Chapter 8 - The Fire on the Highway
The storm over the Tri-State Tollway was blinding, the winter snow turning into a thick, slushy rain that made visibility almost zero. Lucas’s armored convoy moved steadily through the dark, the lead SUV carrying Marcus Vance, while Lucas drove the center vehicle himself, with Bella in the passenger seat and the twins securely buckled into heavy car seats in the back.
"Are you okay?" Lucas asked, his eyes flicking to the rearview mirror to check on the kids, who were listening to an audiobook through headphones.
"I'm just counting the mile markers," Bella said, her fingers tracing the seam of her trousers. "We’ve passed seven since the last exit."
"You count when you're afraid," Lucas noted, a faint, intelligent smile touching his lips. "I noticed that three years ago in the penthouse."
"It keeps the world in order when everything else is falling apart," she murmured.
Suddenly, a massive commercial flatbed truck rammed into the lead SUV from a hidden blind spot near the shoulder. The impact was deafening, the armored vehicle spinning across the black asphalt before flipping onto its side in a shower of sparks.
"Hold on!" Lucas roared, his hands instantly gripping the steering wheel with iron strength as a second black sedan pulled alongside them, the passenger window rolling down to reveal the barrel of an automatic rifle.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Sparks flew off the reinforced glass of the passenger window as the bullets ricocheted into the dark night. Bella screamed, leaning over the console to shield Clara and Liam with her own body as the twins began to cry in terror.
"Marcus! Come in!" Lucas shouted into his earpiece, but the radio was filled with static.
The black sedan rammed into their side, trying to force Lucas’s SUV off the elevated overpass into the dark ravine below. The steering wheel shook violently in Lucas’s grip, his burn scars beneath his shirt pulling tightly as his muscles strained against the physics of the crash.
"You won't take them," Lucas growled through his teeth, his jaw clenching so hard it looked like marble. "Not again!"
He slammed on the brakes, causing the attacking sedan to overshoot them by ten feet. With a fluid, expert maneuver born from years of survival, Lucas accelerated, using the heavy, reinforced steel bumper of his armored vehicle to ram the rear quarter panel of the sedan. The sedan spun out of control, crashing violently into the concrete barrier and bursting into a bright, orange fireball that illuminated the dark highway.
Lucas didn't stop to look at the wreckage. He drove through the burning debris, his tires screaming against the wet asphalt, his eyes fixed on the road ahead until they reached the iron gates of the Lake Forest estate five minutes later.
As the heavy gates shut behind them, Lucas parked the vehicle in the grand courtyard. He turned off the engine, the silence in the car absolute except for the heavy, ragged breathing of the adults and the soft whimpering of the children.
Lucas unbuckled his seatbelt and turned around, his hands reaching into the back seat to pull both Liam and Clara into his chest at the same time. He held them so tightly his knuckles turned white, his face buried in his daughter’s hair.
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"You're safe," Lucas whispered, his voice cracking with an emotion he had suppressed for twenty-five years. "I have you. Nobody is burning this house down."
Bella watched him from the passenger seat, her own heart slowing down. She realized then that the mafia boss wasn't just protecting his bloodline; he was fighting for his own redemption.
