Chapter 7 - The Hostage Exchange
I screamed in absolute terror as a pool of dark blood spread across Eleanor's white blouse.
David immediately laid down suppressive fire, shooting blindly out of the container to keep the sniper pinned down.
He dragged Eleanor behind a heavy wooden crate and quickly applied a tight tourniquet to her side.
She was still breathing, but her pulse was fading incredibly fast.
My burner phone began to ring from my pocket, the loud sound echoing in the small space.
I answered it, my hands shaking violently as I listened to Richard's cruel laughter.
"You have exactly one hour to bring yourself to the old Whitmore estate on the hill," Richard demanded.
"If you walk through the front doors alone, I will send a medevac helicopter to save my dear wife."
"If you do not show up, she bleeds to death in the dirt."
David grabbed my arm and shook his head, begging me not to walk into a guaranteed death trap.
I looked at the woman who had spent twenty-six years mourning a child she thought was dead.
I hung up the phone and stood up, entirely determined to save my biological mother.
I arrived at the massive, burned-out ruins of the old Whitmore estate exactly fifty minutes later.
I pushed open the charred wooden doors and walked into the dark, empty foyer.
May you like
But the man waiting for me in the shadows was not Richard Whitmore.
It was Thomas, the loving foster father who had raised me since I was an infant.
