Chapter 6 - Shadows in the Dark
The three months leading up to the final trial were a test of endurance. I took a leave of absence from the emergency-response team to become a full-time father. My days were filled with making school lunches, driving Valerie to therapy, and learning how to blend organic baby food for Mateo.
Valerie was slowly changing. The hyper-vigilant, terrified look in her eyes began to fade. She started acting like a child again—laughing at cartoons, coloring outside the lines, and playing fetch with Rex in the backyard.
But our peace was an illusion.
One evening, around 2:00 AM, Rex began to growl softly from the foot of my bed. I woke instantly, my hand reaching for the flashlight on my nightstand.
I looked at the security monitor on my phone. The perimeter fence camera showed a shadow moving near my SUV. Someone was tampering with my vehicle.
Silently, I slipped out of bed, gesturing for Rex to stay and guard the children’s room. I moved through the dark house like a ghost, slipping out the back door and looping around the garage to catch the intruder by surprise.
As I rounded the corner, I saw a man in a dark hoodie kneeling by my front tire, holding a heavy metal tool. He was loosening the lug nuts on my wheels—a sabotage meant to cause a fatal accident on the highway.
"Step away from the vehicle," I said, my voice cutting through the night like a whip.
The man jumped, spinning around and lunging at me with a heavy iron wrench. My military training took over instantly. I parried his swing, grabbed his wrist, twisted it until the bone popped, and slammed him face-first onto the concrete driveway. He groaned, dropping the weapon.
I pinned him down with a knee to his spine. I pulled back his hood, revealing a face I didn't recognize. "Who paid you?" I demanded, applying pressure.
"I don't know nothing!" he screamed.
"You're tampering with a vehicle belonging to a federal emergency contractor. That's a federal offense," I lied smoothly, increasing the pressure. "Tell me a name, or I let my dog out, and he hasn't eaten tonight."
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"Sterling!" the man gasped, choking on the dirt. "Richard Sterling's assistant paid me! They wanted you in the hospital before the court date! Please, man, don't kill me!"
Instead of calling the local police immediately, I called Marcus and a trusted detective friend from my days in the service. We didn't just have a divorce case anymore. We had a criminal conspiracy.
