Chapter 4 - The Shattered Glass and the Trap
Before Ryan could lunge, the bedroom window behind him shattered in an explosion of glass and blinding light.
"POLICE! DROP THE WEAPON!"
Detective Vance and two tactical officers swarmed through the broken window, tackling Ryan to the floor with bone-crushing force. The hunting knife flew from his hand, skittering across the wooden floorboards. Ryan thrashed like a wild animal, screaming obsceneties as cuffs were slammed onto his wrists, but he was pinned under three hundred pounds of tactical gear.
"Clear!" shouted an officer.
Vance walked over to me, her chest heaving, and gently took the glass pitcher out of my trembling hand. "Are you okay?" she asked, her voice softening.
"How... how did you know he was here?" I gasped, pulling Lily—who had woken up screaming—into a tight embrace, burying her face in my shoulder so she couldn't see the blood on the floor.
"We never left," Vance said grimly, pointing to an unmarked police cruiser parked discreetly down the street. "We knew he'd come back for you. Predators like him don't run away; they return to control the narrative. We just waited for him to walk right into the trap."
As officers dragged a bloodied, cursing Ryan down the stairs, past the living room and out into the cool night air, I felt a wave of profound relief wash over me.
Or so I thought.
As the police cars drove away with wailing sirens, I sat on the edge of my bed, rocking Lily back to sleep. My phone—which Vance had retrieved from Ryan’s pocket—suddenly lit up on the nightstand.
A text message from an unknown number.
I picked it up, my hands still shaking. I opened the message. It wasn't from Ryan.
It was a photo.
May you like
A photo taken three minutes ago, from inside our own house, looking directly at the back of my head while I sat on the bed.
And the caption read: “He was just the decoy, Sarah. Did you really think he acted alone?”
