Nathan Thought the Boy Had Attacked His Pregnant Wife—Then Her Belly Collapsed in Front of Him and the Security Camera Revealed the Pregnancy Was Only the First Lie. What Vanessa Had Been Hiding Could Destroy Everything She Built. / Chapter 38 / 50

Chapter 38 - Wolves in Sterile Rooms

The impact was cataclysmic.

The heavy steel plow of the F-350 sliced through the composite tail boom of the Black Hawk with the screech of rending metal and snapping drive shafts. The helicopter spun violently on its landing skids, the main rotor blades clipping the concrete tarmac and exploding into thousands of razor-sharp carbon-fiber shards that tore through the air.

The utility truck plowed through the tail assembly, spinning sideways on the ice and coming to a violent halt against the concrete perimeter barrier.

Nathan kicked his passenger door open before the truck had even stopped sliding.

Through the cloud of burning kerosene and spinning snow, he saw Hayes stumbling backward across the tarmac, clutching a bleeding arm. The two flight operators were down, knocked cold by the concussive whip of the helicopter's spinning fuselage.

Toby was on the ground ten yards away, curled into a ball in the snow, screaming his lungs out.

"Toby!" Nathan roared, sprinting through the wreckage, glass crunching beneath his boots.

Hayes saw Nathan coming. With his good hand, Hayes leveled his Sig Sauer at Nathan’s chest. "Step back, Caldwell! The trust is executed! You have no legal standing!"

Before Hayes could squeeze the trigger, a dark shadow leaped from the hood of the wrecked truck.

Evelyn Vance hit Hayes with the full weight of her body, tackling the older man into the icy slush. The gun fired wildly into the air, the shot echoing off the brick walls of the armory. Evelyn did not fight like a socialite; she fought like an animal defending its lair. She drove her thumbs into Hayes’s eyes, her knee slamming into his groin with bone-crushing force. Hayes screamed, dropping the weapon as Evelyn pinned his throat against the frozen ground with her forearm.

"Where is Eli?" she hissed, her face inches from his, spittle flying from her lips. "Where did you put my son?"

Hayes choked, blood welling in his mouth, his eyes rolling back in terror. "Holding... holding facility Bravo... basement level... Miller has him..."

Nathan didn't wait to hear the rest. He scooped Toby up from the snow, pulling the trembling, hysterical boy tight against his chest.

"Daddy! Daddy, you came!" Toby sobbed, burying his face into Nathan’s frozen collar.

"I've got you, buddy. I've got you," Nathan whispered, his hands trembling as he checked the boy’s head, his arms, his ribs. The child was uninjured, though shaking violently from the sub-zero chill. Nathan reached beneath Toby's jacket, feeling the small, hard lump just below the boy's left collarbone—the transmitter Arthur had surgically implanted.

A sharp, metallic click sounded behind him.

Nathan froze.

Special Agent Miller stood ten yards away at the entrance of the armory basement, holding a Glock 19 leveled directly at the back of Evelyn’s head.