Chapter 4
Detective Brooks refused to let me ride with her.
So I made her a deal.
“I stay in the command vehicle.”
“No.”
“You said Grant wants to see me.”
“We can make him believe you’re nearby.”
“He’ll know.”
“Caleb—”
“If you want him talking, he needs to think he’s winning.”
Brooks stared at me.
Maya started objecting.
I didn’t listen.
“My mother gave me the drive because she trusted me to help finish this.”
“She trusted you to survive.”
“I can do both.”
Brooks’s jaw tightened.
Finally, she said, “You stay exactly where I put you.”
I nodded.
I was lying.
Not about wanting to help.
About staying put if Mom needed me.
Twenty-five minutes later, we were parked three blocks from the abandoned warehouse.
Police vehicles had approached without lights.
Officers spread through surrounding streets.
Brooks gave me an earpiece.
“You say nothing unless I tell you.”
I watched a live feed from a small camera on an officer’s vest.
The warehouse was enormous.
Broken windows.
Rusting loading doors.
Stacks of old pallets.
My mother was somewhere inside.
Grant called.
Brooks nodded.
I answered.
“I’m here.”
“Where?”
“Outside.”
“You alone?”
“Yes.”
Grant laughed softly.
“No, you aren’t.”
My stomach dropped.
Brooks went still.
“I told you what would happen.”
“Grant—”
The sound of a gunshot blasted through the phone.
I jumped so violently the phone almost fell.
“Mom!”
Brooks grabbed my shoulder.
“Stay calm.”
Grant came back on the line.
“That one hit the floor.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“The next one won’t.”
Brooks wrote something.
ASK WHAT HE WANTS.
“What do you want?”
“Walk to the east entrance.”
Brooks shook her head.
I ignored her.
“You said I bring the drive.”
“That’s right.”
“Then let me see my mother.”
A pause.
The video call activated.
Mom appeared.
Her hands were tied behind the chair.
There was blood near her eyebrow.
My vision blurred red.
She saw me.
Her eyes widened.
“No.”
Grant held the phone in front of her.
“Tell him to come inside.”
Mom looked directly at the camera.
“Caleb, leave.”
Grant grabbed her jaw.
“Wrong answer.”
I lurched forward.
Brooks restrained me.
Mom shouted.
“Don’t come in!”
Grant ended the call.
I turned on Brooks.
“We have to move.”
“We will.”
“When?”
“When my people are in position.”
“He hit her!”
“And if we rush, he could kill her.”
My chest heaved.
Every instinct told me to run.
Brooks leaned closer.
“Your mother has kept you alive for years by thinking instead of reacting.”
That stopped me.
“Do the same for her.”
I closed my eyes.
Then I nodded.
Grant called again.
“East entrance. Two minutes.”
Brooks swore.
“We need more time.”
I looked at the flash drive in my hand.
It wasn’t the real one.
Brooks had copied meaningless school files onto another drive.
Then an idea hit me.
“Let him think I’m scared.”
“You are scared.”
“Exactly.”
I answered.
“I can’t do this.”
Silence.
Then Grant said, “What?”
“I can’t come inside.”
Brooks looked at me.
I continued.
“I’m sorry. Keep the drive. Keep everything. I just want my mom.”
Grant sounded irritated.
“Walk inside.”
“I’m scared.”
“You should be.”
“I need to know you’re not going to kill me.”
He laughed.
That was what I wanted.
Keep him talking.
“I’m not going to kill you, Caleb.”
“You killed Daniel.”
Brooks’s eyes sharpened.
Grant went silent.
“I heard the recording.”
“What recording?”
“The one where Daniel confronted you about his truck.”
Nothing.
I kept going.
“He knew you sabotaged it.”
“You have no idea what you heard.”
“He said Sarah had everything.”
“Daniel talked too much.”
The officer beside Brooks looked up.
He was recording.
I swallowed.
“So you killed him because he threatened you?”
Grant’s voice turned cold.
“Your uncle destroyed himself.”
“How?”
“He thought being right made him untouchable.”
“So you did kill him.”
Brooks silently mouthed: Good.
Grant realized what was happening.
His voice changed.
“You’re stalling.”
The call ended.
Brooks grabbed her radio.
“He’s agitated. Teams move.”
My heart hammered.
The live video shifted.
Officers approached two entrances.
Then Grant called again.
This time I heard Mom screaming in the background.
“Caleb, run!”
A crash.
Another gunshot.
The video feed from one officer shook violently.
“Move!” Brooks shouted.
Everything exploded into motion.
I saw officers enter.
Commands echoed through the warehouse.
“Police!”
“Drop the weapon!”
Then the feed cut.
I stared at the black screen.
“What happened?”
“No signal.”
“What happened?”
Brooks didn’t answer.
Gunshots sounded in the distance.
Real ones.
Not through the phone.
I ripped off the earpiece.
“Caleb!”
I jumped from the vehicle.
Brooks caught me before I made three steps.
“Let go!”
“No!”
“That’s my mother!”
“And that is an active scene!”
Another officer ran toward us.
“Detective! Mercer moved to the south loading area. Hostage with him.”
Mom.
Brooks released me only long enough to turn.
“How many exits?”
“Two. Team Three has one blocked.”
“What about the second?”
“Old loading tunnel. Not on the original floor plan.”
My stomach dropped.
Grant could escape.
With Mom.
I looked at the warehouse.
Then I remembered something.
My uncle Daniel had once brought me there when I was little.
The building used to belong to his company.
I had been maybe six.
Daniel had shown me an underground delivery ramp because I thought tunnels were cool.
“There’s another exit.”
Brooks turned.
“What?”
“Behind the southern loading wall.”
“You’re sure?”
“Daniel showed me.”
The officer pulled up a map.
“There’s nothing there.”
“It was sealed from the street side, but there was a service stairwell.”
Brooks grabbed her radio.
“Team Four, south exterior. Look for a sealed vehicle ramp.”
I stared toward the warehouse.
Mom had trusted me to protect her differently.
Maybe this was what she meant.
Not fists.
Not anger.
Remember.
Think.
Seconds later, the radio crackled.
“We found it.”
Brooks looked at me.
“You may have just saved her life.”
Then another voice shouted over the radio.
“Suspect exiting tunnel!”
I stopped breathing.
“Hostage with him!”
Brooks ran.
I followed until another officer blocked me.
From where I stood, I saw figures emerge beyond the building.
Grant.
Mom.
His arm around her neck.
A gun pressed against her side.
Police surrounded them from a distance.
Grant screamed something I couldn’t hear.
Then Mom looked across the lot.
She saw me.
Her face collapsed.
“Caleb!”
Grant followed her eyes.
He saw me too.
And smiled.
May you like
Then he dragged my mother backward.
Straight toward a waiting truck.
