Chapter 7 - The Shadows Close In
While David escorted a terrified Marcus Vance to his apartment to retrieve the backup drive, Michael drove furiously toward the safe house in the woods. David’s mention of Ashley’s brother being near Savannah had sent a wave of panic through his veins.
The sky had turned a dark, bruised purple, and a heavy summer storm was beginning to unleash torrents of rain against the windshield. Michael’s phone rang. It was an unknown number.
He answered it immediately. “Hello?”
“Michael…” Emily’s voice came through, filled with static and terror. “Michael, someone is outside the cabin. The power just went out.”
Michael’s heart stopped. “Emily! Listen to me. Take the twins and go to the hidden storm cellar under the kitchen floorboards. David told you about it, right?”
“Yes, but—" A loud crash echoed through the line, followed by the sound of splintering wood and Emily’s sharp scream.
“Emily! Emily!” Michael roared, slamming his foot onto the gas pedal. The SUV fish-tailed on the wet highway, the tires screaming against the asphalt.
“Well, well. Look who it is,” a male voice came through the phone. It wasn’t Ashley. It was her older brother, Julian Bennett—a ruthless enforcer for the family’s less-than-legal business ventures. “Michael, you really thought you were clever, didn’t you? Playing the submissive fiancé while your little dog investigator digs into our business.”
“Julian, if you touch her, or my children, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth,” Michael said, his voice dropping into a terrifyingly calm register.
“You won’t do anything, Michael,” Julian laughed. “Because right now, your precious ex-wife and those two little mistakes are sitting in the back of my van. Ashley wanted me to clean up your mess permanently. We’re heading to the old Bennett shipping warehouse at the Port of Savannah. If you want to see them alive again, you’ll bring the flash drive your hacker friend used, and you’ll sign the final transfer of Carter Enterprises over to my sister. No cops. If I see a single flashing light, the babies go into the Atlantic Ocean.”
The line went dead.
Michael slammed his fist against the steering wheel, tears of rage blinding him momentarily. He wiped his eyes, his mind racing. He called David.
“David! Julian has them. They are taking them to the Bennett warehouse at the Port of Savannah. Did you get the drive from Vance?”
“I have it,” David said, his voice turning deadly cold. “And I have Vance in the back of my truck. Michael, don’t go in there blind. I’m ten minutes away from the port. Wait for me.”
“I can’t wait, David!” Michael screamed over the sound of the storm. “He threatened my children. I’m going in.”
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Michael arrived at the Port of Savannah fifteen minutes later. The shipping yard was a labyrinth of towering metal containers, dark and ominous beneath the driving rain. In the distance, near the edge of the dark, churning ocean, stood the abandoned Bennett warehouse.
Michael parked his SUV in the shadows, grabbed a heavy iron tire iron from the trunk, and ran into the storm, his heart screaming for his family.
