Chapter 17
The impact was brutal. Caleb’s mother crashed into Laura, sending both women violently backward off the wooden plank and onto the dirt floor beside the service pit. The air was knocked completely out of Laura’s lungs, and a sharp, blinding pain shot through her shoulder as they hit the ground.
For a long, agonizing moment, neither woman moved. The depot around them was filled with the sounds of shouting police officers and the distant echo of a helicopter approaching from the outside.
Laura gasped, her chest heaving as she finally managed to draw in a ragged breath. She rolled over, ignoring the throbbing pain in her shoulder, and looked at the woman beside her.
Caleb’s mother was breathing, her eyes half-open, coughing weakly from the dust. She was alive.
"Are you... are you okay?" Laura managed to croak out, reaching over to touch the woman's arm.
The woman looked at Laura, tears cutting clear lines through the dirt and blood on her face. "Caleb... where is my baby? Where is Caleb?"
"He's safe, I promise you," Laura said, her voice filled with profound relief. "He's at the bank with the police. He’s waiting for you."
Before they could say anything more, Detective Harlan ran up to them, kneeling in the dirt. He quickly checked both of them for major injuries, his face pale with intense worry. "Medics! I need medics over here right now!" he shouted into his radio.
He looked down at Laura, a mixture of anger and deep respect in his eyes. "That was the single most reckless, insane thing I have ever seen a civilian do, Manager Bennett."
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"Did you get Vincent?" Laura asked, ignoring his lecture.
Harlan’s expression turned grim. "He made it to the roof. My team has the building surrounded, but he’s desperate, and he’s armed. He’s cornered on the old loading crane platform outside. He has nowhere left to run."
