Chapter 11 - THE HOUSE GOES DARK
Detective Ortiz wanted Maya moved to a hotel under police protection.
Maya agreed.
She never got there.
At 9:42 p.m., every light in the Caldwell estate went out.
The security system died with them.
Maya stood in the upstairs hall.
“Ethan?”
No answer.
Then Oliver started crying.
Maya ran toward the nursery.
Her phone had no signal.
A backup emergency light flickered red.
She reached the nursery door.
Locked.
“Oliver!”
She hit the handle.
Nothing.
Inside, Oliver screamed.
Maya backed up and slammed her shoulder into the door.
Pain exploded down her arm.
Again.
The frame cracked.
Third hit.
The door opened.
Oliver stood gripping the crib rail.
Maya rushed to him.
“I’ve got you.”
Then she smelled something.
Gas.
Not natural gas.
Smoke.
She turned.
Gray smoke curled from the ventilation grille.
Someone was pumping smoke into the nursery.
Maya wrapped Oliver in a blanket.
“Come on.”
The hallway was darker now.
Footsteps moved downstairs.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Maya ducked into a guest bedroom.
She heard Ethan shout.
“Maya!”
“Upstairs!”
A heavy crash followed.
Then silence.
“Ethan?”
Nothing.
Maya’s heart pounded.
Oliver whimpered against her chest.
She opened the bedroom window.
Second floor.
Too high.
No balcony.
Footsteps approached.
Maya looked around.
Closet.
Bathroom.
No safe exit.
The handle turned.
She grabbed a brass lamp.
The door opened.
Maya swung.
The lamp struck someone’s shoulder.
A man cursed.
Grant.
He knocked the lamp away.
Maya screamed and kicked him.
He grabbed her sleeve.
She pulled back so violently the fabric tore.
Oliver screamed.
“Give me the child.”
“Go to hell.”
Grant smiled.
“That loyalty is going to get you killed.”
He lunged.
Maya grabbed a glass vase and shattered it against the wall.
She held the broken neck toward him.
“Come closer.”
Grant stopped.
Then another voice came from behind him.
“Step away from them.”
Ethan.
He stood in the hallway holding a fireplace poker.
Blood ran from his forehead.
Grant turned.
Ethan swung.
Grant ducked and tackled him.
Both men crashed into the wall.
Maya ran.
Down the stairs.
Across the kitchen.
Toward the back door.
Locked.
She turned toward the side entrance.
A shadow moved.
Grant again.
How?
Then Maya saw Ethan still wrestling with someone upstairs.
Two men.
The one chasing her wasn’t Grant.
He stepped into the emergency light.
Security officer Kyle Bennett.
Grant’s most trusted employee.
May you like
Maya’s stomach dropped.
Grant had never been working alone.
