Chapter 3 - THE PRICE OF A MIRACLE
The crash threw Maya sideways.
Rose screamed.
Cal fought the wheel.
“Everybody down!”
Another hit came from the left.
Metal shrieked.
Graham slammed against the door.
His useless left leg twisted beneath him.
His right leg burned with sensation.
Pain.
Real pain.
He almost welcomed it.
Then the rear window shattered.
Danny covered Eli with his body.
Maya curled around Rose.
Cal cut across two lanes.
A horn blasted.
Someone screamed outside.
The black sedan stayed with them.
“They’re trying to box us in,” Cal said.
Graham grabbed his phone.
“Call the house. Open the south gate.”
Cal hit a button on the dash.
“Team One, this is Mercer. We have a tail. Two vehicles.”
A voice answered through the speakers.
“Copy.”
Danny shouted, “They don’t care about you!”
Graham looked at him.
“They hit my car twice. I’m starting to take it personally.”
The SUV shot down a narrow side street.
The first sedan followed.
The second disappeared.
“Where’d the other one go?” Maya asked.
Cal’s jaw tightened.
“Trying to get ahead of us.”
He turned hard.
The kids slammed together.
Graham caught the seat with both hands.
Then a delivery truck pulled into the intersection.
Cal didn’t slow.
“Cal.”
“I see it.”
“Cal!”
He yanked the wheel.
The SUV cleared the truck by inches.
The sedan behind them didn’t.
A deafening crash exploded in the street.
Eli screamed.
Cal kept driving.
Five minutes later, iron gates opened in front of a limestone mansion.
They flew inside.
Men in dark suits closed the gates behind them.
Danny stared through the window.
“This is your house?”
“One of them.”
Danny looked disgusted.
“You have more than one?”
Graham opened the door.
“That bothers you?”
“My brother slept in a laundromat last week.”
Graham had no answer.
Cal helped him into the wheelchair.
Graham hated the help more than usual.
He pushed himself toward the front steps.
Then stopped.
His right foot rested on the ground.
He could feel the stone beneath his shoe.
A ridiculous thought came to him.
Stand.
He gripped the arms of the chair.
“Sir?” Cal asked.
Graham pushed.
His right leg shook violently.
His left did nothing.
But for one second, his body rose.
Half an inch.
Then he collapsed into the chair.
Danny stared.
“Don’t.”
Graham looked at him.
“Don’t what?”
“Ask her again.”
“I didn’t.”
“You were thinking about it.”
Graham glanced toward Rose.
The baby lay limp in Maya’s arms.
The blood under her nose had dried.
Graham’s excitement died.
Inside, a housekeeper named Ruth rushed forward.
“Oh, dear God.”
Graham pointed.
“Food. Hot water. Clothes. And call Dr. Claire Whitmore.”
Cal stopped.
“Your daughter?”
Graham’s expression hardened.
“Yes.”
“You haven’t spoken to her in—”
“I know how long.”
Danny looked between them.
“Is she a doctor?”
“Trauma surgeon.”
“No hospitals.”
“She can come here.”
Danny looked at Rose.
“Fine.”
Ruth led the children toward the kitchen.
Graham called after them.
“Danny.”
The boy turned.
“What?”
Graham looked at Rose.
“If her gift hurts her, why did you bring her to me?”
The question hit.
Danny’s face closed.
“Because we needed you.”
“For what?”
“You’re Graham Whitmore.”
“So?”
“My mom knew your name.”
Graham’s chest tightened.
“How?”
Danny looked at him for a long second.
“She said if anything happened to her, there was one man rich enough to protect Rose.”
Graham almost smiled.
“Your mother had bad judgment.”
Danny didn’t smile back.
“She also said you were the reason Rose was in danger.”
The room went still.
Graham felt something drop inside him.
“What was your mother’s name?”
Danny answered.
“Anna Reyes.”
Graham forgot how to breathe.
Cal saw it.
“Sir?”
Graham whispered, “That’s impossible.”
Danny stepped closer.
“You knew her.”
Graham stared at the boy.
He did.
And suddenly he understood why the men had come.
Ten years earlier, Graham Whitmore had signed a check for forty million dollars.
A check that helped build a private medical research program called Halcyon.
May you like
Anna Reyes had worked there.
And Halcyon’s director had once been Graham’s closest friend.
