Chapter 3 - The Baby They Had Been Watching
Grace felt the floor move beneath her.
Not because of the train.
“My daughter has nothing to do with this.”
Nobody answered.
The wounded attacker had lost consciousness.
Victor searched him.
No wallet.
No phone.
One plastic access card.
Halcyon Medical Research.
Grace stared at it.
“I delivered at Saint Catherine's.”
Keller looked at her.
“Saint Catherine's is owned by Halcyon.”
She turned slowly.
“What?”
“Through a holding company.”
“No.”
Keller's expression softened.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Grace tightened her arms around Leo.
“My daughter was healthy. We went home after two days.”
“Did they take extra blood?”
“All hospitals take blood.”
“Did they ask you to sign additional newborn-screening forms?”
Grace thought.
She remembered being exhausted.
Her mother had been dead three years.
The baby's father had disappeared six months into the pregnancy.
She had been alone except for her younger sister, Hannah.
There had been stacks of papers.
A nurse had smiled and said, Just routine permissions.
Grace felt cold.
“I signed things.”
Keller nodded.
“Most parents did.”
Damian watched her.
“Where is your daughter now?”
“With my sister.”
“Where?”
Grace looked at him.
“No.”
His voice stayed calm.
“If Halcyon knows who you are—”
“You're not getting my sister's address.”
“I’m trying to protect your child.”
“You also admitted you don't trust me.”
“That doesn't mean I’m willing to let someone hurt a four-month-old.”
Grace stared.
The train began slowing.
Victor looked toward the window.
“We're not near a station.”
Damian's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A distorted voice said, “Give us Keller.”
Damian's expression didn't change.
“No.”
“Then the train doesn't reach its next stop.”
The line went dead.
Victor swore.
Keller looked terrified.
“What did they say?”
Damian told him.
The conductor rushed into the dining car.
“Mr. Vale, we have a problem.”
“I assumed.”
“Someone activated an emergency signal farther back. The engineer is reducing speed.”
“Can he override it?”
“He's trying.”
Damian looked at Grace.
“Your sister's address.”
She hesitated.
Then gave it.
Victor immediately sent the location to one of Damian's external teams.
Grace pointed at him.
“If anything happens to Hannah—”
“Nothing will.”
“You can't promise that.”
“No.”
Damian's honesty stopped her.
“But I can put twelve armed professionals around that apartment within fifteen minutes.”
Grace's eyes narrowed.
“What exactly do you do?”
Victor almost laughed.
Damian gave him a look.
Grace stared.
“I’m serious.”
“You don't know?”
“Should I?”
“You came into my compartment.”
“Because your babies were screaming.”
“You didn't recognize me?”
“No.”
Damian looked strangely amused.
“My name is Damian Vale.”
She waited.
He waited.
“Okay.”
Victor actually laughed this time.
Damian's eyes narrowed.
Victor turned away.
Grace crossed her arms.
“Am I supposed to know something?”
Keller answered softly.
“The Vale family controls shipping, construction, private security, clubs, real estate—”
“Those are legitimate businesses.”
Keller swallowed.
Grace looked at Damian's tattoos.
Then Victor's weapon.
Then the wounded man.
“Oh.”
Damian said nothing.
“Oh.”
She took a step backward.
“You're that Vale.”
“I don't know what that means.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Probably.”
Grace looked down at Leo.
The baby was asleep against the shoulder of a man whose name she suddenly remembered from newspaper headlines.
Federal raids.
Organized crime allegations.
A courthouse shooting years earlier.
Nothing proven.
Everything whispered.
She gently handed Leo to the nanny.
“I need to go.”
Damian blocked her path.
She looked up.
“Move.”
“No.”
Her fear turned into anger.
“You don't get to keep me here.”
“There are armed men on this train looking for you.”
“According to another armed man.”
Damian absorbed the insult.
“Fair.”
“Stop saying that.”
“Why?”
“Because it makes it harder to hate you.”
Something flickered across his face.
Then the conductor shouted from the corridor.
“We're stopping.”
The brakes screamed.
Passengers stumbled.
Damian grabbed Grace around the waist before she fell.
For one second they were pressed together.
She felt the solid strength beneath his suit.
He released her immediately.
“Sorry.”
That surprised her too.
The train slowed beside an industrial stretch of track.
Victor looked outside.
“Two black SUVs.”
Damian joined him.
Men stepped from both vehicles.
“Not ours.”
“How many?”
“Eight visible.”
Damian looked toward the rear.
“Front?”
“Unknown.”
Grace's phone rang.
She saw Hannah's name.
Her breath caught.
She answered.
“Hannah?”
Her sister was crying.
“Grace.”
“What happened?”
“There are men downstairs.”
Grace looked at Damian.
He held out his hand.
She gave him the phone.
“Who are they?” Damian asked.
Hannah went silent.
“Who is this?”
“Someone trying to keep you alive.”
“There are two cars outside.”
“My men?”
“One says Victor Security.”
Damian glanced at Victor.
Victor shook his head immediately.
“Our team is Vale Protection.”
Damian's face hardened.
“Do not open the door.”
Someone knocked loudly through the phone.
Hannah screamed.
Grace grabbed Damian's arm.
“My daughter.”
Damian handed the phone to Victor.
“Track it.”
Victor began issuing orders.
Another knock sounded from the service door on the train.
Damian turned.
Grace whispered, “They're everywhere.”
He looked at her.
“Stay behind me.”
“I’m not one of your people.”
“No.”
His eyes dropped briefly toward the babies.
“You're the reason my son stopped crying.”
The simplicity of the statement hit harder than it should have.
Damian drew a weapon from beneath his jacket.
Grace stiffened.
He kept it pointed at the floor.
“You don't have to look.”
“I’m looking.”
He almost smiled again.
The service door opened.
A man stepped through.
Damian raised the weapon.
The man lifted both hands.
“Boss.”
Victor exhaled.
“Vale team.”
The newcomer hurried forward.
“Cars outside belong to Halcyon contractors.”
“Can we move the babies?”
“We have an armored vehicle two miles south.”
Damian looked at the stopped train.
“We walk?”
“Service road along the tracks.”
Grace said, “With newborns?”
Damian thought.
Then removed his jacket and handed it to her.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Wear it.”
“Why?”
“Because your dress is visible from half a mile away.”
She looked at the cream fabric.
He had a point.
Grace slipped into the black jacket.
It was enormous on her.
It smelled faintly of cedar and something expensive.
Damian stared for half a second too long.
Victor noticed.
Damian looked away.
They moved.
Two guards carried the strollers.
Grace held Elias.
The nanny carried Noah.
Damian carried Leo against his chest beneath a blanket.
They crossed through the rear service exit and stepped onto gravel beside the tracks.
No gunfire.
No shouting.
That worried Damian more.
“Too easy,” Victor said.
“I know.”
They hurried south.
Grace looked at Damian carrying Leo.
The feared criminal walked carefully so the baby's head would not bounce.
The contradiction unsettled her.
A man could be dangerous and gentle.
Both could be true.
She wondered which one mattered more.
Her phone rang again.
Hannah.
Grace answered.
“Hannah?”
A man's voice replied.
“Grace Harper.”
She stopped walking.
Damian immediately turned.
The voice continued.
“Your sister is fine.”
Grace's face drained.
“Where is my daughter?”
“Safe.”
“Let me hear her.”
A baby fussed in the background.
Grace nearly collapsed.
“Emma.”
Damian took the phone.
“If you touch the child—”
The man laughed.
“Damian Vale.”
“Who are you?”
“You married Sofia. Now you found Grace. You're either incredibly lucky or catastrophically stupid.”
Damian's eyes hardened.
“What do you want?”
“Keller.”
“Why Grace?”
“Because Sofia wasn't the only woman who discovered what Halcyon was doing.”
Grace stared.
“What does that mean?”
The man heard her.
“Ask your mother.”
Grace froze.
“My mother is dead.”
“Exactly.”
The call ended.
Grace stood beside the tracks unable to move.
Her mother, Elaine Harper, had died suddenly three years earlier.
A stroke.
At fifty-eight.
No warning.
No history.
Damian watched her process it.
“Grace.”
“No.”
“Listen to me.”
“No.”
She turned on him.
“This was supposed to be a train ride.”
“I know.”
“I was supposed to go home tonight, pick up Emma, and figure out how to pay rent.”
“I know.”
“I didn't ask for any of this.”
“I know.”
She shoved his chest.
“You don't know!”
He let her.
Victor looked away.
Grace's eyes filled.
“My daughter is four months old.”
Damian said quietly, “My sons are six weeks.”
That stopped her.
He looked at Leo sleeping against him.
“They took my wife.”
Grace's anger softened.
“They have your daughter.”
His gaze returned to hers.
“So we get her back.”
Not I.
We.
Twenty minutes later they reached the armored SUV.
Damian put Grace inside first.
Keller sat opposite.
Victor climbed into front.
As they sped toward Philadelphia, Damian called every contact he trusted.
Which, after Sofia's letter, was a shrinking list.
Grace sat silently.
Then Keller asked, “What was your mother's name?”
“Elaine.”
“Maiden name?”
“Bennett.”
Keller went still.
Damian noticed.
“You know it.”
Keller looked out the window.
“Keller.”
The doctor turned back.
“Elaine Bennett worked at Halcyon.”
Grace stared.
“No.”
“She was a geneticist.”
“My mother taught high-school biology.”
“After Halcyon.”
Grace shook her head.
“You're wrong.”
Keller reached into his bag.
He removed an old tablet.
After several minutes searching archived files, he showed her a photograph.
Three women stood outside a research laboratory.
One was younger but unmistakable.
Grace's mother.
The second was Sofia.
Grace covered her mouth.
The third woman's face had been scratched out.
Damian looked at the date.
Five years earlier.
Grace whispered, “Sofia knew my mother?”
Keller nodded.
“Apparently.”
Damian zoomed in on the image.
Behind the women was a whiteboard.
Most writing was blurred.
But one phrase remained readable:
PROJECT TRINITY.
Three newborns.
Triplets.
Damian felt cold.
“What was Trinity?”
Keller shook his head.
“I don't know.”
The SUV stopped suddenly.
Victor turned.
“Roadblock.”
Damian looked ahead.
A police vehicle blocked the street.
Two officers approached.
Victor checked the mirror.
“Another car behind us.”
Damian reached for his weapon.
Grace's phone buzzed.
A message from Hannah's number.
One photograph.
Emma asleep in someone's arms.
A handwritten note rested across the baby's blanket.
Grace zoomed in.
Her breath disappeared.
Damian looked over her shoulder.
The note contained five words.
BRING THE THREE VALE BOYS.
Then a second message arrived.
Grace read it twice.
She looked at Damian.
“What?”
She turned the screen toward him.
May you like
The message said:
OR YOUR DAUGHTER BECOMES THE FOURTH.
