Chapter 5 - The Price of PrideBy sunrise, the Alexandria house resembled a command center.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere safe.”
She rubbed her eyes.
“Are bad people coming?”
I hated that question.
“No.”
Not because it was true.
Because she was five.
I brushed damp hair from her forehead.
“We’re having an adventure.”
She studied me with Caroline’s eyes.
“You’re lying.”
I almost smiled.
Her mother had said the same thing countless times.
“I’m simplifying.”
“What’s simplifying?”
“It means telling the small version.”
She considered that.
“Is there a big version?”
“Yes.”
“Can I hear it when I’m six?”
“Maybe when you’re thirty.”
She frowned.
“That’s forever.”
I kissed her forehead.
“That’s the idea.”
The Alexandria property sat behind stone walls on six wooded acres overlooking the Potomac.
Officially, it belonged to a private trust.
Unofficially, it was where foreign officials, intelligence officers, and protected witnesses stayed when Washington hotels were considered too visible.
I had purchased it through an investment partnership years earlier and later renovated it to federal security specifications.
Michael stared through the SUV window as the gates opened.
“This is yours?”
“Partly.”
“Partly?”
“I own the controlling interest.”
He looked at the house.
It was three stories of pale stone and glass, elegant without being ostentatious.
“You own the controlling interest in a mansion?”
“I own interests in several properties.”
He turned toward me.
“Who are you?”
“Your brother.”
“That answer is becoming irritating.”
Emma giggled weakly.
For the first time all day, something inside me loosened.
The medical team settled her upstairs.
By midnight, her fever was below 101.
Michael and I sat in the kitchen.
He opened the refrigerator.
It was fully stocked.
“Someone keeps groceries in your secret mansion?”
“Property staff.”
He stared at me.
“Stop saying things like that as if they’re normal.”
I poured coffee.
He sat.
“Okay.”
I knew what was coming.
“How?”
“How what?”
“You joined the Army at eighteen. Dad died when you were twenty-two. You were never some Wall Street guy.”
“No.”
“So how are you wealthy?”
“Caroline.”
His expression softened.
“My wife’s family owned Halden Aerospace.”
Michael nearly dropped his cup.
“Halden?”
“Yes.”
“The defense company?”
“Yes.”
“Her father was Robert Halden?”
“Yes.”
He stared.
“You told us her father worked in manufacturing.”
“He did.”
“That company is worth billions.”
“It was worth less when Caroline inherited shares.”
Michael sat back.
“How much did she leave you?”
“Enough.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the answer you’re getting.”
He laughed weakly.
“Sarah is going to lose her mind.”
“Sarah is not relevant.”
Michael stopped smiling.
“She’s my wife.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know what happens now.”
“Neither do I.”
He rubbed his hands together.
“She’s not evil, Caleb.”
“I didn’t say she was.”
“She loves Tyler.”
“I know.”
“She volunteers at school. She takes care of Mom. She…”
He stopped.
“What?”
“I keep trying to list good things like they erase today.”
“They don’t.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
I sat across from him.
“People are rarely one thing, Mike.”
He looked up.
“A person can be generous to people they respect and cruel to people they consider beneath them.”
His jaw tightened.
“That doesn’t make the cruelty less real.”
Michael looked away.
“Sarah grew up around money. Her whole family judged people by status.”
“That explains behavior.”
“It doesn’t excuse it.”
“No.”
We sat silently.
Then my phone rang.
Security.
“Reed.”
“Sir, we have someone at the north gate.”
“Identification?”
“Sarah Whitmore.”
I closed my eyes.
Michael stood.
“She came here?”
“Apparently.”
He grabbed his jacket.
“I’ll talk to her.”
I stopped him.
“How did she get the address?”
He froze.
Neither of us had told her.
Only a handful of people knew where Emma had been moved.
My phone rang again.
Rebecca.
“Caleb, do not go outside.”
“Why?”
“We just intercepted a text from Sarah’s phone.”
My blood chilled.
“What text?”
“She received a message thirty-eight minutes ago with the address.”
“From?”
“Unknown number.”
Michael stared at me.
Rebecca continued.
“The message said: ‘If you want to apologize, he took Emma here.’”
I stood.
“Where is Sarah now?”
“At your gate.”
Security cameras showed her sedan waiting outside.
Sarah stepped from the driver’s seat.
She was crying.
She looked genuinely terrified.
Then headlights appeared behind her.
A delivery van rolled to a stop.
I knew instantly.
“Get her inside!”
My security team moved.
Two agents emerged from the gatehouse.
The van doors opened.
A man stepped out.
His hand disappeared inside his coat.
“Down!” I shouted into the radio.
Gunfire cracked through the night.
Sarah screamed.
One agent pulled her behind the gate wall.
Another returned fire.
Michael ran toward the hallway.
I grabbed him.
“That’s my wife!”
“And running into gunfire helps nobody.”
Outside, tires screamed.
The van accelerated away.
Security vehicles followed.
Sarah was dragged through the gate.
Blood covered her blouse.
Michael shoved past me.
“Sarah!”
She collapsed into his arms.
The blood wasn’t hers.
One of the agents had been hit in the shoulder while protecting her.
Sarah sobbed uncontrollably.
“I’m sorry.”
Michael held her.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
Then she looked at me.
Whatever arrogance had lived in Sarah for years was gone.
“They knew where I was.”
“Yes.”
“They sent me here.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes widened.
“They used me.”
I crouched in front of her.
“Sarah, listen carefully. Did you tell anyone where you were going?”
“No.”
“Did you click anything in the message?”
Her face changed.
“A map link.”
My stomach sank.
Rebecca arrived fifteen minutes later.
Her technical team examined Sarah’s phone.
The map link contained tracking malware.
That meant Varga’s people had followed her location in real time.
Sarah sat wrapped in a blanket.
“I led them here.”
“Yes,” Rebecca said.
Sarah began crying again.
Michael squeezed her hand.
Then Rebecca added something none of us expected.
“But I don’t think they were trying to kill you.”
Sarah looked up.
“What?”
Rebecca displayed an intercepted communication.
One sentence.
THE WOMAN IS EXPENDABLE. THE GIRL IS THE TARGET.
Michael stopped breathing.
Sarah covered her mouth.
I looked upstairs.
At the room where Emma slept.
May you like
And for the first time since Prague, I felt something colder than fear.
I felt rage.
