Chapter Five
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Delaney sprinted across the hospital parking lot behind Eli, her boots hitting the pavement in sharp, fast strides. The morning sun was higher now, but it did nothing to take the edge off the chill crawling under her skin.
They reached the Crossfire Ops SUV, and Eli had the engine started before she even shut her door. A second later, her phone buzzed.
Noah.
She opened the text and read off the coordinates.
“Outside Blanco Pass,” she said. “Highway 281 heading north. He thinks they’re trying to lose anyone tailing them before they make a move.”
Eli nodded and floored the accelerator. Gravel sprayed from under the tires as they pulled out of the lot and onto the two-lane road cutting through the Hill Country. The SUV ate up the distance fast, but not fast enough to settle the tightening in Delaney’s chest.
She stared at the road, the landscape blurring past.
“If Ava’s in that van,” she said quietly, “and Hale knows Olivia talked, they might try to use her.”
Eli kept his eyes on the road. “To send a message.”
“Or worse,” Delaney said. “They could use Ava to draw Olivia back in. Force a trade. Threaten to make her disappear if Olivia doesn’t cooperate.”
The silence stretched between them. The tires hummed against the pavement, the only sound in the cabin for a long beat.
“She’s just a kid,” Delaney muttered. “Eighteen.” Nearly the same age as Jordan Mendez, the other girl she’d failed to save. “If we lose her…”
Delaney didn’t finish the thought.
Eli’s grip tightened on the wheel. “We’re not going to.”
Her phone buzzed again. Another text from Noah. Delaney opened it and tapped the video link. The drone feed came up, grainy but stable. It showed a dark panel van weaving through light morning traffic along a rural stretch of highway.
“They’re still on 281,” she relayed, her eyes on the screen. “Northbound. Moving steady.”
Eli nodded, shifting lanes to pass a slow pickup as their SUV surged forward. A moment later, the van on the feed made a hard right turn.
“They just pulled onto a farm road. Narrow, no signage.” Delaney adjusted the view. “Looks like they’re cutting away from the highway to lose anyone behind them.”
Cursing under his breath, Eli peeled off at the next turn, dirt and gravel spitting from the tires as they hit the rural road. The ride grew bumpier, potholes and frost cracks rattling through the frame.
“We’re still twenty minutes out,” Delaney said. “Assuming they don’t change course again.”
Eli’s phone buzzed against the dash, and he answered without taking his eyes off the road. “Tarrant.”
“It’s Isla,” came the voice on the line. “You’ve got a minute?”
Delaney knew the name. Isla Prescott had once been a field specialist with a specialty in intel extraction, but a spinal injury during a mission had taken her out of field duty rotation. Now, she ran point on tech and ops support from Crossfire headquarters, and her intel was always on target.
“Go ahead,” Eli said.
“I’ve got IDs on the two dead men from the safe house,” Isla explained. “Vincent Radley and Mark Trent. Both with serious records. Gunrunning, assault, attempted murder. They’re not exactly subtle.”
“Any ties to Hale or the institute?” Delaney asked.
“Not on paper,” Isla replied. “No employment links, no phone records, not even a shell company match. As far as the system’s concerned, they’ve never heard of Hale or the institute.”
“They tracked Olivia,” Eli reminded her. “That doesn’t happen without a connection.”
“Maybe,” Isla said. “But that tracker we found in her shoe? It was hacked about an hour before the safe house was breached. Signal was rerouted through a ghost IP that pinged in three different countries. These guys might not have planted it. Just used it.”
Delaney felt the chill crawl back into her spine. “Which means someone else is still pulling strings.”
“Exactly,” Isla agreed.
Delaney kept her eyes on the drone feed, watching as the van kicked up a steady trail of dust along the narrow farm road. Trees thickened on both sides, shadowing the path. Her gut twisted. Every second that van stayed in motion was a second closer to Ava disappearing into the dark.
“And that brings me to other things you should know,” Isla went on.
“I ran backgrounds on all the players, like Noah asked. Grant Maddox has some flags. He’s from old money.
Legacy family out of Virginia. But the trust is bleeding cash.
Lawsuits. Failed business ventures. His accounts are almost upside down. ”
Delaney glanced at Eli, who stayed focused on the road but clearly heard every word.
“So he attaches himself to Vivian,” Delaney said.
“Exactly,” Isla replied. “She’s got real wealth. Inherited from her tech-entrepreneur ex-husband. Liquid assets, real estate, multiple business holdings. But here’s the thing. Her daughters are in the way.”
Eli’s brow furrowed. “How?”
“Vivian’s estate plan has Olivia and Ava as primary beneficiaries. Everything is set up in a trust. If anything happens to the girls or they’re declared legally incompetent, the terms shift. And Grant could get control if he’s married to Vivian. FYI, their wedding is next month.”
Delaney stared at the phone. “So the girls disappear, or get institutionalized, he could walk away with a fortune.”
“Not saying he’s behind any of this,” Isla added. “But the motive’s there. And it’s ugly.”
Delaney felt the pressure build in her chest.
“I’ll send the financials and reports to Noah,” Isla added. “You’ll have them in the next few minutes.”
“Thanks, Isla,” Eli and Delaney said as he ended the call.
Delaney shifted her full attention back to the drone feed. The van was still moving, turning now onto an even narrower road that looked barely paved.
“Grant was pushing hard to see Olivia,” she muttered. “Almost like he needed to.”
“Or like he wanted to shut her up,” Eli added. “If he knew she escaped and might start talking…”
Delaney glanced over at him. “He wouldn’t risk it in a hospital full of law enforcement. Would he?”
Eli shook his head slightly. “I don’t know. I didn’t get the vibe from Vivian that she’d stand by and let someone hurt her daughter. She looked genuinely shaken. Protective.”
“I agree,” Delaney said. “But emotions are messy. People overlook things when they want to believe the best about someone. Especially someone they’re planning to marry.”
Eli didn’t respond, but she could see the shift in his expression. They were on the same page.
“We need to look deeper into Grant,” she said. “If he’s desperate for money, he might have hired those three men. Maybe not directly, but through someone else. A broker. A fixer.”
Eli gave a tight nod. “We’ll get Isla to run everything. Phone records, financials, even property ties. If he’s connected to Radley or Trent, she’ll find it.”
Delaney adjusted the drone feed again, her fingers tightening on the phone as she tracked the van’s movement. It veered off the narrow farm road and onto a rugged dirt trail barely wide enough for a vehicle.
“There,” she pointed out. “They just turned onto a trail. No markers, no signs.”
The trees thickened quickly, hanging low over the trail like a canopy. The van slowed and then rolled beneath the cover of dense oak branches.
Delaney cursed under her breath as the drone feed flickered and then went black.
“Lost visual,” she said. “Too much overhead cover.”
“We’re close,” Eli assured her, not taking his eyes off the road. “Hang on.”
The SUV bounced over uneven terrain, the tires catching in ruts and kicking up dirt as Eli pushed them faster. Delaney braced herself with one hand against the door, the other gripping her phone as if it could somehow force the drone feedback online.
Please let her be okay.
The pressure in her chest coiled tight. She reached down and snapped the rubber band around her wrist.
Eli glanced at her. “Panic attacks?”
“Not recently,” she said, eyes still on the tree line ahead. “Don’t worry. I won’t have one now.” She hoped.
The drone feed stayed dark, and the trees grew thicker around them. Delaney kept her eyes ahead and her breath steady, doing everything she could to push down the fear curling under her ribs.
They reached the mouth of the trail, tires skidding slightly as Eli turned the wheel hard and pushed the SUV onto the uneven path. The trees swallowed them quickly, their branches scraping the roof like claws. The deeper they drove, the narrower it became, ruts and rocks shaking through the frame.
Then Delaney saw it.
“There,” she said, pointing ahead. “The van.”
It was parked crooked beneath a dense cluster of trees, maybe fifty yards off the road, the back doors closed and no movement around it. Too quiet.
Eli brought the SUV to a hard stop, already reaching for his weapon. Delaney did the same, adrenaline pulsing sharp and fast in her veins.
They jumped out, boots hitting the ground in unison.
“Eyes up,” Eli reminded her, sweeping the woods with his intense gaze. “This could be a trap.”
Delaney kept her weapon raised as she moved beside him, her senses alert to every sound. Leaves rustled faintly. A bird cried out overhead. But no voices. No footsteps. No movement.
They crept closer, the van now just a few feet away. Then Eli stopped suddenly and threw his arm across her path.
“Back,” he said sharply. “Take cover.”
Delaney didn’t argue. She darted behind a tree just as a deep, hollow boom shattered the air.
The van exploded in a roar of fire and smoke, the shockwave knocking her back a step and pelting the ground with debris. Heat rushed past her face, and the trees lit orange from the blast.
Delaney ducked lower, heart pounding. And her only thought was a silent, furious question—had they just watched Ava die?
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