Chapter 18 - THE LAST ABDUCTION

A black pickup truck crashed through the front security gate.

Cole drove directly toward the house.

Officers fired at the tires.

The truck struck the porch and stopped beneath the broken living room window.

Cole climbed out wearing body armor.

He threw a smoke canister through the doorway.

The room disappeared behind a white cloud.

I carried Grace toward the kitchen.

Eli held onto the back of my shirt.

Gunshots echoed outside.

A figure emerged through the smoke.

Cole grabbed Eli by the arm.

I struck him with a wooden chair, but he pulled the boy against his chest.

“Put the baby down,” he ordered.

I refused.

Cole pressed a gun beneath Eli’s chin.

“You saved them once.”

His eyes were empty.

“You don’t get to save them again.”

Eli suddenly dropped his weight.

Cole lost his balance.

I pushed Grace into the arms of a security officer entering through the kitchen.

Then I pulled Eli away.

Cole fired toward the ceiling and ran through the back door.

Grant arrived from the storage facility as Cole reached the lake.

Officers surrounded the shoreline.

Cole climbed onto a small motorboat tied to the dock.

He pulled the starter cord, but the engine failed.

Eli had removed the fuel line earlier that afternoon after Grant taught him how the motor worked.

Cole stared at the useless engine.

Grant approached with his weapon raised.

“It’s finished.”

Cole stepped onto the edge of the boat.

“You think Mara will ever be normal after this?”

“She doesn’t need your definition of normal,” Grant said.

“You think that boy will stop checking locked doors?”

“No.”

Grant lowered his voice.

“But he’ll learn that locked doors can be opened.”

Cole looked toward Eli.

For the first time, he seemed to understand that the frightened child he controlled no longer existed.

He raised the gun.

A shot crossed the lake.

Cole collapsed onto the dock.

The bullet had come from Travis Ransom, who was standing behind a federal officer near the access road.

Travis had been brought to identify Cole’s possible escape routes.

Cole’s weapon slid into the water.

He was alive, but wounded.

As paramedics carried him away, Eli watched silently.

Then he turned to me.

“I don’t feel happy,” he said.

“You don’t have to.”

“I just feel tired.”

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I wrapped my arms around him.

“You’re allowed to be tired now.”