Chapter 6 - BLOOD ON THE TARMAC

The explosive CRACK of gunfire echoed louder than the jet engines.

The first bullet shattered the driver's side windshield, spraying safety glass across my face. The second struck the steering wheel frame. The third grazed the left side of my forehead, tearing through skin and sending a blinding stream of warm, wet blood cascading down my cheek and into my eye.

Pain flared like a white-hot iron, but adrenaline erased it completely.

I ducked beneath the dashboard, holding the steering wheel tight, and slammed the heavy SUV directly into the rear landing gear of the Gulfstream jet.

BOOM!

The massive metal collision rocked the entire airfield. The plane shuddered violent, its right wing tipping dangerously low as the landing gear snapped like a toothpick. Fuel began spraying wildly from the torn wing tank, filling the cold rain with the pungent smell of aviation gasoline.

The jet was grounded. Flight was impossible.

I threw my door open and rolled out onto the wet asphalt, wiping the blood from my eyes. The tire iron was still clutched tightly in my right hand.

Through the haze of rain and jet fumes, I saw Paige lying on the tarmac ten feet away, knocked off her feet by the force of the crash. Her pistol had skidded across the slippery pavement, resting halfway under the plane’s fuselage.

Maya was thrown to the ground near the boarding stairs, trembling and crying, but unharmed.

"Maya! Run to the grass!" I screamed, pulling myself up to my feet.

The little girl looked at me, her wide blue eyes terrified, covered in mud and rain. "Who... who are you?"

"I'm your mother baby!" I yelled, stepping between her and Paige. "Run!"

Paige groaned, shaking her head as she scrambled back onto her knees. Her eyes locked onto the handgun lying near the dripping fuel. She lunged for it.

"No!" I roared.

I covered the distance between us in two seconds, swinging the heavy steel tire iron with every ounce of strength in my body.

CLANG!

The iron struck Paige’s arm just as her fingers touched the gun, sending the weapon spinning far out of reach into the dark storm drain at the edge of the runway.

Paige screamed in agony, holding her shattered forearm, but her eyes filled with psychotic rage. She pulled a five-inch tactical combat knife from her coat lining with her left hand and lunged straight at my throat.

"You ruined everything, Clara!" Paige shrieked, tackling me to the wet pavement.

We crashed hard onto the concrete. The knife flashed through the darkness. I grabbed both of her wrists, holding the razor-sharp blade mere inches from my eyes. Rain and blood dripped down my forehead into my teeth as I fought for my life against a woman who had nothing left to lose.

"You took my life! My money! My future!" Paige screamed, pressing down with all her weight.

"You took my daughter!" I snarled back.

Using the technique my father had taught me years ago, I slammed my forehead directly into Paige’s nose.

CRACK!

Paige shrieked, her head snapping back as blood erupted from her broken nose. Her grip on the knife loosened. I twisted her wrist violently, disarming her, grabbed the tactical knife, and pinned her down against the tarmac, pressing the flat of the blade firmly against her throat.

Paige froze. Her chest heaved. She looked up into my blood-stained face and saw no mercy left.

"Kill me then," Paige choked out, spit and blood dripping from her lips. "Do it, you pathetic little housewife."

I stared down at her, my breathing ragged, my muscles shaking with pure rage. I could have ended her right there. She had stolen my child, ruined my marriage, and tried to murder me in cold blood.

Then, through the sound of the falling rain, I heard a small, sweet voice whimpering behind me.

"Please... don't kill her..."

I turned my head slightly. Maya was standing ten feet away in the rain, clutching her tiny stuffed rabbit to her chest, tears streaming down her pale, innocent cheeks.

I looked back down at Paige.

"You're not worth my daughter seeing me become a monster," I whispered coldly.

I flipped the knife in my hand and brought the heavy metal butt of the handle crashing down onto Paige’s temple. Her eyes rolled back, and she went instantly limp, knocked unconscious.

I stood up slowly, tossing the knife aside into the pool of leaking jet fuel.

Red and blue police lights suddenly illuminated the fog, washing over the tarmac as a dozen law enforcement cruisers, SWAT vans, and federal vehicles swarmed the airfield, sirens wailing into the night air.

Agent Sarah Sterling leaped out of the lead vehicle, weapon drawn, followed by Elizabeth and a team of paramedics.

"Drop to your knees!" an officer shouted before Agent Sterling slapped his gun down. "Stand down! That’s the victim!"

Elizabeth ran up to me, wrapping a thick thermal blanket around my bleeding shoulders. "Clara! Oh my God, look at your head!"

"I'm fine," I gasped, my knees trembling as the adrenaline began to fade. "I'm fine..."

I turned around slowly.

Maya was sitting on the edge of an ambulance bumper, wrapped in a blanket, watching me nervously.

I took a slow step toward her. Then another. I dropped to my knees on the cold, wet tarmac right in front of her, tears washing away the blood on my cheeks.

"Hi, Maya," I said, my voice cracking with endless love and eight years of suppressed grief.

Maya looked down at the silver locket around her neck, then up at my face. She reached out a small, trembling hand and softly touched the tear dragging down my cheek.

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The fluorescent lights of Operating Room Two buzzed like angry hornets,...

The burner phone in my hand felt heavy, like a slab of cold iron pulled...

The man in the back of the Bentley was not a stranger, though it took me...

"Are you... are you really my mommy?" she asked softly.

[HOOK FOR NEXT CHAP] I pulled her into my arms and held her for the very first time, weeping hysterically. But as the paramedics pushed me into the back of the ambulance, Agent Sterling leaned in and whispered a chilling update: "Clara... Adrian just escaped from the transport van. He's on his way to your house."