Chapter 28 - Blood on the Black Ice
The windshield wipers of the SUV slammed back and forth on high speed, barely clearing the torrents of rain pouring over the glass.
Maya hit the gas pedal, flooring it down the ramp of Pier 59 and sliding sideways onto the rain-slicked asphalt of the West Side Highway.
Ahead of her, half a mile down the glistening highway, the red taillights of Victoria’s black Mercedes sedan wove recklessly through late-night traffic.
Maya’s hands gripped the leather steering wheel until her knuckles turned ivory.
All the pain, the betrayal, the lies of the past three months concentrated into a laser-sharp point of pure, cold adrenaline.
Julian’s deceit had shattered her heart.
Clara’s tragedy had broken her soul.
But Victoria Vance was the architect of every single nightmare.
And Maya was not going to let the monster slip into the night to hide behind high-priced lawyers and offshore accounts.
The highway cleared as they passed 79th Street, heading north toward the Henry Hudson Parkway.
Victoria was driving like a lunatic, hitting ninety miles an hour, clipping the metal guardrails and throwing showers of orange sparks into the dark.
Maya matched her speed, the heavy SUV engine roaring as the speedometer climbed: *85... 90... 95.*
The road curved sharply as they crossed over the bridge toward the Palisades Parkway.
Freezing rain had begun to turn into slush on the concrete, creating invisible sheets of deadly black ice.
Victoria’s sedan fish-tailed violently, its rear bumper smashing into a concrete divider, but the luxury car corrected itself and surged forward up the winding, unlit parkway.
Maya closed the distance.
Fifty yards.
Thirty yards.
Ten yards.
Victoria looked into her rearview mirror.
In the blinding high-beams of Maya's SUV, Maya could clearly see Victoria’s face—contorted with absolute, unhinged fury.
Victoria slammed her brakes hard.
A classic PIT maneuver in reverse, designed to make Maya rear-end her and spin out into the rocky cliffs flanking the parkway.
Maya anticipated the move.
Instead of braking, Maya wrenched the wheel hard to the left, cutting onto the narrow grassy median.
The heavy SUV skidded sideways through the mud, mud and ice spraying fifty feet into the air.
Maya slammed her foot down on the accelerator again, pulling parallel to Victoria's Mercedes.
The two women stared at each other through the rain-lashed glass at eighty miles an hour.
Victoria screamed something inaudible, her face twisted in rage, and violently yanked her wheel to the right, ramming the side of Maya's SUV.
*CRUNCH!*
Metal screamed against metal.
Both vehicles shuddered violently, sliding dangerously close to the sheer rock cliff on the right side of the parkway.
Maya didn't back down.
She braced herself, turned her wheel hard into the Mercedes, and rammed Victoria right back.
The impact shattered the passenger window of the Mercedes.
Victoria lost control.
The black sedan hit a massive patch of black ice, spun three full rotations across the two-lane highway, and slammed violently into the heavy steel guardrail guarding a scenic overlook.
The guardrail groaned, bent, and snapped.
The rear half of Victoria’s Mercedes hung precariously out over the two-hundred-foot cliff overlooking the black, raging Hudson River below.
Maya slammed her brakes, the SUV sliding to a halt fifty feet away in the middle of the empty highway.
Smoke poured from both wrecked vehicles into the freezing rain.
Maya kicked her door open, stepping out into the howling storm.
She reached into the SUV's center console and pulled out the tire iron Julian had left behind.
Maya walked slowly through the drifting steam toward the teetering Mercedes.
The driver’s door of the sedan creaked open.
Victoria tumbled out onto the wet asphalt, clutching her fractured ribs, her white gown soaked in oil, mud, and rain.
May you like
She looked up, crawling backward on her hands and knees toward the edge of the abyss, as Maya approached like a vengeful specter in the dark.
***
