Chapter 5 - The Deal
The heavy mechanical sound of the car doors locking echoed like a gunshot in the silent, tense cabin of the SUV.
I stared at Marcus in pure horror, my heart hammering violently against my bruised ribs.
I was entirely trapped in a moving vehicle with a literal hitman hired by my psychopathic mother-in-law.
"If she paid you to kill me, why did you violently stop Ryan from smashing my window?" I asked, my voice trembling barely above a whisper.
Marcus sighed incredibly heavily, running a deeply calloused hand slowly over his rough, unshaven jaw.
"Because Linda is a complete psycho, and I strictly do not kill innocent mothers and their babies," he said with blunt honesty.
"I only took the contract so I could intercept it before she hired a real monster who would actually pull the trigger."
I desperately wanted to believe his heroic story, but I had just learned that my entire five-year marriage was a fabricated lie.
Trusting a terrifying stranger who just casually confessed to taking a hit on my life seemed like a spectacularly terrible idea.
"Where exactly are you taking us right now?" I demanded, looking nervously at the dark, empty highway passing by.
"To a secure, off-the-grid safehouse located well outside of the city limits," Marcus explained, constantly glancing at his rearview mirror.
"Linda comes from a very wealthy, old-money family, and they literally have half the local police department on their direct payroll."
"If you go to the local cops right now, they'll simply arrest you and hand the baby right back to Ryan."
I thought about the terrifying medical files sitting in my bag and realized he was probably absolutely right.
Linda had literally gotten away with murdering her own helpless infant thirty years ago; she definitely had deep, corrupt connections.
We drove in agonizing, tense silence for another forty minutes until we pulled slowly into a rundown, deserted motel right off the interstate.
Marcus parked the large truck in the very back, far away from the flickering, buzzing neon vacancy sign.
He handed me a rusted room key and a cheap, plastic prepaid burner phone.
"Go inside, lock the heavy deadbolt, and do not open that door for anyone except me," he instructed firmly.
"I need to go make a few urgent calls to a federal FBI contact I have in Dallas who isn't bought by Linda's dirty money."
I took the key without a word, rushed into the dingy room, and immediately threw the heavy metal deadbolt lock.
I laid Noah gently on the very center of the sunken bed, feeling a small, fleeting wave of relief wash over me.
I turned on the ancient television sitting in the corner just to have some background noise to calm my completely shattered nerves.
The local news station abruptly cut away from a commercial to broadcast a breaking, emergency news alert.
My blood instantly turned to solid ice as I saw my own terrified face flash brightly across the large screen.
"An official statewide Amber Alert has just been issued for three-month-old Noah Cole," the grave news anchor announced seriously.
"Police are currently engaged in a massive manhunt for his mother, Sarah Cole, who is considered armed and extremely dangerous."
The screen suddenly switched to live footage of Ryan, standing tragically in front of our house with a bloody bandage wrapped tightly around his head.
He was crying hysterically for the flashing cameras, playing the role of the devastated father perfectly.
"My wife unfortunately suffered a total, violent psychotic break this evening," Ryan sobbed dramatically to the gathered reporters.
"She brutally attacked my elderly mother, assaulted me with a weapon, and kidnapped our helpless baby."
I backed away from the television in pure, unadulterated horror.
They had completely flipped the narrative, masterfully turning me into the dangerous monster of the story.
And then, the serious news anchor delivered the final, truly devastating blow.
"Police are also actively looking for Sarah Cole's suspected accomplice, a known violent ex-convict named Marcus Vance."
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The anchor paused dramatically as a terrifying, recent mugshot of Marcus appeared boldly on the screen.
"Vance is wanted for a massive string of violent kidnappings and is heavily known by authorities to sell stolen infants on the black market."
