Chapter 1 - The Question Grant Should Never Have Asked
Silvio Moretti heard Ethan screaming before he saw the black SUV.
“DAD! HELP US!”
The valet entrance of the resort was flooded with brilliant afternoon sunlight.
Stone-paved driveway.
Porte-cochère.
Gold luggage cart.
Wooden valet stand.
Brochure rack.
Luggage bins waiting beneath the covered entrance.
An ordinary luxury-resort arrival scene.
Except Silvio’s seven-year-old son was pounding both hands against the tinted rear window of the SUV.
And four-year-old Mia was already trapped inside.
Only seconds earlier, Grant Vale had seized Ethan by the arm.
Ethan fought him.
“LET GO!”
Grant shoved him hard into the back seat.
SLAM.
Ethan stumbled across the seat beside his little sister.
Grant immediately shut the door.
Locked it.
Ethan lunged toward the glass.
“DAD! HELP US!”
Mia sat beside him in her off-white summer dress, flushed and crying weakly from the heat.
Silvio rushed into the valet area.
Then stopped dead.
His children.
Locked inside his own SUV.
His sister Lucinda stood several feet away in her elegant cream skirt suit, casually spinning the SUV keys around one finger.
As if this were inconvenience.
Not danger.
Silvio’s face hardened.
He grabbed the rear door handle.
Locked.
Pulled again.
Nothing.
One of his bodyguards immediately moved around the opposite side of the vehicle, trying another door and checking Mia through the glass.
Silvio spun toward Lucinda.
“Give me the keys.”
Grant stepped between them.
Calm.
Almost amused.
Silvio started around him.
Grant blocked him again.
Then glanced toward the SUV.
And smiled.
“ARE THEY STILL ALIVE?”
Silvio froze.
Only for a fraction of a second.
The question was wrong.
Not:
Are they okay?
Not:
How long have they been inside?
Still alive.
As if Grant had expected another answer.
Silvio moved.
His right fist drove across Grant’s face.
WHACK.
One punch.
Grant flew backward into the gold luggage cart.
CRASH.
The cart tipped over.
Suitcases, parking tags, and small valet items scattered across the paved entrance.
No second punch followed.
Lucinda suddenly turned toward the SUV.
Silvio saw her move.
He grabbed her wrist.
Snatched the keys from her hand.
Then shoved her backward once.
Lucinda slammed into the rotating brochure display.
The stand collapsed around her.
Colorful brochures scattered over the stone.
Two bodyguards closed in behind them.
Silvio kept the SUV key locked in his fist.
Then he looked toward Grant.
Grant was lying beside the overturned luggage cart.
His arrogance had disappeared.
Silvio’s voice dropped.
“WHY DID YOU LOCK MY KIDS IN THAT CAR?”
Grant looked up.
And went terrified.
He did not answer.
Silvio stared at him.
At the fear.
At the way Grant’s eyes flicked toward the SUV and then toward Lucinda.
And suddenly Silvio understood the most horrifying part was not that his brother-in-law had locked two children in a vehicle.
May you like
It was that Grant seemed surprised they had survived long enough to scream.
---
