The condescension made Jack’s jaw clench.
“I know my rights,” Jack said. “You’re not police, you have no warrant, and you’re not coming in. Now get your hand off my door.”
They stared at each other.
For a moment, Jack was certain it would turn ugly.
Then the man smiled and stepped back.
“Of course. Sorry for the intrusion.”
He handed Jack a card with only a phone number printed on it.
“If you see anything, call directly. Mr. Pierce is very eager to have his fiancée returned safely.”
Jack closed the door and waited, watching through the curtain until the taillights disappeared.
They would be back.
That visit had been reconnaissance.
He had bought time, but not much.
He waited thirty minutes before heading to the basement. He found Evelyn and Lily huddled in the root cellar.
“They’re gone,” Jack said. “For now.”
“They’ll be back,” Evelyn stated.
“Yeah,” Jack agreed. “You can’t stay here. They’re watching now. Next time they won’t knock.”
He thought quickly.
His friend Marcus, a state cop, lived eighty miles north near the Canadian border.
“Pack light,” Jack said. “We leave in an hour.”
Lily spoke up from under Evelyn’s arm.
“Daddy, are we going on an adventure?”
Jack knelt in front of her.
“Something like that. Sweetheart, remember how sometimes good people have to help others, even when it’s hard?”
Lily nodded.
“We’re doing that now,” Jack said. “But you need to be brave and quiet, okay?”
“I can be brave like Mommy,” Lily said.
Jack’s heart clenched.
“She was the bravest person I knew.”
As they prepared to leave, Jack looked around his home. This sanctuary he had built. The place where he had tried to protect Lily from every cruelty he could not fix. Everything he had tried to create was crumbling around him.
But this time, he had a chance to fight back.
They left at three in the morning through the woods, avoiding the main road. Jack had thrown supplies into his truck, along with the USB drive Evelyn guarded like the only key to the truth.
Lily sat between them, clutching her stuffed rabbit and forcing her eyes to stay open despite her exhaustion. The truck’s headlights carved through darkness as they climbed into the mountains, following old logging roads that most people had forgotten.
They had gone thirty miles when trouble struck.
A grinding sound came from the engine, followed by a heavy shudder.
Jack cursed and pulled over.
“Transmission’s going,” he said, popping the hood. “I’ve been meaning to fix it. Perfect timing.”
He grabbed his flashlight. Evelyn followed him out into the cold.
“Can you fix it?”
“Maybe. I need to bypass the coolant line and jury-rig the transmission pump. But I need tools I don’t have.”
He looked at her.
“Or I can teach you.”
For forty-five minutes by flashlight, Jack guided Evelyn through emergency repairs. She did not complain about grease coating her hands or cold wind cutting through her clothes. She listened carefully and did exactly what he said.
“There,” Jack finally said. “That should get us there. It won’t win races, but it’ll move.”
Evelyn looked at her oil-stained hands and suddenly laughed.
Not politely.
Genuinely.
“What?” Jack asked, smiling despite everything.
“I’m on a mountain in the middle of the night, covered in motor oil, running from people who want to stop me from exposing them,” she said. “Three days ago, I was planning a ten-million-dollar wedding, and somehow this is the most real I’ve felt in years.”
Jack understood completely.
There was a strange freedom in having everything false stripped away.
“Come on,” he said. “We’ve got forty miles left.”
They climbed back into the truck. Lily was truly asleep now, leaning against Evelyn’s shoulder.
As Jack navigated the rough terrain, Evelyn spoke quietly.
“Tell me about your wife.”
Jack was silent so long that she thought he would not answer.
Then he started.
“Sarah was a teacher. Second grade. She loved the kids. Loved watching them figure out the world. She was patient in a way I never could be.”