Chapter 6 - Born During the StormRain began before the rescue boat reached the mainland.
He believed Adrian was merely wealthy.
He forgot Adrian had spent twenty years building an international development company whose business depended on knowing who owned land, who controlled roads, who transported supplies, and which corporations existed only on paper.
Within six hours, Marcus found a property connected to one of Victor’s shell companies.
A private medical retreat twenty-three miles offshore.
Official name:
Saint Maren Recovery Institute.
Unofficially, almost no public records existed.
The island had one dock.
One helipad.
And one private security contractor.
Adrian studied satellite photographs.
“She’s there.”
Nolan nodded.
“Probably.”
“Then we go.”
“We don’t know how many guards.”
“Find out.”
Tara interrupted.
“There’s another issue.”
She turned her laptop.
Security footage from the resort fire showed Victor’s men moving Daniel before the blaze began.
A wheelchair.
Oxygen tank.
Daniel had been loaded into a second vehicle.
“They knew we found the locker,” Tara said.
Adrian looked at Vanessa.
She had remained despite his order to leave.
“I didn’t tell anyone,” she said immediately.
Adrian no longer knew what to believe.
Marcus called.
“Coast Guard?”
“Not without evidence they can act on.”
“We have kidnapping evidence.”
“We have copied documents obtained illegally from a locker. We need something stronger.”
Adrian understood the danger.
Victor had judges.
Politicians.
Police officials.
Maybe more.
A failed rescue could get Lena killed.
Instead, they needed Victor to expose himself.
Vanessa suddenly spoke.
“He trusts me.”
Everyone looked at her.
“No,” Adrian said.
“He thinks I’m working for him.”
“You were.”
Vanessa flinched.
“Then use that.”
Adrian said nothing.
Vanessa continued.
“I can tell him you believed the woman wasn’t Lena after all. Tell him you’re angry with me and leaving California.”
“He won’t believe you.”
“He might if I give him something valuable.”
“What?”
“The flash drive.”
Nolan shook his head.
“Absolutely not.”
“A copy.”
Vanessa looked at Adrian.
“Let me fix what I helped cause.”
An hour later, she called Victor.
Adrian listened through headphones.
Victor answered warmly.
“Vanessa.”
“I need help.”
“With Adrian?”
“He found evidence.”
Silence.
“What evidence?”
“A drive.”
“Where?”
“With me.”
Victor’s voice changed.
“What’s on it?”
“I don’t know. He won’t tell me.”
“Bring it to me.”
“I want the rest of my money first.”
Adrian looked at her sharply.
Vanessa remained perfectly calm.
Victor laughed.
“There she is.”
“Do we have a deal?”
“Come to Saint Maren tomorrow.”
Got him.
They had confirmation.
The next morning Vanessa boarded Victor’s charter boat carrying a tracker inside her shoe and a fake flash drive in her purse.
Nolan and Tara followed from twelve miles away in an unmarked fishing vessel.
Adrian remained aboard with them.
Every instinct hated the distance.
At Saint Maren, Vanessa entered the main clinic.
Victor greeted her personally.
He was seventy-one, silver-haired, and still carried the polished charm Adrian remembered from family Christmas parties.
“You look nervous.”
“I am.”
“You’re safe here.”
Vanessa almost laughed at the irony.
Victor took the flash drive.
“Where’s Adrian?”
“Flying to New York.”
“Good.”
“And Lena?”
Victor’s face went still.
“Who?”
Vanessa met his eyes.
“Don’t insult me.”
Victor studied her.
Then smiled.
“You know too much.”
The door locked behind her.
Vanessa realized instantly.
Wrong move.
Meanwhile Adrian’s earpiece crackled.
Tara’s voice.
“Her tracker stopped moving.”
Nolan checked the clock.
“We go.”
The boat accelerated.
At the clinic, Vanessa was escorted downstairs.
She passed treatment rooms.
Locked doors.
A laboratory.
Then she heard screaming.
A woman.
Lena.
Vanessa shoved past the guard and looked through a half-open doorway.
Lena was strapped to a hospital bed.
Dr. Warren Vale stood beside her.
“You said the baby wasn’t due for another month!” Lena cried.
Vale prepared an injection.
“Plans changed.”
Victor entered behind Vanessa.
“The child is healthy enough.”
Lena saw Vanessa.
Her expression turned to horror.
“You.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I’m trying to help you.”
Victor laughed.
“Still lying to everyone, Vanessa?”
Lena stared between them.
Victor continued.
“Tell her how much I paid you to replace her.”
Vanessa went pale.
“That isn’t what happened.”
“But you did enjoy Adrian’s attention.”
Lena closed her eyes.
The betrayal was unbearable.
Victor walked toward the bed.
“Once the child is delivered, Lena will sign the trust documents.”
“And if she refuses?” Vanessa asked.
Victor glanced at Dr. Vale.
“She has spent eleven months mentally unstable. Tragic complications happen during childbirth.”
Vanessa understood.
They planned to kill Lena.
A distant explosion shook the building.
Victor turned.
Alarm lights flashed.
Nolan had breached the dock gate.
Adrian was already running through the clinic.
Two guards confronted him.
Tara dropped one.
Nolan tackled the second.
“Lower floor!” Tara shouted.
Adrian found the stairwell.
Another scream echoed below.
He followed it.
Victor heard his footsteps.
His composure vanished.
“Move her!”
Dr. Vale pushed Lena’s bed toward a rear corridor.
Vanessa slammed into him.
The syringe flew from his hand.
Victor struck Vanessa across the face.
She fell.
Then the basement doors burst open.
Adrian appeared.
“Get away from my wife.”
Victor pulled a gun.
Everything stopped.
Lena stared at Adrian.
“Don’t.”
Victor smiled.
“You never learned when to stop chasing ghosts.”
Adrian slowly lifted his hands.
“You want the company?”
“I want what my brother stole from me.”
“It was never yours.”
Victor’s eyes darkened.
Behind him, Vanessa crawled toward the dropped syringe.
Lena noticed.
Victor didn’t.
Vanessa grabbed it.
And drove the needle into Victor’s leg.
He shouted.
The gun fired.
A bullet shattered the overhead light.
Adrian lunged.
They crashed into a medical cart.
Nolan entered seconds later and kicked the gun away.
Tara restrained Dr. Vale.
Adrian rushed to Lena.
He cut the straps from her wrists.
“I’ve got you.”
Lena grabbed him.
“Daniel.”
“I know.”
“No. Victor moved him.”
“To where?”
“I heard them talking.”
Her breathing suddenly changed.
She doubled forward.
Adrian caught her.
“What’s wrong?”
Lena looked down.
Water spread across the hospital sheet.
Her eyes widened.
“The baby.”
Another contraction hit.
Dr. Vale’s injection had not been given.
But stress had done what Victor intended anyway.
May you like
Lena was in labor.
And the nearest hospital was twenty-three miles of ocean away.
Related Stories
