Chapter 4 - The Shadow in the Rain
A shadow fell across the entrance of the storage unit.
I froze, my fingers still resting on the keyboard of my laptop. The rain outside seemed to quiet down, replaced by the soft, rhythmic squelch of heavy boots on wet gravel.
"You shouldn't have come here, Julian."
I stood up slowly, turning to face the entrance.
A man stood in the opening, silhouetted against the gray afternoon light. He was tall, wearing a long, dark trench coat that was dark with rain. He held a black umbrella over his head, but even in the dim light, I could see the thick, white scar that ran from the corner of his left eye down to his jawline.
The bad man with the scars.
"Where is she?" I asked, my voice deadly quiet. "Where is Sarah?"
The man stepped into the unit, letting his umbrella slide to the floor. He didn't have a weapon drawn, but his hands were tucked loosely into his coat pockets, his posture relaxed and confident.
"Your wife is currently safe, Mr. Vance," he said, his voice a low, raspy drawl. "She’s a very resilient woman. But she’s also very foolish. She thought she could hide the ledger from us. She thought she could use her children as a shield."
"She didn't use them as a shield!" I shouted, taking a step toward him, my fists clenching. "She left them! She left them to starve!"
The man’s eyes flickered, a brief flash of genuine surprise crossing his scarred face before it was replaced by a cold sneer. "Is that what she told you? Or is that what you assumed?"
"My son told me," I said, my chest heaving. "He said she left on Friday. He said she told him not to call me."
The man laughed, a dry, humorless sound. "Sarah didn't leave them, Julian. We took her."
My heart stopped. "What?"
"On Friday afternoon, Sarah met us at the marina to deliver the final payment," the man explained, taking a step closer. "But she showed up empty-handed. She said she needed more time. We knew she was lying. We knew she had already emptied her trust accounts. So we took her to our office down by the docks to... let's say, expedite the negotiation process."
He pointed to the briefcase at my feet. "She told us she had left the ledger at the house. But when we went to the house, we couldn't find it. The safe was empty. We spent two days looking for it, but we didn't find anything. We didn't even know the kids were in the house, Julian. The doors were locked, the lights were off. We thought she had sent them to her mother's."
The realization hit me like a physical blow to the stomach.
Sarah hadn't abandoned them. She had been kidnapped. She had told Ethan not to call me because she was trying to protect us from the syndicate. She thought if she could handle the situation herself, if she could find the ledger and give it to them, they would let her go without ever involving her family.
But she had been trapped. And while she was locked in a basement somewhere near the docks, our children were starving behind closed doors.
"Who are you?" I whispered, my voice shaking.
"My name is Victor," the man said. "But my associates call me the Viper. And I believe you have something that belongs to me."
He nodded toward the briefcase.
"I'll give you the ledger," I said, my voice dropping to a hard, desperate whisper. "I'll give you the USB drives. I’ll give you everything. Just tell me where she is."
May you like
Victor smiled, his scar twisting into a grotesque line. "I’m afraid it’s not that simple anymore, Mr. Vance. You see, now that you’re involved, the price has gone up. We don't just want the ledger. We want your company's shipping manifests for the next six months. We want to know exactly when the customs inspectors are on duty at the Port of Seattle."
He stepped closer, his eyes cold and predatory. "You’re going to help us smuggle our cargo, Julian. Or your wife is going to take a very long, very deep swim in the Puget Sound."
