Chapter 16 - The Cliffside ChaseWe burst out onto the wooden observation deck just as a cold gust of ocean wind whipped across the cliffs. Below us, the dark waves crashed violently against jagged rocks.
"Down here!" Adrian shouted, pulling me toward a narrow, overgrown dirt path that descended steeply down the face of the cliffside into the thick brush below.
We scrambled down the slick mud, our boots sliding against wet roots and loose shale. Behind us, Victor’s footsteps pounded heavily on the wooden deck, followed by an angry shout into a mobile phone. "Get the perimeter gates locked! Cut off the access road!"
We didn't look back. Adrenaline pumped through our veins as we plunged deeper into the coastal timberline, the canopy of ancient pine trees blocking out the remaining twilight. The path was narrow and treacherous, but it was a trail Adrian and I had explored during our teenage summers—a secret route no city-slicker land speculator would ever know.
After ten grueling minutes of sliding through the mud and pushing past dense fern branches, we hit the gravel shoulder of the old coastal highway, a half-mile down from where Adrian had parked the SUV.
Breathless, muddy, and soaked to the bone, we ducked behind a thick cluster of evergreen bushes just as a black sedan with tinted windows roared past us down the highway toward the abandoned cliff house.
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"They missed us," Adrian panted, resting his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. He looked over at me, a wild, triumphant grin breaking through the exhaustion on his face. "Are you okay?"
I held up the leather ledger, clutching it securely against my chest like a shield. "Never better. And we have the proof."
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