Chapter 8 - The Runway
"Stop right there, Lucas!" Arthur screamed over the roar of the airplane engines.
Lucas froze, holding his hands up in the air to show he was not raising his weapon.
"Arthur, put the baby down," Lucas begged, his voice cracking with desperation.
"You want money? I will give you everything I have. Just don't hurt him."
Arthur laughed, a manic, desperate sound that echoed across the dark runway.
"I don't trust you, rich boy," Arthur sneered, backing slowly up the metal stairs of the plane.
"I keep the kid until the money clears the offshore accounts."
Lucas knew that if that plane took off, he would never see his son again.
He slowly took a step forward, trying to keep Arthur's attention focused solely on him.
"Emma is bleeding out in the car, Arthur," Lucas lied, trying to appeal to whatever humanity the man had left.
"If you leave now, you are leaving your daughter to die."
Arthur hesitated for a fraction of a second, glancing toward the black SUV parked in the distance.
That single second was all Marcus needed.
From the darkness beneath the airplane wing, Marcus lunged forward like a massive shadow.
He tackled Arthur violently, knocking the gun out of the old man's hand.
As they fell down the metal stairs, Arthur tossed the blue bundle into the air.
Lucas dove across the rough concrete tarmac, sliding on his knees, and caught the blanket right before it hit the ground.
He rolled onto his back, pulling the bundle tightly to his chest to protect it.
He waited for a cry, a movement, a tiny breath.
But the bundle was completely, horribly light.
Lucas frantically pulled back the folds of the blue hospital blanket.
There was no baby inside.
It was just a bundle of stolen hospital towels wrapped tightly together to look like an infant.
Lucas stared at the towels, his mind completely shattering.
Marcus dragged a bleeding Arthur to his feet, slamming him against the side of the airplane.
"Where is my son?" Lucas roared, pulling his gun and aiming it at Arthur’s head.
Arthur spat blood onto the tarmac and smiled a jagged, missing-tooth smile.
"I never had him, you stupid billionaire," Arthur laughed.
"I just wanted to see if I could make you pay for a ghost."
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If Arthur didn't have the baby, and Margaret didn't have the baby, there was only one person left.
Lucas dropped his gun and sprinted back to the SUV where he had left his wife.
