Chapter 299 Chapter 299
Chapter 299 Chapter 299
Chapter 299
Back inside the sitting room of the Castellan estate, the clocks on the wall ticked closer to five in the afternoon as the sun began dropping low over the Monterey hills. Maria stood near the glass doors leading to the courtyard, nervously pulling her coat over her shoulders. She grabbed her leather purse off the table, her hands shaking as she moved toward the foyer. She wasn't about to sit in a quiet living room while her injured son was sitting stranded out in the open on the outskirts of town.
Agent Miller stepped directly into her path near the front archway, placing a firm, steady hand on Maria’s shoulder to stop her in her tracks. "Mrs. Castellan, I need you to stay right here in the estate while I go handle Ethan’s return," Agent Miller said, her voice calm but strictly authoritative.
"I have to go along!" Maria insisted, trying to step around her with tear-filled eyes. "That is my son out there! He's hurt, he's alone, and I am not going to sit here doing nothing while he waits by some abandoned gas station!"
"No, Mrs. Castellan," Agent Miller replied smoothly, standing her ground. "Your safety is our priority right now. If Richard or any of his contacts have eyes on this estate, seeing your car leave in a hurry with an escort will draw unwanted attention directly to Ethan. I need you here where it's secure."
Isabelle stepped forward from the sofa, grabbing her jacket off the back of the chair. "I’m coming with you then," Isabelle offered, looking directly at Agent Miller. "I know the area out past the service road, and Ethan knows my voice. If he sees a strange vehicle pulling up, he might try to run or hide, especially with his injured leg."
"Neither of you is coming," Agent Miller said firmly, looking back and forth between Isabelle and Maria. "My tactical team and I are going to handle this quiet and fast. The setting is already past five in the afternoon, visibility is dropping, and bringing civilians into an active extraction is a risk I am not taking. Stay inside, keep the doors locked, and let me bring him home."
Maria looked like she wanted to argue further, but Ariana placed a gentle hand on her arm, softly pulling her back toward the living room sofa. Agent Miller gave them one final nod, pulled her vehicle keys out of her pocket, and walked out the front door into the cool evening air.
Out near the old service route on the edge of the county line, distant police sirens started wailing through the quiet evening air. The sound echoed across the open fields, getting closer by the second. The two teenage girls had clearly run straight to the nearest convenience store or pulled out their phones the moment they turned the corner, reporting that they had seen a dead man sitting in the shadows behind the gas station.
Ethan pulled himself up against the side of the abandoned flatbed truck, his teeth gritted tightly as he placed all his weight on his good left foot. The sharp throb in his right thigh burned terribly under the dirty bandages, but he knew he couldn't stay sitting on that rusted crate. If local patrol cars rolled up before his mother arrived, he would be thrown into a county holding cell or splashed across local news broadcasts before he could even explain who he was.
He raised his carved wooden cane, taking a slow, agonizing step toward the tree line behind the lot. Just as he dragged his bad foot across the gravel, the sharp glare of headlights cut through the gathering darkness from the main road.
Ethan ducked back behind the heavy rear tire of the truck, his heart hammering against his ribs as he watched a dark SUV turn sharply into the gas station lot. The tires kicked up loose dust as the vehicle pulled directly alongside the abandoned truck, cutting its high beams off immediately to stay hidden from the main street.
The driver’s side window rolled down smoothly. Agent Miller leaned across the front seat, looking straight at the dark shadow behind the truck tire. She didn't call out his name loud enough for the street to hear, but she raised her left hand, flashing her official FBI credentials clearly under the dim side-mirror light while giving him a quick, direct hand signal to get in.
Ethan stared at the gold badge and the unfamiliar woman sitting behind the wheel. He had no idea who she was, and he had never seen her face in his life. But as the sound of the police sirens echoed louder from two blocks away, Ethan made a split-second decision. Boarding a stranger's SUV was a massive gamble, but to him, taking a chance with her was a thousand times better than the local police finding him stranded behind a dump truck.
Ethan dragged himself out from behind the tires, using his wooden cane to push his body forward. He grabbed the rear door handle of the SUV, pulled the heavy door open, and tumbled awkwardly onto the leather backseat, pulling his bandaged leg inside just as Agent Miller slammed the gear shift into drive and sped out of the lot into the dark.