Chapter 7 - The Breakout

My fingers locked around the serrated handle of the heavy stainless-steel bone saw.

I didn't hesitate. I whipped my arm forward, slinging the steel tray holding Claire’s remains straight into Sheriff Vance’s knees. The heavy metal gurney slammed into him with a sickening crunch. Vance roared in agony, his service weapon discharging into the acoustic ceiling tile with an ear-splitting crack. Plaster rained down in a white fog.

The first deputy lunged. I swung the edge of the bone saw across his forearm, slicing clean through the heavy leather of his jacket. He dropped his Glock, howling as blood sprayed across the tile.

Judge Croft backed away toward the doorway, his polished composure shattering as he hammered his cane against the steel wall. "Shoot him! Put the animal down!"

I didn't wait for the second deputy to clear his holster. I grabbed the heavy rolling crash cart stocked with glass jars of formaldehyde and industrial reagents, ramming it with my full body weight straight into the doorway. The cart collided with the second deputy, shattering a dozen chemical bottles. Pungent, suffocating fumes erupted into the enclosed room, burning our eyes and throats instantly.

Croft coughed violently, clutching a linen handkerchief to his face as he stumbled out into the hallway.

I scooped up Vance’s dropped Glock from the wet floor, chambered a round, and vaulted over the shattered glass. Vance was on one knee, reaching for his ankle holster. I brought the butt of the weapon down hard against the side of his jaw. The sheriff went limp, collapsing unconscious onto the floor.

"Mark! You're a dead man in this county!" the wounded deputy wheezed through the chemical smoke.

I bolted down the corridor, shoving through the fire exit into the freezing rain of the rear loading dock.

Adrenaline burned like fire through my veins, masking the cuts on my hands. I sprinted through the tree line toward the old Ford F-250 hidden half a mile down the access road.

They had taken Ilaria. Vance said they intercepted Leo at the interstate, which meant Vanessa had my daughter at the Croft estate—the fortress on the bluffs overlooking Lake Moraine.

I jumped into the truck, tore the wires loose under the dashboard, and fired the engine.

As I threw the transmission into reverse, my burner phone buzzed on the passenger seat. It was an encrypted incoming voice call from an unlisted number.

I hit speakerphone.

"Mark?" Leo’s raspy voice came through the speaker, accompanied by static and heavy breathing. "I’m in the drainage culvert off Route 9. They didn't get the girl."

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My knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. "Vance said they took her!"

"It was a decoy, Mark!" Leo coughed, his voice ragged. "I knew Vance’s deputies were tailing my sedan, so I switched cars at the gas station in Chester. My sister Sarah has Ilaria at the marina boathouse. But Mark... Vanessa figured it out. She’s already heading there with two private security contractors. You have fifteen minutes before they find them."