Chapter 7 - The Hostage Exchange
The threatening message printed directly below the terrifying photograph was incredibly short and crystal clear.
"Bring me the phone with the video, or your husband dies tonight."
My sister violently slammed on the brakes, pulling the heavy car aggressively onto the dark, gravel shoulder of the highway.
She stared blankly at the glowing screen, her hands shaking violently against the leather steering wheel.
"He actually has Tom," she whispered, her usually strong voice breaking completely into a pathetic sob.
I felt a crushing, suffocating wave of immense guilt, knowing my personal nightmare had now dragged her innocent family into hell.
"We have to call the FBI right now," I said softly, reaching out to gently touch her shaking shoulder.
"No!" my sister shouted hysterically, batting my hand away in a state of absolute, sheer panic.
"The local cops are obviously on his payroll, and if word gets back to him, he will kill Tom immediately."
My youngest daughter, sitting quietly in the dark backseat, bravely handed me her old, cracked mobile phone.
"Give it to him," she said with a maturity and courage that broke my heart all over again.
Mia was sitting right next to her, still crying softly, finally realizing that our husband and father was the real, true villain of this story.
"It will not matter at all if we just hand over the phone to him," I realized aloud, my mind racing.
"Once he has the physical evidence completely destroyed, he will absolutely kill all of us to tie up the loose ends."
We desperately needed a foolproof plan that would somehow trap my husband, his mother, and the loan sharks all at the exact same time.
I took my sister's phone from the dashboard and quickly typed a bold reply to my husband's private number.
"Meet us at the abandoned lumber yard on Route 9 in exactly one hour."
"Bring Tom unharmed, and we will bring the original phone and all the passwords to the hidden video backups."
The arrogant reply came back three seconds later with a single, confident word.
"Done."
I looked over at my terrified sister, my exhausted mind formulating a highly dangerous, incredibly desperate idea.
"I know exactly how to stop him permanently, but we are going to have to walk right into his trap," I told her firmly.
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I dialed the recently saved number of the lead loan shark we had just pepper-sprayed in the yard.
When he finally answered the ringing line, I told him exactly where his missing two hundred thousand dollars was going to be.
