Chapter 10 - Midnight
The sound of tearing paper echoed through the quiet room.
Wells’ offer — our easy way out, our chance to go back to normal — lay in pieces on the coffee table. My father didn’t look at them. He looked at Jacob.
“I’ve spent ten years letting other people pay for my mistakes,” he said, his voice steady and sure. “I let Emma pay. I let Tyler pay. I let you pay, Jacob. You lost ten years of your life because of me. Ten years you’ll never get back. Ten years you should’ve been here, watching your son grow up. And I’m not going to do it again. Not ever.”
He leaned forward, his eyes hard.
“Victor Voss wants a war? Fine. We’ll give him a war. But this time, we fight by our rules. And we finish it. For good.”
Jacob looked at him. For a long time. Then he nodded once. Slowly. Respectfully.
“Thank you, Arthur,” he said.
“Okay,” Tyler said, clapping his hands together. “Plan B. If we’re not taking the deal, we hit him first. Hard. Before midnight. Before he decides the offer’s off and sends more men.”
He spread a large map of the county out on the coffee table. It was marked up — red circles, blue X’s, notes scrawled in the margins. Tyler had been busy.
“Victor lives here,” he said, pointing to a large red circle on the north side of town. “His estate. Twenty acres. High fence. Security cameras. Guards. We can’t get in there without an army. But he’s got a weakness.”
He tapped a blue X on the river, ten miles outside of town.
“The old warehouse,” he said. “The same one Dad worked at. Victor never shut it down. He just got smarter about what he brings in. I’ve had a guy watching it for three days. Every Tuesday night — tonight — a shipment comes in. Girls. From what my source says, at least twenty of them. Locked in containers. Waiting to be sold.”
He looked up at us.
“If we can get proof of that shipment — photos, video, something — we go straight to the FBI. Not the locals. The feds. The ones who don’t answer to Victor. If we hand them Victor Voss red-handed with a container full of trafficked girls… he goes away for life. No deal. No witness tampering. Nothing. And all of us? We get immunity. For everything. Because we’re the ones who took him down.”
“It’s risky,” Jacob said, leaning over the map. “His security at the warehouse will be heavy. Especially after what happened at the house. He’ll be expecting us to make a move.”
“Which is exactly why he won’t expect it tonight,” Tyler said. “He’ll think we’re still sitting here, debating his offer. He’ll think we’re scared. We use that. We hit him fast. We hit him hard. We get the proof. And we get out. Before he knows what hit him.”
We spent the next two hours planning.
Tyler would lead — he knew the warehouse better than anyone, had worked there summers in high school. Jacob would go with him — he knew how Victor’s men operated, knew their patterns, knew what to look for. My father would drive the getaway truck, parked half a mile down the road, engine running.
My mother and I would stay here with Leo. Keep him safe. Keep the phones open. Be ready to call the FBI the second Tyler and Jacob gave the word.
It was dangerous. Reckless, almost. A million things could go wrong.
But it was the only chance we had.
At eleven o’clock, the men got ready.
Tyler was wearing all black, his fire department utility belt around his waist, modified to hold extra ammo and a tactical flashlight. Jacob was wearing the same, his hair tied back, the scar on his cheek standing out white against his tanned skin. My father had changed into dark jeans and a black hoodie, and was checking the truck keys.
I pulled Jacob aside, into the kitchen, away from the others.
“Be careful,” I said, my voice trembling. I grabbed his hands, holding them tight. “Please. I just got you back. I can’t lose you again.”
He pulled me into his arms, kissing me hard. Desperate. Like he was afraid it might be the last time.
“You’re not going to lose me,” he said against my lips. “I promise. I’ve spent ten years dreaming about this. About you. About Leo. About being a family. I’m not going to let Victor Voss take that away from me. Not now. Not ever.”
He kissed me again. Then he pulled back, brushing a strand of hair from my face.
“When this is over,” he said, “we’re going to take that boy of ours to Disney World. And then we’re going to buy a little house somewhere with a big yard. And we’re going to be normal. Boring even. No more secrets. No more running. Just us. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said, laughing through my tears. “Disney World. Boring house. Us. I’d like that.”
From the living room, Tyler cleared his throat. “Guys? Hate to break up the moment, but we’ve got a shipment to intercept.”
Jacob gave my hand one last squeeze. Then he turned and walked out the door, Tyler and my father right behind him. I stood in the open doorway, watching the taillights of the truck disappear down the dark road, until I couldn’t see them anymore.
My mother came up behind me, putting a hand on my shoulder.
“They’ll be okay,” she said. “They have to be.”
I nodded. But I couldn’t shake the feeling of dread sitting heavy in my stomach. Something was wrong. I couldn’t explain it. Just a feeling. Like we were walking right into a trap.
I went into the living room and sat on the couch, the police scanner Tyler had left on playing softly in the background. I watched the clock.
11:20.
11:35.
11:47.
Nothing.
No word from the guys. No chatter on the scanner. Just silence.
At 11:58 — two minutes before Victor’s offer expired — my phone rang.
It was Jacob.
I answered so fast I almost dropped it.
“Jacob? Are you okay? Did you get it?”
Silence on the other end.
Then Victor Voss’s voice.
“Hello again, Emma,” he said. “I warned you. I told you the offer expired at midnight. And now… well. Now you’ve made me very unhappy.”
I stood up, my blood running cold.
“Where are they, Victor?” I whispered. “What did you do?”
He chuckled. That same warm, terrible sound.
“Your father, your brother, and your dear Jacob walked right into my warehouse,” he said. “Just like I knew they would. I’ve been waiting for them, Emma. All night. And now… they’re my guests. For the moment.”
I heard a scuffle in the background. Then Tyler’s voice, yelling in pain.
“Let them go!” I screamed. “Victor, you bastard, let them go!”
“Shh, Emma,” he said, calm as ever. “There’s no need for that. I’m going to make you one final offer. And this time… there’s no deadline. Because you don’t have a choice.”
He paused.
“Bring me the three million dollars,” he said. “Bring it to the warehouse. Alone. No police. No tricks. And I might just let your men live. Refuse… and I’ll kill them one by one. Starting with Jacob. I’ll send you a piece of him every hour until you agree. Do we understand each other?”
I looked at the clock.
12:00.
Midnight.
I looked at my mother, who’d heard everything, her hand over her mouth, tears streaming down her face. I looked down the hall at Leo’s bedroom, where he was sleeping peacefully, dreaming of Disney World and boring houses and a normal life he might never get.
I took a deep breath.
“Okay,” I said. “I’m coming.”
I hung up.
I grabbed the keys to my car off the hook by the door. I grabbed the 9mm Jacob had left me, checked the magazine, and stuck it in the waistband of my jeans. I grabbed the bank transfer codes my father had written down — the ones for the account with the three million dollars.
“Emma,” my mother said, her voice breaking. “You can’t go alone. It’s suicide.”
I looked at her.
“I have to,” I said. “They’re my family. And I’m done letting other people fight my battles.”
I walked out the door.
The night was cold. Dark. The only sound was crickets and the distant hum of a truck on the highway. I got in my car, turned the key, and pulled out onto the road.
Toward the warehouse.
Toward Victor Voss.
Toward whatever came next.
And as I drove, I realized something.
For ten years, I’d been running.
For ten years, I’d been scared.
For ten years, I’d let secrets and fear control my life.
Not anymore.
Tonight, it ended.
May you like
One way or another.
TO BE CONTINUED…
