Chapter 3

I threw myself at the edge of the boat and grabbed at the water.

Nothing.

"Go ahead and cry, Riley." Chloe's voice was almost giddy.

"Is this what you watched happen to my parents? Just stood there?"

"Carter, get the old woman too."

Marie came around slowly, looking for Gerald.

"Riley. Where is he."

She followed my eyes to the water.

She understood.

Carter was already pushing toward us. I grabbed Marie and dragged her toward the bank.

The helicopter's rotors churned the air behind us, close enough to knock us off our feet.

I shoved her forward. "Run, Mom. Don't stop."

"Riley, it's over." Carter's voice through the speaker, almost cheerful.

I looked back.

He was leaning out of the cabin door, holding a modified nail gun. Aimed at us.

Chloe was clapping.

"Shoot her in the knees. I want to watch her crawl."

"Mom." My throat tightened. "Faster. Go!"

The slope was right there. If we could get to the rocks, find any cover at all —

Bang.

My right knee blew out. I hit the mud and couldn't get back up.

The pain was white and total. Through the wound I could see bone.

"Riley!"

Marie had made it up the slope. She looked back, saw me go down, and turned around without thinking.

I was soaked in cold sweat. I yelled until my voice cracked.

"Don't come back! Keep running!"

"Find Julian! Julian can stop him! Go!"

Julian Sterling. Carter's uncle. The one person Carter actually answered to.

If Julian found out what Carter had done to his own parents, Carter was finished.

"I'm not leaving you." She was already crying. "I'm not leaving you alone down here."

She tried to pull me. We both just sank deeper into the mud.

Finally, with one last look at me, she turned and ran.

"Stay alive, Riley. I'm coming back."

I'd pulled people out of burning buildings. Out of collapsed structures. Out of floods worse than this one.

Today I couldn't even get myself off the ground.

I pushed up onto my elbows. Watched until she was farther up the slope.

The helicopter swung around.

Carter's nail gun tracked her.

"Carter." My voice was gone. Barely anything left. "Look at her. That's your mother. That is your mother."

A short, dismissive sound through the speaker.

"Still doing this, Riley? Really?"

Chloe's voice, sweet and certain.

"She's trying to trick you, babe. Your mother is back in Aspen right now. Sipping tea somewhere nice. This woman is nobody."

"You're right," Carter said. "My mother isn't rolling around in the mud. Time's up, Riley."

"Carter — come after me instead — leave her alone —"

I screamed it as loud as I could.

Marie's body locked up. She looked back at me.

Then the shots came.

And didn't stop.

My mind went blank.

The helicopter came down low. Dropped Marie's body in front of me.

Her eyes were still open. Still looking at me.

Worried about me.

Even at the end, she was worried about me.

"There we go. Peace and quiet." Carter sounded satisfied. "Enjoy the gift, Riley. Two for the price of one."

Chloe cheered. "That's what they get."

The helicopter touched down. Carter climbed out, nail gun in hand, and walked toward me.

I looked at him.

This man I'd loved.

This thing that had just killed his own parents.

He smiled at me. "Rough day, Captain."

Chloe called out from behind him. "Do it. I want to see it."

My knee had gone past pain into nothing. I lay in the mud and reached out and took Marie's hand. Already cold.

I held it.

"Carter." My voice came out steadier than I expected. "If I make it out of this, I will destroy you completely."

He laughed. "Last words. Cute." He raised the gun. "Say hi to my parents for me."

He took aim at my head.

Finger on the trigger.

Then the sound of rotors. Getting louder.

A fleet of helicopters emerged overhead, the Sterling family crest on every one.

The color drained from Carter's face. He stared at the man stepping out.