Chapter 15 - The Ambush in Red Hook
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The next afternoon, the absolute unthinkable happened. Maisie was taken.
We were driving through a narrow, industrial street in the gritty Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn after her private medical checkup. The sky was overcast, casting long gray shadows across the brick warehouses. Without warning, a massive delivery truck aggressively jackknifed directly in front of our armored SUV, violently blocking the road. A second later, two unmarked gray vans screeched to a halt behind us, boxing us in.
My security detail moved fast, reaching for their weapons.
But they were not fast enough.
Thick, blinding white smoke instantly filled the cabin as a canister shattered the reinforced glass. Men in tactical masks swarmed the street like locusts. I held Maisie against my chest with my left arm, shielding her face, and used my right hand to draw the emergency boot blade I always carried.
A masked man ripped the door open and grabbed my daughter's leg.
I didn't hesitate. I drove the blade deep into his forearm.
He screamed in agony, blood spraying across the leather seats, but he did not let go. A second man slammed the butt of a heavy rifle against my temple. The world spun into darkness for a fraction of a second, and my grip loosened.
Maisie was violently ripped from my arms.
"Mommy!" she screamed, her voice cutting through the thick smoke.
"Maisie!" I lunged forward, but heavy hands shoved me back into the vehicle.
The van doors slammed shut. Tires screamed against the asphalt as the vehicles tore down the alleyway and vanished.
When the white smoke finally cleared, coughing and bleeding, I fell to my knees on the pavement. Sitting there on the floor of the ruined SUV was Maisie’s tiny silver shoe. I picked it up, my hands trembling violently.
Nathaniel’s private helicopter landed in an empty lot three blocks away just seven minutes later. He sprinted toward me before the rotors even slowed.
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"Evie—" he started, his face pale.
"Lock down every single exit from the city," I ordered, my voice dead. "Air, land, water. I want satellite traffic, port cameras, toll readers, and every criminal informant from here to Jersey on the line right now."
