Chapter 8 - The Night June DisappearedWe moved Nell and June again.
This time Nell chose the location.
A private oceanfront house owned through one of her friend's companies, nowhere in Mercer records.
Only five people knew.
Me.
Nell.
Gus.
Maggie.
And Nell's attorney, Sarah Colton.
For forty-eight hours, nothing happened.
I began to hate quiet.
Quiet had become the place where disaster prepared itself.
On the third night, Nell and I sat on the floor of June's temporary nursery.
June was between us, attempting to crawl.
“She hates crawling,” Nell said.
“She doesn't hate it.”
“She has your patience.”
“Meaning?”
“She wants to stand before she's learned the previous skill.”
June pushed herself upright against my knee.
Then immediately fell onto her diapered backside.
She stared at me as if I had personally betrayed her.
I laughed.
Nell smiled.
It was the first full smile she'd given me since waking in the hospital.
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You're staring.”
“I missed that.”
Her smile disappeared slowly.
“I missed a lot of things too.”
The confession sat between us.
Neither of us touched it.
June solved the problem by sneezing.
Then laughing at herself.
Nell laughed too.
I looked at them.
My wife.
My daughter.
No.
My ex-wife.
The distinction mattered.
Because love didn't erase what I had done.
“I don't expect you to come back to me,” I said.
Nell looked up.
“I know.”
“I need you to know that.”
“Why?”
“Because everything I'm doing now is for June and because I owe you the truth. Not because I think fixing Silas earns me my marriage back.”
She studied me.
“You've changed.”
“I've been changing diapers for three days.”
“That will humble anyone.”
I smiled.
Then the lights went out.
Every instinct I possessed came alive.
I reached for June.
“Nell, stay down.”
“No.”
“Nell—”
“Don't start.”
Emergency lighting flashed red.
I heard movement downstairs.
Gus's voice through the radio.
“Perimeter breach.”
“How?”
“No idea.”
I picked up June.
Nell reached beneath the changing table and produced the emergency phone I had given her.
Good.
She had listened.
The nursery door opened.
Gus.
“Rear exit. Now.”
We moved.
Two security men led us through the hall toward the back staircase.
Then an alarm screamed.
Smoke.
Not fire.
A smoke device.
Designed to create confusion.
We reached the garage.
A woman stood beside the SUV.
Sarah Colton.
Nell's attorney.
“Thank God,” she said. “Come on.”
I stopped.
Sarah looked at me.
“What?”
“How did you get inside?”
Silence.
Nell understood before I did.
“Sarah?”
The attorney's face changed.
Gus drew his weapon.
Sarah moved faster.
She hit the garage override.
The external door crashed down between us.
Smoke exploded from another device.
Someone struck me from behind.
I held June tighter.
Nell screamed my name.
Then everything became noise.
I remember falling.
I remember June crying.
I remember Nell grabbing my arm.
And I remember a man's voice saying:
“Take the baby.”
I woke on the concrete floor.
Maybe thirty seconds later.
Maybe three minutes.
Nell was beside me.
Blood ran from a small cut near her temple.
“June.”
One word.
That was all she said.
I looked around.
The garage door was open.
Sarah was gone.
So was June.
I had faced death more times than I could count.
Nothing had ever felt like that moment.
Nell tried to stand.
Her injured leg gave out.
I caught her.
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
“WHERE IS SHE?”
“We'll find her.”
She hit my chest.
“Don't tell me that!”
Again.
“You promised!”
Again.
“Roman, you promised me!”
I held her while she broke apart.
And every strike she landed felt deserved.
Gus appeared from the smoke.
“Maggie's okay. Two men down. Sarah's car headed north.”
“Track it.”
“Already doing it.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Silas.
June was crying in the background.
Nell heard it.
Her entire body froze.
“Put my daughter on video.”
Silas sighed.
“Always giving orders.”
“Video.”
A call request appeared.
I accepted.
Silas's face filled the screen.
Then the camera moved.
June sat in a woman's arms.
Alive.
Crying.
A tiny pink sock missing from one foot.
Nell made a sound beside me.
“Give her back.”
Silas looked toward her.
“Eleanor. I'm glad you survived.”
“I will kill you.”
I had never heard Nell sound like that.
Silas almost smiled.
“She has more Mercer in her than I expected.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
“You know.”
“Shares.”
“Control.”
“You take the shares. June comes home.”
“Not that simple.”
“It can be.”
“I need your signature on the transfer documents.”
“You'll have it.”
“And a public declaration.”
My jaw tightened.
“What declaration?”
“That June Hart is not your daughter.”
Nell stared at me.
Silas continued.
“You will publicly state that DNA testing proved you are not the father. You will relinquish all rights. Eleanor will sign temporary guardianship to me while she recovers.”
“No.”
Silas smiled.
“Then perhaps June remains with me.”
I stepped toward the phone as if I could reach through it.
“If you hurt her—”
“I'm not going to hurt her.”
He sounded genuinely offended.
“She is a Mercer.”
“She is a baby.”
“And worth more than your entire criminal network.”
There it was.
The thing Silas had never understood.
He thought money was the language every Mercer man eventually spoke.
He was wrong.
“I'll sign.”
Nell grabbed my arm.
Silas smiled.
“Midnight tomorrow.”
“Location?”
“You'll receive instructions.”
The call ended.
Nell rounded on me.
“You can't give him everything.”
“I don't care about everything.”
“He won't return her.”
“I know.”
She stopped.
I looked at Gus.
“Sarah knew the house.”
Gus nodded.
“But she didn't know the emergency routes,” Nell said.
“No.”
“Silas got in too easily.”
I understood what she was saying.
Someone else had helped him.
Again.
Then Maggie entered carrying something in a plastic evidence bag.
“We found this outside.”
A pink baby sock.
June's missing sock.
Inside it was a tiny silver object.
Nell stared.
“My tracker.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“The pediatric safety tag.”
She had placed it inside June's sock herself after the hospital kidnapping attempt.
I hadn't known.
Nell looked at me.
“You weren't the only one making plans.”
Despite the terror crushing my chest, I almost laughed.
Gus connected the tag.
A location appeared.
Moving north.
My daughter was alive.
May you like
And for the first time in fifteen months, Nell and I weren't reacting to someone else's plan.
We had one of our own.
