Chapter 5 - Traitors in the Ranks
The heavy vehicle outside came to a stop in the muddy clearing, its headlights blinding the cabin's front windows.
Miller stepped toward the side wall, keeping his back pressed against the logs, his weapon held at the ready.
The driver’s door creaked open, followed by the heavy squelch of boots in the mud.
"Marcus!
It's me!" Deputy Luke Briggs's voice echoed through the trees.
"I saw your tire tracks turning off the old logging cut!
We need to talk!
Miller gestured for me to stay down beside the incubator before he reached for the front door handle.
He pulled the door open just enough to step onto the covered porch, keeping his gun hidden behind his leg.
"I gave you a direct order to return to the station, Luke," Miller said coldly into the rain.
"Why are you out here hunting my tracks?
Briggs stood ten paces away, his uniform soaked, but he wasn't alone.
Behind him, stepped two men wearing dark tactical windbreakers with no insignias, their hands concealed inside their pockets.
"I couldn't just go home, Sheriff," Briggs said, his tone nervous and high-pitched.
"Dr.
Vance called me directly on my private phone after I left Highway 41.
"He knows you have the baby.
"He knows the nurse is with you.
Miller did not flinch, his eyes darting between the two armed mercenaries flanking his deputy.
"How much did he pay you, Luke?" Miller asked, his voice deadly quiet.
"How much was my daughter's life worth to you?
Briggs looked down at the mud, shame flickering across his wet face before hardening into cold resolve.
"I owe three hundred thousand dollars to loan sharks in Savannah, Marcus!" Briggs yelled back desperately.
"Vance cleared my debt with one stroke of a pen!
"All he wanted was for me to look the other way when his private medical vans moved through the backroads!
"He swore to me nobody was going to get hurt tonight!
"He just needs the child back to settle the family estate legalities!
"You foolish, corrupt boy," Miller growled, disgust dripping from every syllable.
"Julianne isn't dead.
"Vance kept her chained like an animal in the basement of his clinic to breed this child for an inheritance.
Briggs froze, his eyes widening in genuine shock.
"What?
No...
Vance told me Julianne died of an overdose in Atlanta four months ago...
"Shut up, Briggs," one of the tactical men stepped forward, pulling a silenced submachine gun from under his jacket.
"We aren't here for a town hall meeting.
"Sheriff Miller, step away from the cabin and hand over the nurse and the newborn.
"Dr.
Vance wants this cleaned up before sunrise.
"If you cooperate, you keep your badge and your life.
"If you refuse, you join your daughter in the ground tonight.
Miller let out a low, chilling laugh that rose above the sound of the falling rain.
"You bring two hired guns onto my family land and threaten my blood?" Miller snarled.
In the blink of an eye, Miller raised his service weapon and fired two rapid shots through the storm.
The first round struck the armed mercenary in the shoulder, sending him spinning backward into the mud.
Muzzle flashes lit up the porch as Miller dove back inside the cabin, slamming the heavy oak door shut.
"Maya!
Grab the child!" Miller yelled as bullets shredded through the wooden door and splintered the walls.
May you like
"The back window leads to the old timber ravine!
Move now!
