Chapter 46
Terry's world collapsed the moment Emma's terrified voice exploded through his office speakers, her words hitting him like physical blows that knocked the breath from his lungs.
"Dad! Dad, someone just hit our car! They're chasing us!"
The coffee mug in his hand crashed to the floor, ceramic shards scattering across the linoleum as every instinct he'd developed as a father and a cop screamed simultaneously.
Adrenaline flooded his system with the violence of a dam bursting.
His children and the woman he loved were in danger, and her small rental car was the only thing standing between them and whoever wanted to hurt them.
Terry barked orders to his detectives and the deputies. “Someone's trying to run Sandra and my kids off the road."
Terry's voice carried the controlled fury of a man barely keeping his sanity intact while his family was under attack. His hands trembled as he reached for his radio, muscle memory taking over while his mind reeled with images of twisted metal and broken bodies.
Colt appeared in the doorway of the DTF bullpen, his face grim as he took in the chaos. Without hesitation, he grabbed his radio and barked into it with the authority of twenty years in law enforcement.
"All units, we have a 10-80 in progress involving Captain Bunswick's family. I repeat, officer's family in immediate danger."
Terry didn't wait for the rest of the call to finish.
The moment the dispatcher crackled through the radio—"10-80 in progress, northbound on Route 512.
Suspect vehicle attempting a 10-34 with another motorist. Possible 10-32, use caution"—he was already sprinting through the bullpen, his chair spinning wildly behind him.
His legs felt disconnected from his body, moving on autopilot while his mind fractured between cop training and paternal terror.
He spied Jeremy and Pete jumping into their SUV.
Sirens began to wail across the county as he yanked open the back door, his heart hammering against his ribs with the irregular rhythm of pure panic.
This wasn't just another reckless driver. Someone was trying to kill his family with their vehicle.
The radio crackled to life as deputies across both counties responded with urgency that made Terry's throat close. These men and women understood what was at stake. When one of their own faced a family emergency, the entire force became an extension of that parent's desperate need to protect.
"Unit 23, en route from Parksley, ETA twelve minutes."
"Unit 15, northbound on 13, ETA eight minutes."
"Unit 7, responding from Easton, ETA eleven minutes."
Terry's hands shook as Sandra's voice filtered through his phone, describing rural roads and farm equipment while his worst nightmares played out in real time.
Every parent's deepest fear of being helpless while their children faced danger consumed him with the kind of raw terror that made his vision blur around the edges.
He'd faced armed suspects, drug dealers, and violent criminals without flinching.
He'd walked into crack houses and domestic violence calls where anything could happen.
But nothing in his career had prepared him for the helpless terror of listening to his children scream while someone tried to kill them.
Jeremy hit the sirens and emergency lights before they'd even cleared the parking lot, the piercing wail joining the symphony of other emergency vehicles converging on Route 512. Terry gripped his phone, his knuckles white with the force.
His body had gone rigid with the kind of tension that came from forcing himself to think like a cop when every cell in his being was screaming like a father.
The two sides of his nature warred against each other…
the trained officer who knew procedure and protocol, and the man whose entire world was trapped in a small car with a killer behind them.
The radio crackled with static before the dispatcher's professional voice cut through the noise. "Unit requesting twenty-eight, standby for plate information."
The seconds stretched like hours while Terry listened to Sandra's increasingly desperate voice describing the combine harvester and the dirt road.
He could hear Emma crying in the background, her sobs cutting through him like broken glass.
He could hear Toby's brave attempts to help by reading the license plate, his son's voice high and scared but trying so hard to be helpful.
The sound of his children's terror nearly broke him.
Terry felt cold fury mix with his terror. He knew the investigation, the drugs, the party, the threats would all lead back to the cartel and the same family that had been at the forefront of their suspicions.
"Who do you think is behind the wheel?" Pete asked.
"Could be cartel," Terry said, his jaw clenched so hard his teeth ached. "Doesn't matter. They're all responsible for this."
Jeremy pushed the cruiser harder, the speedometer climbing past eighty as they raced down Route 13.
The rural landscape of the Eastern Shore blurred past them in streaks of green and gold, cornfields and farmhouses, but all he could see was the image of Sandra's rental car spinning out of control while his children screamed in terror.
"Dispatch, I need contact information for Harrison Blackwood, owner of Blackwood Luxury Custom Homes. Emergency priority."
"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 urge to 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.