I nodded once, swallowing hard. “We will.”
Kate’s voice returned, sharper now. “Update. Target vehicle has increased speed. Now at ninety miles per hour. Intercept window narrowing.”
“Push it, Flynn,” I said into my comm, pressing our own vehicle faster. The SUV’s engine growled as we hit seventy, then eighty, the frame vibrating around us. “We need to close the gap.”
“Working on it,” Flynn responded, his voice tight with concentration. “Forest Road isn’t exactly a highway. Lots of blind curves.”
“Six minutes to highway junction,” Kate warned. “Satellite shows no other traffic in the area. Clear road ahead for Kovacs.”
In the distance, I saw Flynn’s taillights vanish around a bend in the road. We were falling behind. My foot pressed the accelerator to the floor, but the gap wasn’t closing fast enough.
“Flynn, status?” I demanded.
“Setting up roadblock at intersection,” came the reply. “Ninety seconds.”
I did the math in my head. It would be close. Too close.
Beside me, Evelyn gripped the dashboard, her knuckles white. She hadn’t said a word since her simple declaration of faith in our ability to recover Sophia. I wondered if she believed it or if she’d just needed to say it aloud to keep herself together.
“Kate,” I said, “does Kovacs know we’re coming?”
“Unknown,” she replied. “But assume yes. Satellite shows no brake lights, no reduction in speed approaching the intersection.”
Which meant she wasn’t planning to stop. She’d risk crashing through a roadblock, risk injuring Sophia, rather than surrender her prize. The thought sent ice through my veins.
“Flynn, she’s not going to stop,” I warned. “Adjust accordingly.”
“Already on it,” he replied. “Deploying spike strip. If she tries to plow through, she’ll lose control before she can reach the highway.”
“And Sophia?” The question escaped before I could stop it.
A pause, then Flynn’s voice, unusually gentle. “We’ll get her out, Bricks. Trust us.”
Trust. Such a simple concept. So hard to actually do when everything that mattered was on the line.
“One minute to intercept,” Kate updated. “Target still at high speed.”
I rounded the curve where Flynn’s vehicle had disappeared and saw them ahead. Their SUV was parked sideways across the intersection, blocking most of the road. Rafe crouched behind it, weapon ready. Leo knelt at the edge of the asphalt, unrolling something across the road’s surface. Flynn stood in the center, holding what looked like a launcher.
“Vehicle approaching from the east,” Kate warned. “Three seconds.”
Headlights appeared in the distance, moving fast. Too fast. The black SUV came into view, engine roaring as it barreled toward the intersection.
Flynn raised the launcher, aiming at the front of the oncoming vehicle. A net shot out, expanding in midair, weighted ends spreading to cover a large area directly in front of the SUV. The driver swerved hard, trying to avoid it.
The net caught the front end anyway, tangling in the wheel wells. The SUV lurched, tires squealing. For a moment, I thought it would flip, tumbling end over end in a crash that would shatter metal and bone alike. My heart stopped, Sophia’s face flashing before my eyes.
But the SUV didn’t flip. It spun instead, sliding sideways across the asphalt until it crashed into a drainage ditch beside the road with a sound of crumpling metal. Steam hissed from the damaged engine. The headlights cast crazy patterns across the scrub as they pointed skyward.
We were still a hundred yards away, but I could see Flynn, Rafe, and Leo converging on the disabled vehicle, weapons up but held low, ready but careful. Flynn reached the driver’s side first, yanking the door open. I saw his body language change immediately, tension radiating through his stance.
“Vehicle clear,” he reported. “No sign of the child. Kovacs is injured but conscious.”
Evelyn made a small, wounded sound beside me.
“What do you mean, no sign of the child?” I demanded, bringing our vehicle to a skidding stop behind Flynn’s. “Check the back seat, the trunk!”
“Bricks, there’s no one here,” Flynn repeated, his face grim in the harsh glare of headlights. “Just Kovacs.”
