Chapter 4 - Hunted in the Rain
Emma didn't run; running would confirm everything. Instead, she slipped through the rear service exit into the pouring rain, her mind racing at a million miles an hour.
The storm had turned the cobblestone driveway behind Sterling Manor into a dark, slick river. Thunder echoed off the surrounding Manhattan skyscrapers, masking the sounds of the city.
Emma rushed toward her battered blue sedan parked near the commercial dumpster containers. She unlocked the driver’s side door, slipped inside, and turned around to check the floorboards of the backseat.
"Ethan?" she whispered frantically.
A pile of damp moving blankets shifted, and Ethan’s pale face peeked out from beneath them. He was shivering violently, but he nodded. "I didn't make a sound, Emma."
"Good boy," Emma wept softly, starting the engine. "Stay down!"
As her car headlights cut through the heavy rain, a large black SUV pulled up behind her vehicle, blocking the narrow service alley exit completely. The SUV's high beams flashed on, blinding her in her rearview mirror.
Two heavy men in dark raincoats stepped out of the SUV, holding flashlights and heavy batons. It was Isabella’s private security team.
"Emma Torres!" one of the men shouted over the sound of the howling wind and pounding rain. "Step out of the vehicle with your hands visible! We know the boy is in the car!"
Emma's hands shook on the leather steering wheel. She glanced at Ethan in the backseat, then at the metal bumper of the black SUV blocking her path. Her old sedan had a four-cylinder engine and rusted fenders, but it was the only weapon she had.
"Put your seatbelt on, Ethan!" Emma shouted, throwing the transmission into reverse.
She slammed her foot down on the gas pedal. Her tires screeched against the wet cobblestones, smoke billowing from the wheel wells as the rear bumper of her sedan crashed directly into the front driver's side of the security SUV. The impact rattled her teeth, but it shoved the heavier vehicle sideways just enough to create a three-foot gap along the brick wall of the alley.
Emma threw the car into drive, floored the accelerator, and scraped her car along the brick building wall, sparks flying off her passenger door, before tearing out onto the main street into the Manhattan traffic.
Behind her, the security SUV recovered quickly, its dark headlights turning to pursue her through the storm.
"They're coming!" Ethan screamed, looking out the back window.
"Hold on!" Emma yelled, swerving through a yellow light at 42nd Street, cutting off a yellow taxi cab.
She knew she couldn't go to her own apartment; if Isabella had already threatened her daughter, her home was undoubtedly watched. She couldn't go to the local precinct either—Isabella had boasted about having senior police commanders on the Sterling family payroll.
She needed an ally. Someone with authority, someone outside the Sterling circle of corruption, and someone who couldn't be bought with real estate money.
Emma grabbed her phone, hit voice-dial, and called the one person who owed her a life debt: Detective Frank Delgado of the NYPD Major Crimes Division—the man whose elderly mother Emma had cared for during her final years as a private nurse.
"Emma?" Delgado’s rough voice answered after three rings. "It's late. Is everything okay?"
"Frank, listen to me very carefully!" Emma screamed over the sound of her wailing engine and the pounding rain. "I have William Sterling’s son in my car! He was locked in a secret basement! His stepmother is drugging William and trying to kill the boy! They are chasing me in a black Suburban right now down 8th Avenue!"
A brief pause held the line, followed by the sudden rustle of heavy fabric and keys jingling.
"Where are you right now?" Delgado barked, his professional demeanor snapping into place instantly.
May you like
"Passing 34th Street heading south!"
"Drive straight to the 10th Precinct parking lot on West 20th," Delgado ordered. "I’m two minutes away. I'll have officers waiting in the courtyard. Do not stop for anyone!"
