THE AMBULANCE AT THE GATE

I spun around.

Standing in the doorway of the warehouse, completely alone and soaking wet from the rain, was Nora.

“Nora! No!” I screamed, terrified.

Caleb lunged forward to grab her, but Bell raised the remote detonator.

“Ah, ah,” Bell warned, his thumb resting heavily on the red button. “There’s enough C4 strapped under the pharmacist’s chair to bring this entire roof down on all of us. Stop moving, Caleb.”

Caleb froze, agonizing inches away from his daughter. His chest heaved. “How did she get out of the SUV? Where are my men?”

Anna laughed softly, a terrifying, maternal sound. “Oh, Caleb. Your men didn't bring her in. I did. Well, technically, she brought herself.”

Nora didn't look at Caleb. She didn't look at me. She walked straight past us, her little pink sneakers squeaking on the wet concrete, until she stood directly in front of Anna.

“Hello, baby,” Anna said, lowering the gun from my mother’s head to stroke Nora’s wet hair.

“I did what you said, Mommy,” Nora said, her voice eerily calm. She reached into her pajama pocket and pulled out a tiny, silver remote control.

It was the master override for the SUV’s security locks.

“I unlocked the doors when the guards weren't looking. And I put the shiny pin on Daddy’s neck this morning, just like you told me on the phone.”

My stomach dropped.

Answer one: Marcus hadn't planted the tracker. Nora had. Anna had been secretly communicating with her eight-year-old daughter.

Caleb looked like a man whose soul had just been ripped from his body.

“Nora,” Caleb whispered, his voice cracking. “Sweetheart, why?”

Nora finally turned to look at her father. Her small face was entirely devoid of the fear I had seen earlier tonight.

“Mommy said you were sick, Daddy,” Nora said simply. “She said Dr. Bell’s medicine was the only thing keeping you alive. And if you stopped taking it, you would die. She said I had to help her bring you here so Dr. Bell could make you better.”

A profound, sickening silence settled over the warehouse.

Anna had manipulated a child’s love for her father to lead him into a death trap.

“She’s a very obedient girl,” Anna smiled, tucking the remote into her trench coat. “Unlike your new nurse.”

Anna pointed her revolver at me.

“You ruined everything, Rachel. The slow poisoning was supposed to look natural. Heart failure. Tragic, but expected given his 'condition.' But you just couldn't mind your own business.”

“Why?” I demanded, stepping defensively between Caleb and Anna. “You faked your death. You were free. Why come back for him?”

“Because freedom is expensive,” Anna spat, her sophisticated facade cracking. “When I left, I took five million from his accounts. It lasted three years. But the syndicate my brother owed money to? They didn't forget. They tracked me down. They want twenty million by tomorrow, or they kill me.”

She looked at Caleb with pure hatred.

“The only way I get that money is if you die, Caleb. The estate passes to Nora, and as her resurrected mother, I petition the court for guardianship of the trust.”

“You would use your own daughter as a pawn?” Caleb growled, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles were white.

“I birthed her. She owes me,” Anna said coldly. She turned to Bell. “Finish it. Shoot him. Then blow the chair to get rid of the nurse and her mother.”

Bell raised a suppressed pistol, aiming directly at Caleb’s chest.

“Wait!” Nora screamed.

The little girl suddenly realized what was happening. Her eyes darted from the gun, to her mother’s cold face, to Caleb’s terrified eyes.

“Mommy, you said you were going to make him better!” Nora cried, grabbing Anna’s trench coat.

“Let go of me,” Anna snapped, shoving her own daughter backward.

Nora stumbled and fell hard onto the concrete floor, dropping the stuffed rabbit she had been carrying all night.

The rabbit hit the ground. A seam ripped open.

And something heavy and metallic spilled out onto the floor.

It was a small, black external hard drive.

Caleb stared at it. “What is that?”

Anna’s face went completely pale. She pointed her gun directly at Nora.

“Don't touch it!” Anna shrieked.