Chapter 10 - The Bear TrapDavid was waiting in the motel room when I finally burst through the door, covered in dust, sweat, and someone else’s blood.
He had arrived an hour ago in a battered, heavily modified Jeep Cherokee. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, a disassembled Glock on the table in front of him, while Lily sat happily on the floor, eating a box of chicken nuggets he had brought.
"Daddy!" Lily cheered, jumping up and wrapping her arms around my legs.
I dropped to my knees and hugged her so tight she squeaked. "Hey, baby. I missed you."
David looked up, taking in my bruised neck and bloody clothes. His jaw set into a hard line. "I take it you found the storage unit."
"I found a lot more than that," I said, standing up and tossing the USB drive onto the table. "I found my replacement. And the motive."
I quickly explained everything: Arthur Vance, the surgeries, the hidden trust left by my great-grandfather, and the fact that Lily was the sole heir to the very empire Evelyn claimed as her own.
David plugged the USB drive into his rugged military laptop. His eyes narrowed as lines of financial data and legal documents scrolled across the screen.
"You weren't kidding," David muttered. "This trust is ironclad. It predates Evelyn's corporate charter by fifty years. The land, the mineral rights, the real estate... it all belongs to the Crestwood bloodline. Evelyn has been building her kingdom on a foundation of sand, just waiting for a biological heir to come along and wash it away."
"And Taylor knew," I said, the betrayal burning fresh in my chest. "She married me to monitor the bloodline. To make sure she could control the heir. But when I wouldn't let them raise Lily their way, when I pushed back... they realized I was a threat. They needed a Mark they could control."
"So, what's the play?" David asked, leaning back and crossing his arms. "We have the evidence. We can go to the FBI. Bypassing the local cops entirely."
I looked at Lily, who was busy dipping a nugget into barbecue sauce, entirely unaware that she was the wealthiest little girl in the state of Texas.
"If we go to the feds, Evelyn hires the best lawyers in the world," I said, my voice hardening. "She drags this out for years. She claims I fabricated the documents. Arthur vanishes back into the wind. And Taylor... Taylor will sue for full custody, painting me as a paranoid schizophrenic. With her resources, she might win. I will not spend the next ten years looking over my shoulder, wondering when they're going to try and freeze my daughter again."
David raised an eyebrow. "Then what do we do?"
"We don't run," I said, pulling the burner phone from my pocket. "We bring the fight to them. We set a trap."
I typed out a text message, navigating to a number I knew by heart.
Taylor. I know about Arthur. I know about the Trust. I have the drive from Vault 409.
I paused, then added the bait.
I'm willing to make a deal. I'll sign over my conservatorship rights and give you the drive. You give me one million in untraceable cash, and I walk away forever. Lily goes with you. If you don't agree, the FBI gets the drive at midnight.
David read the message over my shoulder. "Are you insane? You're using Lily as bait?"
"No," I said, hitting Send. "I'm using myself as bait. Taylor knows I'd never give Lily up. She knows this is a desperate bluff. Which means she’ll come to the meeting point thinking she has the upper hand, ready to kill me and take the drive."
My burner phone buzzed almost immediately. It was a reply from Taylor.
Where?
May you like
I looked at David, a cold, dangerous smile spreading across my bruised face.
"Tell her to meet us at the old abandoned copper mine on Route 66," I said. "Where there's no cell service, no cameras, and plenty of places to hide a body. Let’s see how much of a Vance she really is."
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