Chapter 6 - THE HUNT BEGINS
I assembled every resource I had. Private investigators. Technicians. Former intelligence contacts. I spared no expense. Every road watched. Every airport monitored. Julian had a private airstrip forty miles north. That was where he would run.
Sarah remained sedated through the night. I sat beside her bed, holding her hand, watching her sleep. When she woke at dawn, her eyes found mine instantly.
“I’m coming with you,” she said.
“Sarah—”
“She is my daughter too,” Sarah said, pushing herself up. “And I know Julian. I know how he thinks. I know what he fears. I am coming.”
There was no arguing with her. Her eyes held the same desperate courage I had seen in Lily. They were mother and daughter, through and through.
By mid-morning we were on the road.
The drive north was tense and silent. I drove. Sarah studied maps, marking likely routes and hiding places.
“He needs money,” she said quietly. “And he needs time to cross the border. He will not go straight to the airstrip. He will hide somewhere nearby until nightfall. Somewhere isolated. Somewhere he knows.”
I nodded. “He owns a hunting cabin near Blackwood Lake. Ten miles west of the airstrip.”
Sarah looked up sharply. “That is exactly where he would go. Remote. Defensible. He will hold her there until the plane is ready.”
I gripped the steering wheel harder. “If he hurts her—”
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“He won’t,” Sarah said. “Not yet. He needs her alive to bargain. But Ethan… he will hurt her the moment he realizes you will not bargain. We must get there before dark.”
We pushed the car to its limit.
