Chapter 9 - BLOOD FAMILY
I shoved David sideways.
The shot hit the wall.
Matteo fired toward the ceiling camera.
It shattered.
“DOWN!”
Rachel dropped beneath the table.
Alessandro’s men returned fire toward the corridor.
A shooter disappeared behind the corner.
David grabbed his sister.
“What the hell is happening?”
Rachel was crying.
“Mercer has my daughter.”
David froze.
“Emma?”
“He took her this morning.”
I had met Emma twice.
Seven years old.
Missing front tooth.
Loved purple.
Rachel grabbed David’s jacket.
“He said I had to bring you here.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Rachel!”
“I DON’T KNOW!”
The raw terror in her voice silenced everyone.
Another shot hit the doorway.
Matteo yelled, “We need to move!”
We pushed deeper into the morgue.
Metal drawers lined the walls.
Rachel covered her mouth.
“I’m sorry.”
David pulled her forward.
“Apologize later.”
I looked at her.
“You’re really a federal prosecutor?”
She nodded.
“I’ve been building a corruption case against Mercer for eleven months.”
“Did you know David was alive?”
She looked at me.
That hesitation answered everything.
My heart hardened.
“You knew.”
“Catherine—”
“You came to Logan’s second birthday.”
“I know.”
“You stood in my kitchen and watched me cry because I said he looked like David.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I know.”
“You let me hug you because we both ‘missed him.’”
“I was protecting you.”
I laughed.
“That phrase should be illegal in this family.”
David looked away.
We reached another corridor.
Alessandro checked his phone.
“We have movement outside.”
“How many?”
“Too many.”
Rachel took a breath.
“Mercer controls part of hospital security.”
Of course he did.
This hospital had become a maze full of people lying to me.
I suddenly remembered Linda.
“Where’s my supervisor?”
Rachel frowned.
“Linda?”
“She texted me.”
David looked at the phone.
“Nothing since.”
A scream came from farther down the corridor.
Female.
I recognized it.
“Linda.”
I ran.
David caught me.
“Wait.”
“That’s her.”
“She could be bait.”
“I know.”
I went anyway.
We found Linda in a laundry room.
Blood ran from her forehead.
Her wrists were zip-tied.
When she saw me, she sobbed.
“I’m sorry.”
I cut her hands free with medical scissors.
“Where’s Mercer?”
“He left.”
“With who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is Emma?”
Linda shook her head.
“I only heard something.”
Rachel grabbed her.
“What?”
“He said the child was at a church.”
Rachel’s face went blank.
“Which church?”
“He called it Saint Michael’s.”
David swore.
“I know it.”
Rachel looked at him.
“How?”
“We got married there.”
Everyone turned toward me.
Saint Michael’s.
The tiny stone church where David and I had exchanged vows.
The church where his parents’ memorial plaques hung in the back chapel.
My stomach sank.
“He wants us there.”
David nodded.
“Yes.”
Linda started crying again.
“He’ll kill me.”
Alessandro crouched in front of her.
“Then help us kill his advantage.”
She looked terrified.
Alessandro corrected himself.
“Not him. His advantage.”
I glared.
He shrugged.
“Trying to improve.”
Linda gave us Mercer’s private security access code.
Rachel used it to pull camera feeds.
One screen showed Saint Michael’s.
Emma sat in a pew.
Alone.
Alive.
Rachel sobbed.
Then another figure entered the frame.
Logan.
My brain stopped.
“No.”
David leaned toward the screen.
“What?”
My son walked down the church aisle holding Captain Bear.
Behind him was the diner owner.
Hands raised.
A gunman pushed both of them forward.
I couldn’t breathe.
“How did they get him?”
Alessandro looked murderous.
One of his guards checked his phone.
“The men we left behind aren’t answering.”
I grabbed David.
“You promised.”
His face collapsed.
I screamed at him.
“YOU PROMISED HIM YOU’D COME BACK!”
On the screen, Mercer stepped from behind the altar.
He looked directly into the security camera.
Then he held up a phone.
Mine rang.
I answered.
Mercer smiled on-screen.
“Bring me the card, Catherine.”
I could barely speak.
“If you hurt him—”
“I won’t.”
He stroked Logan’s hair.
My entire body shook with rage.
“As long as his mother behaves.”
Then Mercer held up two fingers.
May you like
“Twenty minutes.”
The feed went black.
