Chapter 2
Richard stopped smiling.
Not fully.
Men like him never let the mask fall all at once.
But one corner cracked.
“Who are you talking to?” he asked.
I closed the truck door gently, leaving Lily inside with the air running and the doors locked.
Her eyes followed me through the glass.
I wanted to stay with her.
Every part of me wanted that.
But if I only ran, Richard would chase us with lawyers, cops, lies, and money.
So I stood between him and my daughter.
The voice on the satellite phone said, “Federal notification initiated. Evidence team en route. Extraction team seven minutes.”
Richard took one step closer.
“You think a phone call scares me?”
“No.”
I slipped Lily’s cracked phone from my pocket.
The red recording light still glowed.
“This does.”
His eyes flicked to it.
Eleanor’s hand flew to her mouth.
Behind them, the police chief finally noticed the tension and started walking across the lawn.
I saw him.
Richard saw him.
“Chief Daniels,” Richard shouted. “This man is attempting to abduct my wife.”
The chief put down his plate.
He did not look surprised.
That told me plenty.
He came up the steps slowly, wiping barbecue sauce from his thumb.
“Arthur,” he said. “Let’s not make this ugly.”
I laughed once.
“My daughter is bleeding in my truck.”
He glanced toward Lily.
Then away.
“Domestic misunderstandings get complicated.”
Richard smiled again.
“There. You hear that?”
I looked at the chief.
“You just chose your side on tape.”
His face tightened.
“Tape?”
I lifted the satellite phone slightly.
“Open line.”
The chief stepped back.
Richard lunged for Lily’s phone.
I moved first.
Not fast enough to hurt him.
Fast enough to remind him I had not always been an old man in a pickup.
I caught his wrist and turned it down.
He gasped.
The legal papers fell onto the driveway.
I did not strike him.
I did not need to.
“Touch evidence again,” I said, “and I stop being polite.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Not local sirens.
Different tone.
Federal vehicles.
Richard looked toward the gate.
Eleanor whispered, “Arthur, please.”
I looked at her.
“You shoved me while my daughter was bleeding inside.”
Her lips trembled.
“She’s dramatic. Richard said—”
“Enough.”
The gate opened.
May you like
Black SUVs rolled in.
For the first time in that perfect Easter estate, Richard Mercer looked trapped.
