Chapter 2 - THE FIRE THAT DIDN’T START
Marcus kicked the match in midair.
It struck the refrigerator door and went dark.
Tyler lunged for me.
One of the other agents intercepted him and drove him into the cabinet hard enough to crack the wood.
The third agent pulled me behind his body.
“Emily, stay down.”
Tyler twisted free and grabbed a kitchen knife from the drying rack.
His eyes moved between the three men.
“You break into my house and attack me?”
Marcus stood completely still.
“This isn’t your house.”
Tyler’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw fear.
Marcus reached inside his jacket and removed a folded document.
“This property is owned by Merritt Federal Holdings.”
Tyler laughed.
“My wife signed the lease.”
“No,” Marcus said. “You forged her signature.”
My stomach tightened.
I had never seen the lease.
Tyler handled every payment, every document, every phone call.
Marcus looked toward me.
“This house was rented under the identity of a woman who died nine years ago.”
Tyler swung the knife.
The nearest agent trapped his wrist, forced him to the floor, and kicked the blade away.
Tyler screamed.
“You can’t arrest me!”
“We haven’t,” Marcus said.
That confused all of us.
The agents were not wearing visible badges.
The third man crouched beside me.
“Can you stand?”
“I don’t know.”
Blood ran from a cut near my ribs.
My daughter moved again.
Alive.
I reached for the counter.
Then I saw Tyler smiling from the floor.
Not at me.
At something behind Marcus.
A red light blinked beneath the smoke detector.
Camera.
Tyler had recorded everything.
Marcus noticed too.
He pulled the device down and opened the casing.
Inside was not a memory card.
It was a live transmitter.
“Someone’s watching,” he said.
Tyler laughed through his split lip.
“You came exactly where they wanted you.”
Marcus grabbed him by the collar.
“Who?”
Tyler looked directly at me.
“Ask your mother.”
My blood turned cold.
My mother had been missing for three weeks.
May you like
Tyler had told me she ran away because she was ashamed of me.
Then the kitchen phone began ringing.
