Chapter 6 - The Ransom Call
Dominic stared at Mrs. Hargrove with a look of pure, concentrated hatred, but he slowly lowered the barrel of his shotgun to the floor.
He knew perfectly well that he was too injured to risk a shootout when Noah and I were entirely unprotected in the line of fire.
"You have completely lost your mind if you think you can take over my syndicate," Dominic warned her, his deep voice echoing in the garage.
"I don't want your filthy syndicate," Mrs. Hargrove scoffed, keeping the silver revolver leveled directly at my forehead.
"I simply want the fifty million dollars you have sitting in your offshore accounts, and the Moretti family promised me exactly that if I delivered your son to them."
The shocking revelation hit me like a physical blow, exposing a conspiracy far deeper than simple corporate theft.
Mrs. Hargrove moved aggressively toward me, violently grabbing Noah by the collar of his expensive sweater to pull him out of my arms.
I acted on pure, desperate adrenaline, slamming my heavy work boot directly into her knee with bone-crushing force.
The older woman shrieked in sudden agony, her leg buckling beneath her as the silver revolver clattered uselessly onto the concrete floor.
Dominic moved with impossible, lightning-fast speed for a wounded man, tackling her to the ground and rendering her completely unconscious with a brutal strike.
I fell to my knees, hugging Noah so tightly I thought my own ribs might finally crack from the pressure.
Dominic leaned heavily against the armored SUV, his breathing ragged and shallow as he tried to stem the bleeding from his stomach.
"We need to leave right now," Dominic gasped, tossing me the heavy electronic key fob to the vehicle.
I quickly loaded Noah into the reinforced backseat and rushed to help Dominic into the passenger side of the truck.
As I started the massive engine, Dominic's encrypted satellite phone began ringing loudly from the inner pocket of his ruined jacket.
He answered the call on speakerphone, expecting to hear Silas demanding a brutal, final surrender.
Instead, a cruel, unfamiliar voice filtered through the static with a deeply horrifying message.
"We missed you at the house, Dominic, but do not worry about a thing," the raspy voice mocked with twisted joy.
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"We are currently standing inside Tyler Reed's hospital room, and if you want the nanny's brother to live, you will bring us the boy."
The phone call disconnected, leaving me completely paralyzed with a fear far worse than death itself.
