Chapter 18 - CONFRONTATION IN THE RAIN
Nora didn't plead. She didn't scream for help. In the brutal split-second between life and death, the memory of her father catching her on the pavilion floor—the memory of twenty-four years of quiet, unbreakable Montgomery pride—hardened into pure, lethal rage.
Instead of pulling away from the needle, Nora lunged forward, slamming her forehead straight into the woman’s face with a sickening crunch of cartilage.
The fake paramedic shrieked in shock, stumbling backward onto the slick bridge deck, the glass syringe flying from her fingers and shattering on the wet asphalt. Blood poured instantly from her broken nose, staining her navy scrubs.
"You bitch!" the woman screamed, clawing at her belt for a concealed sidearm.
Before she could clear the holster, a massive, blood-streaked figure materialized out of the steam of the wrecked Suburban. Ethan, his face smeared with crimson from his split scalp, moved like an avenging specter. He caught the woman by the throat with one hand, lifting her off her feet, and slammed her against the hood of the ambulance with a force that dented the metal.
"Who are you?" Ethan roared, his thumb pressing into the woman’s carotid artery until her eyes bulged with terror. "Who hired you? Julian? Tell me before I throw you off this bridge into the gorge!"
"Ethan, stop!" Nora yelled, struggling to stand while holding Iris. "The state trooper! Look at the cruiser!"
Ethan glanced back over his shoulder. The trooper who had arrived behind the ambulance wasn't drawing his weapon on the attackers. He had drawn his service pistol and was leveling it directly at Ethan’s back.
"Step away from the medical personnel, Mr. Vance!" the trooper shouted, his voice shaking with nervous energy. "Step away, or I am authorized to use lethal force! Julian Vance has filed an emergency protective custody order out of the county superior court! Step away from the vehicle!"
"He bought the county sheriff," Ethan snarled, his eyes narrowing as he realized the depth of the corruption. "They don't need to kill us in secret anymore. They’re using the law to take Iris."
"Put your hands on your head!" the trooper ordered, taking two steps forward on the slick road, his finger resting heavily on the trigger.
Suddenly, a blinding set of halogen high beams roared onto the bridge from the south—a massive, reinforced logging truck hauling sixty tons of timber. It didn't stop. It laid on its pneumatic horn—a deafening, earth-shaking blast that shattered the standoff—and plowed directly through the trooper’s cruiser, tossing the empty police car into the ditch like a toy.
The logging truck screeched to a halt across both lanes, completely severing the bridge from any reinforcements.
The driver's door swung open, and out stepped a broad-shouldered man wearing a scorched canvas work jacket, his face blackened with soot, his right arm bound tightly in a makeshift sling made from a kitchen towel.
Nora’s breath hitched in her throat, a sob of disbelief tearing out of her chest.
"Dad?"
Daniel Montgomery stepped into the rain, holding a heavy tire iron in his uninjured left hand. He spat a mouthful of blood onto the pavement and locked his gaze on the corrupt state trooper.
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"I built the foundation of every bridge in this county, officer," Daniel growled, his voice rumbling over the idling diesel engine. "And I know exactly which bolts to pull to drop this entire span into the river. Drop that weapon, or none of us are going home tonight."
***
