UNWANTED SON-IN-LAW

CHAPTER 6

Nathan ran down the hall fast. Sarah was right behind him. Guns went off. Bullets hit the walls and dust came down.

“Emergency door, fifty steps ahead!” Sarah yelled.

Behind them, people yelled. “Shooter in the place! Close it all down!”

They went through the door and into stairs made of cement. Nathan went up the steps three at a time. His hurt ribs did not matter. He was too scared to feel pain.

“Why did you shoot him?” Nathan asked while running.

“He knew who you were. He would call Harrison. You would be dead in seconds.”

They got to the bottom. Sarah kicked open a door to a dark place with cars. A black van sat there with the motor on. They got in fast and the van went quick before the door shut.

Robert sat up front at the wheel. His face was not good. “Please tell me you did not just kill Edward Blackwell.”

“I did not,” Sarah said fast. “I did.”

Inside the van, screens showed what was happening in the dining room. Nathan put on a headset and listened.

Sound was all over the place. Harrison was on his phone, yelling orders. “I do not care. Find them. Go!”

But Victoria’s voice made Nathan stop and listen. She was not scared. She was not sad. She sounded calm and cold.

“Harrison, hear me. This is big.”

“Your dad just got shot!”

“I know. And we say Nathan did it.” Her voice was hard and smart. “Think. The police hunt him now. He is called bad and has a gun. Now he came to the place where I eat and killed my dad? It is great.”

Harrison said nothing for a bit. Then, “You are right. We make the story go our way.”

“Yes. By the next day, Nathan Porter is the most wanted man. When they see him, they shoot him dead. Done.”

Nathan took off the headset. His hands shook with anger.

Sarah looked at him. “Now you see? She is not a hurt person, Nathan. She is the one who planned it all.”

“We need to go to the place where your dad is,” Robert said. “He needs to know.”

The van went through the city fast, taking small roads and back ways. Nathan watched the screens. Victoria held her mom while her dad was hurt. Fake tears. Fake sadness. All of it was a show.

His phone made a sound. A text from a number he did not know.

“You should have stayed dead, Nathan. Now your dad dies too. I will see you soon.”

There was a photo too.

It showed his dad’s place. From the street. Someone was looking at them.

“We have a bad thing,” Nathan said and showed Sarah.

Her face got white. “They know where we go.”

Robert hit the go fast button hard. “Hold on to something.”

They got to the place fifteen minutes later. Things were not right. No lights. No men walking around outside.

“This is a trap,” Sarah said quiet, getting her gun out.

Robert turned off the motor. They sat in the dark, watching.

“We have to get your dad out,” Nathan said.

“If he is still here,” Sarah said and her face was sad.

They got out and went to the side door. It hung open and moved a little in the air. Blood was on the frame.

Nathan’s heart went down low. He got his gun and went in.

Inside was bad. Computers were broken. Papers were all over. Holes from bullets in the walls. And bodies. Three men from his dad’s team lay still on the ground.

But no David Porter.

“Dad!” Nathan yelled, going in deeper.

“Be quiet!” Sarah hissed. “They may still be here.”

A sound came from behind some big boxes. Nathan ran over and found a young man named James. He held his belly and blood came from it.

“James, what took place? Where is my dad?”

James’s eyes were not clear. “They came… fast. A lot of them. Vale’s men. They took him.”

“They took him where?”

“I do not know. But Nathan…” James held Nathan’s arm with a hard grip. “Your dad said tell you one thing. He said the true bad guy is not who you think.”

“What do you mean?”

James’s grip got weak. His eyes shut. “He said… trust no one. Not even…”

His body went still.

Sarah put her hand on his neck. “He is gone.”

Nathan stood. His brain was fast and hard. They had his dad. The Vale group had his dad. And Edward was dead, so there was no trade thing, no thing to trade for his dad’s life.

“We need to go,” Robert said from the door. “The police are all over the place. They come here in small time.”

“I am not going without my dad,” Nathan said.

“Your dad is gone now. If you stay, you die. Then who helps your dad?”

Nathan saw this was true. He had to go. “Where do we go?”

“I know a place,” Sarah said. “My brother’s old place. No one knows of it. We can sit and think there.”

They left while loud sounds of police came from far away.

The place was in a bad part of the old trade area. Small. Not clean. But no one would find them.

Nathan went up and down in the small room while Sarah worked on her small computer. She tried to find news of David Porter.

“I got nothing,” she said after a long time. “If the Vale group has him, they do not talk about it.”

“They will use him to get me,” Nathan said. “They will say take your life for his.”

“You can not do that.”

“I will do it.”

Robert spoke from the side. “There is a way that might work. I still know some people at the Vale place. People who said they owe me. Maybe I can find where he is.”

“Do it,” Nathan said.

Robert made calls. Nathan stood and looked at his phone. He knew a message would come. A thing he must do or his dad dies.

But a different message came. From Victoria.

“Nathan, we need to sit and talk. Just you and me. I know you think I am bad, but you do not know the whole thing. Come to Pier 22 in one hour. Come just you. I will tell you it all. Please. I am trying to help you live.”

Nathan showed Sarah the message.

“Clear trap,” she said right away.

“Yes, but what if she knows where my dad is?”

“Then she is the bait. They will hurt you when you come.”

“Let them try.”

Sarah took his arm. “Nathan, think. Your dad told James to trust no one. Maybe that is you, Victoria. Maybe that is all of us.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean this is bad. How did the Vale group find the place so fast? How did they know when to come? We have a bad person on this team, Nathan. Some one who tells them things.”

The words hung there like bad air.

Nathan looked at Robert on the phone. Then at Sarah, who did not move away from his look.

“You think one of you works for them?”

“I think we have to think about all of this,” Sarah said slow. “Your dad knew a thing. That is why he told James that word. He was telling you a warning.”

Before Nathan could say more, Robert put down his phone. His face was white.

“I found him. I found where they keep your dad.”

“Where?”

“The old Blackwell place. The one that got burned down three years ago. The one where my brother died.”

Nathan felt cold go through him. “That is not chance.”

“No. It is not. They send a word.” Robert’s voice was tight. “They want you to come. They want to do the last thing they did three years back. Burn the Porter family to ash in the same spot.”

Nathan’s phone made a sound. A new message from Victoria.

“One hour, Nathan. After that, your dad dies. And this time, it will not be a fake thing.”

Below it was a photo.

David Porter, tied to a seat in a burned place. Blood on his face. A gun at his head.

And the one who held the gun was some one Nathan did not think of.

Sarah Mitchell.

The room went in circles. Nathan looked at the real Sarah next to him. Her face was shocked.

“That is not me,” she said soft. “I am here. That is not me.”

But the photo was clear. The woman in it was the same as Sarah. Same face. Same mark. Same black clothes.

Robert’s voice was just a little sound. “Twin sister?”

Sarah’s face went white. “No. I am the only one. I have no sister.”

“Then who is that?” Nathan asked.

Sarah’s hands shook as she looked at the photo. “I do not know. But Nathan, you have to have faith in me. I did not sell you. That is not me.”

Nathan’s brain went very fast. One Sarah was here. One Sarah held his dad. One was true. One was a lie.

But which was which?

His phone rang. He took the call.

Victoria’s voice came. “Hi, my old spouse. Did you like the photo? Come to Pier 22. Just you. No gun. No tricks. Or the woman next to you right now will kill you before you step once more. Yes, Nathan, I can see you. And yes, she did work for me all this time. You did not think this would be? You should have. You wed a Blackwell. We always have back up plans.”

The call cut off.

Nathan looked at Sarah. His gun was in his hand. It said at her chest.

She did not move. Did not get her gun.

“Nathan,” she said with a quiet voice. “I swear on my dead brother. I am not her.”

“Then say what the photo is.”

“I can not. But hear me. Do not have faith in her. All she says is to hurt you.”

Robert came between them. “We do not have much time. Your dad is in a bad spot. We must go fast.”

Nathan kept the gun at Sarah. “Who are you? What is true?”

Sarah’s eyes got wet with sad and hurt. “A person who made a deal with a bad one three years back. A person who said she could play the two sides. A person who was bad at it.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means,” a man’s voice from the door said, “that Sarah has been my tool all the way. And she did her job very good.”

All of them spun to see.

In the door, with guard men on both sides, was not Harrison Vale.

It was David Porter.

Not hurt. Not tied. With a smile.

“Hello, offspring,” he said. “Say hi to the true game.”