Chapter 9 - The Last Gambit
True malice, however, rarely dies without one final, desperate convulsion.
Three days after the arrests, Victoria Langford was granted temporary emergency bail under strict house arrest conditions, pending her federal trial. Her family’s assets had been frozen, her reputation incinerated, and her future reduced to a guaranteed five-year prison sentence.
Driven completely mad by the loss of her status, Victoria slipped past her private ankle-monitor detail using a falsified medical transport permit.
She had lost everything. And in her broken, twisted mind, Emma Carter was the only reason.
That rainy Tuesday afternoon, Emma had traveled south to UIC to surprise her sister Chloe for lunch. Vincent had insisted on sending two security guards, but Emma, wanting to give Chloe a sense of normalcy, asked them to wait in the black SUV parked across the street from the campus medical library.
"Em! You won't believe it!" Chloe squealed, running out of the glass library doors and throwing her arms around her sister under the awning. "Dr. Harrison approved my early admission into the pediatric oncology research lab! He said my tuition grant covered all the lab fees!"
"I'm so proud of you, Chlo," Emma smiled, hugging her sister tightly. "Dad is walking with crutches today, too. The doctors think he might be able to come home for Thanksgiving."
"It's like a dream," Chloe said, tears welling in her eyes. "A month ago, I thought I was going to have to drop out."
"It's real," Emma reassured her, squeezing her shoulders. "Go grab your backpack from the study hall. I'll wait right here."
Chloe darted back inside the building.
Emma turned to walk toward the curb to signal the drivers.
The rain was coming down in sheets, blurring the city street. The campus courtyard was nearly deserted due to the downpour.
Suddenly, the roar of an engine shattered the quiet.
A silver sedan tore around the corner, jumping the curb and accelerating directly toward the walkway where Emma stood.
Through the rain-streaked windshield, Emma saw the unhinged, wild-eyed face of Victoria Langford. Her hair was matted, her face pale and contorted into a mask of pure demonic fury.
Emma froze, terror locking her muscles. The car was barely thirty yards away, speeding straight at her.
"Emma! Look out!"
A deafening horn blasted from the street as the black Moretti security SUV accelerated violently, attempting to intercept the oncoming vehicle, but it was too far away.
From the shadow of the library colonnade, a tall figure broke into a dead sprint.
Vincent.
He had arrived ten minutes early to surprise Emma and take her and Chloe out to celebrate.
He didn't hesitate. He didn't think about his wealth, his empire, or his own survival.
Vincent threw himself forward, slamming his body into Emma and shoving her violently out of the path of the vehicle.
Emma tumbled across the wet concrete, scraping her hands and knees as she hit the lawn.
*CRASH.*
The silver sedan clipped Vincent’s side as he pushed her, the impact spinning him through the air before he slammed hard against the brick retaining wall of the library. Victoria’s car lost control on the slick pavement, smashing head-on into a reinforced concrete bike rack and a steel light pole, the front end crumpling instantly into steam and shattered glass.
"VINCENT!" Emma screamed, scrambling through the mud on her hands and knees.
Vincent lay against the brick wall, rain drenching his clothes, blood running from a gash on his temple. His breathing was shallow, his eyes half-closed.
"Vincent! Vincent, look at me!" Emma sobbed, pulling his head into her lap, her hands desperately checking his pulse, ignoring the cuts on her own palms.
The two security guards swarmed the scene, weapons drawn, ripping open the door of the silver sedan. Victoria was slumped over the deflated airbag, unconscious and severely fractured, before being dragged out and pinned to the asphalt.
Sirens wailed in the near distance, growing louder by the second.
Vincent coughed, his storm-gray eyes fluttering open. He looked up through the rain, seeing Emma’s tear-streaked face hovering above him.
He reached up with a trembling, bloodied hand, his fingers weakly curling around hers.
"Are you... are you hurt?" he whispered, his voice weak but filled with absolute concern for her.
Emma let out a ragged sob, pressing her forehead against his. "You idiot... you threw yourself in front of a car for me."
Vincent managed a faint, bloody smirk despite the pain in his ribs. "I told you... I will remember your name. And I will never... let anyone touch you."
"Stay with me, Vincent! Stay with me!" Emma cried as the paramedics flooded the courtyard, pulling her back as they stabilized his neck and lifted him onto a gurney.
May you like
As the ambulance doors slammed shut and the sirens screamed toward Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Emma rode in the back, holding Vincent’s hand with both of hers, refusing to let go for even a single second.
***
