Chapter 955
“We have to go,” Alistair said, cutting the bonds from Parker’s mother’s wrists.
Skye grabbed the parchment. It was the matching half.
“They’re coming!” Felix shouted from the hallway.
Heavy boots thundered down the stairs.
“There’s no way out,” Felix said, panic rising in his voice.
а𝘥𝖽iс𝘁і𝘃𝘦 ո𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗌 o𝗻 𝗀𝗮𝗅𝘯о𝘷e𝘭ѕ.𝖼𝗼𝘮
“Yes there is.” Liam pointed to a heavy metal grate set into the floor. “The old smuggling tunnel. It leads to the beach. Felix, open it.”
“It’s rusted shut!”
“Move.” Liam shouldered him aside and drove his heel into the grate. Once. Twice. The rust gave way with a grinding shriek.
“Ladies first,” Felix said, managing a nervous grin.
Skye dropped through. She slid down a concrete chute and landed hard on wet sand.
Liam, Alistair, Parker’s mother, and Felix followed in quick succession.
They were in a tunnel. Water was rising. The tide was coming in.
“Run!” Alistair shouted.
They splashed through knee-deep water, gunfire echoing behind them, until they burst out onto the open beach. The moon hung low over the ocean, casting long silver lines across the waves.
“The car!” Liam pointed to the road above the dunes.
They scrambled up through the sand.
As they piled into the Nissan GTR, Skye glanced back. Victor Carter stood on the fortress balcony, screaming in fury.
“We got it,” Skye panted, holding up the map fragment. “We have both halves.”
Liam started the engine. “Next stop: Breakwater Point.”
Skye looked at him. His tuxedo was torn, his hair wild. He looked alive.
“You drive,” she said.
Liam grinned — the first real smile she had seen from him in years.
“Hold on,” he said.
He floored it, and the car surged forward, leaving the chaos behind in a cloud of dust and sand.
The hunt was on.
The Nissan GTR’s engine roared, the sound ricocheting off the damp concrete walls of the smuggling tunnel. Liam drove with surgical precision, hands steady on the wheel as the speedometer climbed.
“We’re coming up on the exit!” Liam shouted over the engine’s whine. “Parker better be there with the extraction team!”
“He is,” Skye confirmed, checking her phone. “Signal was green. He’s at the rendezvous point on the access road.”
The GTR burst from the tunnel mouth and skidded onto the wet sand of the beach. Above them, on the coastal access road, headlights flashed three times in rapid succession.
“There!” Skye pointed.
Liam floored it. The car fishtailed wildly as it clawed up the sandy embankment and onto the pavement. Two vehicles waited: a sleek black armored sedan and a sturdy backup SUV.
Parker stood beside the sedan, pacing. When he saw the GTR crest the hill, he sprinted forward, his face caught between relief and terror.
“Mom!”
Skye threw open the door. She and Felix worked together to ease the frail, trembling woman from the backseat — Martha, wrapped in a suit jacket, her legs threatening to buckle. Parker caught her before she could fall.
“I’ve got you, Mom,” he whispered, his voice breaking.
.
.