Chapter 7 - The Long Night
"Move," Nolan whispered, already on his feet, his voice sharp with sudden urgency. "Back to the bedroom. Now."
We didn't stop to talk, didn't stop to think. We moved as one, our feet silent on the carpet, adrenaline surging through our veins. Nolan herded me down the hallway, pausing only long enough to slip into Lacey's bedroom and scoop her up out of bed, her eyes still heavy with sleep, her small voice murmuring in confusion.
"Shh, baby," he whispered into her hair, holding her tight. "We have to be quiet for a little while. Everything's going to be okay."
We slipped into the master bedroom. Nolan opened the hidden door in the wall, pushing me and Lacey inside the narrow space first, then following and pulling the door shut behind us, latching it. The darkness closed in around us, the air stale and close, the four of us pressed together in a space barely meant for one.
Lacey pressed her face into my chest, her body trembling slightly. I held her tight, one hand covering her mouth to keep her quiet, my heart hammering so hard I was certain the men outside would hear it. Nolan pressed his ear to the wooden wall, his body tense and alert, listening.
We heard the front door open.
It didn't creak. It didn't rattle. Whoever was out there had a key, or they had picked the lock with professional skill. Heavy footsteps moved through the front hallway, into the living room, into the kitchen. We heard low voices, too muffled to make out distinct words, but the tone was cold, methodical, dangerous.
"They're searching the house," Nolan breathed into my ear, so quiet I could barely hear him. "Voss's men. They must have finally figured out the Seattle story was a lie."
I thought of the evidence still sitting in the metal box only a few feet away. If they found it, if they found us, everything would be over.
The footsteps came closer, moving down the hallway toward the bedrooms. We heard Lacey's bedroom door open, heard the men move around inside, heard one of them grunt in frustration when they found the bed empty but still warm.
"Someone was here recently," a deep voice said, the words carrying clearly through the thin walls. "Check the master bedroom."
The bedroom door opened.
I held my breath, Lacey's small body rigid against mine, Nolan's arm tightening around both of us. We could hear the men moving around the room, opening closet doors, pulling out dresser drawers, tapping on the walls. One of them walked right past the hidden door, so close I could almost feel his presence on the other side of the wood.
"Place is empty," another voice said. "But they didn't go far. Car's still in the driveway. Their things are still here. They're hiding somewhere nearby."
"Search the attic. The basement. The garage. Check every inch of this property," the first voice ordered. "Voss wants them found. And he wants whatever documents Whitmore was hiding. Don't leave until you have both."
The footsteps moved away, heading toward other parts of the house. We let out the breath we had all been holding, but there was no relief, no safety. They were still in the house. They were still looking for us. And sooner or later, they would think to check the walls.
Nolan pulled out his phone, the screen turned down so no light would escape, and typed furiously with one thumb. He showed me the screen.
Texting Hale. Told him we're compromised. He's sending help. But it will take time. We have to hold on.
I nodded, my mind racing. We couldn't stay here forever. The space was too small, the air was growing stale, and Lacey was starting to squirm, her fear threatening to overcome her confusion. If the men came back to this room and thought to tap more carefully on the walls, they would find the hollow space, they would find the door, they would find us.
We heard a crash from another part of the house, the sound of something valuable breaking. The men were growing frustrated, growing careless. The longer they searched without finding us, the more dangerous they would become.
Nolan leaned close to my ear again. "There's another way out. When I had this space built, I had Hale's people install a small escape hatch at the far end. It leads out under the back deck. It's narrow, and it hasn't been used in months, but it's our only chance. We have to crawl through it, get to the backyard, and meet Hale at the end of the block. Stay low. Stay quiet. Whatever happens, don't let go of Lacey."
I nodded, adjusting my grip on our daughter. Nolan carefully shifted us around in the cramped space, feeling along the far wall until his fingers found the hidden latch. He pushed gently, and a section of the wall swung outward, revealing a narrow, dark crawl space, the air smelling of damp earth and old leaves.
He went first, turning back to reach for Lacey, passing her gently through the opening, then reaching for me. I followed, pulling the hatch closed behind us, plunging us into almost total darkness.
The crawl space was barely high enough to crawl on our hands and knees, the ground cold and uneven beneath us, cobwebs brushing against our faces. Lacey whimpered softly, and I whispered words of comfort into her ear, even as my own fear threatened to overwhelm me. We moved slowly, carefully, every small sound echoing loudly in the confined space, terrified the men in the house would hear us, terrified we would make a mistake and give ourselves away.
It felt like hours, though it was probably only minutes, before Nolan finally reached the end of the crawl space. He pushed up on a wooden panel, and moonlight flooded in, illuminating the underside of our back deck. He climbed out first, then reached down to lift Lacey up, then pulled me out after him.
We crouched in the shadows under the deck, our clothes dirty, our breathing ragged. The house loomed above us, lights on in several rooms, the dark shapes of Voss's men moving past the windows. We were out of the wall, out of the bedroom, but we were still far from safe.
"Stay here," Nolan whispered. "I'm going to check if the coast is clear to the street."
Before he could move, a bright beam of light swept across the backyard, passing only a few feet from our hiding place.
"Check the yard!" a voice shouted from the back door. "They could be hiding out here!"
More flashlights swept across the grass, moving closer, closer.
Nolan pulled us tighter into the shadows, his body shielding mine and Lacey's. I pressed my hand over Lacey's mouth again, tears stinging my eyes, certain this was the end. The flashlights moved nearer, the men's voices growing louder, the beams of light cutting through the dark.
And then, from the front of the house, the sound of sirens wailed in the distance.
The men froze. The flashlights stopped moving.
"Police!" one of them cursed. "Someone called the cops. We have to go. Now!"
We heard the sound of heavy footsteps running, the front door slamming shut, the black SUV's engine roaring to life, tires screeching on the pavement as they sped away.
We didn't move. We stayed huddled in the shadows under the deck, waiting, listening, until the sirens grew louder, until we saw the flashing blue lights of police cars pulling up in front of our house.
Nolan let out a long, shaky breath. "Hale. He must have called them when he realized how much danger we were in."
A car pulled up quietly at the end of the backyard, its lights off. Marcus Hale got out, moving quickly and silently toward us.
"Are you all right?" he asked quietly, kneeling down beside us, his eyes scanning us for injuries.
"We're fine," Nolan said, his voice hoarse. "They almost had us."
"I know," Hale said grimly. "I saw their SUV when I turned onto the street. I called the police anonymously to flush them out. They won't be coming back tonight, but they'll be watching. This house isn't safe anymore. You can't stay here."
He looked at me, his expression serious. "I have a safe place we can go. A small cabin outside of town, off the beaten path, somewhere Voss's people won't think to look. We'll stay there until we figure out our next move. Grab only what you absolutely need. We leave in five minutes."
Nolan and I looked at each other, then at our home, the place where we had built our life together, now violated and dangerous. We couldn't stay. But leaving felt like another kind of loss.
We slipped back into the house quickly, the police officers now going from room to room, asking questions we couldn't fully answer. We told them we had come home to find the door open and the house ransacked, that we had been scared and had hidden outside. They took our statements, promised to increase patrols, warned us to be careful. They didn't know the half of it.
We packed a few bags, grabbed the metal box of evidence from behind the wall, and slipped out the back door to Hale's waiting car. Lacey, exhausted and confused, fell asleep in my arms almost as soon as the car started moving.
Nolan reached across the seat and took my hand, his grip tight. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry I brought this into our lives."
May you like
I squeezed his hand back, looking out the window at the dark countryside rolling past. The road ahead was uncertain, the danger still very real, the wounds between us still raw. But for the first time in a long time, we were facing it together.
We had survived the long night. But the real fight was only just beginning.
