Chapter 7 - THE RACE TO JUNIPER HOUSE The police arrived three minutes later.
They swarmed the patio, cuffing a bleeding, grinning Marcus and pulling Nico up to his feet. Paramedics rushed in, but I didn’t stay to watch.
I grabbed Nico’s arm. “He has men at Juniper House. Lily isn’t safe.”
Nico’s eyes widened in sheer panic. He turned to the police captain. “I need a squad car right now. My daughter is in danger.”
Within seconds, Nico and I were in the back of a police cruiser, tearing down the dark highway with sirens screaming.
I pulled out my phone and dialed the front desk of Juniper House. It rang and rang.
Finally, a voice answered. It wasn't a nurse.
“Hello, Hannah.”
It was the same gravelly voice I had heard talking to Marcus in the hallway earlier. One of his security thugs.
“If you touch her, you’re dead,” Nico roared, leaning close to my phone.
The man laughed. “Mr. Romano. We’re just transferring Lily to a... more permanent facility. Doctor’s orders.”
The line went dead.
“Step on it!” Nico yelled at the officer driving.
The cruiser took the corners so fast I was thrown against the door. Ten minutes later, we smashed through the iron gates of Juniper House.
The black SUV that had been idling earlier was gone.
We sprinted inside. The reception desk was abandoned. The glass window of the nurses' station was shattered.
Nico ran down the hall toward the restricted wing, shouting Lily’s name.
I followed the trail of knocked-over carts and scattered medical files. We reached Room 12.
The door was wide open. The bed was empty.
Nico collapsed against the doorframe, burying his face in his hands. “I lost her. I lost my little girl.”
I stepped into the room. My eyes scanned the wreckage.
Something caught my attention. On the floor, barely visible beneath a crumpled blanket, was a small child’s drawing.
I picked it up.
It was a sketch Lily had shown me in the car three days ago. A drawing she made when she was seven years old. It was a picture of an old, rusted lighthouse.
Not just any lighthouse.
The one on the abandoned edge of the Romano family’s private beach estate.
May you like
She had left a breadcrumb.
“Nico,” I said, gripping his shoulder. “I know where they’re taking her.”
