Chapter 6 - THE HUNT
Adrian accelerated straight toward us.
Rachel dragged Maya behind a stone pillar.
I jumped aside as the SUV slammed into a parked car and spun across the lot.
Police officers raised their weapons.
Adrian reversed, hit another car, then tore through a side gate before anyone could block him.
He was gone in seconds.
But he had shown us something important.
He was no longer pretending this was a family disagreement.
He was desperate.
Rachel placed the flash drive inside a signal-blocking pouch.
“From now on, nobody carries the original.”
She created three encrypted copies and sent one to a federal prosecutor she trusted.
Another went to a secure police server.
The third stayed with her.
“The Caldwells can't bury this by taking one device,” she said.
At 11:40, Maya and I drove toward the old barrel warehouse in an unmarked van with officers hidden in delivery vehicles nearby.
The warehouse sat behind Caldwell Vineyards, separated from the main estate by rows of dry vines and an abandoned rail line.
I wore a wire.
Maya stayed in the van, watching the live feed.
At noon, I entered alone.
Owen stood beside two chairs.
Lily and Grace were tied to them with soft cloth around their wrists.
They looked frightened but unharmed.
Charles stood near the loading door.
Adrian stood beside him.
All three men stared at the small envelope in my hand.
“Give it to me,” Charles said.
“Release the girls.”
“You're not in a position to bargain.”
“I already copied everything.”
For the first time, Charles looked uncertain.
Adrian stepped closer.
“You're bluffing.”
“Maybe.”
I tossed the envelope onto the concrete floor between us.
Owen moved toward it.
“Girls first,” I said.
Charles nodded.
Owen untied Lily, then Grace.
The girls ran to me.
I pushed them toward a side door where officers waited out of sight.
Adrian noticed the movement.
“Police!” he shouted.
Everything happened at once.
Charles kicked the envelope under a stack of barrels.
Owen grabbed a metal hook from the wall.
Adrian rushed me.
I ducked and drove my shoulder into his chest.
He hit the floor hard.
The side doors burst open.
“Get down!” officers shouted.
Owen dropped the hook.
Charles ran for the loading dock.
A black sedan pulled up outside.
Victoria was behind the wheel.
Charles jumped in, and they sped away through the vineyard.
Officers arrested Adrian and Owen.
Maya ran to her daughters and held them both so tightly they could barely move.
I should have felt relief.
Instead, Rachel stared at the envelope under the barrels.
It was empty.
The device Charles had been tracking was not the original drive.
It was a police decoy.
Yet somehow, Charles had known exactly where to find it.
Rachel pulled the wire from my jacket.
“We have a leak.”
Her phone rang.
She listened for ten seconds, then looked at me.
May you like
“The federal prosecutor I sent the files to was just found unconscious in his office.”
His computer was gone.
