Chapter 4 - The Route 315 Pursuit
The rain came down in blinding, diagonal sheets, turning the asphalt of the alley into a black river.
Tessa kicked off her designer high heels, running barefoot through the freezing puddles.
Her champagne dress was soaked instantly, clinging to her skin as she choked back violent sobs.
"Mom! The valet! Where is the car?"
"Behind the dumpster!" I shouted over the roar of the wind.
We rounded the brick corner of the kitchen loading dock just as two bright halogen beams cut through the darkness.
My ten-year-old gray sedan sat idling beside the commercial grease trap, its wipers slapping against the windshield.
Luis’s cousin Marco was standing under the corrugated metal overhang, holding the driver’s door wide open.
"Get in! Get in!" Marco yelled, waving his arm frantically.
He tossed Tessa’s heavy canvas nurse’s bag through the open passenger window.
"Luis told me to grab her locker bag from the coat check!"
"God bless you, young man!" I gasped, shoving Tessa into the front passenger seat.
I threw myself behind the steering wheel and slammed the door shut.
The central locks clicked into place with a solid, reassuring thud.
I threw the transmission into reverse, stomping on the gas pedal.
The tires spun against wet gravel before gripping the pavement and hurling the car backward toward the main service driveway.
In the rearview mirror, the manor's kitchen doors burst open.
Caleb Sutton stumbled out into the downpour, soaking his expensive suit, followed by two private security guards in yellow rain ponchos.
Caleb pointed directly at my license plate, screaming commands that were swallowed by the thunder.
"Lock your seatbelt, Tessa!" I commanded, slamming the shifter into drive.
The sedan surged forward, splashing a wall of dirty water across the loading bay as we shot out onto the dark rural two-lane road.
Tessa was trembling so violently her teeth clicked together like dice in a cup.
She pulled her knees up to her chest, her wet hands clutching the canvas bag Marco had rescued.
"He's going to destroy me, Mom," she wept, her voice raw and ragged.
"He knows everyone."
"The hospital administrator is his mother's second cousin."
"The county prosecutor plays golf at their country club every Sunday."
"Nobody is destroying anyone tonight, Tessa," I said, my knuckles white against the steering wheel.
"Breathe. Just breathe and tell me what happened."
"He proposed to me three months ago at the botanical gardens," Tessa cried, staring out into the black rain.
"He was so kind, Mom."
"He brought lunch to the nurses' station."
"He listened to me talk about Dad’s trees."
"He acted like he cared about the conservation preserve."
"And then two weeks ago, I found the blue corporate binder in his penthouse study."
I glanced at the side mirror.
Two sharp, modern LED headlights had just turned onto the rural road behind us, moving at twice our speed.
A heavy black luxury SUV was closing the distance with terrifying velocity.
"Mom, behind us!" Tessa screamed, turning around in her seat.
"I see him," I said coldly.
The black SUV surged forward, flashing its high beams until my entire cabin was illuminated in harsh white glare.
It was Caleb's Mercedes G-Wagon.
He wasn't trying to pull us over.
He was trying to run us off the two-lane country blacktop before we reached the highway.
The SUV pulled within three feet of my rear bumper, the massive chrome grill filling my rearview mirror like the maw of a shark.
"Hold on!" I shouted.
A sharp metallic crunch reverberated through the cabin as Caleb tapped my rear bumper.
The sedan fishtailed violently on the hydroplaning asphalt.
I didn't slam the brakes.
Years of driving through harsh Ohio blizzards took over my muscle memory.
I eased off the accelerator, steered gently into the skid, and pumped the pedal until the tires regained purchase on the blacktop.
"He's out of his mind!" Tessa shrieked, tears streaming down her wet face.
"He doesn't care if we crash!"
"He only cares about the Delaware filing!"
"What was in that blue binder, Tessa?" I demanded, keeping the gas pedal pinned to fifty-five miles per hour.
"Arthur Sutton's original 1994 Conservation Charter!" Tessa yelled over the engine whine.
"Grandfather Arthur left forty percent of the Sutton commercial voting shares to Dad's preservation trust!"
"Dad never told us because Arthur swore him to secrecy to protect him from Vivian!"
"Vivian and Caleb’s branch of the family have been running Sutton Holdings on borrowed credit for five years!"
"They are twelve million dollars in debt to a private equity firm in Chicago!"
The road curved sharply to the right as an overhead green sign loomed through the storm:
INTERSTATE 315 SOUTH — COLUMBUS.
The black SUV surged into the oncoming lane, pulling up alongside my driver’s side.
Through the rain-streaked tinted glass, I saw Caleb’s face contorted in demonic rage.
He jerked his steering wheel to the right, aiming the heavy steel quarter-panel directly at my front fender.
He was going to spin us into the concrete bridge abutment at seventy miles per hour.
I didn't swerve to the right into the ditch.
Instead, the exact second his front bumper crossed mine, I slammed my foot onto the brake pedal with all my weight.
The anti-lock brakes pulsed violently beneath my foot.
Caleb’s massive SUV surged forward into empty air, his right rear tire clipping the concrete guardrail with a shower of orange sparks.
The impact shredded his passenger tire and tore the side mirror clean off the mounting bracket.
His SUV fishtailed violently across the two lanes, spinning two complete circles before coming to a smoking halt on the grassy highway shoulder.
I released the brakes, stepped back on the gas, and guided my sedan smoothly onto the southbound ramp of Route 315.
In the rearview mirror, Caleb’s hazard lights blinked uselessly in the rain as his SUV sat crippled in the grass.
Tessa covered her mouth with both hands, letting out a ragged, shuddering sob of relief.
"You killed his car," she whispered.
"I didn't kill anything," I said, checking my mirrors as the highway traffic enveloped us.
"His own arrogance did."
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"Now open that canvas bag Marco gave you."
"Let's see what weapons we have before Vivian realizes Caleb failed."
