Chapter 5 - The Mountain Pass Ambush
"Hold on!" Leo barked, grabbing the ceiling grip handle as the Escalade skidded sideways onto the muddy shoulder of the highway.
Behind them, two sleek black Audi sedans swerved through the rain, their high beams blindingly bright. The passenger side windows rolled down simultaneously, and long dark barrels emerged into the night.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
A rain of heavy armor-piercing rounds slammed into the rear bulletproof glass of the Escalade, spider-webbing the thick glass into a dense web of white cracks.
"Clear the ridge!" Vincent ordered, pulling his heavy custom handgun from his shoulder holster. He reached over, grabbed Claire by the waist with incredible strength, and pulled her down onto the floorboards beneath his seat, covering her body with his own heavy leather jacket.
"Stay down!" Vincent growled against her ear. The scent of rain, gunpowder, and expensive cologne hit her senses all at once.
"I have a gun!" Leo yelled from the front seat, rolling down his window three inches and firing three rapid shots into the radiator of the leading Audi.
The Audi's engine burst into a geyser of white steam and black oil, its driver losing control and flipping the car over the guardrail, sending it crashing into the dark ravine below in a fireball of orange flame.
"Driver, ram the barrier!" Vincent shouted over the roar of the remaining sedan's engine.
The Escalade's heavy V8 engine roared like a wounded beast. The driver smashed the accelerator down, slamming the six-ton armored vehicle directly into the side of the car-hauler truck blocking the road. The heavy steel crash bumper sheared through the truck's rear axle, launching the Escalade through the gap and onto the winding, unlit back roads of the Pocono forest.
"Lost them!" the driver panted, checking his rear mirrors. "The second Audi blew a tire on the debris!"
Vincent didn't let go of Claire immediately. He remained pinned over her, his breathing heavy, his chest rising and falling against her shoulders.
"You alright, Whitmore?" he asked, his voice low and surprisingly husky in the dark floorwell.
Claire looked up at him. Their faces were inches apart. In the dim green light of the dashboard, she could see the flecks of gold in his dark brown eyes, the faint scar along his jawline, and the sheer, protective intensity with which he was holding her.
"I'm fine," she breathed, her heart hammering for reasons that had very little to do with the gunfight. "You're heavy."
Vincent let out a short, rough chuckle, pushing himself back into his seat and helping her up onto the leather cushion. He reloaded his magazine with a crisp CLICK.
"We have twenty minutes before my uncle’s secondary team tracks our GPS ping," Vincent said, pulling out a small satellite burner phone from his pocket and throwing his main smartphone out the open window into the rain. "Leo, give the driver the exact location."
Twenty minutes later, the Escalade pulled into the desolate, gravel lot of Pocono Secure Storage—a sprawling, gated facility surrounded by rusted chain-link fencing and towering pine trees.
The rain had turned into a thick, low-lying mountain fog that drifted across the gravel rows like ghost breath.
Vincent, Claire, and Leo stepped out into the freezing night air. The driver remained in the running vehicle, sweeping the perimeter with a thermal optic scope.
They walked down the narrow, gravel aisle of Row 12, their footsteps crunching loudly in the dark.
Claire stopped in front of a rusted steel roll-up door bearing a faded painted number: BAY 4.
On the heavy steel padlock securing the door was a brass keyhole surrounded by a familiar pattern—the exact same geometric star shape Claire had seen painted beneath Lucia DeLuca's charcoal hand.
Claire pulled out the small brass key she had retrieved from her grandfather’s desk before leaving the studio.
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Her hand trembled slightly as she inserted the key into the lock.
It turned with a smooth, heavy CLICK.
