Chapter 8 - BENEATH THE MILL
Gunfire tore through the dark.
I dropped to the floor and crawled toward Dad’s voice.
Someone kicked me in the ribs. I caught the person’s ankle and pulled hard.
A man fell beside me.
Emergency lights flashed on.
Nathan was struggling with Juliette near the open vault. Owen had rolled behind a steel support beam. Dad lay on his side, still tied to the chair.
Captain Shaw aimed at me.
Before he could fire, Nathan shoved Juliette into him.
The bullet struck a pipe above my head.
Steam filled the room.
I reached Dad and cut the ropes with a piece of broken glass.
“Can you walk?”
“If you can, I can.”
Shaw fired again.
We ran through the blue door.
The room behind it was larger than I expected. Shelves held corporate files dating back twenty years. Cash filled plastic tubs. On a desk sat passports, police badges, and bottles of medication from Briarwood Recovery Center.
Dad stared at them.
“My company paid for this.”
“Juliette’s company,” I said. “You stopped looking a long time ago.”
His face crumpled, but there was no time for guilt.
Nathan dragged Owen inside and locked the blue door.
“Where’s Juliette?” I asked.
“Gone.”
“Did you help her?”
He grabbed my shoulders. “I just saved your life.”
“You also kidnapped my father.”
“To get inside this room.”
Dad struck Nathan across the face.
Nathan stumbled back.
“That was for the hospital,” Dad said.
A pounding noise came from the other side of the door.
Shaw was trying to break in.
Owen pointed toward the floor.
“There’s a tunnel. It leads to the river.”
We moved a cabinet and found a metal hatch.
Nathan opened it.
A narrow ladder descended into darkness.
Dad went first, then Owen. I followed. Nathan closed the hatch above us.
The tunnel smelled of mud and gasoline.
Halfway through, we heard boots behind us.
Shaw had found the hatch.
“Keep moving,” Nathan said.
The tunnel ended at a drainage channel beside the river. Lena’s teams should have been waiting, but there was no sign of them.
Then three black vehicles appeared on the access road.
I expected federal agents.
Instead, armed men stepped out wearing Nathan’s company uniforms.
Nathan raised both hands.
“They’re mine.”
Lena emerged from the lead vehicle.
Relief rushed through me.
Then I saw the gun pressed against the back of her head.
Juliette stepped out behind her.
“Everyone on your knees,” my sister ordered.
Nathan looked at his guards.
“Don’t listen to her.”
None of them moved.
Juliette smiled.
“You really should check who signs your employees’ paychecks.”
Captain Shaw climbed from the tunnel and aimed his gun at Nathan.
“The evidence is still inside,” he said.
“Burn it,” Juliette replied.
Shaw poured gasoline into the drainage tunnel.
My stomach tightened.
The smell took me back five years—to smoke, broken glass, and Juliette standing over me while flames climbed the walls.
Shaw struck a match.
Owen suddenly ran at him.
The gun fired.
Owen fell into the river.
The burning match dropped into the gasoline.
May you like
Flames raced toward the mill.
And Juliette ordered her men to throw me in after Owen.
