"Standby, Captain."
Terry's radio crackled again as units continued to report their positions and estimated arrival times. The coordination was flawless, built on years of training and the unspoken understanding that when children were in danger, every cop became a parent first and an officer second.
"Captain Bunswick, contact attempt made to Harrison Blackwood's Virginia Beach office. Subject is not available. Office reports he left this morning for personal business on the Eastern Shore. His secretary reported he is believed to be at one of his rental properties, checking on recent damage repairs."
Terry knew it was the house where the party had taken place, where this whole nightmare had started. The irony would have been poetic if his family's lives weren't hanging in the balance.
Terry felt his world tilt sideways as Sandra's voice came through the speakers, describing how she'd taken the car around the combine harvester and onto the edge of the cornfield. The image of his family being hunted through the farmland he'd grown up exploring made him want to put his fist through something.
Preferably one of the Blackwoods' faces.
His heart hammered against his ribs with the kind of irregular rhythm that came from pure adrenaline and terror. The metallic taste of fear coated his tongue as he fought the urgeto grab the wheel from Jeremy and drive himself. His hands shook with the need to do something other than sit helplessly in a speeding car while his world was being destroyed one terrifying second at a time.
"There are woods at the back of the cornfield." Sandra's voice came through the speakers, breaking with exhaustion and fear. "If I can get there, maybe we can stop and hide?—"
The sound of the final impact came through the speakers like a gunshot, metal screaming against metal with the horrible finality of a car crash. Emma's piercing screams followed, mixing with the grinding noise of a vehicle being destroyed and the hiss of steam escaping from a ruptured radiator.
Terry's vision went white around the edges as every worst-case scenario he'd ever imagined as a father played out in real time through his phone's speaker.
"Sandra!" he shouted into his phone, his voice cracking with desperation that bordered on hysteria. "Sandra, talk to me!"
Jeremy took the turn onto the rural road so fast the cruiser's tires screamed against the asphalt, the g-forces pressing Terry against the door as they raced toward his family. Through the windshield, he could see dust clouds rising from the cornfield in the distance like smoke signals, marking the location where his world had just been shattered into a million pieces.
Dust hung in the humid air, and even from a distance, he could see the path where Sandra's car had plowed through the standing corn.
His phone rang, Sandra's name appearing on the screen like a lifeline thrown to a drowning man. Terry's hands shook so badly that he nearly dropped it as he answered, putting it on speaker so Jeremy and Pete could hear.
"Sandra, where are you? Are you hurt? Are the kids okay?"
Her voice came through panting and breathless, but stronger than he'd dared hope. "We made it to the woods on the far side of the cornfield. The kids are scared, but they're okay."
Relief flooded through Terry so completely that he felt dizzy, his vision swimming as his body tried to process the shift from terror to hope. They were alive. Hurt and scared, but alive. "Stay hidden. We're almost there. Do not move until you see deputies."
"Dad?" Toby's voice came through the phone, high and scared but trying so hard to be brave that Terry's heart nearly burst with pride and terror. "I think someone is coming."
Sandra's sharp curse cut through the air like a blade. "Shit."
Terry stared at his silent phone, his mind refusing to process what he'd just heard. The display showed the call had ended, but his brain couldn't accept that the connection to his family had been severed, and all he could do was pray he wouldn't be too late to save the three most important people in his world.
"Drive faster," he whispered to Jeremy, his voice broken with raw desperation, uncertain what he'd find when they arrived, terrified it would be too late.
47
Sandra grabbed Emma's hand while pulling Toby close to her side, her heart hammering against her ribs. She scanned the cornfield for any sign of pursuit, her eyes darting between the swaying stalks and the tree line beyond. The truck’s engine could be heard nearby, and she knew they needed to reach the trees so the vehicle would no longer be a threat.Only the person inside.
The corn was still early in the season, the stalks reaching only to her shoulders, but crouching, they could disappear into the green maze. The afternoon sun slanted through the broad leaves, creating a shifting pattern of light and shadows that could either hide them or reveal their position to anyone searching.
"Stay low and stay with me," she whispered urgently, pushing through the first row of corn with Emma's hand clutched in her own.
The moment they entered the field, Sandra realized the stalks that offered concealment would also torture them. The broad leaves sliced across her arms and face like paper razors, each cut a stinging reminder of their desperate situation. She felt warm blood trickle down her cheek as a particularly aggressive leaf caught her across the temple.
Emma whimpered as corn leaves attacked her face, leaving thin red lines on her pale skin. Toby crouched lower, trying to stay under the leaves.
"We're almost to the trees," Sandra panted, her own face burning from dozens of shallow cuts that stung with each drop of sweat.
They stumbled through the rows, trying to stay out of sight, but the rustling of their passage through the corn seemed impossibly loud in her ears. Every snap of a broken stalk and every whisper of leaves against fabric sounded like a beacon calling their location to anyone hunting them. She strained to hear sounds of pursuit behind them, but couldn't filter out anything over their own desperate breathing and the constant whisper of corn leaves.
Breaking through the far edge of the cornfield, Sandra looked into the cool shade of the woods, where the truck wouldn’t be able to follow.
