Chapter 4 - The Boy They Tried to Take
By morning, the hotel no longer felt safe.
Nothing did.
Daniel returned with the flash drive sealed inside an evidence bag and a face that told Marcus he had not found Megan.
NYPD had opened a missing-person case, but Lauren had little faith in procedures moving faster than Raymond.
Marcus had even less.
"We need to move," he said.
Lauren stood by the hotel window with her arms folded.
"Where?"
"A house in Connecticut."
She gave him a look.
"One of yours?"
"Technically, no."
"That is not reassuring."
"It belongs to Daniel's sister. No Hale company, no family trust, no employee records. Raymond does not know she owns it."
Daniel added, "I've never used it for security before. That's why it is useful."
Lauren looked at Ethan.
He was eating cereal from a paper cup and pretending not to listen.
She hated that this was becoming normal for him.
"Fine," she said. "But we take one car. Minimal people."
Marcus frowned. "Two vehicles are safer."
"One vehicle means fewer people know the route."
Daniel's mouth twitched.
Marcus noticed.
"Do not encourage her."
Daniel cleared his throat. "She has a point."
Lauren almost smiled.
They left through the hotel's service garage shortly before noon.
Daniel drove.
Marcus sat in the front passenger seat.
Lauren and Ethan were in the back.
No convoy.
No visible guards.
No black parade of vehicles announcing that someone important was inside.
For the first forty minutes, nothing happened.
Ethan watched New York thin into suburbs.
Then he asked Marcus, "Were you really going to marry Cassandra?"
Marcus looked at him in the mirror.
"No."
Lauren's eyes shifted toward the front.
"You never told her that," she said.
Marcus was silent.
Lauren understood immediately.
"You let her think you might."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because after you disappeared, I was angry. And because she was useful."
Lauren stared at the back of his head.
"Useful."
"That is not a defense."
"No, it is worse."
Marcus nodded once.
Ethan looked confused. "Did you love her or use her?"
Marcus turned slightly.
"Both can be true in unhealthy relationships."
"That's messed up."
"Yes."
Ethan looked at Lauren. "Were you two always this depressing?"
Lauren laughed before she could stop herself.
Marcus looked back.
For one brief second, his expression softened at the sound.
Lauren noticed that too.
She looked out the window.
They crossed into Connecticut.
The road narrowed.
Trees thickened on both sides.
Daniel's phone buzzed in the cup holder.
He ignored it.
Then the dashboard displayed a tire pressure warning.
Daniel frowned.
"Rear left."
Marcus looked at the mirror.
"Keep driving."
The pressure dropped rapidly.
Thirty-two.
Twenty-four.
Seventeen.
The SUV began to pull.
"We have to stop," Daniel said.
Marcus scanned the road.
A gas station appeared half a mile ahead.
Old pumps.
Small convenience store.
Two cars parked outside.
"There," Lauren said.
Marcus studied it.
"I don't like it."
"We don't have a tire."
"I still don't like it."
Daniel pulled in near the air pump.
"Stay inside."
He stepped out.
Marcus did too.
Lauren watched through the window.
Daniel crouched beside the rear tire.
Marcus stood with one hand inside his coat.
Ethan whispered, "Does he have a gun?"
Lauren did not lie.
"Probably."
"Do you?"
"No."
"Good."
Daniel stood.
His face changed.
Marcus saw it.
"What?"
"Clean puncture. Sidewall."
Marcus turned toward the road.
A white utility van entered the station.
Slowly.
Too slowly.
"Get in," Marcus said.
Daniel was already moving.
The van stopped across the station exit.
Two men stepped out.
Then a third emerged from the convenience store.
Lauren's heart slammed against her ribs.
Marcus yanked open the rear door.
"Ethan, down."
The boy obeyed instantly.
Lauren pulled him toward the floor.
The first man shouted, "We only want the boy!"
Marcus's face became something Lauren remembered from the darkest corners of their marriage.
Not anger.
Not rage.
A terrifying absence of emotion.
He closed the door.
"Daniel."
"I see them."
The man near the store raised a weapon.
A gunshot cracked.
Lauren screamed and covered Ethan's head.
The rear window shattered.
Marcus fired back from behind the engine block.
Daniel moved toward the driver's side.
"Lauren! Front seat!"
She understood.
They needed the car moving even on the ruined tire.
She pushed Ethan across the floorboards and climbed over the center console.
Another shot shattered a side mirror.
Lauren started the engine.
"Seat belt!" she shouted.
"Mom, seriously?"
"Now!"
Even in terror, Ethan obeyed.
Daniel jumped into the back.
Marcus was still outside.
Lauren shouted, "Marcus!"
One of the attackers rushed toward the passenger side.
Marcus slammed him against the hood, tore the weapon away, and struck him hard enough to send him down.
The man from the van moved toward Ethan's door.
Lauren hit the accelerator.
The SUV lurched forward on the failing tire.
The man jumped back.
Marcus grabbed the passenger handle and climbed in while the vehicle was moving.
"Go!"
"The van is blocking us!"
"Then don't use the exit."
Lauren understood.
She turned hard across the grass beside the gas station.
The SUV bounced violently.
Ethan yelled.
Daniel braced himself against the seat.
Lauren drove over a low curb, through a strip of wet grass, and onto the road fifty yards beyond the blocked driveway.
The vehicle pulled badly to the left.
She fought the wheel.
"They're following," Daniel said.
The white van came behind them.
Marcus looked at Lauren.
"Can you keep it straight?"
"Unless you want to drive from my lap, yes."
Daniel almost laughed despite the situation.
Marcus did not.
"Three miles ahead, left turn," Daniel said. "State police barracks."
Lauren pressed harder on the accelerator.
The van gained.
Then Ethan said, "Dad, you're bleeding."
Lauren's eyes flashed toward Marcus.
Blood darkened the sleeve of his coat.
"I'm fine," Marcus said.
"That's what people say when they're not fine," Ethan snapped.
Marcus looked down.
A bullet had grazed his upper arm.
Not deep.
Enough blood to frighten a child.
"It's a scratch."
Ethan stared at him.
"Don't die before I decide if I like you."
Marcus looked at him.
Something almost like a smile broke through the pain.
"I'll do my best."
The state police barracks came into view.
The van slowed.
Then turned away.
Lauren did not stop until the SUV was inside the secured lot.
Her hands were shaking so badly she could barely put the vehicle in park.
The moment the engine stopped, she turned and grabbed Ethan.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Anywhere? Glass? Cuts?"
"Mom, I'm okay."
She pulled him against her.
He let her.
For ten full seconds, he was not the sharp, serious ten-year-old who spoke like a forty-year-old accountant.
He was her little boy.
Then he pulled back.
"Dad needs help."
Lauren looked at Marcus.
He had one hand pressed over the bleeding wound.
State troopers surrounded the vehicle.
Paramedics were called.
Questions began.
Marcus refused to leave until Ethan was checked.
Ethan refused to leave until Marcus was checked.
Lauren wanted to scream at both of them.
Instead she stood between them while a paramedic cleaned glass from Ethan's jacket and another wrapped Marcus's arm.
"You need stitches," the paramedic told Marcus.
"Later."
Lauren's head snapped toward him.
"Now."
Marcus looked at her.
"Lauren-"
"You got shot protecting my son. You are getting stitches before you bleed all over a police station and give him one more thing to worry about."
Marcus glanced at Ethan.
The boy nodded solemnly.
"She's right."
Marcus exhaled.
"Fine."
The word sounded deeply offended.
For the first time that day, Ethan smiled.
The smile was Lauren's.
Marcus stared at it as though he had been given something priceless.
At the emergency room, Daniel received the first useful call.
One attacker had been arrested after the white van crashed six miles away during a police pursuit. The others escaped on foot.
The captured man carried a burner phone.
One recent message remained on the device.
TAKE THE BOY ALIVE. DO NOT HURT LAUREN UNLESS NECESSARY. MARCUS IS EXPENDABLE.
Below it was a payment transfer from an account connected to a company called Red Oak Consulting.
Daniel recognized the name.
So did Marcus.
"Raymond's shell company," Marcus said.
Lauren stared at him.
"Your uncle just tried to kidnap Ethan?"
"It looks that way."
"Why alive?"
Marcus's eyes darkened.
"Leverage."
"Against you?"
"Against the family trusts. Against me. Against anyone who might challenge him."
Lauren felt sick.
Ethan sat on the edge of an examination bed, listening.
"I'm not going to Chicago," he said.
Marcus turned.
"No one said you were."
"Ever."
Lauren put a hand on his shoulder.
Marcus was quiet.
"That's your choice," he said.
Ethan looked at him suspiciously.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Even if you're my father?"
"Especially then."
Ethan looked away.
A nurse came to move Marcus for stitches.
As he stood, his phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
There was a photograph attached.
Megan.
She sat tied to a chair in what looked like a warehouse, a bruise across one cheek.
Below the image were six words.
BRING THE ORIGINAL DRIVE TO CHICAGO.
Then another message appeared.
AND BRING YOUR SON.
Marcus stared at the screen.
Lauren read it over his shoulder.
"No."
Marcus looked at her.
"I know."
"We're not using Ethan as bait."
"I know."
"And you are not trading him for Megan."
"I know."
Lauren searched his face.
"Then what are you going to do?"
Marcus looked down the hallway toward Ethan.
His voice was almost calm.
"For most of my life, Raymond taught me that power means making people afraid of what happens if they refuse you."
May you like
He looked back at Lauren.
"I think it is time he learns what happens when nobody is afraid of him anymore."
