A five-year-old boy dropped a bag of cash on my bank counter and quietly said, “My mom told me to bring this here if something happened to her.”

Jesse skidded to a stop outside Mia’s building, and I threw the door open before the truck even stopped moving, running for the front steps.

The front door was propped open with a cinder block. Tony and the other man were already inside.

I ran up the stairs two at a time, Jesse right behind me, his hand on the gun he kept holstered under his uniform shirt.

We got to Mia’s third-floor landing. Her apartment door was wide open.

I ran inside, screaming her name.

The living room was empty. The TV was still on, playing some cooking show Mia loved. A half-empty coffee cup sat on the coffee table, still steaming.

“Mia!” I screamed, running down the hall to her bedroom.

Empty.

The bathroom. Empty.

The kitchen. Empty.

I fell to my knees in the middle of the living room, gasping for air. They’d taken them. Tony and the other man had taken Mia and Noah.

“Lila.” Jesse’s voice, quiet, from the kitchen.

I stood up, running to him.

He was standing by the back window, which was wide open. A rope ladder was tied to the radiator, hanging down to the alley below.

“They didn’t take them,” Jesse said, pointing at the ladder. “They left. Mia’s smart. She heard them coming. Climbed out the back.”

I leaned against the counter, my legs giving out.

Sirens blared outside, getting closer. Blue and red lights flashed through the front windows.

A second later, Jake burst through the front door, his gun drawn, wearing jeans and a hoodie, his badge clipped to his belt.

“Lila?” he called, lowering the gun when he saw me. “Are you okay? Where are they?”

I ran to him, and for a second, all the old feelings came rushing back—the way he used to hold me when I was scared, the way he’d stayed up with me for three straight nights after Emily vanished, helping me make flyers. I hugged him so tight I could barely breathe.

“They climbed out the back,” I said into his chest. “My sister Mia. And Noah. Emily’s son. They’re in the alley somewhere.”

Jake pulled back, holding me at arm’s length, his face serious. “Emily Carter? The girl who vanished three years ago?”

I nodded, pulling the manila folder and USB drive from my bag, handing them to him. “She’s alive. Hale kidnapped her, tried to kill her, because she found out he was embezzling millions from the bank. This is the evidence. And now Hale’s men are trying to kill all of us to get it back.”

Jake flipped open the folder, scanning the first page, his jaw tightening. He’d seen a lot of bad things in his time as a cop, but this was bad even for him.

“Son of a bitch,” he said, shoving the folder into his jacket pocket. “My partner and I have been investigating Hale for six months. We just couldn’t find the smoking gun. This is it.”

He pulled out his radio, calling his partner. “Marlow here. I’m at 1427 W. Roscoe. Send two units to sweep the alley and surrounding blocks for a female nurse in scrubs and a five-year-old boy in a gray hoodie. They’re armed and in danger. Also put out an APB on a black Suburban, license plate number—” He looked at Jesse.

“789-XTY,” Jesse said. “Registered to a shell company Hale owns.”

“789-XTY,” Jake said into the radio. “Two male suspects, one known as Tony Rizzo, armed and dangerous. Consider them hostile.”

He hung up the radio, looking at me. “We’ll find them, Lila. I promise.”

Ten minutes later, there was a soft knock on the apartment door.

Jake drew his gun, moving to the side of the door. “Who is it?”

“Mia Carter. And Noah. We have a key, but we don’t want to get shot.”

Jake laughed, lowering his gun, and opened the door.

Mia was standing there, her scrubs torn at the knee, a cut on her forehead, holding Noah tight in her arms. Noah was still clutching the locket I’d given him, his face buried in Mia’s neck.

I ran to them, hugging them both, crying so hard I could barely stand.

“We climbed out the window the second I heard the front door open,” Mia said, sitting down on the couch, still holding Noah. “Ran through the alley to the bodega on the corner. Hid in the walk-in fridge until we saw the cops pull up.”

Noah lifted his head, looking at me. “I wasn’t scared,” he said. “I had the locket. I knew you’d come.”

Jake knelt down in front of him, his voice soft, the tough detective act gone. “Hey, Noah. I’m Jake. I’m a friend of Lila’s. I’m going to make sure the bad men don’t hurt you or your mom, okay?”

Noah looked at him for a long second, then nodded. He pulled a small, beat-up flip phone from the inner pocket of his hoodie, the kind no one used anymore.

“Mom gave me this,” he said, handing it to me. “Said if I was ever with people I trusted, I should call this number. She’d answer no matter what.”

I took the phone. It had only one number saved in the contacts, labeled “MOM.”

I pressed call.

It rang once. Twice. Three times.

Then a woman’s voice, hoarse, like she’d been crying for days, came on the line.

“Noah? Baby, are you okay?”

My throat tightened so bad I could barely speak. It was her. Emily. After three years. I’d know that voice anywhere.

“Emily,” I said, my voice cracking. “It’s Lila. Noah is safe. We all are. We have the ledger.”

A sharp intake of breath on the other end. Then a sob.

“Lila,” she said, crying now. “Thank God. I was so scared I’d sent him to his death.”

“Where are you?” I asked. “We can send Jake to get you. Bring you somewhere safe.”

“I’m hiding in a motel on the south side,” she said. “The Lincoln Motel, room 217. Hale’s men broke into my apartment last night. I barely escaped out the fire escape. I’ve been here ever since, too scared to leave.”

“Stay there,” Jake said, taking the phone from me. “I’m Detective Jake Marlow, Chicago PD Major Crimes. I’m sending two trusted officers to pick you up right now. They’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t open the door for anyone except them. They’ll be wearing blue, they’ll have my name and badge number, and they’ll knock three times fast, two slow. Got it?”

“Got it,” Emily said, her voice shaking.

Jake hung up the phone, looking at all of us.

“Okay,” he said. “Here’s the plan. We all go to the safe house I use for witnesses. No one knows where it is except me and my partner. We wait for Emily there. Then tomorrow morning, we take all the evidence to the US Attorney’s office. They’re the only ones who can’t be bought by Hale.”

He looked at me, his eyes soft.

“It’s almost over, Lila,” he said.

I nodded, looking at Noah, who’d fallen asleep on Mia’s lap, his hand still clutching the locket.

It was almost over.