CHAPTER 2 — THE FLIGHT HOME
CHAPTER 2 — THE FLIGHT HOME
The three gentle knocks echoed through the bedroom like the ticking of a clock counting down to disaster.
"Lily?" Cassandra called again, her voice warm enough to fool anyone who had never seen what lived behind her smile. "Sweetheart, I made you some hot chocolate. Open the door."
Inside the closet, Lily pressed both hands over her mouth.
She looked at the phone.
Marcus heard every word.
"Don't answer," he whispered.
She nodded instinctively before remembering he couldn't see her.
"I won't."
Outside, Cassandra waited.
Silence.
Another knock.
"Lily... I know you're frightened. Daddy called me from London. He said to take care of you."
Marcus's jaw tightened.
She was lying.
He had never called.
She was testing whether Lily still trusted her.
When no answer came, Cassandra's sweetness faded by a single degree.
"Open the door."
Still nothing.
A longer silence followed.
Marcus listened carefully.
He heard footsteps.
Another voice.
A man.
"She's in there."
Wells.
Marcus recognized him instantly.
His former chief financial officer.
The man whose children Marcus had once paid to send through college after Wells lost everything in the recession.
Loyalty, Marcus thought bitterly.
It always had an expiration date.
"...If she heard the conversation," Wells muttered, "we can't leave witnesses."
Cassandra answered with chilling calm.
"Relax. She's seven."
"Seven-year-olds remember."
"We're leaving tonight."
"And Mercer?"
"By the time he gets permission to fly back, she'll already be across the border."
Marcus slowly lowered the phone from his ear.
His expression became unreadable.
His assistant, Daniel Rhodes, watched from across the London penthouse.
"Sir?"
Marcus looked at him once.
"Get the jet."
Daniel hesitated.
"The Treasury Department froze every aircraft registered under Mercer Global. Immigration already warned us that if you enter the United States before the cooperation hearings—"
"I wasn't asking."
Daniel swallowed.
"Yes, sir."
Marcus ended the call only long enough to dial another number.
One ring.
Answered immediately.
"I thought you were dead."
The voice belonged to Vincent Russo.
Twenty years earlier they had ruled Los Angeles together.
Marcus had built empires.
Vincent had built armies.
Then Marcus had walked away after adopting Lily, determined to become a legitimate businessman.
They had not spoken in almost eight years.
Until now.
"I need a favor."
Vincent laughed softly.
"You never ask for favors."
"My daughter is in danger."
Silence.
The laughter disappeared.
"What happened?"
"Cassandra."
Another pause.
Then one sentence.
"I always told you not to trust beautiful people who smile too much."
"I need eyes on my house."
"You'll have them in ten minutes."
"I need everyone."
"You'll have them in five."
Marcus spoke one final sentence.
"If anything happens to Lily..."
Vincent interrupted.
"It won't."
The line went dead.
Back in Beverly Hills...
Cassandra stood outside the locked bedroom.
Her smile was gone.
She turned toward Wells.
"Open it."
The man frowned.
"The security cameras?"
"I already looped them."
He inserted a master key.
Click.
The bedroom door swung open.
Empty.
The bed untouched.
Bathroom empty.
Balcony locked from the inside.
Wells stared.
"...Where is she?"
Cassandra slowly scanned the room.
Then her eyes stopped on the half-open closet door.
She walked toward it.
One step.
Two.
Three.
Inside the closet Lily squeezed herself against the wall behind rows of hanging coats.
Her tiny hands shook so violently she almost dropped the phone.
Marcus had called back.
The line remained open.
He heard every footstep.
Every breath.
Every heartbeat.
Cassandra reached the closet.
Placed one hand on the handle.
And smiled.
"There you are."
She pulled the door open.
Rows of expensive suits swung gently.
No child.
For the first time that evening...
Cassandra looked confused.
"What?"
Behind the clothes, hidden beneath a shelf of storage boxes, Lily had discovered something only minutes earlier.
A narrow maintenance hatch.
Marcus had shown it to her once during a game of hide-and-seek years before.
"If there's ever a fire," he had laughed, "this tunnel leads to the old service hallway."
Neither of them had imagined it would one day save her life.
Lily crawled through the darkness, scraping her knees against rough concrete.
Cobwebs clung to her face.
She kept one hand around the phone.
"Daddy..."
"I'm here."
"It's dark."
"I know."
"I'm scared."
"I know."
"I can't see."
"You don't have to."
His voice never wavered.
"Just keep crawling."
Behind her...
Cassandra finally noticed the open hatch.
"Oh my God."
She spun toward Wells.
"Find her!"
Four armed men exploded into motion.
The hunt had begun.
London City Airport.
Rain hammered against the runway.
Government officials stood beside Marcus's private Gulfstream, refusing clearance.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Mercer," one official said nervously.
"Your travel restrictions remain in effect."
Marcus stared at him.
"Move."
"We legally cannot authorize—"
Marcus stepped closer.
For a moment the official understood why powerful men had once crossed continents simply to avoid making Marcus Mercer angry.
"I wasn't asking for authorization."
Security agents moved toward him.
Daniel quietly whispered,
"Sir... this becomes international."
Marcus looked toward the storm.
Toward America.
Toward his daughter.
Then he spoke words that would ignite events reaching far beyond one family.
"If the law cannot protect a seven-year-old little girl from being trafficked..."
He removed the government tracking bracelet from his wrist.
"...then the law can arrest me after she's safe."
The bracelet hit the wet concrete.
Every federal agent froze.
Marcus climbed the aircraft stairs without another word.
Behind him alarms erupted across the airport.
Inside the jet, Daniel looked pale.
"Sir... they've issued an immediate international alert."
Marcus fastened his seat belt.
"How long to Los Angeles?"
"Ten hours."
Marcus looked out into the lightning.
"Not fast enough."
Meanwhile...
Deep beneath the Mercer mansion...
Lily crawled toward a faint light at the end of the maintenance tunnel.
She thought she was escaping.
She didn't realize someone else was already waiting there.
A tall man in black gloves stepped silently from the shadows.
His face hidden beneath the hood of a raincoat.
He watched the little girl emerge from the tunnel.
Then he smiled.
Not kindly.
Not cruelly.
Like someone completing a very expensive assignment.
May you like
Lily looked up...
...and froze.
