Chapter 17 - The Chase
The SUV hit the service road at nearly sixty.
Police vehicles closed from both ends.
Martin swerved onto the gravel shoulder.
Nia was visible for one second, then gone behind glare.
I screamed her name even though there was no way she could hear me.
Ortiz shoved me into the van.
“Stay down!”
The SUV clipped a cruiser and kept moving.
A tire blew.
Rubber tore apart.
The vehicle fishtailed.
For one terrible moment, I thought it would roll.
It didn’t.
Martin corrected, crossed a ditch, and crashed nose-first into a chain-link fence.
Airbags exploded.
Officers surrounded the vehicle.
“Show me your hands!”
The driver door opened.
Martin stumbled out.
Blood on his forehead.
Gun in his hand.
Everything slowed.
Police shouted.
Martin raised the weapon.
Then Nia kicked the passenger door open and threw herself onto the ground.
Martin turned toward her.
I do not remember leaving the van.
I only remember running.
Ortiz screamed behind me.
A shot cracked.
Then another.
Martin dropped.
I hit the gravel beside Nia.
She was crying, shaking, alive.
“Mom.”
I wrapped myself around her.
“I’ve got you.”
For once, I knew it was true.
Paramedics rushed in.
Dr. Hale had warned us: if we found her, she needed immediate care.
They loaded her into an ambulance.
I climbed in.
As the doors closed, Ortiz appeared.
“Martin’s alive.”
I didn’t care.
“Owen?”
“In custody.”
“Caleb?”
“Still detained.”
“Marissa?”
“Cooperating.”
The ambulance started moving.
Nia leaned against me.
Then she whispered, “Mom, he said something.”
“What?”
“Martin.”
Her lips trembled.
“He said Dad wasn’t the first.”
I looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“He said there were other families.”
The microSD card flashed in my mind.
Other trusts.
Other names.
Other dead people’s children.
I looked through the ambulance window at Detective Ortiz.
She had heard.
Her expression changed.
The case was not over.
Not even close.
But Nia was breathing.
May you like
Her hand was in mine.
And for the first time in twenty-four hours, I let myself believe we might survive what came next.
