Chapter 16 - The Bridge
Adrian ripped the tracker from the carrier and threw it over the bridge.
Too late.
Three vehicles blocked the eastern side.
Two more appeared behind them.
Claire held Noah against her chest.
“We’re trapped.”
Lucas checked his weapon. “Not quite.”
He pointed beneath the bridge.
A maintenance staircase led down toward the frozen riverbank.
Cross groaned awake.
Lena helped him sit up.
“You look terrible,” she said.
He blinked at her. “You always flirt at car crashes?”
Mia laughed once through her fear.
It was the best sound Claire had heard all night.
Adrian took Noah’s carrier from Claire and slung it over his shoulder.
“You carry him.”
“I was planning to.”
“Stay between me and Lucas.”
Lucas muttered, “Still bossy.”
Adrian looked at him. “Still lying about being dead.”
“Fair.”
They moved down the stairs as armed men approached from both directions.
Bullets struck the railing.
Cross fired upward.
Lena pulled Mia close.
At the riverbank, the ice groaned beneath snow.
Father Michael’s pickup suddenly appeared on the road above.
Claire stared. “I thought he went to the field office.”
Cross smiled weakly. “Priests are terrible at following orders.”
Father Michael leaned out the window and fired a flare gun.
The flare exploded beneath one of the pursuing vehicles, showering sparks.
The attackers scattered.
Adrian shouted, “Across the ice!”
Claire stared at the frozen river. “Absolutely not.”
“We don’t have a choice.”
“I gave birth three weeks ago and now you want me sprinting across a frozen river?”
“I’ll carry you.”
“Try it and I’ll drown you myself.”
They ran.
Halfway across, the ice cracked.
Everyone stopped.
“No sudden movement,” Lucas whispered.
Another crack.
Mia whimpered.
Cross lifted her.
Then a bullet struck the ice near Claire’s feet.
The surface shattered.
Claire dropped.
Freezing water swallowed one leg.
Adrian grabbed her arm.
She screamed as the ice broke wider.
Noah cried against her chest.
“Give me the baby!” Adrian shouted.
Claire shoved Noah upward.
Adrian took him with one arm and pulled Claire with the other.
Lucas grabbed her coat from behind.
Together they dragged her onto solid ice.
Claire lay gasping, soaked from the waist down.
Adrian covered Noah with his coat.
“Claire, look at me.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re shaking.”
“I’m angry.”
“That too.”
Across the river, a black helicopter rose above the tree line.
Lucas looked up.
“Ward.”
A loudspeaker crackled.
May you like
“Adrian, this ends now.”
Then a sniper laser settled directly on Noah’s blanket.
