My daughter’s husband beat her bloody, threw her out in the middle of the night, and told her no one would believe her because her father was “nobody.” Hours later, he opened his front door expecting her to crawl back and beg, but instead he found me standing there with an old baseball bat and a question that wiped the arrogance from his face.

I grabbed the heavy door handle, but it would not budge.

The room was a solid steel box designed to keep people in.

The woman in the blonde wig casually untied her own wrists and stood up.

She walked over to the corner and stood silently, completely ignoring me.

A large flat-screen television on the wall suddenly flickered to life.

Warren Voss appeared on the screen, sitting perfectly straight in an expensive leather chair.

He was wearing a tailored suit and sipping a glass of dark amber liquid.

"Samuel Reed," Warren smiled condescendingly.

"I must admit, you are much more persistent than I anticipated."

"Where is my daughter?" I demanded, gripping my bat tightly.

Warren chuckled and pressed a button on his desk.

The screen split into two separate video feeds.

The second feed showed a dark, blurry image of an old car trunk.

Claire was lying inside, bound and gagged with heavy tape.

Her eyes were wide with absolute terror.

Water was slowly seeping into the trunk through the floorboards.

"She is currently taking a little swim," Warren explained smoothly.

"My son Daniel is handling the disposal of the vehicle right now."

My heart hammered aggressively against my ribs.

"If you drown her, you will never find the real ledger," I lied to buy time.

Warren stopped smiling.

"Daniel already found the flash drive in her jacket pocket, Samuel," he said coldly.

"Your daughter has no value to us anymore."

"This was just a lesson to remind you of your place in this county."

He reached out to cut the video feed.

"Wait!" I yelled, pulling a small remote from my jacket pocket.

Warren paused, raising a gray eyebrow in curiosity.

"What is that?" he asked.

"When I built this house twenty years ago, I installed the main gas lines," I said slowly.

"Ten minutes ago, in the utility room, I opened every single valve."

Warren's face instantly drained of color.

"I also brought a block of blasting gelatin from my stump-clearing shed," I added.

The Clumsy Maid Bathed His Dog—Then The Mafia Boss Said She Wasn’t Leavi...

She found her husband with another woman and walked away so quietly that...

The Mafia Boss Asked a Disabled Widow If She Was Okay

I held up the detonator and pressed my thumb firmly against the trigger.

"Tell me exactly where that car is, or we all burn together."

Chapter 6 - The Trap