Chapter 6
Brooks called the security team protecting Lily.
No one answered.
She tried again.
Still nothing.
Daniel took off running before the ambulance arrived.
Aaron attempted to stand.
Blood spread across his sleeve.
“You’re staying here,” I told him.
“Lily is in danger.”
“And you’ll be no help if you collapse.”
A medic forced Aaron onto a stretcher.
Daniel, Brooks, and I raced back to the federal building with two agents.
Every red light felt endless.
Daniel called Claire.
The call connected after four rings.
“Claire, where are you?”
A man answered.
“Your aunt can’t come to the phone.”
Daniel’s face drained of color.
“Reed.”
“I need the necklace.”
“You already know we have it.”
“And I know Vanessa failed to take it.”
“What have you done with Lily?”
“She’s safe for now.”
I leaned toward the phone.
“If you hurt my granddaughter—”
Reed laughed.
“Margaret, your family has been threatening me for twelve years. I’m still here.”
“What do you want?”
“The necklace and Victor Hale. Bring both to the old St. Gabriel chapel outside McKinney.”
“Let me speak to Lily,” Daniel demanded.
There was a pause.
Then Lily’s frightened voice came through.
“Daddy?”
“I’m here, sweetheart.”
“Mr. Marcus said Grandma sent him.”
“I didn’t,” I said. “He lied to you.”
“Where is Aunt Claire?”
Claire cried out in the background.
“I’m here, Lily.”
Reed returned to the call.
“One hour, Daniel. Come with Brooks if you like. I always wanted her to see who wins.”
He disconnected.
Daniel struck the dashboard.
Brooks contacted the building.
The response team reported that two officers had been found unconscious in a service stairwell.
Reed had used an old federal credential to enter.
Claire and Lily were gone.
“This is my fault,” Brooks said.
Daniel turned on her.
“You knew Reed’s access hadn’t been canceled?”
“It was canceled.”
“Then how did he get inside?”
“He still has help.”
Daniel looked out the window.
“Judge Mallory.”
Brooks nodded.
“Or someone above him.”
At the warehouse, Victor refused to cooperate until Brooks played Reed’s recording.
His confidence collapsed.
“He’s going to kill me.”
“Help us find Lily,” Daniel said, “and I’ll make sure he doesn’t.”
Victor looked at him.
“You think prison will protect me?”
“No. But I’m the only person in this room who wants Reed alive long enough to confess.”
Victor considered that.
“What does the necklace open?” Brooks asked.
“It doesn’t open anything. The memory card contains half a digital signature.”
“We removed the card.”
“There are two cards inside the locket.”
Daniel immediately checked it.
Beneath the first compartment was a second piece of plastic no larger than a fingernail.
Victor nodded.
“Emily split the signature into three parts. One was in the necklace. One was on the flash drive. She memorized the final sequence.”
“What does the signature control?”
“A reserve account holding almost forty million dollars.”
Brooks stared at him.
“Money stolen from the victims?”
“Some of it. Emily redirected the network’s funds before the crash. Reed kept her alive because only she could release them.”
“And now he wants Lily,” I said.
“Emily built a final safeguard. The account requires a voice sample from her designated heir.”
Daniel’s eyes widened.
“Lily.”
Victor nodded.
“Reed needs Emily, Lily, and the necklace in one place.”
“Then they’ll both be at the chapel,” Brooks said.
Victor shook his head.
“St. Gabriel is where Reed executes people. He won’t keep Emily there. He’ll bring Lily, record what he needs, and remove her.”
“Remove?” Daniel asked.
Victor looked away.
Daniel grabbed his shirt.
“Say it.”
“Kill her.”
I slapped Victor before anyone could stop me.
“You helped them.”
“I never touched the child.”
“You created a passport to steal her.”
“That was Vanessa’s plan.”
“And you went along with it.”
Daniel pushed Victor back into his chair.
“We’re going to the chapel.”
Brooks prepared a controlled transfer.
Victor wore a tracking device beneath his shirt.
Daniel carried the necklace.
I was ordered to stay inside the command vehicle.
I refused.
“Reed asked for Daniel and Victor,” Brooks said. “If he sees you, he may react.”
“Lily was told I sent him. She needs to see me.”
“Margaret—”
“She needs to know her grandmother did not betray her.”
Daniel placed a hand on Brooks’s shoulder.
“She’s coming.”
St. Gabriel had been abandoned for fifteen years.
The small brick chapel stood beyond a field of dead grass.
Its bell tower leaned to one side.
No vehicles were visible.
Brooks’s team took positions in the trees.
Daniel walked toward the front door with Victor.
I followed several steps behind them.
The doors opened before we reached the porch.
Reed stood inside.
He wore no jacket.
The silver watch gleamed on his wrist.
“Daniel,” he said. “Bring Victor forward.”
“Where is Lily?”
“Inside.”
“Let me see her.”
Reed stepped aside.
Lily sat on a pew with her hands tied.
Claire was beside her.
Vanessa stood behind them holding a gun.
Her torn wedding gown had been replaced with black clothes.
“You survived,” Daniel said.
Vanessa smiled coldly.
“Disappointed?”
“Reed ordered Victor to kill you.”
She glanced at Reed.
“He forged that recording.”
Victor shouted from the doorway.
“He left us in the warehouse!”
Reed raised his weapon.
“Victor, come inside.”
Victor stopped.
“You were going to kill me.”
“You failed.”
“I kept this organization alive while you hid behind a badge.”
“And you became careless because you fell in love with Vanessa.”
Vanessa looked at Victor.
The accusation struck her harder than the threat.
“You told him?” she demanded.
Victor shook his head.
“Vanessa, he’s turning us against each other.”
“You were supposed to take the necklace.”
“I tried.”
“You ran when the agents arrived.”
“You ran too!”
Their argument gave Daniel time to move closer to Lily.
Reed noticed.
“Stop.”
Daniel froze.
Lily’s face was wet with tears.
“Daddy.”
“I’m here.”
Reed pointed toward the altar.
“Place the necklace there.”
Daniel removed it.
“Release Claire first.”
“No.”
“She has nothing to do with this.”
“Neither did most of the people whose money built your company.”
Daniel stared at him.
“My company was founded with my father’s savings.”
Reed smiled.
“Ask Margaret where Thomas got those savings.”
I felt the floor shift beneath me.
“What are you saying?”
“Thomas Carter managed accounts for First Meridian. He helped create the first reserve fund.”
“No.”
Aaron had worked at the same bank.
He had discovered the network there.
Reed continued.
“Your husband wasn’t an innocent father searching for a missing son. He knew why Aaron vanished.”
I wanted to call him a liar.
Then I remembered Thomas hiding the blood found inside Aaron’s car.
Maybe he had hidden far more.
“Thomas tried to leave,” Victor said. “That’s why Reed threatened Daniel.”
Reed aimed at him.
“Be quiet.”
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
“You said Thomas died naturally.”
“He did.”
“You told me no one could leave.”
“No one leaves with my money.”
Vanessa suddenly turned her weapon toward Reed.
He fired first.
The bullet struck the wall beside her.
Lily screamed.
Daniel rushed forward.
Vanessa grabbed Lily and pressed the gun near her shoulder.
“Back up!”
Daniel stopped.
“Vanessa, let her go.”
“She destroyed everything.”
“She is six years old.”
“You chose her over me before we even met.”
“You targeted me because you helped destroy her mother.”
“I was supposed to become her mother!”
Lily cried harder.
“You’re not my mommy.”
Vanessa’s face twisted.
She tightened her arm around Lily.
I stepped toward her.
“Vanessa, look at me.”
“Stay back.”
“You don’t want Lily. You want Daniel to choose you.”
“He promised we would be a family.”
“You built that promise on lies.”
“He loved me.”
Daniel’s voice was firm.
“I loved the woman you pretended to be.”
Vanessa flinched.
Daniel continued.
“The real you frightened my daughter, struck her, and planned to drug her.”
“She was always in the way.”
“No,” he said. “You were.”
Vanessa looked at Reed.
He was slowly moving his weapon toward her.
I saw it.
So did she.
She turned her gun.
In that instant, Lily bit Vanessa’s arm.
Vanessa screamed.
Lily ran.
I caught her and pulled her behind a pew.
Gunfire erupted.
Daniel tackled Vanessa.
Victor lunged at Reed.
Claire crawled toward us.
Brooks’s agents burst through the doors.
Reed kicked Victor away and escaped through a passage behind the altar.
Vanessa fought Daniel until Brooks pinned her to the floor.
“You’re under arrest,” Brooks said.
Vanessa laughed wildly.
“You still need me.”
“No,” Daniel said. “We never did.”
I untied Lily and Claire.
Lily wrapped herself around me.
“You didn’t send him?”
“Never.”
“I knew he was lying.”
“You were very brave.”
“I don’t want to be brave anymore.”
I held her tighter.
“You don’t have to be.”
Brooks sent agents into the passage.
A minute later, one returned.
“The tunnel leads to the cemetery. Reed had a vehicle waiting.”
Daniel looked around.
“Where is Victor?”
We found him near the altar.
He had been handcuffed by an agent.
Reed had escaped alone.
Vanessa sat on the floor with her wrists secured.
She stared at Victor.
“You knew he would betray us.”
Victor looked away.
“You stopped listening to me years ago.”
“You’re pathetic.”
“And you’re going to prison.”
Vanessa smiled.
“So are you.”
Brooks approached her.
“Where is Emily?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Daniel knelt in front of her.
“You spent three years trying to replace her. You failed. Tell me where Reed is holding her.”
Vanessa leaned closer.
“I can take you to Emily.”
“Then do it.”
“But first, I want a deal.”
“You kidnapped my daughter.”
“I also know which judge protected Reed, which officers destroyed evidence, and where every missing child was sent.”
Brooks’s expression remained cold.
“You can tell a prosecutor.”
Vanessa looked at Lily.
“And I know what Emily did the night of the crash.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“What did she do?”
“She made a choice.”
“What choice?”
Vanessa smiled.
“She chose which daughter Reed was allowed to take.”
Daniel stared at her.
“I only have one daughter.”
May you like
Vanessa’s smile widened.
“That’s what Emily let you believe.”
