Victor shook his head.
“No.”
Samuel looked ashamed.
“No.”
Another silence.
I understood before he explained.
“You worked with him.”
Samuel nodded.
“At first because I was afraid.
Later because I convinced myself I could control the damage from inside.”
Hannah stared.
“You helped Crown Ridge?”
“I tried to prevent the worst of it.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No,” Samuel said.
“It isn’t.”
She looked disgusted.
I understood.
Families had been hurt while men like Samuel justified compromise one small step at a time.
Victor walked toward me.
“You see, Mason?
Everyone becomes what they swear they won’t become eventually.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“No?”
“You did.”
His smile faded.
“Cole, take Hannah.”
Cole nodded.
We started toward the exit.
Victor spoke behind us.
“You forgot something.”
I stopped.
“Ellie.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
Hannah turned.
“What about Ellie?”
Victor smiled again.
“Ask Daniel.”
The room went silent.
Hannah’s face emptied of color.
I looked at her.
“What?”
She whispered: “Where is he?”
“With Claire and Ellie.”
Hannah shook her head.
“No.”
“Hannah?”
“No, no, no.”
She grabbed my arm.
“Mason, Daniel wasn’t supposed to know where Grandma was.”
“He brought you the letter.”
“I never gave Daniel a letter.”
My heart stopped.
Cole swore.
I thought back.
The diner.
Daniel.
The envelope.
Hannah’s handwriting.
Her instructions.
Her trust.
Hannah saw my confusion.
“I wrote that letter six months ago.
It was in my apartment safe.”
Victor smiled.
“Daniel Hart has worked for Crown Ridge for eight years.”
Everything inside me turned to ice.
“Then why bring Ellie to me?”
Victor answered.
“Because we couldn’t find Samuel’s coin.”
I understood.
They knew Hannah had hidden it.
They knew Ellie had something.
But Ellie would not tell Daniel.
So he needed someone she trusted.
Someone Hannah had prepared her to trust.
Me.
The entire day had been designed to make Ellie lead them to the evidence.
Victor nodded toward Hannah.
“Your daughter knew she was being watched.
She had trained Ellie for emergencies.
Daniel used that training.”
Hannah was already running for the door.
We followed.
I pulled out my phone.
No signal inside.
Outside, one bar appeared.
I called Claire.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Cole called riders near Navajo Bridge.
One answered.
Then went silent.
His expression changed.
“What?”
“They found Claire’s car.”
My stomach dropped.
“Ellie?”
“Gone.”
Hannah made a sound I never want to hear from another parent.
Not a scream.
Something lower.
Something broken.
I turned back toward Victor.
He stood in the doorway.
“Where did Daniel take her?”
Victor smiled.
“I honestly don’t know.”
I believed him.
And that terrified me more.
Chapter 7
Daniel drove north.
We knew because Claire had hidden a tracker inside Ellie’s backpack.
Daniel either didn’t know or had forgotten it.
Claire was alive.
He had locked her inside the maintenance building and taken Ellie.
By the time our riders freed Claire, the tracker showed Daniel approaching Marble Canyon.
Hannah rode behind me.
Cole followed.
Ten Iron Vale motorcycles spread across the road behind us.
We found Daniel’s car near an overlook above the Colorado River.
Empty.
Ellie’s backpack lay on the passenger seat.
Tracker blinking.
Decoy.
Daniel had anticipated us.
Hannah punched the side of the car.
“No!”
Claire arrived ten minutes later with another group.
She hugged Hannah.
Mother and daughter.
Thirty years of secrets between them.
No time to repair any of it.
Daniel’s phone was off.
Police channels were unreliable.
Federal contacts were moving too slowly.
Then Samuel spoke.
He had come with Claire despite my order to stay behind.
“Lee’s Ferry.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“Daniel has a cabin near Lee’s Ferry.”
“How do you know?”
“He used to move records for Victor.”
Hannah stared.
“You knew him?”
“Yes.”
“You could’ve mentioned that.”
Samuel flinched.
She deserved to be angry.
We rode again.
The sun was sinking when we saw the cabin.
Daniel’s vehicle stood outside.
No guards.
No Victor.
No army.
Just one man and one little girl.
I approached alone.
Hannah wanted to come.
I refused.
“If he sees everyone, he panics.”
“He has my daughter.”
“I know.”
“She’s my daughter.”
The words cut through me.
I nodded.
“And you’re mine.”
Hannah stopped.
We looked at each other.
There would be time later for everything that sentence meant.
If we survived the next ten minutes.
I walked toward the cabin.
The door opened.
Daniel stepped outside.
Ellie stood behind him.
Unharmed.
She looked confused rather than terrified.
“Mason,” Daniel said.
“Send her out.”
“I can’t.”
“Daniel.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I’ve heard that sentence enough today.”
He rubbed his face.
“You think I work for Victor.”
“You do.”
“I did.”
“Eight years.”
“Yes.”
“Hannah says you were inside Crown Ridge.”
“Yes.”
“Then give me one reason I shouldn’t assume every word you said was a lie.”
Daniel looked back at Ellie.
Then at me.
“Because I’m the one who told Hannah what Crown Ridge was doing.”
Hannah heard from behind the rocks.
She stepped out.
“Daniel?”
His face broke when he saw her.
“Hannah.”
She walked slowly forward.
“You’re alive.”
“So are you.”
“You worked for them.”
“Yes.”
“You told me you were a logistics consultant.”
“I was.”
“For Crown Ridge.”
“Yes.”
She looked as though he had struck her.
“You lied to me for four years.”
“I was trying to get out.”
“You married me.”
My mind stopped.
Married?
Hannah’s eyes filled.