Chapter 13 - The Trap We Built

I didn’t sleep after that.

Rachel and I sat at the kitchen table with the lights low, talking in whispers so we wouldn’t wake Lily.

“They’re not working alone,” Rachel said. “Ethan and Elena have help on the outside.”

“Marcus,” I said. “The man on the USB.”

Rachel nodded. “We need to draw him out. Make him think he can finish what Ethan started.”

I looked at her. “You want to set a trap.”

“Yes. And we use the one thing they want more than anything.”

“The bracelet.”

“And Lily,” Rachel said quietly. “But we control it. We control everything.”

I hated the idea of using my daughter as bait. But I hated the idea of living in fear even more.

The next morning, I called Patricia.

“We need to talk,” I said. “About ending this for good.”

By noon, we had a plan.

We would leak information that Lily and I were staying at a small hotel outside the city — a place with poor security and only one way in and out. We would make sure Marcus heard about it through the right channels.

Then we would wait.

Detective Ramirez put plainclothes officers in the rooms on either side of ours. Cameras covered every angle.

Lily stayed with Rachel at a different location. Safe. Protected.

I went to the hotel alone.

The first night, nothing happened.

The second night, I almost convinced myself it had been a mistake.

Then, at 2:17 a.m., someone tried to pick the lock on my door.

I stayed perfectly still in the bed, pretending to sleep, the way Ramirez had instructed.

The door opened.

A man stepped inside — tall, wearing a hoodie, gloves on his hands.

He moved toward the bed.

The lights came on.

Four officers burst in from the connecting rooms.

“Police! Don’t move!”

The man tried to run. He didn’t get far.

When they pulled his hood down, I recognized him from the USB files.

Marcus Hale.

Or whatever his real name was.

Ramirez looked at me from across the room.

“It’s over,” she said. “We got him. And he’s already talking. He’s giving us everything on Ethan and Elena.”

May you like

A seven-year-old girl was walking home from school when she realized a s...

Seven-year-old Sofia knew the way home very well.Every day after school, she walked past a small bakery, an old house with a green...

A Cruel Mafia Boss Went To Adopt An Orphan—Then He Saw The Boy Had His E...

HE KICKED HIS PREGNANT SISTER-IN-LAW DOWN THE STAIRS—THEN THE PHONE ON T...

I sat on the edge of the bed and finally let myself breathe.

For the first time since the mall, I believed her.