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Chapter 866:
The transport van lurched forward. Alycia fell back against the metal wall. She bit down on her lip hard enough to taste blood.
The terror was gone. The humiliation was gone. What remained in their place was something quieter and far more dangerous — a blank, absolute stillness behind her eyes.
Federal prison. For the rest of her life. With nothing left to lose.
The sky over Manhattan the following afternoon was a brilliant, freezing blue.
A heavy Ford Transit prisoner transport van rumbled down Fifth Avenue, bound for the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan for Alycia’s preliminary arraignment.
Inside the rear cabin, the air was stale and smelled of bleach. Alycia sat on the hard metal bench inside the reinforced cage, stripped of her civilian clothes and wearing a neon-orange jumpsuit. Her wrists were secured by heavy steel cuffs attached to a belly chain that severely restricted her movement. The infected cuts on her face throbbed with a dull, constant ache. Her eyes stared blankly at the blur of pedestrians through the wire-mesh window.
In the front cabin, separated by a heavy steel grate, two US Marshals rode in relaxed silence. The woman in the back was slight and heavily chained. She wasn’t a threat.
𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗻
The van slowed to a crawl at a red light near a busy intersection.
Alycia’s dead eyes drifted to the sidewalk.
Directly across the street stood the grand entrance of Le Bernardin.
Her breath caught. Her pupils dilated.
June Erickson stood on the top step in a custom-tailored white cashmere trench coat, the winter sun catching the highlights in her hair. She was smiling — radiant, relaxed, victorious — saying something to Easton Hahn, who stood tall and easy beside her.
The contrast was a physical blow.
June bathed in sunlight, surrounded by warmth and hard-won triumph. Alycia locked in a dark metal box, heading toward a lifetime in a concrete cell.
A wave of something toxic and absolute detonated in Alycia’s chest. The blood roared in her ears, drowning out the city.
Her fractured mind locked onto a single thought: If I am going to hell, I am taking you with me.
She didn’t hesitate. She threw her body sideways and slammed her shoulder against the metal floor. She thrashed her legs against the steel walls, creating a deafening racket, rolled her eyes back until only the whites showed, bit down hard on the inside of her cheek, and forced bloody foam to the corners of her mouth. A wet, choking gargle rose from her throat.
The passenger marshal whipped around. “She’s seizing — she’s choking p>
“Pull over!” The driver hit the sirens.
The van lurched toward the curb and screeched to a halt. The passenger marshal was already moving — keys out, grate unlocked, rushing into the rear cabin.
“Hold her head! Don’t let her swallow her tongue p>
He dropped to his knees beside her and reached for her shoulders.
The van struck a pothole. The violent jolt threw him forward, his weight shifting uncontrollably.
The exact moment his grip slipped, Alycia’s eyes snapped open.