Chapter 1 - The Iron Trap
The heavy train cars jerked violently as the emergency brakes engaged.
Sparks flew past the thick glass window in a blinding shower of yellow light.
I instinctively pulled little Jude closer to my chest to shield him from the sudden impact.
The newborn boy whimpered but continued to nurse, his tiny hands gripping my shirt.
Roman Vale stumbled forward, catching himself against the mahogany table before he could fall.
His dark eyes darted from the window back to me and his son.
“Stay exactly where you are,” Roman ordered, his voice suddenly stripped of its previous desperation.
His lieutenant, a towering man with a scarred jaw, drew a suppressed pistol from his jacket.
The train ground to a complete and terrifying halt in the middle of a dark, wooded area.
I looked down at the red thread tied around Jude’s wrist, my mind racing with impossible questions.
“Roman, where did your wife get this string?” I asked again, my voice trembling in the quiet cabin.
Roman turned to me, his expression unreadable in the dim emergency lighting.
“My wife didn’t tie that knot,” he whispered coldly.
“I did.”
Before I could process what that meant, the steel doors at the end of our train car exploded inward.
Gunfire erupted in the corridor, shattering the glass partitions and sending Roman’s guards diving for cover.
“Kincaid’s men are inside!” the lieutenant shouted over the deafening noise.
Roman grabbed the handle of the triple stroller and shoved it behind the heavy oak bar.
He pulled a weapon from his own waistband and stepped between me and the cabin door.
“Keep his head down, Clara,” Roman commanded without looking back at me.
I curled my body completely around Jude while my seven-month-old daughter, Lily, began to cry in her carrier beside me.
Two masked men dressed in tactical gear kicked the private cabin door open.
Roman fired twice, dropping the first attacker instantly.
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But the second gunman didn't even look at Roman.
He raised his assault rifle and aimed it directly at my screaming daughter.
