CHAPTER 322: SPARE THEIR LIVES (8)

Nick’s POV

"We’ve got a lead!" Oliver barreled into the boardroom, then stopped dead when he saw me held fast in Liam and Reagan’s arms.

His eyes darted to the floor. Raymond lay there, spitting blood, one hand to his mouth. Oliver’s confusion curdled into shock. "What the—"

A voice like thunder cut through the room.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Dad’s face filled the doorway, and the air went thin. He stormed forward, seized Raymond by the collar, and dragged his face close enough to see the blood and disgrace.

"You—" Dad spat, voice low and lethal. "Where the hell did you get the audacity to show your face here? I just found out what you did, and not even your father can save you now." He shoved Raymond so hard that the man hit the floor once again.

"Take him!" Dad barked at the guards.

Raymond didn’t go quietly. He twisted, kicked, punched, scrambling, panicked. "This is illegal!" he yelled, flailing at anyone near.

"You think so?" Dad snapped back. "Fine. Call the Chief of Police. Tell him I brought a gift." Then he turned to me, eyes hard as iron.

Reagan finally let go of me. I stayed still, watching as my father’s men moved in to pin Raymond down.

"You!" Dad snarled at Reagan. "Go home. Don’t show your face until I say so."

Reagan’s shoulders collapsed; he looked like a man who’d just lost everything. He bowed his head and left. Sarah followed him quietly, her face a mask if you ask me.

Raymond wrestled with the guards and kept yelling threats. "You’ll regret this, Benjamin! You should’ve been with me, not against me!"

Dad answered with one clean, brutal slap that echoed off the walls.

The room gasps, then stunned silence.

"Wake up, Raymond. Choose your words while I’m still being nice." Dad’s voice was cold as a blade. "That slap means I’m still treating you like your father’s son, because if I weren’t, I’d have pushed you out the window and called it an accident.

Have some pity for your mother, if not for yourself. Your father will disown you for this. For her sake, make the right choice for once."

He didn’t wait for an answer. Dad signaled his men, and they hauled Raymond to his feet, dragging him toward the door while Oliver watched with that look of a man trying to steady his breathing in a storm.

We still have no idea what was happening and why our father reacted that way towards Reagan, but he signaled Oliver to continue.

"Like I said, we have a lead..." Ollie announced, thrusting a scrap of paper at the tech who’d been monitoring CCTV feeds.

I crossed to the bank of screens. The marine traffic system flickered into the screen, and my stomach went cold as map and live ship footage populated the monitor.

"Georgia and Katie are at sea?" I asked, the words tasting like ash.

"Possibly," Ollie said, voice clipped. "Nancy’s on board. I ordered my men to sweep every possible exit where they could be smuggled out of the country.

One of the port cameras picked up two women at the gate during a late personnel change request. A change that doesn’t match the official passenger list. The footage’s grainy; they didn’t catch faces at night.

But two cars didn’t leave the port. That car’s dashcam recorded one woman’s face; it was Nancy. The other woman’s build doesn’t match Georgia’s, but it could be Amara, Katie’s nanny. Someone added an extra container to the cargo hold at the last minute. Our worst fear: Georgia and Katie could be inside that container."

My pulse began to hammer against my ribs until it felt like it would burst. Heat rushed through me, adrenaline sharpening everything, sight, sound, the metallic taste of panic.

"Let’s go. Why are we still standing here?" I barked.

Ollie’s hand went to the map, tracing a crowded route. "There’s a problem, Nick. That area is a high-traffic choke point. If they were bold enough to appear on camera at the gate and fiddle with manifest changes, they expected we might follow.

They could switch the girls while at sea, transfer them to a small boat in the middle of dozens of vessels. With that many ships, a mid-route swap would be invisible unless we’re on them."

A grin that felt more like a grim promise tugged at my mouth. I rolled my sleeves up with a single motion, every joint wired to action. Nancy is playing in my territory, and she will regret that bold move.

"Then there’s only one way to find out," I said, voice flat with resolve. I walked to the door before any of them could argue, a drum in my chest and every nerve tuned to the same dangerous note: go now, or never.

"Nicholas, wait!" Dad’s voice cut after me like a rope around my ankle. I froze, forced my eyes shut, and let a long breath try to smooth the jagged edges of my panic. Patience was leaking out of me by the second; it felt like everyone else moved through syrup while the world burned.

Dad came up to me slowly, hands folded like a man trying to steady a storm. "You can’t just rush in," he said, low and steady. "What do you think you’re doing, going to jump on a moving ship? How are you going to climb it? Do you think they won’t shoot you for showing up unannounced?"

"I know that!" I snapped, too loud. The words tore out of me. "But time’s running out, what if they’re dead? What if Georgia and Katie aren’t even alive anymore?" The image of Georgia’s face, small and terrified, slammed against every nerve.

Dad didn’t shout. He looked at me with that same hollow pity he’d worn the day I was accused of killing David, like I was a boy again who needed to be talked down from a cliff.

"I’m not stopping you, son," he said quietly. "But you don’t have to carry this alone. Let us help. Let us be with you when you go."

The offer should have been balm, but it landed like another weight on my chest. I was drowning in the need to move, to act, to rip them back from whatever hell they’d been thrown into.

Before I could answer, Sarah’s voice split the room, thin, sharp, and utterly wrecking.

"They’re taking Reagan, too!"

The world snapped. Every plan, every breath, narrowed to one impossible, blazing point. Just what the hell is going on?

*******

Thank you for the Golden Tickets!

CozyReader

Edna_R2679

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