Chapter 297
Chapter 297:
He wrenched the steering wheel hard. The massive Escalade drifted across three lanes of traffic, its heavy suspension absorbing the brutal maneuver, and surged onto the coastal highway on-ramp.
The dark, freezing waters of the Atlantic appeared on their left. The highway was nearly empty.
Crawford pushed the accelerator to the floor. The speedometer needle buried itself past ninety miles per hour. The wind screamed against the bulletproof glass.
Two minutes later, a pair of red taillights materialized in the distance — a massive black Suburban, weaving erratically across the lanes.
“Visual confirmed,” Crawford spoke into the radio. “We are engaging p>
He closed the distance with terrifying speed. The Escalade’s heavy grille was now less than twenty feet from the Suburban’s rear bumper. Crawford shifted his grip on the steering wheel, preparing to execute a PIT maneuver — a precision tactical strike to the rear quarter panel that would spin the suspect’s vehicle out of control.
𝗗𝗼𝗐ոl𝘰𝘢𝗱a𝘣𝗹𝘦 𝗣D𝖥𝘴 o𝗇 𝘨alո𝘰𝘃e𝘭𝘀.с𝘰𝗺
“Brace yourself, June,” Crawford warned, his eyes fixed on the target.
He surged forward to make the final impact.
Then the driver of the Suburban glanced in his rearview mirror. He understood, in that instant, that he could not outrun the armored Escalade. He saw the construction narrowing the bridge ahead.
The suspect made a completely insane, suicidal decision.
The Suburban’s brake lights flared a blinding red, but the vehicle did not stop. Instead, the driver wrenched the steering wheel violently to the right, attempting a lethal sideswipe — using his vehicle’s massive weight as a battering ram to crush the Escalade against the concrete barrier and send them both plunging into the freezing ocean below.
Four tons of heavy steel surged laterally, aimed directly at the passenger side.
Aimed directly at June.
The massive shadow of the Suburban blotted out the highway lights as it swerved into their lane.
June’s pupils contracted to pinpricks. Time slowed to a terrifying, agonizing crawl. She could see the heavy steel grille of the oncoming vehicle closing the lateral gap — the suspect was not aiming for the center of their car. He was directing his engine block straight at the passenger door.
Crawford saw it too.
His brain processed the physics of the impending collision in a fraction of a millisecond. Slamming the brakes would still carry them forward into a fatal impact. Swerving left would send them through the concrete barrier and into the freezing ocean below.
There was only one mathematical solution to keep the passenger seat intact.
Crawford did not hesitate. The instinct to protect her overrode every basic human instinct for self-preservation.
A guttural roar tore from his chest. He seized the steering wheel with bone-crushing force and wrenched it violently to the left, counter-steering directly into the attack — throwing the entire left side of the Escalade, his own driver’s side door, into the path of the incoming battering ram. He turned his own body into a shield for hers.
“June, hold on!” Crawford yelled.
It was the last sound she heard before the world ended.
BOOM.