Chapter 187
Chapter 187:
“She wants to say goodbye to the woman who ruined her life,” Victoria wailed. “Hilliard, please! The police are there, but they can’t get her down! She has a knife! She says she’ll cut the safety harness if anyone but you approaches p>
The call ended.
Silence returned to the room, heavier than before.
Hilliard looked at Cailin. He looked at her bleeding arm. Then his gaze drifted back up to the ceiling vent. He still suspected. He knew he was right. But a life was hanging in the balance.
𝗜𝘯𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝖾 𝘳𝗈𝗆an𝖼𝖾 𝘰𝘯
“We have to go,” Hilliard said.
“No,” Cailin said firmly. “I am not going anywhere with you. That woman is manipulative. It’s a trick p>
“If she jumps,” Hilliard said, his voice dropping cold and hard, “and you refused to come — the press will destroy you. They will say you drove her to it. And if the press destroys you, Cailin, they will dig. They will find whatever it is you are hiding in this room p>
It was a threat. Clear and calculated.
Cailin looked at the vent. If the press camped outside this hotel — if police came to question her — she couldn’t smuggle the children out.
She had to leave. She had to draw the fire away from this room.
“Fine,” Cailin said, grabbing her coat to cover her bleeding arm. “I’ll go. But if this is a trick, Hilliard — I will never forgive you p>
“I’ll have security watch the door,” Hilliard said, moving toward the exit. “No one goes in or out until we get back p>
Cailin’s heart stopped. If security posted outside the door, the children were trapped.
She had to text Kegan. She had to signal Ashley.
“Let’s go,” she said, walking past him. She needed to get him away from this room.
Now.
The drive was a blur of speed and silence. Hilliard drove the Aston Martin as though trying to outrun his own demons. Rain lashed against the windshield, fighting a losing battle against the wipers.
Cailin sat in the passenger seat, pressing the bloody towel against her arm. With her free hand, she typed a blind text to Ashley, keeping the phone low in her lap.
Code Red. He knows. Get them out via the roof. Now.
The reply came back in seconds. Laundry chute access, service elevator B. Kegan’s team is on standby. Go.
Relief washed over her, sharp and dizzying. They would be safe. Ashley and Kegan would get them out.
The car screeched to a halt at the entrance of the Coney Island amusement park. Closed for the season, it was a skeletal landscape of rusting rides and flickering lights against the stormy sky. Police cruisers blocked the entrance, their red and blue lights strobing in the rain. An ambulance sat parked near the base of the Wonder Wheel.
Hilliard jumped out before the car had fully stopped. He ran around to Cailin’s side and yanked the door open.
“Come on,” he ordered.
Cailin stepped out into the rain. The wind whipped her hair across her face. She looked up.