Chapter 27 - THE AMBUSH ON ROUTE 7
Daniel spun around as two men in tactical vests and unmarked ballcaps kicked through the clinic’s interior frosted glass door.
"Doctor Bennett," one barked, reaching for a taser. "Step away from the desk!"
Daniel didn't hesitate. He seized a heavy five-liter glass jug of industrial acetone from the prep counter and hurled it into the first man’s face, following it instantly with the metal examination stool. The glass shattered, chemical fumes burning their eyes, and the man screamed, clutching his face.
Daniel bolted through the emergency exit into the alleyway, clutching the DNA printout inside his leather jacket.
Tires screeched on wet asphalt. Nicole’s sedan whipped around the corner of Maple Avenue, the rear door flying open. "GET IN! DAN, GET IN!"
Daniel dove into the back seat as Nicole slammed the accelerator. The tires smoked against the rain-slick pavement. Behind them, an unmarked black Chevy Suburban surged out from the alley, its high beams blinding them in the rearview mirror.
"They found the clinic!" Daniel yelled, gasping for breath as he pulled the door shut. "Emily, Lily, are you okay?"
Emily was huddled in the front passenger seat, holding Lily down against the floorboards. "Who are they, Daniel?! The police?!"
"No! Private contractors!" Daniel shouted, pulling his seatbelt across his chest. "Julian isn't her father! He falsified the DNA records! He’s trying to steal her to get Arthur’s Shenandoah land trust!"
"What?!" Emily turned, her face pale in the dashboard glow.
"Margaret didn't sell her to her father! Margaret helped Julian forge an adoption claim because Arthur’s will specified that the land could only pass to a direct lineal descendant of the Bennett family! If Julian legally adopts Lily as his own, he gains trustee management!"
"Route 7 is blocked!" Nicole yelled, slamming her hands on the steering wheel.
A half-mile ahead, flashing yellow construction barricades and two black Suburbans had blocked both westbound lanes toward Leesburg. Men with flashlights were already stepping into the road.
"Take the service road!" Daniel shouted. "Cut through the quarry!"
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Nicole jerked the wheel hard to the right. The sedan bounced violently over the drainage ditch, bottoming out with a shower of sparks, and roared down the unpaved limestone gravel path that wound along the perimeter of the abandoned Loudoun County quarry.
The pursuing Suburban didn't let up. It rammed their rear bumper with a sickening metallic crunch, sending the sedan fish-tailing toward the dark, two-hundred-foot precipice of the quarry pit.
