Chapter 1 - The Baby on the Boardwalk
The woman parked the dark SUV where the wooden beach access met the empty parking lot.
There were no tourists that morning. No children carrying plastic buckets. No couples walking barefoot at the edge of the tide. A September storm had pushed everyone indoors, leaving the Rhode Island shoreline gray, loud, and nearly deserted.
Claire Mason sat behind the steering wheel for three seconds after killing the engine.
That was all she allowed herself.
Three seconds to breathe.
Three seconds to look at the baby strapped into the back seat.
Three seconds to pretend she still had another choice.
Then the phone on the passenger seat buzzed.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
YOU HAVE FOUR MINUTES.
Claire’s face went white.
She looked through the windshield toward the weathered wooden boardwalk leading over the dunes. Beyond it, the Atlantic churned beneath a low ceiling of clouds. Wind shook the sea grass flat against the sand.
At the far end of the beach, a red lifeguard jacket moved beside a pale blue rescue station.
Claire closed her eyes.
Good.
Someone was there.
She opened the rear door and lifted nine-month-old Lily from the car seat.
Lily wore a mint-green hooded fleece suit. The hood framed her round face and wisps of dark hair. She blinked at the wind, then immediately tucked her cheek against Claire’s shoulder.
“I know,” Claire whispered.
Her voice broke.
“I know, sweetheart.”
She carried a folded white blanket in her other hand and stepped onto the boardwalk.
Every instinct inside her screamed to run the other direction.
Take the baby.
Drive north.
Cross the state line.
Disappear again.
But she had already tried that.
For eleven months, Claire had moved from motel to motel, borrowed name to borrowed name, while men she never saw searched for her daughter.
Not because Lily was valuable to Claire.
Because Lily was valuable to her father.
Roman Vale.
The most feared man on the Providence waterfront.
The man Claire had once loved enough to trust.
The man she had left without telling him she was pregnant.
Wind tore at Claire’s hair as she reached the widest section of the boardwalk. She spread the white blanket across the damp planks and knelt.
Lily sensed something wrong immediately.
Her lower lip trembled.
“No,” Claire whispered, forcing a smile. “Mama’s right here.”
A lie.
A terrible necessary lie.
She lowered Lily carefully onto the blanket.
The baby grabbed Claire’s sleeve.
Claire nearly collapsed.
Behind them, somewhere beyond the dunes, an engine idled.
Not hers.
The men following her had arrived.
Claire gently loosened Lily’s fingers.
She touched the tiny gold bracelet around the baby’s wrist.
A crowned lion above three waves.
The Vale family crest.
Roman had given the bracelet to Claire years earlier after his mother died.
“If anything ever happens,” he had told her, “this tells my people you belong with me.”
Claire had hated the possessive wording at the time.
Now she prayed it might save their daughter.
Lily began crying.
Claire stood too quickly.
Her knees almost failed.
“Please forgive me.”
The words were barely audible over the surf.
She turned and walked back toward the SUV.
Do not run.
Do not look back.
The men watching needed to believe she had abandoned the child because she was frightened and selfish.
They needed to follow Claire instead of Lily.
She reached the open driver’s door.
Lily’s crying grew louder.
Claire looked back.
The baby had pushed onto her hands and knees.
“No, baby.”
Claire gripped the car door until her knuckles went white.
Lily crawled off the blanket.
One palm.
Then the other.
Her mint hood fluttered in the wind.
Claire’s body moved before her mind could stop it.
She took one step toward Lily.
A black sedan rolled slowly into view beyond the parking lot.
Claire froze.
The passenger window lowered.
A man she recognized from Roman’s organization looked directly at her.
Victor Vale’s man.
Claire forced herself back into the SUV.
She slammed the door.
Lily screamed.
Claire started the engine and pulled away.
She cried so hard she could barely see the road.
But in the rearview mirror, she saw the red-jacketed lifeguard turn toward the boardwalk.
He had heard Lily.
Thank God.
Jack Mercer had been closing the seasonal rescue station when he heard what he first thought was a gull.
Then it came again.
A baby crying.
He looked toward the boardwalk.
For a second, his brain refused to understand what he was seeing.
A tiny child in pale green was crawling alone toward the edge where the elevated wooden walkway dropped down to the beach.
No adult beside her.
No stroller.
No diaper bag.
Nothing but a white blanket blowing loose behind her and a dark SUV disappearing toward the highway.
“Hey!”
Jack started running.
Lily kept crawling.
The wind pushed against her little body. Her hands slapped the damp boards. Tears covered her cheeks.
“Stay there, sweetheart.”
Of course she didn’t understand.
She reached the final section of boardwalk.
Jack was still twenty yards away.
Her knee slipped.
He ran faster.
Lily crawled to the lip of the last step, where weathered wood fell sharply toward packed sand.
Jack lunged.
He caught the back of her fleece suit just as her hands slid over the edge.
“I’ve got you.”
He lifted her against his chest.
Lily screamed once, then buried her face into his red rescue jacket.
Jack wrapped both arms around her.
“You’re okay. You’re okay.”
He looked toward the road.
The SUV was gone.
Then he noticed something cold against his wrist.
A gold bracelet.
He turned Lily’s tiny hand carefully.
The symbol stamped into the metal made his stomach tighten.
Jack had grown up in Providence.
He knew that crest.
Everyone did.
The crowned lion above three waves belonged to the Vale family.
And the man currently at the head of that family was Roman Vale.
Businessman to newspapers.
Mafia boss to everyone who knew better.
Jack carried Lily into the rescue station and called 911.
Seven minutes later, police arrived.
Eleven minutes after that, three black SUVs entered the beach parking lot.
Roman Vale stepped out of the middle one.
Tall. Dark-haired. Black coat open in the storm wind.
He crossed the lot with two men behind him until he saw Jack holding the baby.
Then Roman stopped.
His face emptied of color.
Jack had expected menace.
He saw fear instead.
Roman’s eyes went to the bracelet.
Then to Lily’s face.
The baby stared back at him.
For one impossible second, the storm seemed quieter.
Roman whispered one name.
“Claire.”
Jack tightened his hold on the child.
“You know her mother?”
Roman looked at him.
His voice came out rough.
“I’ve been looking for her for eleven months.”
A detective stepped forward. “Mr. Vale, do you know this child?”
Roman looked at Lily again.
The baby had his gray eyes.
His mother’s mouth.
And Claire’s stubborn little crease between the eyebrows.
Roman’s hand shook as he reached toward her and stopped before touching her.
“No,” he said.
Then his eyes filled.
“But I think she’s mine.”
At that exact moment, Jack’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
One photograph appeared.
Claire, driving.
A black sedan behind her.
May you like
Beneath the image were six words.
SHE SAVED THE BABY. NOW SAVE HER.
