Chapter 15 - Into the Storm
"Noah!" I screamed, rushing toward the shattered rain-slicked patio.
Ethan grabbed my coat from the rack near the door, throwing it over my shoulders while yelling into his restored radio comms. "Marcus! Lock down the estate gates! Do not let Noah leave the perimeter! We have a runner!"
"Boss!" Marcus’s panicked voice crackled through the earpiece over the howling wind outside. "The main security gate was rammed by an unmarked black van five seconds ago! They took down the guards at the outer booth!"
My heart stopped. The rain was pouring down in thick sheets, blurring the wide garden lawn.
Through the darkness, the red taillights of an unmarked van illuminated the stone driveway. I saw the silhouette of two broad men dragging a struggling teenager into the rear cargo doors.
"NOAH!" I shrieked, tearing across the wet lawn in my evening dress, ignoring the cold rain stinging my face.
Ethan surged past me with incredible speed, pulling a concealed firearm from his waistband, clearing the fifty yards of open lawn in seconds. He fired three round shots into the van's rear tires, but the vehicle was fully armored—the bullets bounced off the heavy rubber treads with metallic sparks.
The van screeched backward, swinging its heavy steel bumper around, catching Ethan across the chest. The force of the impact threw Ethan onto the wet asphalt.
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"ETHAN!" I screamed, collapsing onto my knees beside him as the van tore through the broken iron gates and vanished into the dark, winding mountain roads.
Ethan coughed up blood, clutching his fractured ribs, his eyes wild with desperate fury as he looked up at me. "They took him... Clara... Julian took our boy..."
