Chapter 3

"He's chasing us — please, drive faster!" I shouted.

The driver glanced in the rearview mirror and swore under his breath.

"What is this, some kind of movie? Hold on tight!"

The cab tore through the empty streets.

But the SUV was faster. It was closing in.

Bang.

The SUV slammed into our rear bumper.

The impact threw me forward. I threw my arms around Leo and held on.

The driver panicked. He yanked the wheel, and the cab skidded off the road and crashed into the landscaped median, screeching to a stop.

Before I could even catch my breath, the door was ripped open from outside.

Mason stood there — thick-necked, heavy-faced, gripping a baseball bat. Two built guys flanked him from behind.

"Go ahead and run! Keep running!"

He grabbed a fistful of my hair and dragged me out of the car.

"Mommy!" Leo screamed from inside.

I fought back as hard as I could and sank my teeth into Mason's wrist.

"You little bitch!" He backhanded me across the face. Stars exploded in my vision. I tasted blood at the corner of my mouth.

The two men shoved into the car and yanked Leo out by force.

"Don't touch my son!" I lunged at them like a woman possessed — and Mason drove his boot into my stomach. I crumpled to the ground, gasping.

The driver scrambled out of the car and bolted. He wasn't going to stick around for this.

Mason crouched down and grabbed my hair again, wrenching my head up to face him.

"Ashley. You want to do this the hard way? Fine. Where's the document?"

"I don't have it — I left it at home!" I lied, struggling to breathe.

Mason let out a cold laugh and pulled the inheritance document from his jacket pocket, slapping it against my face.

"You think I'm blind? Back at the basement door, didn't I see this drop right on the floor?"

My stomach dropped.

I'd been running too fast. It must have slipped out.

"Since I've got the document, you're coming with me tonight to sign the transfer agreement." Mason straightened up and jerked his chin at the two men. "Put them in the car."

I was shoved into the back seat of the SUV.

Leo was huddled against me, trembling so hard he couldn't even cry.

Mason dropped into the passenger seat and lit a cigarette.

"Drive. West Estate."

My head snapped up.

"Why go there? You just need to sign the papers — anywhere works!"

Mason blew out a slow ring of smoke and turned to look at me. There was something unsettling in his eyes — a strange, almost gleeful excitement.

"Grandpa added a condition to the will. The transfer agreement has to be signed at the old house on the estate. In front of his portrait."

He let out a cold laugh.

"Miserable old man, still making trouble from the grave."

The car pulled out and headed west.

The sharp smell of cigarette smoke filled the cabin.

I held Leo tight, my mind racing, trying to figure out how to get us out of this.

Then I felt something cold on the back of my hand.

A single drop of water.

I blinked and looked up at the roof of the car.

No leak.

But I could feel it clearly — the temperature inside the car was dropping fast.

The air that had been stuffy and warm just moments ago now felt like the inside of a freezer.

Leo suddenly grabbed my hand.

His fingers were ice cold. The kind of cold that has no life in it at all.

He lifted his head and looked at Mason in the front seat. Slowly, the corners of his mouth pulled back into a smile — wide, wrong, deeply unsettling.

Then he spoke in that same rough, cracking voice:

"Mason. Long time no see."