Escape (Chronicles of Hart) (20 page)

“It’s the mansion on Mill Creek
,” Ethan concluded. He held Grace close to warm her. “Two fifty-seven,” he added talking to the back of King’s head.

“We pick the files up, and take her back to a safe house. Others will be there” King assured Ethan, seeing the look of horror passing over his tired grungy face. Ethan gritted his teeth, knowing that he couldn’t talk King out of this one. He was right about Hart: he would likely try to burn the manor down next hoping to put an end to t
heir source once and for all. Hart didn’t know where Grace had kept the files but he surely suspected the manor, as he had already tried to burn it down once before.

King stepped out of the car momentarily. Walking to the two idling cars behind him, he told them of his plans to take Ethan and Grace back to a mansion on Mill Creek in Monticello. Giving them the address for their GPS devices they nodded out
their windows, staying in an idle until King took the lead with Grace and Ethan in his car. King pulled a radio from Peters’ car radioing the tech team that they were splitting and their new destination. When King climbed back in behind the wheel, he entered a number into the GPS and set them into drive.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked Ethan slowly, looking at him in the rear view mirror. The reflecting lights gave him a sallow pale look like that of the seasick about to heave overboard.

“Yes,” Ethan whispered, hoping he was right. King started rolling forward slowly giving Ethan a moment to collect himself. He didn’t want to be dealing with vomit on top of everything else.

***

Peters had been shot in the leg. It had grazed his inner thigh leaving him with a wad of cotton wrapped over with gauze. He looked ridiculous and felt even worse. The sting of the bullet wound was worsened by the burn around the edges where the heat of the bullet had cauterized part of the wound. It was nothing fatal and the paramedics were already done fixing him up. He wasn’t about to wait around for their second opinion. Peters was filled with adrenaline from the graze and was ready to drive. He just hoped King could keep up. He got the feeling it was going to be a quick drive. Platt sat quietly in the passenger seat punching in numbers and holding a phone to his ear as he waited on hold with a technical crew. He was always so serious and down to earth. He worked well with the chaotic spunk of Peters, mellowing him out enough to keep him sharp.

“Follow King,” Peters suggested seeing the fight in his partners weary face growing as the chase resumed. “I’ll get the address entered in here, just keep him in sight
.” Platt didn’t look up from his devices as Peters shot forward into the empty street ahead, playing chicken with the driver of the third car as they exited the subdivision.

Platt nodded smiling widely “Take it easy bud
.” he looked out to the third vehicle, giving the driver a look of reprimand that caused them to fall in line behind him quickly. Glancing back momentarily at the burning building in his wake Peters hit the gas and sped off after King. Plowing over a speed bump he sent Platt grasping for his fallen devises and his seatbelt all at once while sending up glances of loathing over his shoulder at the speed demon behind the wheel driving. Peters grinned like a maniac peering into the windshield like he was back in a racing game and going for an achievement.

***

Hart was not a patient man. He called Jay to check his progress with no answer. He didn’t often tolerate a missed call, but he understood that Jay’s timing was precious in a dive and dash like this. Trying to get Grace away from that house before the police arrived was going to be hard enough without her inevitable retaliation. Now that she had tasted freedom she had developed an insatiable thirst for it and had been fighting his advances tooth and nail to stay in the open air. Switching his phone to the GPS tracker he saw that the two cars were coming back to Monticello. Satisfied that they must be en route with Grace, he let it slide that Jay hadn’t answered his call; she was likely putting up a fight as they tried to sedate her. He chose to give them thirty more minutes, after that heads would roll. He was running out of resources and if his daughter was let free she had enough information to incarcerate him and most of his employees for the rest of their lives. He had pulled all the strings he had available to him to facilitate her capture, it was the highest priority at the moment. Business partners were calling him on his other phone every five minutes demanding progress as they heard of the church fire over the media. News was spreading like wildfire, he had already given his business phone to one of the lackeys here at the holding cells to take his calls and advise the others that matters were still in Hart’s control. He could feel it spiraling away from him minute by minute. The longer she was out, the more evidence she left trailing along behind her of her own identity.

The fact that she was even still alive was enough to take him down in court. Having faked his daughter’s death ten years ago was surely a federal offence. He spoke loudly across the quiet building, “I hope you are all learning from these foolish mistakes. I will not tolerate
failure,
” he hissed. The guards sat straight in their chairs and began to look busy, fearful that he would take his displeasure out on them again. They jumped at every huff or flinch as he sat in a chair watching the tiny television set he had playing the local news. He watched as it recapped the freak fires at the church and cabin and frowned as a new story was breaking in the town of Oneida. That was where Jay and his team were coming from; he leaned in and turned the volume up with a furious curiosity as his work phone began buzzing with more intensity across the room.

***

Jay crept out through the busy backyard, avoiding stares from paramedics and fire fighters. He stayed low under the smoke screen. No one could see him as he slipped away into the night. He mounted the fence cautiously slipping over the side yard into the neighbouring backyard. He raced through connecting yards. Dashing over fences and through hedges with no regard for maintaining the properties integrity, he damaged fence after fence until he was clear of the confusion and able to return to the main streets. News crews were jostling down the less crowded streets trying to capture images of the spiraling smoke flashing blue and red from the patrol vehicles lighting up in its proximity, without getting too close to the gunfire and danger. Jay avoided them cautiously taking two extra backyards to get past their tyrannical rants, all sounding so proper while the cameras were flashing and then whipping out the profanities as the light stopped flashing and ashes started falling on their perfect hair. He certainly didn’t envy them in their dull listless lives. Backtracking two streets over where he had left the second vehicle he threw himself onto the driver’s seat, not wanting to waste time catching up. Once behind the wheel, Jay snapped down a screen on the console. Both of their vehicles had been equipped with GPS trackers and the other blip was moving away down the road back to Monticello. One of them was driving the other car and with luck he could trail them easily until a chance came up to overpower and conquer. Jay started his engine and whipped it into drive. His life depended on retrieving the girl, dead or alive. And he was not about to give up now.

Blood pooled from a wound on his leg. He let up on the gas momentarily to twist a tourniquet of material around to staunch the bleeding, swerving momentarily over the curb beside him. Then with a quick whip of his head to look behind him, he sped forward with a velocity that would normally win him first place in the street races he loved.

RISKY

Grace had regained consciousness shortly after King had whipped the car into drive. Disoriented at first, Ethan had explained quickly where they were going. She didn’t protest, looking to the back of King’s head knowingly. Once the files were retrieved she would be useless and maybe her father would leave her alone. Or maybe he would kill her anyway, no need to keep her alive if he was going to jail for the rest of his life anyway. She pushed the thought away trying to remember the details in the files and why they were so important after all these years. She hoped they were still intact, tucked away in her secret hiding spot. King had been driving for ten minutes while the two whispered in the back seat, staying close so he wouldn’t overhear. Ethan held Grace’s hand, pulling her closer they were cheek to cheek when she shared her secret with him.

“I left the files in the spare room,” She whispered into his ear, like a pirate telling of the treasure trove. He pulled back looking into her eyes curiously.

“I s
earched every inch of the house.” he shook his head confused. “Your dad even tried to burn it down once...”He chuckled “I never found anything.” he blinked as though he were clearing his head, “not even in the secret cupboard.”

“There was a loose floorboard in the closet, behind that secret wall
,.” She admitted, lowering her eyes. Grace and Ethan had found the secret sliding wall in the spare room’s closet when they were very young. They had often snuck treats upstairs and after the kitchen was locked up for the night, they would huddle together in the closet sitting on pillows eating their secret treasure.

“Seriously, I checked that spot.
” his face lit up with excitement, momentarily thrilled about the new hiding place. “I didn’t know about the floorboard though. Why didn’t you tell me?” his brow furrowed with worry that maybe Grace hadn’t trusted him before her kidnapping. Or that they had ended things on bad terms in her mind.

“I didn’t have time
.” Grace smiled, “I’m glad you found me.”

“Me too
,” Ethan whispered.

Grace was resting her head on Ethan’s shoulder. She wrapped her fingers into his and whispered into his ear, “I was going to climb out of the tower and get to you. I had a rope and everything...”

Ethan laughed. The sound was wonderful to Grace’s ears.

King cut in “Shit.
” he was looking to the side mirrors confused. Grace and Ethan sat up straight. Grace looked behind her out of the back window. A car was weaving through the single line of traffic, pushing cars off the road into the narrow ditches beside the forest. Headlights were weaving in and out of cars flashing high beams at them through their back windows. Something was amiss in the cavalcade behind them. King sped up slightly in precaution; the car in front of him seemed to have the same idea, racing for the next off-ramp.

Two cars behind them their backup agents swerved into the oncoming lane to avoid a collision. The renegade car was getting closer, taking the opportunity to almost pass them. They veered back in, cutting the car off just in time to send him slamming his brakes in the now vacant oncoming lane. Cars piled up behind the agents giving them some room before the rebel found an opening back in. King hit the gas, Grace and Ethan jolted into the back of the seat as the car accelerated. Ahead the road was splitting into two lanes. King drove up the bumper of the car in front of him, honking his horn to entice it into acceleration.

“We have to lose them before we get to the house,” King yelled over the revving of the engines and the chaos of the crashed cars behind them. Horns were honking and cars were veering madly trying to escape the wrath of the rouge car as it jolted through traffic, a knight in pursuit of a king.

***

Jay was glad he had taken his own ride in for the job today. Hiding it a block away had led suspicion only to the lowly black Charger they were currently commandeering ahead of him. It had been purchased by Hart and left in the lot to be taken on special cases. Something that looked federal. It was often used for easy captures of professionals or higher end targets, the cases where the typical black van might look suspicious. In fact they tried to steer clear of that stereotype altogether. It was a bad reputation to have and Hart deemed them much classier than that. The Charger had some speed to it, but it worked like a snail compared to his Camero. With all the specs and even a few illegal upgrades courtesy of Hart he was nearly unbeatable. Things that made his car a write-off, if you could write-off a kidnapping vehicle that is. It was suitable for any job, most of them dirty and under the table: just the way Jay liked to do business. The car was a perk for taking the position of head recruiter. He handpicked most of the men Hart and his associates used for their dirtier jobs. He had an eye for loyal thugs. Jay ran his hand across the dashboard as the car purred, switching into a higher gear. “Time to test out the new specs,” he scowled. Flashing the high beams ahead of him, he hoped to confuse the traffic enough to distract from his next move. He swerved out and then back taking a glance at the car ahead, it was close. At least two cars followed behind it, sleek and black they had set themselves firmly between him and his target. He had to get them off the road if he hoped to get the girl alone.

Jay was pissed. He could see them ahead but the road was only one lane here and traffic was moving too slowly. He jumped into the oncoming lane and plunged back into the car beside him, toppling it off the road. He revved his engine at the next car, bumping against the back end, willing it to give up and surrender to the shoulder of the road and allow him to pass. Brake lights flashed at him in response. He whipped back into the oncoming lane and tipped back knocking this car to the side of the road too. Patience was not his strongest suit and he could see his target only a few lengths ahead of him. He revved up again looking expectantly to the next obstacle in his way; the minivan swerved trying to hit the shoulder of the road without slowing down. Jay grinned; at least they were starting to get it.  The night was cool, he had the sunroof open a crack bringing in fresh air and keeping him sharp after a long day. The oncoming traffic was arriving wearily in a clump obviously nervous of passing the insanity of their opposing lane; seeing smoke and crashed cars ahead of them they could only guess at what was happening.