Chapter 3 - The Hunter and the Prey
The morning light was gray and unforgiving as I sat in my kitchen,
watching the clock tick toward eight.
Hannah and Zoe were still asleep upstairs,
safe behind a locked door and a grandmother's vow.
I had spent the night compiling every bit of evidence into a digital dossier.
I sent copies to the FBI,
the IRS,
and a few choice contacts in the State Police.
Gavin wouldn't just be going to jail for domestic assault,
he would be going to a federal penitentiary for the rest of his natural life.
But first,
I wanted him to know exactly who had defeated him.
I didn't want him to think it was luck,
I wanted him to feel the weight of the Army he had never known I served.
I drove back to the Princeton house,
parking my old truck right in the middle of his manicured driveway.
He was standing on the porch,
looking frantic,
probably because his credit cards had been declined at the coffee shop.
“Where is she?”
he shouted as I stepped out of the vehicle.
“Where are my wife and daughter,
Taylor?”
He tried to use that commanding tone,
the one he used to make Hannah feel small.
I walked toward him,
my back straight,
my chin up,
the aura of a commander radiating from me.
He flinched as I got within three feet of him.
“They are in a place where you will never touch them again,”
I said,
my voice dropping an octave into a low growl.
“You’re crazy,”
he spat,
reaching for his phone.
“I’m calling the police.
You broke into my house last night.
I saw the floorboard.”
I didn't stop him.
I watched him try to unlock his phone,
only to see the screen frozen with a red 'X'.
“Your phone is dead,
Gavin,”
I said calmly.
“Your accounts are empty.
Your friends in the cartel have been notified that you are a federal informant.”
His face went from red to a ghostly white in a matter of seconds.
“I...
I don't know what you're talking about.”
I leaned in closer,
so close he could see the lack of mercy in my eyes.
“I spent thirty years in Military Intelligence,
you pathetic little man.”
I watched his eyes widen as the realization finally began to sink in.
“I have seen men ten times more dangerous than you beg for their lives in the mud.”
I pulled a small folder from my jacket and tapped it against his chest.
“This is the evidence of the insurance policy on Hannah.
The FBI has the original.”
He began to tremble,
the same way Hannah had trembled in my kitchen.
May you like
The bully was gone,
replaced by the coward he had always been.
