Trapped in a Remote Oregon Timber Mill Working Eighteen-Hour Shifts to Pay a Simulated $1.4 Million Marriage Debt, an OSHA-Certified Daughter Exposes Her Father's Deadly Empire Through Secret Trust...
The cold bite of the drainage tunnel air was a shock after the mill’s humid interior. Water pooled around my boots, tasting of rust and something acrid I couldn’t place.
I moved fast, my backpack with the actual encrypted drive bumping against my spine.
Eli and Harlan would be tearing apart the control room now, realizing the decoy flash drive I’d slipped Silas was just a blank.
The clatter of their heavy boots on the metal grate above my head vibrated through the concrete.
“She can’t be far!” I heard Eli shout, his voice distorted by the tunnel walls. “Check the service exits!”
I pressed myself against the damp concrete, heart hammering. The scent of pine and wet earth grew stronger as I crawled toward the northern vent.
Silas never bothered with proper security down here. He called it “too dirty for spies.”
A small, ironic smile touched my lips. He had no idea how dirty I’d gotten.
The vent cover was rusted, but I managed to pry it open with the pry bar I always kept tucked into my belt. Cold, freezing rain lashed my face as I squeezed through.
The Oregon woods swallowed me instantly. Pines loomed, dark and ancient, their needles slick with rain. I could feel the wind whipping through the branches.
My teeth chattered, but the adrenaline kept me moving. North Ridge was a steep climb, but it was Eleanor’s direction. My great-aunt’s cabin lay deep in these hills.
I heard a dog bark, sharp and close. Eli had brought the hounds.
My breath hitched. They were faster than me, but I knew these woods better than anyone. I’d grown up running through them, mapping every deer trail and hidden crevice.
I ducked behind a moss-covered boulder, the sound of their searching growing louder. A flashlight beam cut through the gloom, sweeping the ground barely twenty feet from my hiding spot.
“She’s a ghost,” Harlan grumbled. “Always was.”
I held my breath, the cold seeping into my bones. They wouldn’t find me. Not tonight. Not while Eleanor was waiting.
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