Chapter 14 - Ambush in the Pine Woods
The sound of shattering glass from the corridor outside cut through the wail of the sirens.
"Raymond!" I shouted, dropping low to the floor as training took over from shock.
"Breach at the east perimeter, Clara! We move right now!" Raymond yelled, drawing his sidearm and kicking open the heavy mahogany wardrobe to create a barricade.
Evelyn screamed, crawling on her hands and knees beneath the bed like a terrified animal.
"Get her up," I ordered Raymond’s lieutenant, David, without hesitating.
"If she dies here, the chain of custody for the evidence breaks, and Castlereagh walks free."
David hauled Evelyn to her feet by her collar while Raymond moved toward the doorway, exchanging silenced fire with two masked figures moving swiftly down the hallway.
These were not prison guards or private bailiffs; their gear was tactical, disciplined, and lethally precise.
Arthur Castlereagh had not brought Evelyn here to recover; he had gathered her here to be cleanly erased in a fire or a staged cardiac episode.
My presence had merely accelerated his timeline.
We pushed through the service exit at the rear of the medical wing, bursting out into the freezing, rain-swept pines.
The night was pitch-black, illuminated only by the intermittent strobe of emergency floodlights reflecting off the slick pine needles.
A bullet tore through the bark of an ancient oak inches from my ear, sending jagged splinters flying across my cheek.
I didn't flinch; the fire that had burned in me since the day of the acid attack burned hotter than fear.
"To the river access!" Raymond directed, covering our retreat with measured, controlled bursts of fire that forced our pursuers behind the perimeter wall.
Evelyn stumbled repeatedly in the wet moss, sobbing hysterically, her designer shoes abandoned in the mire.
"They're going to kill us! They're going to kill both of us!" she wailed, her aristocratic dignity completely shattered.
I grabbed her by the lapels of her cashmere coat and slammed her against the trunk of a pine, forcing her to look directly into my face.
"Listen to me, you miserable woman," I hissed, rain pouring down my forehead and plastering my hair to my neck.
"The only thing standing between you and a shallow grave in these woods is my will to drag you into a courtroom."
"You keep running, or I leave you here for Castlereagh's cleanup crew."
Her eyes widened with a terror far deeper than anything she had inflicted on me in the Vance parlor.
She nodded frantically, choking on her own tears.
We reached the secondary gravel road where our backup transport sat idling with blacked-out lights.
We piled into the armored Suburban just as three black luxury sedans tore through the main gates behind us.
Tires spun on wet dirt, throwing mud into the air as our driver slammed the accelerator, throwing us forward into the darkness.
Behind us, through the tinted rear glass, I saw the roof of the Connecticut recovery clinic burst into a brilliant ball of orange fire.
Castlereagh was burning the evidence, burning the witnesses, and burning any bridge that connected him to the Vance dynasty.
I pulled out my phone, dialing my father’s secure terminal in Manhattan.
"Dad," I said, catching my breath while Evelyn huddled weeping on the floor of the vehicle.
May you like
"The war isn't coming anymore."
"It's here."
