Chapter 4 - THEY WERE READY TO RUN
I handed the phone to Lily.
“Sweetheart, stay inside. Keep talking to the lady.”
Her eyes widened.
“Daddy, don’t go.”
“I’m staying right outside.”
I locked the front door behind me and ran across the lawn.
Daniel saw me.
“Get in the car!” he shouted.
Vanessa ran toward his black SUV.
“Daniel!”
I cut across the driveway.
Daniel stepped in front of me.
“Back off.”
“You touched my daughter.”
His jaw tightened.
“I never touched her.”
“I watched you lock her in a room.”
“She was out of control.”
“You don’t even get to say her name.”
Daniel shoved me.
I stumbled back.
Something inside me wanted to hit him.
Wanted to knock him into the pavement.
But sirens were already coming.
I heard them in the distance.
So did Daniel.
His expression changed.
He reached for the driver’s door.
I grabbed his jacket.
He swung.
His fist caught my cheek.
Pain burst through my face.
I hit the ground.
Vanessa screamed.
Not because she cared about me.
Because the first police cruiser turned onto our street.
Daniel jumped into the SUV.
Vanessa hesitated.
“Get in!” he yelled.
She looked at me.
Then at our house.
For one second, I thought she might run back to Lily.
She didn’t.
She climbed into Daniel’s car.
The SUV shot backward.
A patrol car blocked the street.
Daniel jumped the curb.
Tires tore through a neighbor’s flower bed.
The SUV disappeared around the corner.
Officer Ramirez ran toward me.
“Sir, are you Ryan Parker?”
“Yes.”
“Your daughter is inside?”
“Yes.”
“Any weapons in the house?”
“No.”
“Any weapons with the suspects?”
“I don’t know.”
That answer terrified me.
Two officers entered my house.
Another helped me to my feet.
My cheek was already swelling.
Then I heard Lily crying.
“Daddy!”
She ran out with a female officer.
I knelt.
She wrapped her arms around my neck.
“I thought Mommy took you.”
“No one’s taking me.”
Officer Ramirez crouched beside us.
“We’re going to need the videos.”
“You can have everything.”
He nodded toward Daniel’s house.
“You know him?”
“Daniel Mercer. Lives there.”
Ramirez spoke into his radio.
Then another officer emerged from Daniel’s property.
“Front door’s unlocked.”
They searched it.
Ten minutes later, Ramirez came back outside.
His face was different.
“What?”
He looked at Lily.
Then at me.
“Can someone stay with your daughter?”
My neighbor, Mrs. Collins, had come outside after hearing the sirens.
Lily knew her.
I didn’t want Lily away from me, but Ramirez’s expression told me I needed to listen.
Mrs. Collins took Lily inside my house.
Ramirez lowered his voice.
“We found luggage.”
“I saw Daniel carrying a bag.”
“Not just luggage.”
“What else?”
He glanced toward Daniel’s garage.
“Passports.”
My stomach dropped.
“Whose?”
“Daniel’s. Vanessa’s.”
He paused.
“And your daughter’s.”
I stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
He said nothing.
“Lily’s passport is in my office safe.”
Ramirez’s eyes narrowed.
“Then you’d better check your safe.”
I ran inside.
Upstairs.
Office.
The safe door was closed.
I entered the code.
It beeped red.
Wrong.
I tried again.
Red.
Someone had changed it.
And suddenly I remembered something from three months earlier.
Vanessa standing in my office.
Asking why I had renewed Lily’s passport.
At the time, I thought it was a strange question.
Now I knew it wasn’t.
May you like
They hadn’t just been hurting my daughter.
They had been planning to take her.
