Chapter 4 - The Standoff on the Boulevard
"Sterling, shoot him if he moves," Victoria ordered, swinging her leg inside the SUV. "We're running out of time."
Sterling raised the pistol, aiming directly at Richard’s torso. "Last chance, Hawthorne. Move."
Instead of moving away, Richard took a step forward, intentionally drawing Sterling's complete focus. "If you shoot me, the automated lockdown on the Hawthorne servers triggers instantly. The thirty-two million will be frozen before your chopper leaves the tarmac."
"He's lying! Shoot him!" Victoria screamed from the passenger seat.
While Sterling hesitated for a fraction of a second, evaluating Richard's threat, Emily made her move.
Silently sliding out from beneath the children, she snatched the heavy metal handle of her discarded, worn-out suitcase. With all the force in her arms, she hurled the sixty-pound luggage piece directly at Sterling’s legs.
The hard plastic suitcase struck Sterling squarely behind the knees.
"What the—!" Sterling stumbled backward with a grunt, his center of gravity snapping. His gun hand jerked upward, firing a wild shot into the air with a deafening CRACK that shattered the quiet of the neighborhood.
Richard didn't waste the second. He lunged forward, slamming his full body weight into Sterling, driving the armed man hard onto the asphalt. The pistol skidded across the road, metal scraping violently against stone until it came to a stop near Emily’s feet.
"Get the kids away!" Richard screamed, wrestling with Sterling on the ground, pinning the larger man's arms under his knees.
Victoria panicked. Seeing Sterling pinned, she threw the SUV into reverse, slamming her foot onto the accelerator to escape alone.
The vehicle surged backward toward Emily and the boys.
Emily didn't think. She kicked the fallen handgun into the gutter behind her, grabbed Ethan and Noah by their collars, and pulled them violently backward into the thick hedge lining the sidewalk. Liam scrambled after them on his hands and knees.
The SUV’s rear bumper slammed into the heavy steel fire hydrant on the curb with a sickening crunch of tearing sheet metal. The impact sheared the hydrant from its base, unleashing a forty-foot geyser of pressurized water that erupted into the sky, raining hundreds of gallons of water down over the entire street.
The SUV stalled, its engine drowning in the torrent of water, smoke pouring from beneath the crumpled hood.
Victoria frantically pounded on the steering wheel, trying to restart the dead engine, but the door was jammed shut against the bent frame of the hydrant. She was trapped inside the sinking vehicle as water flooded the cabin.
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On the road, Richard delivered a sharp, decisive strike to Sterling's jaw, rendering the accomplice unconscious. Panting heavily, his clothes drenched from the roaring water geyser, Richard stood up and turned around.
His eyes swept the street frantically. "Emily! Boys!"
