My husband's parents were trapped in a deadly mudslide, and I risked my life to pull them onto my Zodiac boat. I thought we were saved, but then my husband was going to kill us. Carter's drone fleet, diving straight at us. He stood at the helicopter window with his arm around his assistant, watching like it was entertainment. I frantically dialed his number. "Carter! Have you lost your mind?! Your parents are on this boat!" His laugh came through cold and easy. "A year ago, Chloe's parents got caught in that flash flood. You were the rescue captain. You picked strangers over them." "So today? I'm giving you a front-row seat to watch your parents go under. How's that feel?" Chloe's voice jumped in right after, bright with excitement. "Yes! Let me watch those two get dragged down!" The boat lurched hard. Gerald and Marie pressed against me, shaking. I screamed into the phone. "Carter, open your eyes! Those are YOUR parents on this boat!" "Riley." His tone didn't shift at all. "You really never get tired of this." "Mom and Dad flew out to Aspen this morning. I dropped them at the airport myself. You want to lie, at least put some effort into it." Chloe grabbed the phone from him. "You killed my parents, Riley. Today you and those two old fools are going down with them." I tried to hand the phone to Gerald so he could speak for himself. But he was shaking head to toe, face caked in mud, hair plastered flat. Marie looked the same. Like that, they were barely recognizable. "You're both out of your minds!" I killed the call. No time. If I didn't move now, the boat was going over. Marie's face had gone ash-white. She grabbed my arm with both hands. "Riley, what is wrong with him? He wouldn't actually—I'm his mother." Gerald had never shown fear a day in his life. Right now his face had no color in it at all. I couldn't stop to explain. One mistake out here and all three of us were dead. The drone swarm was churning the water around us, pulling at the hull. "Hold on. Both of you, hold on tight." I shoved the throttle all the way forward. That's when one of the drones swept in low. The blade caught my cheek. "Riley — you're bleeding — your face —" Gerald's voice cracked open. "Carter, you bastard! That's your wife!" I bit down against the sting. God, that hurt. Carter's voice came back through the helicopter's speaker, cool as ever. "Watch your mouth, old man. Nobody asked you." The drones hit us again. The boat pitched so hard we nearly went over the side. Water poured in. Half the hull dropped into the current. Marie screamed. Then a grappling hook shot down from Carter's helicopter and locked onto the bow. His call came through. I put it on speaker. "Scared yet? There's a document waiting in your email. Sign it, and maybe I let you walk away." I opened my phone. I had to know what this was actually about. What I saw stopped me cold. He wanted me to sign a confession — that I'd deliberately let Chloe's parents die during the rescue. Full liability for every casualty from that disaster. But it was Carter's own construction company that violated the regulations. They cut corners on the mountain reinforcement. That's what caused the flood. He wanted me as the fall guy. So Chloe could pocket the settlement. If I signed this, I was looking at prison. The rest of my life gone. Marie leaned over and saw the screen. She broke down completely. "What kind of monster — how did we raise something like this —" "He'd throw away his own wife for that woman. He'd throw away his own parents —" Gerald grabbed the phone out of my hand and jabbed it toward the helicopter. "Carter! I'm your father! You hear me? Your father! Call them off right now!" "There is no way in hell Riley is signing that!" My chest pulled tight and aching at the same time. Three years. His parents had never treated me as anything less than a daughter. Carter just laughed. "My father? Really? You're going with that?" "Look at yourself. Covered head to toe in mud, begging for your life. My father doesn't look like that." "Riley, I'm done playing around. Sign it. I mean it." Three drones broke formation and came straight at us. Gerald's arm took the hit — a deep gash, bone showing through. "Clock's ticking," Carter said. "Sign it, or I send all three of you to the bottom."
"Honey!" Marie fumbled to press both hands over Gerald's wound. I looked up at the drone fleet. "Carter, you think you've already won?" "You’re all on your deathbeds, so shut the hell up." he scoffed. I shook my head. "Someone's been playing you. And you're so sure you're the one holding the cards." "What's that supposed to mean?" "It means you're going to regret this. Soon." Chloe cut in before he could respond. "Don't listen to her. She's buying time. Finish it, Carter." That did it. "Fine. You want to do this the hard way." All at once, the drones extended their metal prongs and drove toward us. One hit and they'd punch clean through the hull. I reached into the emergency kit and pulled out the flare gun. Bang—the flare gun fired! Carter burst out laughing. "A flare gun. Seriously?" "Riley, I've got the emergency frequencies jammed. Nobody's picking up distress signals in this zone. You could set the whole sky on fire and it wouldn't matter." The wind picked up. The waves got worse. Gerald and Marie had their eyes shut. They'd stopped fighting it. I watched the flare climb. Hit its peak. Burst open. "Carter. You know what's loaded into this flare gun besides the flare?" He went quiet. One second. Then every drone in the fleet twitched, spun out, and dropped straight into the river. Gone. All of them. "What just happened? Carter, what happened to your drones?" I unhooked the grappling line and pushed us toward the bank. Then Carter lost it completely. The helicopter dropped toward us. "You think that changes anything?" The grappling hook came down again. "Off the boat! Now!" If those rotors caught us we were done. Gerald shoved Marie toward me. "Take her and go! Move!" "Gerald —" Marie's voice broke. Too late. The hook drove through Gerald's injured arm and hauled him into the air. He screamed. Blood ran down his side and dripped into the water below. "Tough guy, right? Let's see exactly how tough." Carter worked the winch, swinging Gerald back and forth in the air like he was nothing. Marie fainted. Collapsed into my arms. Gerald had come out here himself — insisted on it. The construction project that triggered this disaster was his company's mess to fix. He wouldn't send lawyers. He never did. He'd shown up in person to handle the compensation, face the families directly. That's who he was. That's how he ended up here. That's how Carter got him. "Carter!" My voice came out raw. "Stop! You're going to kill him!" "Begging now?" He sounded delighted. "Sign the document. Do it right now, or I drop him." "Okay. Okay, I'll sign. Right now." I dragged my phone out with shaking hands. The screen was smeared with mud and blood — I could barely read it. My fingers wouldn't stop trembling. I found the email. Uploaded the signature. Gerald's voice had dropped to almost nothing. "You bastard. I'm your father!" Carter got the confirmation. His tone shifted into something uglier. "You've all been such a pain in my ass. Go keep Chloe's parents company." He let go of the winch. Gerald dropped. Hit the water and gone. "No —" "Dad —"
I threw myself at the edge of the boat and grabbed at the water. Nothing. "Go ahead and cry, Riley." Chloe's voice was almost giddy. "Is this what you watched happen to my parents? Just stood there?" "Carter, get the old woman too." Marie came around slowly, looking for Gerald. "Riley. Where is he." She followed my eyes to the water. She understood. Carter was already pushing toward us. I grabbed Marie and dragged her toward the bank. The helicopter's rotors churned the air behind us, close enough to knock us off our feet. I shoved her forward. "Run, Mom. Don't stop." "Riley, it's over." Carter's voice through the speaker, almost cheerful. I looked back. He was leaning out of the cabin door, holding a modified nail gun. Aimed at us. Chloe was clapping. "Shoot her in the knees. I want to watch her crawl." "Mom." My throat tightened. "Faster. Go!" The slope was right there. If we could get to the rocks, find any cover at all — Bang. My right knee blew out. I hit the mud and couldn't get back up. The pain was white and total. Through the wound I could see bone. "Riley!" Marie had made it up the slope. She looked back, saw me go down, and turned around without thinking. I was soaked in cold sweat. I yelled until my voice cracked. "Don't come back! Keep running!" "Find Julian! Julian can stop him! Go!" Julian Sterling. Carter's uncle. The one person Carter actually answered to. If Julian found out what Carter had done to his own parents, Carter was finished. "I'm not leaving you." She was already crying. "I'm not leaving you alone down here." She tried to pull me. We both just sank deeper into the mud. Finally, with one last look at me, she turned and ran. "Stay alive, Riley. I'm coming back." I'd pulled people out of burning buildings. Out of collapsed structures. Out of floods worse than this one. Today I couldn't even get myself off the ground. I pushed up onto my elbows. Watched until she was farther up the slope. The helicopter swung around. Carter's nail gun tracked her. "Carter." My voice was gone. Barely anything left. "Look at her. That's your mother. That is your mother." A short, dismissive sound through the speaker. "Still doing this, Riley? Really?" Chloe's voice, sweet and certain. "She's trying to trick you, babe. Your mother is back in Aspen right now. Sipping tea somewhere nice. This woman is nobody." "You're right," Carter said. "My mother isn't rolling around in the mud. Time's up, Riley." "Carter — come after me instead — leave her alone —" I screamed it as loud as I could. Marie's body locked up. She looked back at me. Then the shots came. And didn't stop. My mind went blank. The helicopter came down low. Dropped Marie's body in front of me. Her eyes were still open. Still looking at me. Worried about me. Even at the end, she was worried about me. "There we go. Peace and quiet." Carter sounded satisfied. "Enjoy the gift, Riley. Two for the price of one." Chloe cheered. "That's what they get." The helicopter touched down. Carter climbed out, nail gun in hand, and walked toward me. I looked at him. This man I'd loved. This thing that had just killed his own parents. He smiled at me. "Rough day, Captain." Chloe called out from behind him. "Do it. I want to see it." My knee had gone past pain into nothing. I lay in the mud and reached out and took Marie's hand. Already cold. I held it. "Carter." My voice came out steadier than I expected. "If I make it out of this, I will destroy you completely." He laughed. "Last words. Cute." He raised the gun. "Say hi to my parents for me." He took aim at my head. Finger on the trigger. Then the sound of rotors. Getting louder. A fleet of helicopters emerged overhead, the Sterling family crest on every one. The color drained from Carter's face. He stared at the man stepping out.
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