THE BOY BENEATH THE FLOORBOARDS

Panic, cold and sharp, pierced through the euphoria of finding Noah.

"Lily!" I screamed, running toward the empty truck.

Caroline gasped, clutching my arm. "Where is she, Caleb? Where is my daughter?"

I stared at the empty cab. The keys were still in the ignition. Meredith's purse was sitting on the floorboard.

I looked at the dirt around the passenger door. There were scuff marks. A struggle.

And lying in the gravel, glittering under the pale moonlight, was a silver charm bracelet.

Meredith's bracelet. The one she never took off.

"Someone else was here," I whispered, picking up the broken jewelry.

"Miller said Greg was dead," Caroline panicked, looking frantically into the dark woods surrounding the mill. "Who else knew we were coming here?"

My mind raced back to the conversation with Miller. He said Greg panicked and called him. But Greg wasn't the mastermind. Miller was. And Miller had allies in the county.

A pair of headlights suddenly crested the hill on the dirt road leading back to the highway. It was a large, dark SUV.

"Get in the truck," I told Caroline, shoving her and Noah toward the driver's side. "Lock the doors. Do not open them for anyone but me."

"Caleb, what are you doing?"

"Finding our daughter."

I pulled Miller's gun from my waistband and jogged toward the entrance of the mill property, taking cover behind a stack of rotting timber.

The SUV rolled to a stop near my truck. The doors opened.

Two men stepped out. I recognized them instantly. They were deputies from Miller's department.

"Sheriff's vehicle is inside," one of them grunted, pulling a shotgun from his trunk.

The rear door of the SUV opened.

A woman stepped out, holding Lily tightly by the arm.

It was Meredith.

She wasn't a hostage. She was walking willingly.

Lily was crying, trying to pull away. "I want my daddy!"

"Hush, Lily," Meredith said, her voice eerily calm, completely devoid of the panic she had shown an hour ago. "Everything is going to be fine. We're just going to take a trip."

My brain struggled to process the betrayal. Meredith hadn't been kidnapped. She had realized Miller's plan was falling apart. She knew if we got away, she would spend the rest of her life in prison for hiding Noah. So, she used my phone to text Miller's deputies while I was inside the mill. She traded Lily for her own escape.

"Put the child in the car, Mrs. Vance," the deputy said. "We need to go clean up the boss's mess."

I couldn't wait.

I stepped out from behind the timber, raising the stolen service weapon.

"Drop it!" I roared, aiming directly at the deputy holding the shotgun.

The deputies jumped, completely surprised.

"Caleb!" Meredith shrieked, pulling Lily in front of her like a human shield.

"Let her go, Meredith," I said, my voice dangerously low. "Right now."

"You don't understand," she pleaded, tears welling in her eyes again. "If I stay, I lose everything! My reputation, my home... my life is over!"

"You ended your life the day you locked my son in a crawlspace," I spat.

The deputy slowly raised his shotgun. "Put the gun down, Vance. You shoot me, my partner drops you."

"Maybe," I said, not breaking eye contact. "But you'll still be dead."

A tense, agonizing silence settled over the gravel lot.

Then, the piercing wail of police sirens cut through the night air. Not county sirens. The deep, heavy roar of State Police cruisers. Half a dozen of them were tearing down the dirt road, blue lights illuminating the forest.

Caroline had found my phone in the truck and hit the emergency dial.

The deputies looked at each other. The fight drained out of them instantly. They dropped their weapons, raising their hands.

Meredith collapsed to her knees, releasing Lily.

Lily ran to me, wrapping her arms around my legs. I scooped her up with my good arm, holding her so tight she gasped.

"I'm here, baby," I whispered, kissing her tears away. "Daddy's here."

State troopers swarmed the lot, throwing the deputies against their vehicles and rushing toward Meredith.

I didn't watch my sister get handcuffed. I turned my back on her forever.

I carried Lily back to the truck, where Caroline threw the door open. Noah was sitting on the console.

Lily looked at her brother. Noah looked back at her.