Chapter 10 - The Ambulance
Dominic hit the hallway at a run.
Hannah followed.
Outside, a white medical transport van was turning toward the rear gate.
"That's them!" the administrator shouted.
Vincent sprinted for the SUV.
Dominic grabbed Hannah by the shoulders.
"You stay here."
"No."
"Hannah."
"If that's my sister, I am not staying behind."
He stared at her for half a second, then opened the passenger door.
"Get in."
The chase lasted six miles.
The transport van cut through wet back roads, ignoring two stop signs.
Vincent drove while Dominic called state police through a contact Hannah did not want to know about.
"No sirens," Dominic ordered. "They'll panic."
"They already are," Hannah said as the van clipped a mailbox.
At a narrow bridge, the van stopped suddenly.
Its rear doors opened.
Two armed men stepped out.
"Down!" Vincent shouted.
Gunfire cracked across the windshield.
Dominic pushed Hannah beneath the dashboard and fired through the open side window.
The first man dropped his weapon.
The second ran into the trees.
Vincent chased him.
Dominic reached the van.
Hannah was right behind him.
"I told you to stay down."
"You keep saying that like it works."
He yanked the rear doors open.
Inside was an empty gurney.
A torn leather restraint hung from one rail.
No patient.
No Sofia.
Only a nurse's white coat and a fresh smear of blood.
Hannah climbed inside.
"They moved her before the bridge."
Dominic found a phone beneath the gurney.
The screen was cracked, but a map was still open.
One destination had been entered twenty minutes earlier.
A private airfield outside Danbury.
Then the phone rang.
Dominic answered.
Sebastian Vale spoke calmly.
"You always were impatient."
Dominic's face changed.
"Where is my wife?"
"Dead, according to the certificate you signed."
"I signed what you put in front of me when I was drugged with grief."
Sebastian sighed. "This is not a conversation for a roadside."
Hannah leaned close enough to hear.
"Ask him about my mother."
Dominic did.
There was silence.
Then Sebastian said, "Ah. The waitress."
Hannah's hands curled into fists.
"He knows me."
Sebastian continued. "Dominic, listen carefully. That woman is not your salvation. She is the last loose thread of a mistake made twenty-six years ago. Cut it before it pulls your children into the grave."
Dominic's voice turned cold.
"You have ten seconds to tell me where Sofia is."
Sebastian laughed softly.
"You're asking the wrong question."
"Then give me the right one."
"Ask why Sofia ran from you in the first place."
The call ended.
A second later, a gunshot echoed from the trees.
May you like
Vincent shouted once.
Then nothing.
