Chapter 4 - The Safe House
The freight elevator shook violently as it carried us upward.
Daniel stood in front of me, gun raised, blood dripping from his fingertips. The babies were finally quiet, exhausted against my chest.
I watched him carefully.
He was dangerous.
Not just because of the gun.
Because he knew how to use it.
Because men were hunting him.
Because he had the kind of last name that could make people disappear.
But when Noah whimpered in his sleep, Daniel immediately reached over and adjusted the blanket around him.
That small movement confused me.
“Why did you trust me?” I asked quietly.
Daniel did not turn around.
“I didn’t.”
“Comforting.”
“I trusted that you cared about the babies.”
“I barely knew them.”
“You still didn’t leave.”
The elevator doors opened into another alley.
Rain had slowed to a mist. A black SUV waited near the curb, engine running.
I stopped.
“No.”
Daniel looked back. “What?”
“That looks exactly like the kind of car people get dragged into before they vanish.”
“It’s my car.”
“That is not reassuring.”
For the first time, Daniel actually laughed.
It was brief, low, and surprised—as if he had forgotten he could still laugh.
Then a bullet struck the brick wall near his head.
Daniel shoved me down behind a dumpster.
“Get in the car!” he shouted.
A driver jumped out, opening the rear door.
“Mr. Hawthorne!”
“Drive!” Daniel yelled.
The driver was a woman in her forties with silver hair and a calm face. She took one look at Daniel’s wound and swore.
“Again?” she snapped.
“Not now, Mara.”
“That is exactly what you said last time.”
I climbed into the SUV with the twins. Daniel followed, slamming the door behind us as Mara accelerated into the wet Boston streets.
Two black sedans followed.
“Oh, come on,” I muttered.
Mara glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “You must be Anna.”
“How do you know my name?”
“Daniel said it three times while he was unconscious.”
Daniel glared at her.
“I was delirious.”
“You were dramatic.”
The SUV turned sharply. One of the sedans almost clipped us.
The twins stirred.
I tried to keep my voice calm. “Where are we going?”
“Somewhere safe,” Daniel said.
“That phrase is losing meaning.”
Twenty minutes later, the SUV entered an underground garage beneath a quiet brownstone in Beacon Hill.
The building looked ordinary from outside.
Inside, it had armed security, surveillance cameras, medical equipment, and enough locked doors to make my skin crawl.
Mara led me into a warm living room while two men took Daniel into another room.
“What are they doing?” I asked.
“Removing the bullet.”
“With what, a kitchen knife?”
Mara gave me a look. “With a doctor who doesn’t ask questions.”
The twins began crying again.
Mara softened. “They need bottles. There are supplies upstairs.”
“I’ll do it.”
“You should rest.”
“I don’t know you.”
“That makes two of us.”
I found formula, bottles, diapers, and soft pajamas in a nursery that looked like it belonged in a magazine. Everything was expensive. Everything was perfect.
And somehow, it felt sad.
No toys on the floor.
No family photographs.
No signs that anyone had ever laughed here.
After feeding Eli and Noah, I sat in a rocking chair with one baby against each shoulder.
Daniel appeared in the doorway an hour later.
He looked worse.
His shirt had been replaced with a clean black one, but his face was pale and tired.
“You should be in bed,” I said.
“So should you.”
“I don’t have a bed here.”
“You do now.”
I looked at him sharply.
“Don’t start telling me what I have now.”
He paused.
Then nodded.
“You’re right.”
The silence between us stretched.
Finally, I asked, “Why did you bring me here?”
“Because they saw you.”
“That is not my fault.”
“No. It’s mine.”
His voice was quiet.
Honest.
“I should never have gone near Ali’s Diner,” he continued. “I should have found another way.”
“You had two babies strapped to your chest while bleeding out. I don’t think you had many options.”
Daniel looked at the twins.
“They’re all I have left.”
I understood that sentence too well.
I had spent my entire life learning what it felt like to have nobody.
“No,” I said softly. “They’re not all you have left.”
His eyes lifted to mine.
Before he could answer, every light in the room went out.
Then the security alarm began screaming.
Mara’s voice came through the hallway.
May you like
“They found us.”
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