Chapter 10 - Cornered in the Dark
The footsteps on the porch sounded heavy and deliberate, accompanied by the low rumble of masculine voices arguing in low tones just outside the front door.
“Check the perimeter! If they’re here, the car engine is still warm in the drive!” a harsh voice barked—a voice I recognized instantly despite not hearing it in weeks.
Caleb.
My breath caught in my throat. My older brother, somehow out of juvenile detention or never booked properly by corrupt deputies, was standing right downstairs.
“Move quickly,” Sarah hissed, grabbing the heaviest of the three waterproof briefcases from the floor vault while I snatched the metal lockbox containing the financial ledgers. “We need to get out through the second-story back window onto the roof of the woodshed.”
We scrambled across the dusty floorboards of the master bedroom toward the back window that overlooked the sloping timber roof of the woodshed below. Sarah shoved the window open, letting in a bitter gust of wind and rain.
Before we could climb out, heavy boots slammed onto the stairs leading up to the second-floor landing.
“They’re upstairs!” someone shouted.
“Sarah, go!” I urged, holding the lockbox tightly against my chest as bullets suddenly punched through the thin wooden walls of the bedroom, showering us in white drywall dust and splinters.
Sarah pushed me through the open window onto the wet metal roof of the woodshed. I slipped on the slick surface, sliding down a few feet before catching myself against the gutter with a sharp gasp of pain from my healing ribs. Sarah dropped down right behind me, raising her weapon toward the bedroom window.
A masked figure popped his head out of the window, raising a pistol. Sarah fired once, striking the window frame and forcing the gunman to duck back inside.
“Run toward the tree line! Don’t look back!” Sarah yelled, grabbing my arm and hauling me off the edge of the woodshed roof into the deep mud below.
We hit the ground hard, rolling beneath the dense canopy of pine trees just as a hail of gunfire chewed through the branches above our heads. We scrambled through the freezing underbrush, our lungs burning with every breath, plunging deeper into the dark, trackless forest surrounding the lake.
The shouting behind us faded into the roar of the storm as we pushed farther into the wilderness, carrying the ultimate proof of my father’s crimes hidden securely in our arms.
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Little did we know, escaping the cabin was only the beginning; the person waiting for us at the edge of the forest was someone we never could have anticipated.
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