Chapter 9 - The Driveway Ambush
“Move!” David hissed, grabbing both kids and rushing toward the single manual side-exit door that led out into the narrow breezeway between the garage and the stone retaining wall.
The door had a mechanical deadbolt. David threw the latch and kicked the door open into the cool, misty night air. Rain had begun to fall, slicking the pavement and smelling of fresh grass.
Behind them, Julian crashed through the bottom of the laundry chute into the garage, screaming profanities, his face caked in white fire-extinguisher residue and crimson blood.
David dragged Maya and Leo down the stone path toward the front of the estate. The towering electronic iron driveway gates were closed, but the small pedestrian side-gate had an emergency manual release handle.
He yanked the lever, throwing the gate open just as blinding halogen headlights illuminated the curved suburban street.
A dark black conversion van was idling at the curb fifty yards away. Its sliding door rolled open instantly, and two heavily built men in dark rain jackets stepped out onto the wet asphalt.
*The cartel contacts.* Julian’s buyers.
David stopped dead in his tracks, pulling the children behind him. Behind them, running down the driveway with a heavy steel crowbar in hand, was Julian.
“Over here!” Julian shouted hoarsely through the rain to the men in the van. “Take the boy! Kill the father!”
The two men exchanged cold glances, reaching beneath their jackets. David backed away toward the perimeter hedges, his mind racing, searching for any weapon, any escape. He was trapped between a sociopathic brother-in-law and armed cartel operatives.
Then, the night exploded with sound.
May you like
From around the corner of the tree-lined avenue, blue and red emergency strobes tore through the mist. The wail of multiple sirens shattered the quiet neighborhood as four police cruisers bartered down the road at breakneck speed, their tires screaming against wet asphalt.
***
