Chapter 8
Police moved Rosa and her grandson into protective custody.
Daniel refused to send Lily back to school.
For three days, we stayed inside the hotel suite while officers searched for the person behind the threat.
The answer came from an unexpected place.
Lily was coloring at the table when she drew a man standing beside Vanessa.
He had a red cap and a tattoo on his hand.
Daniel asked who he was.
“Uncle Mason.”
Vanessa had no brother named Mason.
Lily said he visited whenever Daniel traveled.
He brought papers for Vanessa and sometimes watched the house from his car.
“He told me he was family,” she said.
Ruiz showed her photographs.
Lily pointed to Mason Cross, Patricia’s nephew.
He had served five years in prison for identity theft.
He had also worked as a private security installer.
That explained the hidden recorder.
Police searched his apartment.
It was empty.
Then Daniel received a message from Vanessa’s attorney.
Vanessa wanted immunity in exchange for Mason’s location.
The district attorney refused full immunity but offered to consider cooperation.
Vanessa gave them an address near the state line.
It was a trap.
The building was abandoned.
While officers searched it, Mason entered our hotel wearing a maintenance uniform.
He disabled the camera on our floor.
Then he knocked.
“Electrical inspection.”
I looked through the peephole and saw the tattoo on his hand.
I quietly pulled Lily into the bedroom.
Daniel called hotel security.
Mason used a stolen master key.
The lock flashed green.
Daniel threw his weight against the door as it opened.
Mason pushed from the hallway.
“Give me the girl!”
Lily whimpered behind me.
Daniel drove the door shut against Mason’s arm.
The stolen key fell onto the carpet.
Security guards rushed around the corner.
Mason ran toward the stairwell.
He escaped through a service exit before police arrived.
But he had dropped his phone.
Ruiz found messages between Mason and Patricia.
The latest had been sent after Patricia’s arrest.
Take Lily. Without the child, Daniel cannot control the trust.
Patricia had arranged the kidnapping from jail through coded calls with her lawyer’s assistant.
The assistant was arrested that evening.
Mason was still free.
The police traced his phone history to a small private airfield.
He had reserved a plane under a false name.
Daniel stared at the flight information.
“He planned to take Lily out of the country.”
Ruiz nodded.
“But now he knows we have his phone. He’ll change plans.”
The hotel was no longer safe.
Police moved us to a protected house outside the city.
Only four officers knew the address.
At midnight, Lily woke from a nightmare.
She asked if Vanessa was coming back.
“No,” Daniel said.
“Are you sure?”
Before he could answer, every alarm in the house began ringing.
An officer shouted from downstairs.
Smoke filled the hallway.
Someone had started a fire in the garage.
Daniel lifted Lily and ran toward the rear exit.
A masked man appeared beyond the door.
The tattoo on his hand was visible beneath his glove.
May you like
Mason had found us.
And he was waiting exactly where we were supposed to escape.
