Chapter 1 - The Guest With the Body Camera
The basement door exploded inward.
The first man through it held a pistol low and away from me.
A red light blinked on the body camera attached to his chest.
His eyes moved from Marcus to the welded cage.
Then they dropped to the blood beneath my legs.
“Claire Bennett?”
I tried to answer.
Only air came out.
The man stepped closer.
“My name is Detective Owen Price.”
“Your sister Natalie sent us.”
Marcus spun toward the staircase.
“What the hell are you doing in my house?”
Owen kept his weapon aimed toward the floor.
“Step away from the cage.”
Marcus laughed.
It was the same laugh he used upstairs when pretending to be charming.
“You have no warrant.”
“I have an emergency entry based on evidence of unlawful confinement and immediate danger to life.”
“My wife is mentally ill.”
“She asked me to lock her down here because she was afraid she would hurt herself.”
I pressed the old phone against my chest.
Marcus saw it.
For the first time, panic reached his face.
“Give me that.”
He lunged.
Owen moved faster.
He caught Marcus by the shoulder and drove him against the wall.
Two officers rushed through the broken doorway behind him.
Marcus struggled until handcuffs closed around his wrists.
Upstairs, the dinner guests began shouting.
A woman screamed when she saw the cage through the open basement door.
Another contraction seized my body.
I curled forward.
The movement tore a cry from my throat.
Owen knelt outside the bars.
“How far apart are the contractions?”
“I don’t know.”
“He took the clock.”
“Has your water broken?”
I looked down at the blood and fluid on the metal floor.
“Yes.”
An officer called for paramedics.
Owen examined the welded door.
“Where is the key?”
“There is no key anymore.”
“Marcus welded it.”
Marcus shouted from the wall.
“She is lying.”
“She has been living down here for three weeks,” Owen said.
“Three weeks?”
I shook my head.
“Almost six.”
The room went silent.
Heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs.
Marcus’s mother, Evelyn Hale, appeared in the doorway.
A gold chain circled her neck.
The old cage key rested against her black dress.
She looked at me without surprise.
Then she looked at her son.
“Do not say anything else.”
Owen stood.
“You are Evelyn Hale?”
“I own this property.”
“You are also wearing the key to a cage containing a pregnant woman.”
“The key is ceremonial.”
“The door is welded shut.”
“That was Marcus’s decision.”
Marcus stared at her.
“Mother.”
She stepped backward.
An officer blocked the stairs.
“Ma’am, remove the chain.”
Evelyn’s expression became cold.
“You have no idea who you are dealing with.”
Another contraction crushed through me.
I felt pressure lower in my body.
A terrible, undeniable pressure.
I gripped the bars.
“The baby is coming.”
The paramedics had not arrived.
The cage door was still sealed.
May you like
Then Owen looked beneath me and called for a cutting torch.
“We do not have time.”
