Chapter 6 - The Kidnapping Attempt
Victoria’s warning changed everything.
Liam ordered the estate sealed again, but this time he did not trust the existing security staff.
He called a private protection team led by Noah Grant, a former Secret Service agent who had once served with Gerald Mercer.
Noah arrived within forty minutes.
He was calm, observant, and unimpressed by the Sterling name.
His first action was to remove every member of Gerald’s security team from duty, including Gerald himself.
“You think I’m involved?” Gerald demanded.
“I think someone used your office to disable the estate,” Noah replied. “Until I know how, everyone is a suspect.”
Gerald turned toward Liam.
“I protected your family for fifteen years.”
“And last night someone attacked my wife inside my home.”
Gerald’s jaw tightened, but he surrendered his weapon.
Avery watched the exchange from the nursery doorway.
She had changed into jeans and a sweater. Leo slept against her in a carrier secured across her chest.
Noah approached her.
“You and the baby are moving to a secure location.”
“No.”
Liam looked at her.
“Avery.”
“I’m not leaving without knowing where we’re going.”
Noah nodded approvingly.
“You shouldn’t. The location is a medical residence owned through one of my companies. No Sterling employees know it exists.”
“What about Liam?”
“He comes with you.”
“And Charles?”
Charles answered from behind them.
“I’m going to the board meeting.”
Liam turned.
“You can attend remotely.”
“If I’m absent, Samuel’s people will claim I’ve abandoned my position.”
“You may be arrested before lunch.”
“Then I’ll be arrested at my desk.”
For the first time, Avery saw something resembling courage in Charles.
Not innocence.
Not redemption.
But courage.
He looked at Leo.
“I spent most of my life protecting a company because I believed it was the same thing as protecting my family. I was wrong.”
Liam’s expression remained cold.
“You concealed fraud.”
“I did.”
“You let Mother destroy witnesses.”
“I did not know everything she did.”
“But you knew enough.”
Charles nodded.
“Yes.”
He left without asking forgiveness.
Avery, Liam, and Leo departed through a service tunnel beneath the estate. Two identical SUVs exited through different gates as decoys.
Avery sat between Noah and Liam in the real vehicle.
For twenty minutes, no one spoke.
Then Noah touched his earpiece.
“We have a tail.”
Liam turned toward the rear window.
A black motorcycle moved between lanes behind them.
“Can you lose it?” Avery asked.
“That depends on whether they want to follow us or stop us.”
The motorcycle accelerated.
The rider wore a black helmet and leather jacket. As he drew alongside the SUV, he reached inside his jacket.
Noah shoved Avery downward.
“Stay low!”
A loud metallic crack struck the window.
The glass held.
Another impact hit the rear door.
Not bullets.
Something smaller.
Avery looked down.
A silver cylinder rolled across the floor near her shoe.
Noah grabbed it and threw it into an insulated emergency container.
“Tracking device.”
The motorcycle sped ahead.
Their driver changed lanes, but a delivery truck suddenly blocked the road.
The SUV braked hard.
Leo woke and screamed.
Two men in construction uniforms jumped from the truck.
One carried a hammer.
The other held a portable glass-cutting tool.
Noah drew his weapon.
“Reverse!”
A van pulled up behind them.
They were trapped.
The man with the glass cutter attached the device to Avery’s window.
The motor screamed.
A white fracture spread across the reinforced glass.
Liam covered Avery and Leo with his body.
The window shattered inward.
A gloved arm reached through.
The attacker did not grab Avery.
He grabbed the baby carrier.
Avery screamed.
She twisted away, locking both arms around Leo.
Liam seized the attacker’s wrist and slammed it against the broken window frame.
Noah fired once into the air.
The man released the carrier.
Their driver forced the SUV onto the sidewalk, striking the delivery truck’s open door and creating enough space to escape.
The vehicle accelerated.
Avery held Leo and sobbed against his blanket.
Liam’s hand was bleeding from the broken glass.
“Is he hurt?” he asked.
“No.”
“Are you hurt?”
“I don’t know.”
Noah examined Leo quickly.
“The baby is safe.”
Avery stared through the damaged window.
The attackers did not pursue them.
They had failed.
Or perhaps they had achieved something else.
Noah opened the insulated container holding the tracking device.
His expression changed.
“This wasn’t only a tracker.”
“What is it?” Liam asked.
“A transmitter.”
“To send our location?”
“To copy nearby phone data.”
Liam checked his device.
“They hacked our phones?”
“Possibly.”
Avery thought of Margaret’s note, which she had photographed and stored in an encrypted folder on her phone.
Noah saw her face.
“What did they get?”
She opened the folder.
The image was gone.
In its place was a text file containing one sentence.
Thank you for the map.
Avery stared at the screen.
“What map?” Liam asked.
Avery enlarged the photograph saved in her email backup.
For the first time, she noticed tiny dots hidden among the handwritten letters.
May you like
They formed coordinates.
Coordinates leading to Winter Rose Conservatory.
