Truly Theirs

Chapter 9

Michael & Evelyn POV

The baby monitor buzzed softly on the table, a low rhythmic hum that didn’t belong.

Michael stared at it. “That’s not interference,” he muttered. “It’s too clean.”

Evelyn didn’t look up from the supply bag she was packing. “Probably the tower barometric pressure shifting again.”

“No.” He crossed the room and picked up the device. The static now had a pattern like breath, too steady to be wind. “It’s a bleed signal. Someone’s riding the frequency.”

Evelyn’s hands froze mid-zip. Then she moved quickly, grabbing the analog radio and flipping to channel 4 Latham’s emergency ping. Dead air.

“Shit.”

Michael’s face was drained of color. “He’s compromised.”

Evelyn was already moving, flipping the canvas floor cover off the hidden cellar hatch. “We’re out. Now.”

Michael rushed to the back room. Ethan stirred as he was lifted, blinking up sleepily at the sudden motion.

“I’ve got him,” Michael called out. “How far is the secondary exit?”

“North tunnel seventy meters. But it’s narrow. You’ll have to crawl the last part.”

“We practiced this,” he said more to himself than her. “We trained for this.”

Evelyn’s eyes swept the window. “Too much silence. The forest is holding its breath. They’re already here.”

She grabbed the final duffel, slung it over one shoulder, and loaded a revolver into her thigh holster. “You go. Now. I’ll stall them.”

“No. We leave together”

A twig snapped outside the front door.

Michael turned toward the sound, heart punching through his ribs.

Evelyn’s voice dropped, hard and final. “Move, Michael. I’ll find you at the fallback point. You know where.”

He hesitated just a second too long

and that’s when the back window shattered.

A flashbang arced through the air, landing in the center of the room.

“Cover your eyes!” Evelyn shouted, diving.

The light exploded. Sound punched the cabin into a moment of white-hot silence.

Michael stumbled, Ethan cradled tight against his chest, ears ringing, vision fractured. He half-fell toward the hidden exit, groping for the latch on the floor.

Evelyn was already on her feet, gun up, eyes blazing. She fired twice through the smoke. A body hit the porch armor, not fatal. One of theirs.

“They’re breaching!” she shouted, backing toward the tunnel.

Michael dropped into the crawlspace with Ethan. “Come on, Mom”

“Go!” she barked. “I’ll draw them off. GO!”

Then the front door burst inward And Evelyn vanished into smoke and gunfire.

Team’s POV – Alternating between Liam, Nadyia, and Noah

Liam hit the door low, shoulder-first, as Noah kicked it wide. The wood splintered inward. Smoke curled like a serpent across the threshold.

“Flash out!” Noah barked, sweeping left with his weapon raised.

“Right side is clear!” Liam shouted.

Nadyia bolted through the rear entrance, rifle trained. “Rear clear, no targets visible.”

The cabin was chaotic thick smoke, overturned chairs, a faint whimpering echo of baby cries still lingering in the air like a ghost. But the cries weren’t real. Ethan was already gone.

“No sign of them!” Nadyia growled, scanning the corners. “No bodies, no heat signatures”

Liam pointed to the floor. “Trapdoor!”

Noah rushed over, flipped it open, and peered inside. “Fresh scuff marks. Dirt displaced. He went down here.”

Nadyia leaned over his shoulder. “Narrow tunnel. Not tall enough to run, but he can crawl especially with a baby.”

Liam’s jaw flexed. “Thermal’s no good underground. If we follow blind, we could lose him or risk Ethan.”

Noah tapped his earpiece. “Detective Sandoval, they’re gone. Repeat targets escaped through an underground route. Send the drone swarm to the ridge. They can’t be far.”

Nadyia stepped back, staring at the baby blanket still draped over the edge of a chair. “He was just here.”

“And Evelyn was, too,” Liam muttered, lifting a shell casing from the floor, one of hers.

“She covered the exit,” Nadyia realized, rage sharpening her voice. “She gave him enough time.”

“Split up,” Liam ordered. “Noah take the north ridge. Nadyia and I will trace the escape path. We need eyes on both ends.”

Noah was already moving. “They won’t get far. Not with terrain like this.”

Liam grabbed his radio. “Activate the heat perimeter. I want every sensor on full sweep. Evelyn thinks she knows these woods but so do we.”

Nadyia glanced down the open tunnel, then back to Liam. “They’re bleeding time. And so are we.”

“Then let’s start taking it back.”

Michael POV Underground Tunnel

The tunnel was narrower than he remembered.

Dirt scraped his elbows. Roots snagged his sleeves. His breath came in shallow gasps as he cradled Ethan close with one arm and crawled with the other, dragging them both through the darkness.

“Almost there,” he whispered, trying to keep his voice steady. “You’re okay, buddy. We’re okay.”

Ethan stirred against his chest, letting out a soft, confused grunt.

Michael kissed the top of his son’s head, mud smearing across both of them. “Just a little longer. Then we’re gone. For good.”

Behind him muffled, but close the thunder of boots and shouted commands rattled through the dirt walls. The team had breached.

His pulse hammered harder. He shifted Ethan higher on his chest, careful not to let his little legs drag. Every movement felt like it took years off his life.

“She’s buying us time,” he muttered. “Don’t waste it. Don’t screw this up.”

The tunnel sloped upward. Relief burned through him then vanished just as quickly when he saw the beam overhead.

Collapsed slightly. Waterlogged.

He hesitated, then shoved his shoulder into the beam, groaning as it gave just enough to let him squeeze through.

The far hatch was just ahead.

Michael reached it, fumbled for the latch hidden beneath loose stones, and shoved the trapdoor upward with everything he had. It creaked open cold air flooding his lungs.

Moonlight spilled over them. Trees loomed.

“We made it,” he breathed. “We made it.”

A faint beep vibrated in his pocket.

Burner phone. One ping.

Evelyn’s code: “Fallback Plan Delta. Rendezvous point two.”

Michael clutched Ethan tighter, slipped out into the woods, and vanished into the shadows.