Chapter 3 - The Shadow Behind the Headlights
Before I could process her words, a pair of blinding halogen headlights flooded our rearview mirror.
A heavy, dark-tinted pickup truck had pulled up directly behind my bumper, idling with a low, predatory rumble.
"Mark, drive!" Lauren shrieked, ducking down toward the floorboards. "He's here!"
I jammed the gear shift into reverse, but the truck surged forward, ramming my rear bumper with a deafening metallic crunch.
The impact threw me against the seatbelt, the smell of burning rubber and gasoline immediately filling the cold night air.
"Hold on!" I yelled, slamming my foot onto the accelerator and wrenching the steering wheel hard to the left.
The tires spun on the slick pavement before catching traction, launching the SUV over the curb and into the street.
Behind us, the dark pickup reversed with terrifying precision, lining up its heavy steel grille with our tail lights.
It was an armored pursuit vehicle, the kind used by private security details to run targets off the road.
I tore through a yellow traffic light at sixty miles an hour, my heart hammering violently against my sternum.
"Where is the original will now?" I shouted over the roar of the engine, weaving between two sedans.
"It's not in the house!" Lauren yelled back, clutching the dashboard with white knuckles. "I knew they would search the bedroom!"
"Where did you put it?!"
"In your father’s old boathouse on Lake Keowee!" she answered, her voice cracking with terror. "Inside the floor compartment under the workbench!"
In the rearview mirror, the truck closed the gap, its steel bumper inches from my tailgate.
The driver tapped my rear quarter-panel, attempting a precision immobilization technique to send us into a violent spin.
I hit the brakes hard, letting the heavier truck overshoot our flank, then cut the wheel sharply down a narrow commercial alleyway.
The alley was barely wide enough for one car, lined with brick walls and overflowing commercial dumpsters.
The pursuing truck clipped the corner of the brick building, sending a shower of sparks and shattered brick into the darkness.
Metal screeched against masonry, but the heavy chassis kept coming, relentless and unstoppable.
"Hang on!" I roared, stomping the gas pedal and bursting through the wooden loading gate at the far end of the alley.
We broke out onto the open four-lane highway heading north toward the lake, leaving the screeching tires behind in the industrial shadows.
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"He's calling Richard right now," Lauren whispered, staring at the darkened road ahead.
"Good," I said, my teeth clenched so tight my jaw ached. "Because tonight, my brother is going to face me in the light."
