Chapter 6
Daniel didn’t stop.
The siren tore through the morning, sharp and terrifying.
Blue and red lights flashed across the windshield.
My whole body locked up.
“Dad,” I said, gripping the dashboard.
“I know.”
The cruiser stayed close.
Too close.
Daniel kept both hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road.
He was not speeding.
Not swerving.
Just refusing to pull over.
That somehow made it scarier.
The phone was still pressed to my ear.
Ray breathed softly on the other end.
“Ethan,” he said, “you’re young. You don’t understand how badly this can end.”
I stared at the road ahead.
“You killed Grace.”
Daniel’s jaw clenched.
Ray was silent for half a second.
Then he laughed.
“That’s what they told you?”
“I heard the tape.”
“That tape proves nothing.”
“It proves enough.”
“No,” he said. “It proves Grace was emotional. Dramatic. Unstable.”
Rage flooded me.
“She was brave.”
Ray’s voice went colder.
“Brave girls end up dead.”
The words punched through me.
I pulled the phone away and put it on speaker.
Daniel heard.
His face changed.
Not fear.
Fury.
Ray continued, “Your father thinks he can run to Marcus Reed? Marcus couldn’t save Grace then. He won’t save you now.”
Daniel looked at me.
Marcus’s name.
Ray knew where we were going.
The cruiser behind us surged forward.
Daniel turned hard onto a side road.
My shoulder slammed into the door.
The blue box slid under my feet.
“Hold on,” Daniel said.
The road narrowed between bare trees.
The cruiser followed.
Dust and gravel sprayed behind us.
I looked back.
The officer driving was a man I recognized.
Officer Bell.
He had come to our school career day.
He had smiled while handing out stickers to kids.
Now his face was hard behind the windshield.
“He’s one of them,” I said.
Daniel didn’t answer.
He already knew.
Ray’s voice came through the phone again.
“Give me the box, Danny. I’ll let this end quietly.”
Daniel laughed once.
It sounded nothing like humor.
“You should’ve made that offer before you touched my family.”
“Your family?” Ray said. “That boy is mine.”
The truck swerved.
For one terrifying second, Daniel lost control.
I grabbed the box with both hands.
Ray laughed.
“Did that hurt?”
Daniel’s voice came out low.
“He is not yours.”
“Blood says otherwise.”
“No,” Daniel said. “Blood made you a predator. Love made me his father.”
I looked at him.
Even in terror, those words went straight through me.
The road curved.
Ahead, an old bridge crossed the creek.
Daniel sped toward it.
The cruiser gained on us.
Ray said, “Last chance.”
I ended the call.
Then I did the only thing I could think of.
I opened the camera app and started recording.
The cruiser.
The road.
My father’s face.
My own shaking voice.
“My name is Ethan Carter,” I said. “Officer Bell is chasing us because we have evidence about Grace Carter’s death and Ray Harlan’s crimes.”
Daniel glanced at me.
“Good.”
The cruiser bumped us.
Metal screamed.
I yelled.
The truck lurched toward the ditch.
Daniel corrected it just before the bridge.
Another vehicle appeared at the other end.
Black SUV.
Blocking the road.
Ray.
Daniel braked hard.
The truck skidded sideways and stopped inches from the bridge rail.
The cruiser stopped behind us.
We were trapped.
My hands shook so badly I nearly dropped the phone.
“Keep recording,” Daniel said.
Officer Bell stepped out first.
Gun drawn.
“Hands where I can see them!”
Daniel raised his hands.
“Ethan,” he whispered, “do exactly what I say.”
Ray stepped out of the SUV.
He looked calm.
No hurry.
Like a man arriving for a business meeting.
“Morning, Danny.”
Officer Bell came to Daniel’s window.
“Step out.”
Daniel didn’t move.
“On what charge?”
Bell’s face tightened.
“Step out of the vehicle.”
Ray walked to my side.
He bent slightly and smiled through the glass.
“Hi, champ.”
I kept the phone low but pointed at him.
His eyes flicked down.
He saw it.
For the first time, his smile disappeared.
“Turn that off.”
“No.”
His face hardened.
“Ethan.”
“No.”
Daniel looked proud and terrified.
Bell opened Daniel’s door and dragged him out.
I shouted.
Ray opened my door.
I held the box against my chest.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
He reached for it.
I kicked him in the stomach.
Not hard enough to hurt him much.
Hard enough to surprise him.
He stumbled back, furious.
“You little—”
A horn blared.
Another car came flying down the road behind the cruiser.
Mom.
She slammed her brakes and jumped out before the car fully stopped.
“Get away from my son!”
Ray turned.
His face changed when he saw her.
Not guilt.
Ownership.
“Rachel.”
She stood in the road, shaking but upright.
“I called Marcus,” she said.
Ray laughed.
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes,” she said. “From Lily’s tablet. You forgot about that one.”
Ray’s smile faded.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Different sirens.
More than one.
Bell looked nervous.
Ray looked at him.
“Handle it.”
Bell raised his gun toward Mom.
Everything happened at once.
Daniel slammed into Bell from the side.
The gun went off.
Mom screamed.
I screamed too.
Daniel fell.
For one second, the whole world stopped.
Then I saw blood on his shoulder.
Not his chest.
His shoulder.
He was alive.
I jumped out with the box and ran toward him.
Ray grabbed me from behind.
His arm locked around my throat.
“Enough,” he hissed.
The phone fell from my hand but kept recording from the gravel.
Mom froze.
Daniel groaned on the ground.
Ray pressed something cold against my side.
A knife.
“Everyone stop,” he said.
The distant sirens grew louder.
Ray’s breath was hot against my ear.
“You should have stayed hidden.”
I looked at my mother.
She looked terrified.
But not broken.
Not anymore.
I forced out one word.
“Run.”
Ray tightened his arm.
But Mom didn’t run.
She walked toward us.
One step.
Then another.
Her voice shook.
But it did not bend.
“You took enough from me.”
Ray snarled, “Rachel—”
She slapped him across the face.
Hard.
He stumbled.
I dropped.
Daniel surged up from the ground and tackled him.
State police cars flooded both ends of the road.
Men shouted.
Bell dropped his gun.
Ray fought like an animal.
But this time, everyone saw.
This time, cameras were rolling.
This time, my mother stood over him as they cuffed his hands behind his back.
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And when Ray looked up at me with hatred in his eyes, I held the blue box tighter.
Because Grace had finally made it out of that room.
