“Renee!” he yelled as he approached her lying body, gently turning her over to check how badly she was wounded.
“It’s okay,” she gasped, coughing and clutching her side where her fingers were now coated with blood. “It’s just a graze.”
“Are you sure? Let me see?” he demanded, trying to move her fingers.
“You don’t have time,” she insisted urgently. “He’s getting away. I’ll be fine, I promise.”
Shit!
She was right. Already, he could hear police sirens. He needed to take down Purdy now before they lost him for good.
“Stay still, and try to stay calm. Help is on the way.”
“Go,” she urged again, and Lucas finally stood up.
For a couple of seconds, he thought Purdy had managed to disappear, until he saw people pointing in the direction of a shopping plaza. Lucas took off in that direction, but drifted to the right to avoid being detected. About a half a block later, he finally caught sight of the hacker as the other man cut down a main street toward a block of high-end resort hotels. Lucas stayed low, running along the storefronts until he was almost parallel to Purdy, who had slowed his pace to a light jog. Then when the moment was right, Lucas dashed forward and tackled the older man around his waist, effectively immobilizing him. They flew onto the street with a hard thud on their left sides, sending even more spectators running with screams.
Lucas didn’t pause to catch his breath. He rolled forward so Purdy was lying on his stomach, then he pressed his forearm into the man’s neck so the side of his face squished roughly against the bricked laneway.
“Where is she?” demanded Lucas in a low growling voice.
Purdy started laughing. It was the deep, crazy cackle of a madman.
“Where is she, Edgar?” he shouted, slamming the hacker’s head into the ground with a loud crack.
“You’re too late, Lucas,” Purdy finally replied once he’d caught his breath again. “I knew you’d come after me. You were always so dedicated to the job. So predictable.”
He started laughing again, this time higher and even more gleeful.
“It’s over!” Lucas exclaimed, leaning close to the other man’s ear. “You lost, Edgar. Now tell me where she is?”
“Oh, Lucas, my boy. Don’t you get it? I don’t give a shit about files or that fucking car,” Purdy gasped. “I just wanted to see your face when you realized you went after the wrong asset.”
Lucas pulled back, his brain working through the meaning behind Purdy’s words.
“It’s over, Lucas,” Purdy added in a stronger voice. “And you lose!”
Within seconds, the haunting sound of firetruck sirens grew louder until it drowned out Purdy’s shrieking giggles.
“What did you do?” Lucas growled, bashing the other man’s head to the ground again.
His former boss only looked back with eyes wide with hatred and satisfaction.
“I think your pretty little asset has just gone up in flames!”
CHAPTER 26
“Why are you taking this route?” Alex asked Bobby as he turned left onto the Sea-to-Sky Highway, heading north of Whistler and in the opposite direction of the race route.
“I heard about this really great stretch of road just past the city that I want to try out,” he replied, looking around with searching eyes.
“Are you sure we have time? Our trial time is in fifteen minutes,” she added with concern.
“We’ll be fine,” he assured her, but his posture and furrowed brows suggested Bobby was not at all as relaxed as he tried to appear.
Alex sat back in the passenger seat of the Evo and tried to relax. She had bigger problems than whatever was bothering the young driver. By now, Lucas would know that she had taken off on this reckless joyride and he was going to be pissed. Even though she was still very raw with hurt and disappointment at his words about her and their relationship, Alex was already regretting her rash actions. After weeks of hard work and sacrifice, she had risked their project over rejection and stupid pride.
“Bobby, I have to go back to the hotel,” she finally stated, rubbing her hands into her eyes. “I shouldn’t have come with you.”
At first, Alex was too wrapped up in her misery to realize that Bobby hadn’t replied to her request. They continued north on the highway at over eighty miles an hour.
“Bobby,” she said more sharply. “Did you hear me? I have to go back.”
He turned to her with a strange look of sadness mixed with resolve.
“Sorry, Alex,” he mumbled, looking away from her eyes. “I can’t go back.”
“What do you mean? We have to go back, now!”
He went quiet again while checking all the mirrors repeatedly.
“Bobby! What the hell is going on?”
“It’s almost over,” he replied cryptically just as he slowed the car down through a sharp turn in the road.
At the next intersection, Bobby then made a sharp left turn off the highway onto a rough, unpaved road into what looked like a construction site adjacent to one of the many mountainsides. Alex gripped the door handles as the race car bounced along the rough terrain until he pulled to a stop with the transmission in neutral, about twenty feet away from a silver sedan.
“Bobby, what’s happening?” she demanded again.
He didn’t reply. Fear was building in her chest, though she tried to stay calm and focus on her surroundings. Two men stepped out of the other car, and neither looked friendly enough to ease her increasing panic.
Bobby took a deep breath and finally looked back at her.
“Sorry, Alex. I had no choice,” he told her in a quiet, thin voice.
“What do you mean? No choice for what?” she demanded, grabbing his arm. “Bobby, what did you do?”
He pulled his arm away roughly and popped open his door.
“Sorry,” he whispered again, and stepped out of the car.
“Bobby,” she yelled at him as he walked up to the strangers.
She could see one of the men talking but couldn’t hear anything. Then the man who had spoken calmly took a gun out from under his jacket and shot Bobby in the head. Alex jumped at the sound, but couldn’t believe what had happened right in front of her eyes. The young man’s body collapsed lifelessly to the ground and the shooter stepped right over him, striding toward her.
“No!” screamed Alex, clawing for the door handle so she could go help Bobby. “No, no, no—”
Confused by shock for several long seconds, Alex struggled to comprehend the situation. The two men were steadily approaching, now with two guns pointed at her. They were halfway to the car when her survival instincts kicked in. Remembering the last time she had been stuck in that car, she pulled on the seat adjuster and almost screamed with relief when her seat slid back. It created enough room to quickly climb over the component configured in the center console and into the driver’s seat.
The men were almost at the front of the car when she pressed her left foot down hard on the clutch and pushed the shifter into first gear. Alex eased off the clutch and jammed on the gas just as the first bullet punched through the windshield and whizzed by her ear. She screamed, letting go of the steering wheel to cover her head while the tires squealed on the gravel and the car shot forward out of control. A volley of gunshots followed, shattering the windows and pummeling the side panels. Alex curled low toward the still-open driver’s-side door. The wind velocity increased with her speed, and Alex could see the ground rushing by out of the corner of her eye.
Finally, the bullets stopped, and she grabbed the wheel to try to control the direction of the car. Then, Alex sat up straighter in order to quickly get her bearing. Through the rearview mirror, she could see that the two men were still running toward her, but their forms became smaller and smaller. She felt a small dose of victory, before she turned to look out the windshield and saw that she was rushing toward the edge of a cliff at over twenty-five miles per hour.
There was no time to think. Alex felt the front of the car tip forward just as she pushed down hard on the floor and dove out the open driver’s-side door.
She hit the side of the steep incline hard on her shoulder, then rolled uncontrollably for what felt like forever. While the world spun wildly around her, Alex could hear the sickening sound of metal crunching as the Evo crashed down the side of the mountain. Her body was moving fast and picking up speed, hitting mounds of hard dirt before banging into a tree stump. It slowed down her descent until she slid on her stomach and finally stopped at a short landing.
The last thing Alex heard was a loud explosion that seemed to shake the ground beneath her. Her vision began to blur around the edges, and everything was fading into darkness until only a small coin-sized ray of light came through. Somewhere, miles away, she heard a deep voice yelling her name. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking.
The ringing of sirens pounded loudly in her head, pulling her back into consciousness. Alex blinked against the bright morning sunlight for a couple minutes while breathing deep, then slowly turned her head toward the sound. For a few seconds, she didn’t understand where she was, or why she was lying on her back, spread-eagle on a rocky surface.
“Alex!”
It all rushed back with a sudden cascade of horrific images. Bobby, the two men, the Evo now lying in a burning wreck at the base of a steep slope.
“Alex!”
Someone was here to find her. She had to let them know her location.
“Help!” Alex tried to yell, but it came out as a deep, gravelly croak and led to a series of dusty coughs.
“Help!” The second attempt was more effective, and she closed her eyes with relief to hear her voice echo around her. “I’m here!”
Fearing it still wasn’t enough, Alex tried to move, testing each of her limbs before crawling forward on her elbows. Her head swam with dizziness and her stomach rolled with nausea. Every part of her body felt bruised and battered, but it all seemed in functioning order. Feeling more confident, she pushed up on her hands and knees and shuffled into a more visible area on the shallow landing.
“I’m here!” she yelled again.
“Over there!” someone yelled from above. “I can see her!”
“I’m here,” Alex repeated in a hoarse whisper, suddenly too exhausted to hold her weight up any further.
Alex collapsed flat and managed to roll onto her back, only able to focus on breathing without throwing up. She closed her eyes and listened to the constant sounds of urgent activity above her without any sense of the passage of time. Finally, one voice got closer and closer.
“Hang on, Alex. I’m coming to get you. Just hang on.”
She meant to nod, but she actually hadn’t moved. All her energy was going into staying conscious. It was another excruciatingly long wait before she felt the touch of firm hands on her shoulder.
“Alex, can you talk?” It was Samuel Mackenzie, Lucas’s partner. “Are you in pain?”
Alex opened her heavy lids to look into his brilliant sky blue eyes.
“I think I’m okay,” she managed to whisper. “My hip hurts the most, but I think it’s just bruised.”
“Okay, that’s good,” he told her with a smile that was so charming she blinked with surprise. “We’re lowering down a stretcher, and we’ll have you out of here before you know it.”
She nodded and let out a deep, shaky breath.
“Lucas?”
Sam took her hand, seeming to understand what she was trying to ask.
“He’ll be here any minute,” Sam assured her.
“Just relax, it’s all over. And I’m staying right here with you the whole time.”
Her vision blurred as her eyes suddenly watered. It was all over
.
Alex squeezed her eyes shut while hot tears streamed down the side of her face. She felt Sam’s gentle whispers and consoling words while still holding her hand in the big, firm grasp of his. Then she passed into a soft cocoon of darkness with only shadowy glimpses of the world around her.
Once she had been located lying precariously on the rocky, narrow ledge along the face of a steep slope, it took almost an hour for the rescue team of firemen and local police, led by Ned and Sam, to slowly pull her out. Lucas arrived with Renee and Marco Passante almost forty-five minutes into the operation, feeling like his world had collapsed around him. After Edgar Purdy finally revealed his sick plan—to destroy the most valuable asset in Lucas’s protection—Lucas held him securely for the local police, but immediately called his partner.
“Sam, we got Purdy,” he yelled urgently, striving hard to stay focused and clear. “You need to follow those fire trucks. I think it’s Alex.”
“We’re right behind them,” Sam confirmed. “Raymond had found the race car on a satellite feed about ten miles outside of town, heading north on the highway.”
“He played me,” added Lucas in a harsh growl. “Alex became his target in the end, once he found out about our relationship. This whole thing wasn’t about stealing the hybrid design, it was just to beat me. And the network attack was the diversion. He knew I would stay with the target I thought he was after. He played me.”
“Listen to me, Lucas,” stated Sam in a firm, calm voice. “We only know that the car crashed down the edge of a cliff, but Raymond says he has a satellite image of a person lying about twenty feet down from the edge. You have to believe it’s Alex. We’ve just arrived at the site. I’ll have Ned call you back in five minutes and keep you posted.”
“Okay. I have to wrap things up here. There’s a mess of injured people, including Renee. But don’t worry,” Lucas quickly added at his friend’s sharp intake of breath. “She was grazed by a bullet, but it doesn’t look serious. I can see paramedics attending to her now.”
“We’ll keep you posted on our end,” Sam growled before they disconnected the call.
There was no time to pause for the wave of intense relief that flooded through him. The Whistler police arrived within a minute, guns drawn, and they demanded explanations. Once Lucas cautiously and calmly provided his identification and credentials, the cooperation level increased dramatically. They willingly took Edgar Purdy into custody with some medical care for his injuries, and the arrival of Interpol, the FBI, or the RCMP—the Canadian Federal police—was pending, based on who won the battle over jurisdiction. But not before Lucas had a chance to update the traitor on the fact that Alex had survived the attack. The older man wasn’t laughing anymore.
Lucas called Marco Passante to let him know the final threat to Magnus Motorsports had been neutralized and outline the situation with Alex. They agreed that Marco would drive his rental car into the village from the hotel to pick up Lucas so they could join the rescue operation. Then he gave David Ferguson an update, asking the DaCosta contractor to stay with the Cicada and Adam North.
As she promised, Renee’s wound was only a superficial graze to her side. The paramedics dressed it and provided some mild pain relief medication, but she firmly refused to go to the hospital. When Marco arrived, she also insisted on traveling up to the accident site with them. Lucas already had Ned on speakerphone for several minutes as the three of them started the tense drive fifteen minutes north of town. Marco swore loudly in relief when the agent confirmed that Sam had reached Alex and she was conscious and appeared lucid. Lucas could only look out the window at the mountain views, very aware that everything he wanted for the future had just come sharply and vividly into focus.
They arrived at the deserted construction site shortly after, driving by members of the local coroner’s office as they zipped up a body bag, and stopping by the collection of emergency vehicles about half a mile away. Ned was waiting for them, but it was another twenty minutes before Lucas saw Alex as the fire and rescue team pulled her up on a stretcher. Her clothes were torn and dirty, and her face had several scrapes and lacerations, but there were no other signs of injury. He immediately took her hand and felt her light, responsive grip.
“Alex,” he whispered over the lump in his throat. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”
“Lucas,” she replied softly, finally opening those bright, golden brown eyes.
“Yeah, I’m here,” he confirmed, gripping her fingers tighter than he should. “It’s over, baby. You’re going to be fine, and I’m right here with you.”
“I’m sorry,” she added, followed by a series of rough coughs.
“No, baby,” he whispered back, hating the mix of failure and regret that would haunt him for a long time. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I failed you, and it will never happen again. I promise I will never allow anyone to hurt you again.”
Lucas wanted to say more, but the ambulance had arrived and the paramedics were ready to transport her into the back for the trip to a local medical center. He stayed with her for the ride, while Marco and the rest of the Fortis team followed behind them. Once identified, the body of Robert “Bobby” Chiu was transported to the coroner’s office for an official autopsy in relation to the rapidly expanding criminal case against Edgar Purdy and his Crow organization.