Chapter 12 - OLD MILL ROAD
Police found the property twenty minutes later.
An abandoned farmhouse.
No nearby neighbors.
One gravel road.
No lights.
Perfect place to disappear someone.
I stayed in the command vehicle with Noah.
At least, that was the plan.
Then the radio crackled.
“Female located.”
My entire body tensed.
“Which female?”
No answer.
Then paramedics moved in.
A stretcher came out.
Vanessa.
Alive.
Barely.
Her face was bruised.
Her hands were bound.
She saw me through the windshield.
Her eyes filled.
I didn’t move.
A medic opened the vehicle door.
“She keeps asking for you.”
I looked at Noah.
He held my hand.
“I’ll be right here,” Lauren said.
I walked to the ambulance.
Vanessa could barely speak.
“Mason…”
“Where’s my mother?”
“He took her inside.”
“Why are you outside?”
“He left me.”
“For dead?”
She nodded.
I felt no satisfaction.
Only exhaustion.
“You said he was your partner.”
“He was.”
“What changed?”
“I tried to leave.”
“When?”
“After Noah.”
I stared at her.
“After you locked him in the car?”
Her face crumpled.
“When I saw him crying through the window, I knew I had become him.”
“Become who?”
“My father.”
I didn’t care about her childhood at that moment.
Maybe someday.
Not then.
“Where is my mother?”
“Basement.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Then Vanessa grabbed my wrist.
“Mason wired the house.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He has gasoline. Propane. He said if police come in, he burns it.”
I ran toward Ramirez.
“Stop!”
He turned.
“What?”
“The house is rigged.”
Everything changed.
Officers pulled back.
Bomb squad moved forward.
Then a speaker inside the farmhouse crackled to life.
Mason’s voice echoed outside.
“Ethan!”
I looked at the house.
“You have something of mine!”
Ramirez told me not to answer.
Mason laughed.
“You want your mother?”
A second-floor curtain moved.
Then Mom appeared at the window.
Her hands tied.
A gun pressed to her head.
I stopped breathing.
“Bring me the flash drive!”
Ramirez whispered, “We can stall him.”
“No.”
“Ethan.”
“He’ll kill her.”
“We don’t know that.”
“I do.”
I stepped forward.
“I have it!”
Mason shouted back.
“Come inside!”
“No!”
His laugh carried through the dark.
“Then watch your mother die.”
The gun pressed harder against her temple.
Mom screamed.
I looked at Ramirez.
Then at Vanessa in the ambulance.
Then at Noah.
My son was watching from the command vehicle.
I remembered him behind the glass.
Terrified.
Waiting for someone to choose him.
So I made my choice.
May you like
I walked toward the farmhouse.
Alone.
