Chapter 12 - NO MORE RUNNING
The SUV hit them at seventy miles an hour.
Cole fought the steering wheel.
“Hold on!”
Their car spun.
Elena screamed as Marcus threw himself over her.
Metal shrieked.
Glass burst.
The vehicle slammed sideways into the guardrail.
For a second, nobody moved.
Then Cole shouted, “Out!”
The black SUV stopped behind them.
A man climbed out.
Not Victoria.
Elena recognized him.
Thomas Reed.
Victoria’s private security chief.
He walked toward them with a gun.
Marcus kicked open his door.
Cole pulled her weapon.
“Police! Drop it!”
Reed fired.
Cole ducked.
Marcus dragged Elena behind the wreck.
Another bullet punched through the trunk.
Elena clutched her stomach.
The baby moved.
Still alive.
Still fighting.
Cole fired back.
Reed disappeared behind the SUV.
Marcus whispered, “Stay down.”
Elena grabbed his sleeve.
“Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t.”
The words broke her.
Because she believed him now.
Gunfire cracked again.
Then an engine roared.
Reed’s SUV sped away.
Cole immediately radioed for backup.
Marcus looked at Elena.
“You okay?”
She nodded.
Then shook her head.
Then laughed once.
“I have absolutely no idea.”
He pulled her against him.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For doubting you.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“You should’ve doubted me.”
He pulled back.
“What?”
“I was seeing things that weren’t there.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“It means I needed you to question what was happening.”
She touched his face.
“But you should’ve questioned her too.”
Marcus nodded.
“I know.”
They reached the abandoned lab with police backup thirty minutes later.
The front door was open.
Dr. Avery lay inside.
Bleeding.
Alive.
Barely.
Cole crouched beside him.
“Who shot you?”
Avery looked at Elena.
“Victoria.”
Marcus froze.
“My mother was here?”
Avery nodded.
“She took the hard drive.”
“Where did she go?”
Avery coughed.
“The estate.”
Elena stared.
“Why?”
Avery looked at Marcus.
“The archive.”
Marcus’s face changed.
“What archive?”
“The one your father built.”
Avery struggled to breathe.
“He copied everything before he died.”
Marcus whispered, “Where?”
Avery’s eyes closed.
“In the old chapel.”
Elena felt a chill.
Hale Manor had a private chapel behind the east garden.
Closed for twenty years.
Marcus stood.
“She’s destroying the last evidence.”
Cole grabbed his arm.
“Backup is on the way.”
Elena looked at the clock.
Then at her husband.
“No.”
Marcus understood.
If Victoria destroyed the archive, she could still survive this.
Still rewrite everything.
Still call Elena unstable.
Elena stood.
“We finish it tonight.”
As they headed for the door, Avery called weakly after her.
“Elena.”
She turned.
He swallowed.
“There’s something Victoria never told you.”
“What?”
Avery’s face twisted with guilt.
“The first experiment seven years ago…”
He looked directly at her.
May you like
“You weren’t the first person she tested it on.”
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