CHAPTER 5 — The Man They Buried
The laser from the sniper rifle settled squarely on Mason's chest.
"DOWN!" Rose screamed.
She slammed him to the ground just as the shot cracked through the night.
The bullet tore through the truck's windshield instead.
Glass exploded everywhere.
Lucas fired toward the helicopter while Rose shoved Mason into the passenger seat.
"Drive!"
"I don't know where we're going!"
"You don't need to."
Rose reached beneath the dashboard and flipped a hidden switch.
The truck roared to life.
It wasn't an old pickup at all.
Armor plates slid over the windows.
Run-flat tires locked into place.
The entire vehicle had been rebuilt for war.
They sped down an abandoned logging road as tracer rounds ripped through the trees behind them.
Mason looked at Rose.
He had imagined this moment for eight years.
He thought he would hug her.
He thought he would cry.
Instead...
He had questions.
"You said they buried the wrong man."
Rose kept her eyes on the road.
"They didn't bury the wrong man."
"They buried the man they thought was you."
Mason frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Lucas answered quietly.
"The explosion was supposed to erase your identity forever."
"But Ethan switched the bodies."
Mason stared at him.
"Ethan... saved me?"
Rose nodded.
"He was never your enemy."
Every memory Mason carried suddenly felt like a lie.
"Ethan kidnapped you."
"No."
"He rescued me."
"He disappeared."
"He went undercover."
"They called him a trafficker."
"Because someone needed the world to believe he was a monster."
Mason's breathing became uneven.
"Then who started all of this?"
Neither Rose nor Lucas answered.
Instead, Rose handed him an old military dog tag.
On the back were engraved three words.
PROPERTY OF WOLF.
"What is Wolf?"
Lucas looked through the rear window.
"It isn't a motorcycle club."
"It isn't a gang."
"It's a private organization that has controlled judges, police, politicians, and billionaires for over forty years."
"And your father..."
"...was one of its founders."
The truck suddenly hit a steel barrier hidden beneath the road.
Tires screeched.
The engine died.
Rose's face turned white.
"No..."
"They found the escape route."
Floodlights exploded on from every direction.
More than twenty armed men surrounded them.
Then one black limousine slowly rolled forward.
The rear door opened.
An elderly man stepped out wearing an immaculate gray suit.
He smiled warmly.
Almost kindly.
Until he spoke.
"Mason..."
"I've been waiting for my son to come home."
Mason's world stopped.
"My... son?"
The old man nodded.
"The man who raised you wasn't your father."
May you like
"He was only protecting you from me."
END OF CHAPTER 5...
