Chapter 8 - The Safe House)
Daniel remembered almost nothing about the drive.
Only Naomi shouting instructions.
Martin calling backup.
The SUV pushing through traffic.
Daniel repeatedly dialing a secure number that would not connect.
Emma was at the house with Eleanor.
Daniel had left her because federal agents promised she would be safer there.
Now he could think of only one thing.
Rachel’s final warning.
Take our daughter and run.
They reached the property twenty-three minutes later.
The front gate stood open.
One security vehicle was angled across the driveway.
Its windshield had shattered.
Daniel was out of the SUV before it stopped moving.
Naomi grabbed him.
“You stay behind us.”
“My daughter is inside.”
“And you are useless to her dead.”
Agents entered first.
Daniel followed anyway.
The living room was empty.
A lamp lay broken.
Blood marked the edge of a table.
“Emma!”
No answer.
They found the first agent unconscious near the kitchen.
Alive.
The second was in the hallway.
Alive.
Drugged, according to a medic.
No bodies.
No gunfire.
Naomi shouted upstairs.
Daniel ran toward the guest bedrooms.
“Emma!”
A door opened.
Eleanor stumbled out.
Daniel caught her.
Blood ran from a cut above her eyebrow.
“Where is she?”
Eleanor gasped.
“They came through the garage.”
“Who?”
“Two men.”
“Pike?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where’s Emma?”
Eleanor pointed toward the rear staircase.
“She ran.”
Daniel did not wait.
He tore through the kitchen and out the back door.
The property bordered fifteen acres of woods.
Rain had begun.
“Emma!”
A flashlight beam moved among the trees.
Daniel ran toward it.
He heard shouting behind him.
Then a child screamed.
“Daddy!”
Daniel changed direction.
Branches tore at his tuxedo shirt.
He slipped in mud and caught himself against a tree.
“Emma!”
“Daddy!”
Closer.
He burst into a clearing.
A man stood beside a black SUV.
He held Emma by one arm.
She kicked and screamed.
Daniel recognized him.
Aaron Pike.
The retired detective who had told Daniel Rachel died accidentally.
Pike looked older now.
Gray at the temples.
But the voice was identical.
“Stop there.”
Daniel stopped.
Emma sobbed.
“Daddy!”
Pike held a pistol low against his thigh.
Daniel lifted his hands.
“Let her go.”
“Give me Rachel’s drive.”
“I don’t have it.”
Pike pulled Emma closer.
She screamed.
Daniel’s body reacted before his mind.
He moved.
Pike raised the gun.
A shot exploded.
Daniel hit the ground.
For one horrifying second he thought he had been shot.
Then Pike fell backward.
Naomi stood at the edge of the clearing with her weapon raised.
Federal agents rushed forward.
Daniel crawled to Emma.
She threw herself against him.
He held her.
Pike groaned nearby.
The bullet had struck his shoulder.
Agents cuffed him.
Daniel wanted to cross the clearing and kill him with his bare hands.
Emma’s arms around his neck stopped him.
He buried his face in her hair.
“I’ve got you.”
She shook violently.
“I’ve got you.”
Behind them, Naomi approached Pike.
“Who gave you the location?”
Pike laughed through clenched teeth.
“Doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
Pike looked past her toward Daniel.
“You think this ends because you caught me?”
Daniel stood with Emma in his arms.
Pike smiled.
“Ask your father.”
“My father is dead.”
Pike’s smile widened.
“Exactly.”
Then his expression changed.
Not triumph.
Fear.
He looked beyond Naomi toward the trees.
“Down!”
Another gunshot cracked from the darkness.
Pike jerked.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Agents opened fire toward the tree line.
Daniel covered Emma’s head and dropped behind the SUV.
More shots.
Then silence.
Naomi crawled to Pike.
The second bullet had struck his chest.
He was conscious for only a few seconds.
Naomi leaned close.
“Who shot you?”
Pike coughed.
His eyes found Daniel.
“The woman…”
Daniel moved nearer.
“What woman?”
Pike tried to breathe.
“Red…”
“What?”
“Red door…”
His body went still.
Naomi checked his pulse.
Nothing.
Daniel stared at the dead man who had lied to him about Rachel’s crash.
Pike’s final words made no sense.
Until Emma lifted her head.
“Daddy?”
“What?”
Her voice shook.
“Mommy drew a red door.”
Daniel stared at her.
“When?”
“In the secret book.”
“What secret book?”
“The one Grandma has.”
May you like
Daniel slowly looked toward the house.
Eleanor had never mentioned any book.
