Chapter 5 - The Safehouse on the River
""She didn't try to kill me, Thomas,"" Julian said, his voice dropping into a harsh murmur against the cold glass of the phone booth outside the abandoned station. ""She went after Lily.""
A heavy silence lingered on the other end of the line, thick with static and unspoken history. Thomas Miller was his late wife Elena’s older brother—a former military contractor who had severed all ties with the Vance family after Elena died, convinced her death was no accident.
""Where are you?"" Thomas barked, the cold indifference instantly vanishing.
""Route 9, near the old mill. Car's damaged. Plates are gone. They froze my accounts thirty minutes ago.""
""Ditch the car. Walk half a mile south along the riverbank to the old bait shop. Don't touch the main road. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. If you’re followed, don’t lead them to me."" The line went dead.
Julian returned to the SUV, wrapped Lily tightly in his wool coat, and carried her in his arms. The rain had turned into a steady, freezing drizzle. The mud along the riverbank sucked at his leather dress shoes, but he didn't slow down. With every step, the burning pain in his jaw and bruised ribs reminded him that the battle had officially begun. Lily nestled her head against his neck, shivering quietly, holding her breath whenever the beam of distant headlights swept across the canopy of pines above them.
The bait shop was a rotting wooden shack half-submerged in shadows beneath weeping willows. Julian crouched behind an overturned aluminum canoe, his breath misting in the cold air.
Ten minutes later, a battered, dark-blue pickup truck rolled silently down the dirt track with its headlights turned completely off. The driver’s door opened, and a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing a field jacket stepped into the gloom. Thomas’s scarred face looked weathered by years of bitterness, his piercing gray eyes scanning the treeline before locking onto Julian’s crouched figure.
""Get in,"" Thomas commanded quietly, stepping aside.
Julian slid into the passenger seat, holding Lily tight. Thomas pulled an old army blanket over the child, threw the truck into reverse, and drifted back down the gravel road without turning on the lights until they were two miles deep into the pine barrens.
""She’s hurt,"" Julian said, his voice cracking slightly.
Thomas glanced sideways at the white gauze around the little girl’s arm, his jaw muscle clenching until the tendons stood out like corded steel. ""Victoria?""
""Both of them. Victoria hit her. Eleanor watched and told me she got what she deserved.""
Thomas stared straight through the rainy windshield into the darkness. ""You finally figured out what kind of monsters you were living with, little brother. But it’s worse than you think. Eleanor didn't just file an emergency custody claim an hour ago.""
May you like
Julian snapped his head toward him. ""What did she do?""
""She went to the media,"" Thomas said coldly. ""They're calling it an amber alert. Julian Vance, wealthy attorney, suffering a psychotic break, has kidnapped his four-year-old daughter at gunpoint.""
