Chapter 7 - The Price of a Daughter
Kendrick did not shout.
That frightened everyone more.
Within four minutes, St. Vincent's basement filled with orders.
Bridges watched.
Airports flagged.
Private airstrips closed.
Every vehicle connected to Barrett searched.
Every contact monitored.
Kendrick became something colder than anger.
Willa watched a father turn himself into a weapon.
"We need to think," she said.
"I am thinking."
"No. You're hunting."
His eyes snapped toward her.
"He has my daughter."
"Exactly."
"I don't need advice on how to respond to that."
"You do if Barrett knows how you'll respond."
Kendrick walked toward her.
"Careful."
Willa refused to move.
"He helped raise you."
His jaw tightened.
"He knows your instincts."
"Enough."
"He expects you to send armies."
"Willa."
"He expects rage."
Kendrick slammed his hand against the table.
"My five-year-old daughter is with the man who murdered her mother!"
Silence.
The words echoed.
Kendrick's face changed afterward.
Pain replaced fury.
Willa stepped closer.
"And Penny needs you to be smarter than him."
His breathing slowed.
Titan whined beside them.
Willa touched the dog's head.
"We have something Barrett doesn't know."
"What?"
"The truth."
Kendrick looked at Celeste's archive.
"He doesn't know we opened this vault."
"Exactly."
"He thinks we only have the key."
"And he thinks the key leads here."
Kendrick understood.
"So we give him what he expects."
Willa nodded.
An hour later, Barrett called.
Kendrick answered on speaker.
"Put Penny on."
Barrett laughed softly.
"No greeting?"
"Put my daughter on."
A rustling sound.
Then a tiny voice.
"Daddy?"
Kendrick's face nearly collapsed.
"I'm here, sweetheart."
"Willa?"
Willa stepped toward the phone.
"I'm here too."
Penny began crying.
"Titan?"
Titan barked as though he understood.
A tiny laugh came through the speaker.
Willa closed her eyes.
Alive.
Penny was alive.
Barrett returned.
"Touching."
Kendrick's voice turned lethal.
"If you've hurt her—"
"I haven't."
"Where?"
"Patience."
Barrett sounded almost cheerful.
"You've always lacked patience."
"You murdered Celeste."
Silence.
There.
A change.
Barely perceptible.
Barrett hadn't expected that.
"Grief makes men imaginative."
"We found her recording."
Longer silence.
Willa watched Kendrick.
Barrett recovered.
"Then she was even more foolish than I thought."
Kendrick's eyes closed.
Confession.
Not legally perfect.
But enough.
"Bring the key," Barrett said.
"Where?"
"You'll receive instructions."
"And Penny?"
"You get her when I get what Celeste hid."
Barrett paused.
"Come alone."
The call ended.
Kendrick looked at Willa.
"He's scared."
"Good."
"No."
She shook her head.
"Scared men become unpredictable."
They prepared a false key.
A duplicate.
Kendrick insisted Willa remain behind.
She refused.
"This started with my family."
"It involves my daughter."
"And she asked for me."
"Which is exactly why you're not going."
Willa laughed.
"You really think ordering me works?"
"It works on most people."
"I'm starting to see why you're single."
Kendrick stared.
Despite the crisis, one guard coughed suspiciously into his fist.
"Nobody asked you," Kendrick muttered.
Willa crossed her arms.
"Penny trusts me."
"So do I."
The words stopped her.
Kendrick looked equally surprised he'd said them.
Willa's voice softened.
"Then trust me enough to help."
He looked away.
"You almost died at the diner."
"So did you."
"I can accept that."
"I can't."
Their eyes met.
The moment lasted too long.
Then Titan pushed between them.
Willa exhaled.
"Your dog agrees with me."
"Traitor."
Titan wagged his tail.
The instructions led them to an abandoned private club beneath an old hotel near the river.
Kendrick technically went alone.
Willa and Titan entered through a maintenance tunnel identified on old building plans.
Two trusted guards waited blocks away.
Willa moved through darkness with Titan beside her.
The basement smelled of damp concrete.
Then she heard crying.
Penny.
Willa crouched.
"Find her."
Titan's head lifted.
He moved.
Fast.
They followed narrow corridors until Titan stopped before a steel door.
Willa heard voices beyond it.
Barrett.
And Kendrick.
"You brought the key?"
"Where is my daughter?"
"Always negotiating."
"Show me Penny."
A lock clicked.
Willa peeked through a vent.
Penny sat tied to a chair.
Not injured.
Terrified.
Kendrick stood ten feet away.
Barrett held a gun.
Three armed men surrounded them.
Willa's stomach sank.
Bad odds.
Then Barrett spoke.
"Do you know what disappointed me most about you?"
Kendrick remained still.
"Your sentimentality."
Barrett paced.
"Your father understood power. Silas knew love made men stupid."
"My father loved my mother."
"And she nearly destroyed him."
Barrett smiled.
"Then Celeste made the same mistake with you."
Kendrick's voice dropped.
"You killed her because she found out about Bennett."
"I killed her because she couldn't stop digging."
Willa's nails dug into her palms.
Barrett continued.
"She should have enjoyed the diamonds and raised your child."
"Instead she discovered what you were."
"No."
Barrett's expression hardened.
"She discovered what everyone is when enough money is involved."
Kendrick held up the duplicate key.
"Let Penny go."
Barrett aimed at him.
"The key first."
Willa looked at Titan.
Three guards.
One near Penny.
One by Kendrick.
One near the door.
She whispered:
"Duke."
Titan's eyes moved to her.
For six years, nobody had called him that.
Willa pointed toward Penny.
"Get her."
The mastiff understood.
He exploded through the half-open service panel.
Chaos followed.
The nearest guard turned.
Kendrick attacked the second.
Willa rushed the door.
Barrett fired.
The bullet struck metal.
Penny screamed.
Titan hit the man beside her hard enough to knock him across the floor.
Willa reached Penny.
"I'm here!"
"Willa!"
She cut the restraints with a utility blade.
Another shot.
Kendrick tackled Barrett.
The gun slid away.
A guard grabbed Willa from behind.
She slammed her heel down.
He cursed.
Then Penny bit him.
Hard.
The man screamed.
Willa almost laughed.
"Good girl!"
Titan took care of the rest.
Within seconds, two guards were down.
The third fled.
Barrett threw Kendrick into a table.
For an older man, he was surprisingly strong.
Then Barrett saw Willa.
Recognition finally became complete.
"Willow Bennett."
Willa froze.
He smiled.
"I knew your eyes."
Kendrick moved between them.
Barrett laughed.
"Did she tell you how her father begged?"
Willa's vision turned red.
Kendrick caught her before she lunged.
"No."
Barrett smiled wider.
"That's right. Protect her."
He backed toward another door.
"Just like you protected Celeste."
Kendrick's face changed.
Barrett disappeared through the doorway.
Kendrick chased him.
A second later, an explosion shook the building.
The ceiling cracked.
"Willa!"
Kendrick ran back.
"Out!"
Smoke poured from the corridor.
Barrett had rigged the building.
Kendrick grabbed Penny.
Willa called Titan.
They ran through the maintenance tunnel as concrete fell around them.
The exit appeared twenty yards ahead.
Then Titan yelped.
Willa turned.
A steel beam had fallen.
Titan lay beneath one end.
"No!"
"Willa!"
She ran back.
Kendrick handed Penny to a guard who had reached the tunnel.
Then he joined Willa.
Together they lifted.
The beam barely moved.
Titan whined.
"Again," Kendrick said.
Willa screamed with effort.
The beam rose enough for Titan to crawl free.
They stumbled outside seconds before part of the building collapsed.
Penny threw her arms around Titan.
The mastiff limped but remained standing.
Kendrick dropped to his knees beside his daughter.
She clung to him.
Willa turned away.
She couldn't watch.
Not because it was painful.
Because it was beautiful.
Because after six years of loneliness, seeing someone get back the person they loved hurt in a place she no longer knew existed.
Then Penny reached one hand toward her.
"Willa."
Willa looked.
"Come."
She hesitated.
Kendrick did too.
Then Willa knelt.
Penny wrapped one arm around her father's neck.
The other around Willa's.
For one impossible moment, they formed something dangerously close to a family.
Willa felt Kendrick's forehead touch hers across Penny's hair.
Neither moved.
Sirens approached.
Titan settled beside them.
And for the first time in six years, Willa allowed herself to believe she might not have to run again.
Then one of Kendrick's guards approached.
"Boss."
Kendrick stood.
"What?"
"We searched Barrett's escape vehicle."
"And?"
The guard handed him a photograph.
Kendrick looked down.
His expression changed.
Willa took it.
Her knees nearly gave way.
The photograph showed a man leaving an airport three months earlier.
Older.
Bearded.
But unmistakable.
A scar crossed his right hand.
Caleb.
Willa's missing brother.
Alive.
May you like
On the back, Barrett had written five words.
HE WORKS FOR ME NOW.
