Chapter 1 - The Empty Bedroom
At 11:47 that night, Roman Bellamy woke to the sound of a horse screaming.
Not neighing.
Screaming.
He was out of bed before his eyes had fully adjusted to the darkness.
Roman had spent most of his adult life learning the difference between ordinary sounds and warnings. A car idling too long outside a restaurant. A telephone going silent during a conversation. Footsteps that stopped when he stopped.
And animals knew danger before people did.
He grabbed the pistol from the drawer beside his bed and opened his bedroom door.
The hallway was dark.
Too dark.
The security lights should have been glowing along the floor.
Roman touched the communication device beside his ear.
“Control.”
Nothing.
“Gabriel?”
Silence.
Then another sound came from downstairs.
Glass breaking.
Roman moved quickly.
Two armed guards appeared at the far staircase.
“Power was cut to the east wing,” one whispered.
“Eliza.”
Roman didn't wait.
He ran.
His daughter’s bedroom door stood open.
The night-light shaped like a moon still glowed beside her bed because it operated on batteries.
The blankets had been thrown aside.
Eliza was gone.
Her stuffed rabbit lay on the carpet.
Roman stopped breathing.
For three years, his daughter had been the one thing capable of making him afraid.
Not rival families.
Not federal investigations.
Not bullets.
Eliza.
“Eliza!”
Roman searched the bathroom.
Empty.
Closet.
Empty.
Balcony doors.
Locked.
Then he noticed something beneath the window.
Mud.
A partial boot print.
His blood went cold.
“LOCK DOWN THE ESTATE!”
His voice thundered through the corridor.
Gabriel appeared seconds later, shirt half buttoned and pistol in hand.
“What happened?”
“Eliza’s gone.”
The color vanished from Gabriel’s face.
Roman pointed toward the window.
“No one leaves. Search every vehicle. Every room. Every basement. Bring me camera footage from ten o’clock onward.”
“The cameras are down.”
“Then find out why.”
Roman turned.
And realized someone was standing behind them.
Clara.
She wore flannel pajama pants, boots without socks, and an oversized sweater.
Her hair was loose.
“Eliza?”
Roman stared at her.
“She’s missing.”
Clara went completely still.
Then her eyes moved toward the muddy print.
“Was the window open when you arrived?”
“No.”
“Then whoever took her used the door.”
Roman’s expression sharpened.
“You seem very certain.”
Clara ignored the accusation.
“When did the power fail?”
“Minutes ago.”
“Onyx.”
Roman frowned.
“What?”
Clara suddenly ran.
Roman followed.
They reached the stable yard just as three men came racing toward them.
Onyx’s stall stood open.
The $1.3 million stallion was gone.
Roman looked from the empty stall to Clara.
For the first time since arriving at the Bellamy estate, she looked genuinely terrified.
“Why would someone take my daughter and my horse?”
Clara stepped inside the stall.
She crouched beside the straw.
Then she touched something.
Blood.
Not much.
A few drops.
Roman’s heart slammed against his ribs.
“Eliza?”
Clara rubbed the blood between her fingers.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“It’s too dark.”
She smelled it.
“Horse blood.”
Roman stared.
Clara followed a thin line toward the rear service doors.
Someone had cut the padlock.
Outside, hoofprints disappeared into the trees.
One set.
“Onyx left alone,” Clara whispered.
Roman turned toward her.
“You’re telling me my daughter disappeared at the same time someone opened that animal’s stall, and you expect me to believe it’s coincidence?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I think Eliza is with him.”
Roman grabbed Clara’s arm.
“Explain.”
She looked directly at him.
“Earlier tonight, Eliza asked whether Onyx slept alone.”
Roman released her slightly.
“What did you tell her?”
“That horses sleep differently than people.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“She said she thought he was lonely.”
Roman’s expression changed.
“You think she left her bedroom?”
“I think someone may have convinced her Onyx needed help.”
Roman’s jaw hardened.
“Someone.”
Clara met his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Roman stepped closer.
“But somebody from your past arrives the same night I discover you lied about who you are?”
Clara flinched.
There it was.
He knew.
Roman saw the realization in her eyes.
“You investigated me.”
“I investigate everyone around my daughter.”
“And you found the stable.”
“I found everything.”
“No, you didn’t.”
Roman’s stare became dangerous.
“Then start talking.”
A guard shouted from the trees.
“Mr. Bellamy!”
Everyone turned.
A small pink ribbon had been tied around a branch.
Eliza’s ribbon.
Clara rushed forward.
Roman followed.
Twenty yards farther, they found another.
Then another.
Eliza was leaving a trail.
“She’s smart,” Clara whispered.
“She’s six.”
“She’s still smart.”
The trail moved deeper into the forest.
Roman ordered twelve men forward.
Clara stopped him.
“No.”
Roman looked at her as if she’d lost her mind.
“No?”
“If Onyx is out there frightened, twelve armed men charging through the trees could make him run.”
“My daughter may be beside him.”
“Exactly.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you suggesting?”
“Three people.”
“Who?”
“You. Me. Gabriel.”
Roman almost laughed.
“You think I’m walking into an ambush with a nanny?”
Clara pulled an emergency flashlight from a guard.
“No. I think you’re walking into an ambush with the only person here who can control your horse.”
That silenced everyone.
Gabriel almost smiled.
Roman didn’t.
“Move.”
They followed the ribbons.
After ten minutes, Clara suddenly stopped.
She raised one hand.
Roman heard nothing.
Then—
A soft whimper.
“Eliza,” Roman whispered.
They pushed through the trees.
Moonlight illuminated a small clearing.
Onyx stood beside an abandoned stone fountain, trembling.
And underneath his enormous body, wrapped in her nightgown and clutching her stuffed rabbit, stood Eliza.
Roman’s knees nearly gave out.
“Eliza.”
She turned.
“Daddy.”
Roman froze.
It was the clearest word she had spoken to him in months.
He stepped forward.
Onyx pinned his ears.
Clara touched Roman’s chest.
“Don’t.”
“That is my daughter.”
“And he’s protecting her.”
Clara walked ahead alone.
“Easy, Onyx.”
The stallion snorted.
She approached sideways.
“Good boy.”
Eliza began crying.
“Clara.”
“I’m here, sweetheart.”
Clara reached her.
Roman watched her slide an arm around Eliza while resting her other hand against Onyx’s neck.
“Can you come to me?” Roman asked.
Eliza nodded.
Then she whispered something.
Roman couldn’t hear.
“What?”
Eliza pointed toward the trees.
“The man.”
Every muscle in Roman’s body tightened.
“What man?”
“The man who said Mommy sent him.”
Clara went pale.
Roman stepped forward.
“Where is he?”
Eliza’s little finger remained pointed behind Clara.
A branch snapped.
Gabriel spun around.
Gunfire exploded.
Roman threw himself toward his daughter.
Clara screamed.
Onyx reared.
Three men emerged from the darkness.
Gabriel fired twice.
One fell.
Another shot shattered the fountain.
Clara dragged Eliza behind Onyx as Roman fired toward the trees.
The stallion screamed and kicked backward.
A gunman attempting to circle behind them was thrown to the ground.
Then Clara saw the third man.
He wasn't aiming at Roman.
He was aiming at Eliza.
Clara moved before anyone else.
She grabbed Eliza and rolled.
The bullet struck stone.
Roman fired.
The attacker disappeared behind the trees.
“AFTER HIM!”
Gabriel ran with two guards arriving from behind.
Roman reached Eliza.
He grabbed her into his arms.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
Roman kissed her hair again and again.
Then he looked toward Clara.
Blood stained her sleeve.
“You’re hit.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“It grazed me.”
Roman looked toward the dead attacker.
A silver ring covered one finger.
Clara saw it.
Her face drained of color.
Roman noticed.
“You recognize that ring.”
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
Clara stood slowly.
The symbol on the ring was tiny.
A horse surrounded by flames.
Roman’s voice became low.
“What does it mean?”
Clara stared at it.
Fifteen years vanished from her face.
For one second, she looked thirteen again.
Terrified.
Helpless.
Watching her childhood burn.
“That symbol,” she whispered, “was painted on our stable wall the night my family lost everything.”
Roman looked toward the darkness.
“Who are they?”
Clara swallowed.
“The men my father spent fifteen years hiding from.”
Roman’s eyes returned to her.
“You said your father disappeared.”
“He did.”
“That isn’t the same as hiding.”
Clara looked down at Eliza.
“No.”
Roman stepped closer.
“Is your father alive?”
Clara hesitated.
And that hesitation answered him.
Then Eliza tugged Roman’s shirt.
“There was another man.”
Roman crouched.
“What did he look like?”
Eliza struggled.
“Old.”
“Hair?”
“Gray.”
“Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head.
“He told the bad man not to touch me.”
Roman exchanged a glance with Clara.
“What else did he say?”
Eliza looked directly at Clara.
“He said…”
She swallowed.
“He said tell Clara her daddy is sorry.”
Clara stopped breathing.
May you like
Somewhere in the forest, Onyx screamed again.
And Clara Hayes realized the nightmare she had spent fifteen years escaping had finally found her.
