Chapter 244
He smashed through the secondary security gate, ignoring the shower of sparks and the screaming alarms, and accelerated diagonally across the tarmac, cutting directly into the jet’s path. He slammed the brakes and threw the car sideways, stopping it squarely in front of the nose gear.
The massive plane shuddered to a halt, engines winding down with an indignant roar.
Hilliard was out of the car before it fully stopped, his heart hammering. The cabin door swung open and the stairs descended.
Cailin stood at the top, her face pale, holding Elia against her chest. Behind her, Kegan stood with the boys, one hand resting on a holstered weapon.
“Move the car, Hilliard!” Cailin shouted over the wind. “You’re trapping us!”
“I’m saving you!” He ran to the bottom of the stairs. “Look up, Cailin — look at the sky!”
She looked up.
Two unmarked black helicopters were circling the airport’s perimeter like vultures, slow and deliberate. They didn’t belong to Kegan. They didn’t belong to Hilliard.
“Amerigo’s men,” Hilliard said, breathless, pointing upward. “They’re waiting for you to breach international airspace so they can intercept under the Hague Convention. If you leave this tarmac, he takes them.”
Cailin went rigid, her arms tightening around Elia. She looked at Kegan, who gave a grim nod. The airspace was compromised.
“What do we do?” she whispered.
“We split up,” Hilliard said, his voice leaving no room for argument. “Amerigo is tracking my every movement. If we all disappear together, he’ll tear the city apart. Kegan — your men need to take Ashley and the children to a ghost facility right now. Run completely dark.”
“And me?” Cailin asked, her grip on Elia tightening further.
“You come with me. We go back to the city and make a public appearance. We draw Amerigo’s fire. If his eyes are on us, they won’t be looking for them. It’s the only way to give the children cover.”
Cailin stared at his outstretched hand. It was a devil’s bargain. But the helicopters above were real.
She looked at Kegan.
“My ground team can move Ashley and the kids through the service tunnels right now,” Kegan confirmed. “They’ll be untraceable.”
Cailin pressed her lips to Elia’s forehead, her heart fracturing, and passed her to Ashley, who had just come down the stairs. She dropped to her knees and pulled Aron and Davy into her arms.
“Be brave,” she whispered. “Protect your sister. Mommy will be right behind you.”
As Ashley and the children disappeared into the shadows with Kegan’s guards, Cailin rose and turned to Hilliard, her eyes hard as stone.
“If anything happens to them, I will kill you myself.”
“I know,” Hilliard said, opening the passenger door for her. “I’m counting on it.”
While Hilliard and Cailin raced back toward Manhattan to serve as bait, the air on the top floor of Holloway Group’s headquarters was so thin it felt like breathing through gauze.
Amerigo sat at the head of the mahogany boardroom table, spine rigid, the panoramic Manhattan skyline spread behind him like a backdrop for a verdict.
Gregg English burst through the double doors. He looked nothing like the polished tycoon who graced the society pages. His tie was askew, his collar dark with sweat.
.