Chapter 23 - THE MIDNIGHT AMBUSH
Rain slammed against the reinforced windshield of the unmarked armored Suburban as Ethan navigated the winding downhill curves of Bear Mountain Parkway.
The digital clock on the dashboard read 4:18 PM. They had forty-two minutes before the court-ordered warrant went active. Ethan had purposefully left his phone, his smartwatches, and all high-frequency fobs locked inside the estate’s basement vault, knowing the legal authorities would ping their GPS locations the second Alexander filed the non-compliance affidavit.
In the back seat, Lily was wrapped in a woolen blanket, clutching her favorite worn teddy bear. Vanessa sat beside her, whispering soothing stories, though Vanessa’s eyes darted constantly toward the rearview mirror.
"There’s a black SUV behind us," Vanessa said quietly, leaning toward Ethan’s shoulder. "It’s been matching our speed since the lower toll plaza."
Ethan glanced at the side mirror. A lifted Dodge Ram with tinted windows and no front license plate was hovering two car lengths back in the blinding spray.
"Hold on to Lily," Ethan instructed calmly, shifting the transmission into sport-manual mode.
"Ethan, who is it? Is it the police?"
"Police use sirens, Vanessa," Ethan said grimly. "These people aren't here to serve papers."
Ethan slammed the gas pedal to the floor. The Suburban’s supercharged V8 engine roared to life, propelling the heavy vehicle forward along the rain-slicked asphalt. Behind them, the Dodge Ram accelerated instantly, its high-beam LEDs blazing in the rearview mirror, blinding Ethan’s vision.
Suddenly, a second vehicle—a gray commercial delivery van—pulled out from a blind scenic overlook ahead, deliberately positioning itself sideways across the two-lane mountain bridge.
"They boxed us in!" Vanessa screamed, throwing her body over Lily in the rear seat.
"Brace!" Ethan yelled.
Instead of hitting the brakes and skidding into the concrete barrier, Ethan aimed the armored front bull-bar directly at the rear axle of the commercial van. The impact sounded like an artillery shell detonating. Glass shattered, metal buckled, and the Suburban’s reinforced steel chassis shoved the delivery van aside with violent momentum.
The Suburban skidded dangerously across the flooded bridge surface, tires screaming against wet asphalt, spinning one hundred and eighty degrees before Ethan wrestled the steering wheel and regained traction.
Behind them, the Dodge Ram didn't slow down. A passenger leaned out of the truck’s window, holding a suppressed tactical submachine gun.
*Pfft-pfft-pfft-pfft!*
Sparks erupted from the Suburban’s rear hatch. The armored glass spider-webbed under the barrage of nine-millimeter armor-piercing rounds, but held.
"They're shooting at us!" Vanessa cried, shielding a crying Lily beneath her torso. "They have guns, Ethan!"
"They aren't trying to capture Lily," Ethan realized with chilling certainty. "Alexander’s custody petition was a decoy. Victoria doesn't want the child. She wants the child dead so Julian’s estate reverts entirely to her without any living biological descendants!"
Ethan cut the wheel hard to the right, plunging the Suburban off the paved highway and onto an unpaved, mud-slicked logging trail cutting through the dense pine forest. The suspension groaned as the heavy vehicle bounced violently over exposed roots and granite rocks.
The Dodge Ram followed relentlessly, its tires throwing rooster-tails of mud.
Ethan reached into his jacket, pulled the Sig Sauer, and cocked the slide with one hand against the steering wheel. Ahead, the logging trail ended at an abandoned quarry cliff overlooking a swollen river.
"Ethan, there’s no road!" Vanessa shrieked.
"Trust me!" Ethan yelled.
He yanked the emergency handbrake. The Suburban whipped around in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree drift, stopping mere feet from the cliff edge, facing the pursuing truck head-on.
The Dodge Ram came sliding around the final bend, its driver hitting the brakes in surprise at seeing Ethan’s vehicle pointed right at him.
Ethan didn't hesitate. He kicked his door open, stepped into the pouring rain, and leveled his firearm through the driving downpour. With cold, lethal precision, Ethan fired three shots straight through the truck’s radiator grille, followed by two rounds into the driver’s side windshield.
Steam exploded from the truck's engine block. The driver slumped over the wheel, and the Dodge Ram veered off the trail, crashing violently into a massive pine tree, its horn blaring continuously into the stormy night.
Ethan stood in the rain, his clothes soaked, gun still raised, waiting for movement. Nothing moved. Only the hiss of steam and the sound of falling water.
He reholstered the weapon, rushed back to the Suburban, and slammed the door shut. He turned to the back seat. Lily was trembling, her hands over her ears, but unharmed. Vanessa was breathing heavily, staring at Ethan with a mixture of terror and awe.
"Is everyone alive?" Ethan asked, his voice shaking with the aftershock of pure combat.
May you like
Vanessa nodded slowly, pulling Lily closer to her heart. "Yes. We’re alive."
"Good," Ethan said, shifting the vehicle into reverse and backing away from the cliff edge. "Because now we stop running. We find out who Victoria Vance really is, and we take her world apart."
