Chapter 3 - THE SAFEHOUSETen minutes later, we were sitting in the heated interior of my rental car parked down the street behind a dense line of pine trees.
Piper was wrapped in a woolen blanket from my trunk, sipping warm apple juice I bought at a twenty-four-hour gas station down the highway. Her breathing had slowed down, and the terrible blue tint was slowly fading from her cheeks.
“Are we going home, Mommy?” she asked quietly, her big eyes reflecting the dashboard lights.
“We are going somewhere safe, sweet girl,” I promised, kissing her forehead. “And Daddy is going to learn a very important lesson about what happens when you leave people out in the cold.”
I pulled out my secure encrypted phone and dialed a familiar, reliable number.
“Major Vance,” a crisp voice answered on the second ring.
“Vance, it’s Captain Sarah Vey. I’m currently off-base in Colorado Springs. I need a favor, and I need it executed quietly.”
“Name it, Captain. You saved my skin in logistics back at Fort Hood; I owe you.”
“I need a certified real estate title search, an emergency asset freeze on a residential mortgage, and two military police process servers available for a civil eviction notice tomorrow morning at 0800 hours. The property is legally registered under my sole pre-marital name.”
A low whistle came over the speaker. “Sounds messy, Sarah. Family dispute?”
May you like
“Family eviction,” I corrected, my voice cold as ice. “Someone decided to move a squatter into my house while I was deployed. Let’s make sure they get a proper military-grade welcome.”
“Consider it locked down. I’ll have the paperwork ready by sunrise.”
