After I Refused to Save My Ex-Wife’s Brother, She Went Crazy Chapter 02

After I Refused to Save My Ex-Wife’s Brother, She Went Crazy Chapter 02

The phone rang at midnight.

I wasn’t asleep. It buzzed for a long time before stopping.

Less than ten seconds later, it started again.

I let it ring. And ring. Finally I picked up.

“Mr. Cole?”

A familiar female voice.

“This is Claire Rhodes.”

My hand clenched so hard the plastic creaked.

“Name your price.”

Direct. No small talk.

“A million’s not enough. I’ll double it. Two million. Cash. To any account you name. Within half an hour.”

I said nothing.

“Mr. Cole? Are you there?”

“Yeah.”

“Two million, wired. If that’s not enough, we can talk.”

“It’s not about money.”

“Then what?”

Her voice pitched higher.

“They say you’re the best navigator in this desert. The whole dispatch system vouches for you. You’re the only one who’ll go that far. If you don’t take this, what happens to my brother?”

“Find someone else.”

“Who? Dispatch said you’re the only one who can get in during this window. Every other guide only goes as far as the outer rim. Past that, they can’t even get themselves back.”

I knew.

I’d blazed this desert with eight years of my life.

Every current, every wind shear, every trap—all mapped inside my head.

The navigation data for that region? Only I have it.

“Mr. Cole, don’t you care about anyone?”

“You should know what it’s like to wait to die in the desert.”

I went quiet.

That was the one thing she had no right to say.

Stella’s last satellite signal came at 3 a.m. It lasted eleven seconds. Then nothing.

Later, a dispatcher let it slip. Claire had paid eighty thousand dollars to reroute the only full SAR team and send them in the opposite direction.

To save Leo Rhodes.

A grown man who got lost walking around a five-star hotel. He’d had a bottle of water in his hand.

My Stella was hundreds of miles deep in the basin. Empty canteen. Collapsing. Fever over 104.

Her last voice message to me was a few seconds long.

“Dad… it’s so hot… and… I love you…”

Those few seconds—I’ve played them for eight years.

“Mr. Cole?”

Claire’s voice pulled me back.

“Are you even listening?”

“Yeah.”

“Two million isn’t enough. Five million.”

She paused, then let out a cold laugh.

“You’ve been scraping by in this desert for eight years. Have you ever seen that much money? Five million is enough to buy a house, a car, and a whole new life in the city. You’d have to be stupid to turn it down.”

“Mrs. Rhodes.”

“What?”

“You’re right. I’ve never seen that much money.”

“Then—”

“But I’ve never seen anyone haggle over a life like it’s a yard sale. Your brother’s life is worth five million to you. How much was my daughter’s life worth to you?”

The line went dead silent.

“What… what do you mean?”

“Nothing. Find someone else.”

I hung up. The trailer went quiet.

I closed my eyes. The dream came again.

Stella crouched on the dry ground. Her arms raw, knees scraped.

She looked up at me with red-rimmed eyes, cracked lips.

“Dad… why didn’t Mom come for me?”

I crouched down, reached out with shaking hands.

What could I tell her?

That her mother sent the rescuers away to save some loser who couldn’t even find his way back to a hotel lobby?

Stella waited a long time.

Then she smiled. Her lips split. Blood beaded.

“I’ll wait. Mom will come.”

I sat up in bed, drenched in sweat.

The trailer was pitch black. Wind rattled the metal.

“Cole, you okay?”

“Yeah.”

I found my water bottle under the pillow, unscrewed it, and gulped.

“Go back to sleep.”

I said it into the dark.

I wasn’t sure if I was talking to Vince or myself.