Chapter 28 - Blue Flashes in the Rain
The rain fell in blinding sheets.
Mud churned beneath Daniel's bare feet as he sprinted across the ruined lawn, holding Mason tight against his chest. Behind them, the headlights of a black SUV crested the driveway, cutting two blinding beams through the downpour, illuminating the garden fence—the very fence where Vanessa had chained Mason only weeks ago.
The SUV screeched to a halt on the wet grass.
The driver's door swung open. A figure stepped out into the storm under the glow of an umbrella held by an armed driver.
It was Diane Vance.
She wore an expensive black trench coat over her prison-issued clothes, her gray hair pulled back tight, her expression frozen in aristocratic, psychotic hatred. In her right hand, she held a compact semiautomatic pistol.
"Daniel!" Diane’s voice cut through the thunder. "Put the boy down, and I will let you walk away with your life! He carries my family's fortune! It belongs to the Vances!"
Daniel didn't stop. He vaulted the low stone wall at the edge of the property, plunging into the dense tree line of the state forest.
Gunfire tore through the canopy above his head. *CRACK-CRACK.* Branches splintered and rained down around them.
"Keep your head down!" Daniel roared, dodging between ancient pine trunks, the mud pulling at his heels.
Behind them, Diane’s driver began firing indiscriminately into the woods, the muzzle flashes lighting up the rain like bursts of hellfire.
Then, cutting through the forest from the opposite ridge, came a different sound.
A high-pitched, wailing crescendo.
May you like
Dozens of red and blue emergency lights crested the perimeter road. Detective Miller had tracked the prison transport ambush. Five state trooper cruisers smashed through the Vance perimeter gates, sirens blaring, their spotlights pinning Diane's SUV against the dark lawn.
***
