“You should have listened,” Daniel said.
“Pike reaches the farm before the police if we stop.”
“You could be driving into another ambush.”
“I know.”
Daniel leaned his head back.
His skin looked dangerously pale.
“Keep pressure on the wound,” Rachel told him.
Lucy pressed a folded cloth against his shoulder.
Daniel looked at her.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then he said, “I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner.”
Lucy’s expression remained guarded.
“You thought I was dead.”
“I should have questioned him.”
“We were children trapped in different ways.”
Daniel blinked back tears.
Lucy turned toward the window.
“Save your apology until we have Mia.”
They reached the farm in sixteen minutes.
The black van stood beside the pit.
Pike’s men were digging furiously.
Mia sat inside the van with her wrists bound.
Rachel stopped beyond the trees.
“We need a plan.”
“I’ll distract them,” Gabriel said.
“Pike wants you dead.”
“He wants the ledger more.”
Claire looked at the shed.
“There’s another way beneath the pit.”
Daniel frowned.
“How?”
“When I was digging, I found an old drainage pipe. It runs from the shed.”
“Why didn’t you tell Pike?”
“Because I didn’t trust him.”
Rachel stared at her.
“But you trusted him enough to burn records and put Mia in the pit.”
Claire looked ashamed.
“I can’t change what I did. I can help now.”
Daniel was too weak to argue.
Gabriel stayed with him and Lucy while Rachel followed Claire toward the shed.
They crawled through a rear window.
The burned barrel remained inside.
Claire pushed aside a wooden cabinet.
A circular metal opening appeared in the floor.
“You left Mia near this?”
“I thought the hidden chamber was empty.”
“You didn’t check?”
“I heard your car and panicked.”
Rachel looked at her.
Claire lowered her eyes.
“I know there is no excuse.”
They descended into the pipe.
It was barely wide enough to crawl through.
Above them, shovels struck earth.
Mia cried out.
Rachel moved faster.
The pipe ended at a rusted grate.
Beyond it was a dark space directly beneath the pit.
A steel box sat in the center.
Claire removed the grate.
They entered the chamber.
“The ledger,” she whispered.
Rachel examined the box.
It required a six-digit code.
“Do you know it?”
“No.”
A muffled voice came from above.
Pike.
“Daniel! Come out, or I put the child in the pit again.”
Rachel’s blood burned.
Daniel answered from somewhere near the trees.
“Let Mia go first.”
“You are in no position to negotiate.”
Rachel searched the steel box.
Six digits.
Victor Mercer had been obsessed with his legacy.
Mia’s birthday?
Rachel entered it.
Wrong.
Lucy’s birthday was the same.
Claire tried their father’s birthday.
Wrong.
Rachel remembered the baby bracelet.
Room 614.
Not a patient room.
A place where Lucy lived.
She entered 061400.
The lock clicked.
Inside was a black leather book, a flash drive, and several sealed envelopes.
Claire reached for the book.
Rachel caught her wrist.
“No more secrets.”
“I’m trying to help.”
“Then take the flash drive. I’ll take the ledger.”
They heard dirt shifting overhead.
A shovel broke through the chamber ceiling.
Light entered.
Pike’s men had reached them.
“Go!” Rachel shouted.
Claire crawled into the pipe with the flash drive.
Rachel followed with the ledger.
A hand grabbed her ankle.
She kicked wildly.
The grip tightened.
Rachel turned and struck the man with the heavy book.
He released her.
She crawled after Claire.
At the far end, Claire climbed into the shed.
Rachel emerged behind her.
A shadow moved.
Walter Pike seized Claire by the throat.
He must have left his men digging while he circled back.
“Give me the drive.”
Claire struggled.
Pike tightened his grip.
Rachel raised the ledger.
“Let her go.”
Pike looked at it.
“That belongs to the estate.”
“It belongs to Mia and Lucy.”
“They will never live long enough to claim it.”
Rachel threw the ledger toward the burned barrel.
Pike released Claire and dove for it.
Rachel tackled him.
They crashed into a workbench.
Pike struck her across the mouth.
Claire jumped onto his back.
He threw her into the cabinet.
Then he reached for the gun beneath his jacket.
Rachel grabbed his wrist.
They fought over the weapon.
Pike was stronger.
The barrel turned toward Rachel.
Then Claire drove the tire iron into his arm.
He screamed and dropped the pistol.
Rachel kicked it across the shed.
Claire picked it up.
Her hands shook.
Pike laughed through the pain.
“You don’t have the courage.”
Claire aimed at him.
“I put a child in a pit because I was afraid of losing money.”
Her voice cracked.
“I have spent my whole life proving I inherited my father’s cruelty.”
Pike took a step forward.
Claire held her ground.
“But Mia climbed out.”
Rachel heard the meaning beneath the words.
Mia had climbed out of more than the pit.
She had brought every buried secret into the light.
“She deserves better than all of us,” Claire said.
Sirens approached the farm.
This time, Pike’s smile vanished.
He turned to run.
Rachel grabbed the ledger.
Claire kept the pistol aimed at him.
Together, they forced him outside.
Deputies surrounded the pit.
Gabriel was on the ground in handcuffs.
Daniel leaned against an ambulance.
Lucy sat beside him receiving oxygen.
Two officers pulled Pike’s men away from the hole.
But the black van was empty.
Rachel’s heart stopped.
“Where is Mia?”
Pike smiled again.
Deputy Harlan forced him to his knees.
Rachel ran toward the pit.
“Mia!”
A small voice answered from below.
“Mommy?”
Rachel dropped to the edge.
Mia stood in the hidden chamber beneath the broken dirt floor.
She had somehow slipped free of the van and fallen through the opening.
She was alive.
But dirt was pouring into the chamber around her.
The ceiling was collapsing.
“Don’t move!” Rachel shouted.
Daniel staggered forward.
Deputies brought ropes.
The ground cracked beneath Rachel’s knees.
Mia screamed.
Rachel reached down.
Their fingers were inches apart.
Then the edge gave way.
May you like
Rachel fell into the pit.
She landed hard beside Mia as tons of loose soil began sliding over them.
