Chapter 7 - Baiting the Hook
The call took two minutes. I made sure to sound desperate, out of breath, and panicked.
I told Vance I was bleeding out and needed him to send a private medic to the cabin.
"Marcus will intercept the call. He’ll come himself," I told Claire, tossing the burner into the fireplace. "He won't trust anyone else to finish the job this time."
"How long?" she asked, pulling the slide back on her weapon.
"Two hours. Tops."
We moved with brutal efficiency.
I boarded up the lower windows, leaving only strategic kill holes.
Claire set up a triage station in the reinforced basement bathroom, moving Ava and Emma downstairs.
"Do not make a sound, no matter what you hear," I told my daughters, kissing their foreheads.
Emma hugged my neck tightly. "Come back."
"I promise," I whispered.
Upstairs, I killed the main breaker. The cabin plunged into pitch blackness.
Claire stood beside the front door, blending perfectly into the shadows.
May you like
"You didn't have to stay," I told her quietly. "You could have run."
"I stopped running a long time ago, Vale," she replied, her eyes locked on the treeline. "Tonight, we clean house."
