Chapter 8
Brooke had been taken from her friend’s apartment.
The front door showed no signs of forced entry.
She had trusted the person who came for her.
A neighbor’s camera revealed the truth.
Calvin Price had arrived shortly after sunset.
Brooke opened the door and let him inside.
Ten minutes later, he carried her unconscious body to his car.
Ruiz issued alerts across the state.
Calvin’s phone was off.
Ryan’s location remained unknown.
Then I received another message.
Tomorrow. Noon. Hale Medical Group parking garage. Level six.
Ruiz studied the message.
“He wants the evidence, but he also wants access to Victor’s estate.”
Samuel Grant explained that Victor had placed a large portion of his fortune into a private trust.
If DNA proved Ryan was Victor’s son, he might receive twenty million dollars.
However, Victor’s confession included a clause blocking anyone involved in Diane’s crimes.
Ryan needed the confession destroyed.
He also needed me silent.
At eleven the next morning, I entered the parking garage wearing a hidden microphone.
Officers waited on nearby levels.
I carried a metal case filled with fake evidence.
Ryan stood beside a black SUV.
Brooke was in the back seat.
Her mouth was taped, and her wrists were bound.
Calvin sat behind the steering wheel.
Ryan looked thinner than he had on Christmas.
But his eyes were cold.
“Bring the case.”
“Release Brooke first.”
“You’re in no position to negotiate.”
I stopped twenty feet away.
“Did you push me down the stairs?”
His expression did not change.
“This isn’t the time.”
“I need to hear you say it.”
Ryan glanced around the garage.
Then he smiled.
“You always needed explanations.”
“Did you marry me because of my mother?”
“At first.”
Brooke struggled inside the vehicle.
Ryan ignored her.
“I was supposed to find the key,” he continued. “Then you made everything difficult.”
“By trusting you?”
“By loving me.”
The answer nearly broke me.
For one terrible second, I saw the man I had married.
Then he reached beneath his coat and pulled out a gun.
“Give me the case.”
I walked forward slowly.
When I was close enough, I threw the case over the concrete barrier.
Ryan shouted and rushed toward it.
Calvin suddenly opened the driver’s door.
“Now!”
Brooke kicked the back door open.
She had freed one hand.
I ran toward her.
Ryan realized the case was falling toward the street below.
He turned back and aimed his gun at me.
Calvin struck his arm.
The shot hit the ceiling.
Police surged from the stairwell.
Ryan grabbed Calvin and fired again.
Calvin fell.
Brooke screamed.
I pulled her from the SUV as officers surrounded Ryan.
He backed toward the barrier.
“Stay away!”
Ruiz stepped forward.
“It’s finished, Ryan.”
“No. She ruined everything.”
He pointed the gun at me.
Thomas’s voice came from behind the officers.
“Son, put it down.”
Ryan looked at him.
“You’re not my father.”
“Maybe not by blood. But I raised you, and I am asking you to stop.”
For a moment, Ryan’s hand lowered.
Then he raised the gun again.
Ruiz fired.
The bullet struck Ryan’s shoulder.
He dropped the weapon and collapsed.
Officers handcuffed him.
Paramedics rushed to Calvin, who was bleeding from his side.
Brooke held my hand so tightly it hurt.
Ryan looked at me as they lifted him onto a stretcher.
“Claire,” he whispered.
I waited for an apology.
Instead, he said, “You still belong to me.”
I stepped closer.
“I never belonged to you.”
As they carried him away, Ruiz’s phone rang.
Her expression changed.
She looked at me.
“The laboratory found something in your mother’s evidence.”
“What?”
“A list of names.”
Diane and Victor had not worked alone.
May you like
One of their partners was a judge.
It was the same judge assigned to Ryan’s criminal case.
