Chapter 7 - The Final Stand
There was nowhere to run. Behind them was the burning stone foundation of the manor. To their left was a ten-foot wrought-iron fence.
Daniel didn't panic. The cold, calculating clarity that had made him a titan in the business world locked into place.
He scooped up Noah and Lily, took three rapid strides, and dropped them into the sunken stone basin of the dry garden fountain—a solid granite structure built fifty years ago, three feet thick and anchored deep into the bedrock.
“Stay down! Keep your heads below the rim!” Daniel ordered.
“Dad, no!” Noah screamed, reaching for him, but Daniel was already moving.
He didn't jump into the fountain. If the SUV struck the fountain directly, the impact could crush the children inside or pin them beneath the wreckage. He had to divert the vehicle.
Daniel sprinted toward the narrow stone pathway that wound between the two massive, hundred-year-old oak trees bordering the lawn.
He stood directly in the center of the path, bathed in the blinding glare of the Porsche’s headlights.
Inside the SUV, Vanessa saw him. A manic, triumphant shriek tore from her throat. She floored the accelerator. The speedometer needle jumped: thirty, forty, fifty miles per hour. The heavy SUV barreled across the slick grass straight toward Daniel, its tires churning through mud and rosebushes.
Daniel stood his ground. Ten yards. Seven yards. Five yards.
He could see her wild eyes behind the windshield wipers, her teeth bared in an animalistic snarl.
At the very last fraction of a second, Daniel threw himself sideways into the muddy trench beside the oak tree.
Vanessa realized the trap too late.
She tried to wrench the steering wheel, but on the rain-soaked grass, the heavy SUV suffered massive understeer. The front tires skidded helplessly across the mud.
*CRASH!*
The Porsche Cayenne struck the massive trunk of the century-old oak tree at forty-five miles per hour.
The sound was like an artillery shell detonating. The front end of the SUV accordion-folded instantly into the iron-hard wood. The radiator exploded in a cloud of white steam, the windshield shattered into a spiderweb of safety glass, and both front airbags deployed with deafening pops.
May you like
The SUV rebounded three feet and came to a dead halt, steam and fluid hissing into the cold rain.
***
