Read the next chapter to discover how everything unfolds.

The damp, earthy smell of the underground storm cellar hit Leah like a wall as she dropped down the wooden ladder, keeping one arm securely wrapped around her sleeping baby while holding the Glock with her right hand. Simone hit the cellar floor right behind her, pulling a heavy iron lever that sealed the trapdoor overhead with a satisfying, airtight clunk.

"This way," Simone whispered, flicking on a pen-light and leading the narrow concrete drainage pipe that sloped downward into the darkness.

The water in the drainage pipe pooled ankle-deep, freezing cold and rushing swiftly from the recent autumn rains. Leah gritted her teeth, ignoring the stinging pain in her surgical incision as she waded through the current, keeping the baby lifted high above the water line.

Behind them, muffled through the concrete walls, they could hear the heavy thud of tactical boots stomping across the cabin floorboards above.

"They found the trapdoor!" Simone hissed, increasing her pace as the drainage tunnel opened up into a wider concrete culvert.

A sharp beam of light cut through the darkness ahead of them from the exit point near the creek.

Leah froze, raising her pistol. "Stop right there!"

"Hold your fire! It's me!" a gruff, familiar voice echoed back down the culvert.

A figure stepped out of the shadows near the creek opening. It was Mae Rowland—the very nurse who had hidden Leah in the supply room on the night of her delivery, holding a heavy-duty weather radio and wearing a waterproof jacket.

Leah lowered her weapon slightly, staring in shock. "Mae? What are you doing here?"

"I figured out what Doreen was planning the moment you escaped," Mae said, hurrying over and wading through the water to help Leah steady her footing as they emerged from the culvert into the rocky creekbed. "I quit my job at Briar Glen two hours ago. I stole the master security logs from the administrator's desk before I left. If you guys are going to take down the Carver syndicate, you need an insider who knows where all the bodies are buried."

Simone grinned, slapping Mae on the shoulder. "I knew I liked you, nurse. Get in the drainage ditch! We’ve got company!"

As if on cue, the brush above the creek embankment rustled violently. A tactical flashlight beam sliced through the falling rain, illuminating the rocky bank just twenty feet above them.

"There they are! In the creekbed!" a guard’s voice roared from the ridge.

CRACK!

A suppressed rifle round slammed into a boulder inches from Mae’s head, showering them with sharp stone chips.

"Run!" Leah screamed, clutching her baby tightly against her chest as she scrambled across the slippery river stones, following Mae and Simone up the steep, muddy embankment on the opposite side of the creek toward the old logging road where Simone had left the sports car hidden under a camouflage tarp.

Bullets zipped through the air around them, clipping branches and kicking up muddy water, but sheer adrenaline carried Leah forward. She wasn't running just to survive anymore; she was running to destroy the monsters who had tried to steal her child.