Chapter 7 - The Hostage
I dropped to my knees beside my friend and frantically checked his pulse.
He was bleeding from a severe head wound but he was thankfully still breathing.
I called an ambulance and stayed by his side until the paramedics arrived to stabilize him.
As they loaded him onto the stretcher, my phone vibrated with a new text message.
It was a photograph sent from my father's personal phone number.
The picture showed Josephine sitting on the expensive leather sofa inside my father's sprawling mansion.
She looked absolutely terrified, clutching that same broken plastic toy horse against her chest.
A second text message quickly followed the horrifying image.
My father demanded that I bring the stolen physical ledger and the flash drive to the mansion within one hour.
If I involved the police, he promised to disappear with Josephine on a private jet to a country without extradition laws.
I drove toward the wealthy estate with my hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white.
My phone rang again, but this time it was my brother Silas calling from a secure line.
Silas told me he was currently inside the mansion and pretending to help our father pack the stolen cash.
He offered to act as a double agent and unlock the heavy iron security gates from the inside so I could enter undetected.
I agreed to the desperate plan and parked my car a few blocks away from the massive property.
I crept through the dark woods and slipped silently through the back gate that Silas had miraculously opened.
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I moved stealthily toward the glowing windows of the main living room, gripping my briefcase tightly.
Suddenly, a loud and deafening gunshot rang out from inside the luxurious house.
