Chapter 15 - The Final Toast
The dark van swerved aggressively across the wet lanes of the highway, trying to shake the solitary black sedan hot on its tail. Jax gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, his foot pressed hard against the floorboard. The rain battered the windshield in sheets, blurring the red taillights of the fleeing vehicle ahead.
“You’re not getting away with her,” Jax muttered through clenched teeth, his dark eyes fixed entirely on the rear doors of the van.
With a sudden burst of acceleration, Jax pulled his sedan directly alongside the passenger side of the van. He didn't hesitate. He jerked his steering wheel to the right, smashing the side of his car against the van’s rear quarter panel with a deafening screech of rending metal and showering sparks.
The van lost traction on the slick asphalt, skidding sideways across two lanes before slamming hard against a concrete highway barrier and coming to a smoking halt.
Jax killed his engine, threw his door open, and leaped out into the pouring rain. He vaulted over the highway divider, rushed toward the passenger door of the wrecked van, and tore it open with a ferocious yank.
Inside, huddled in the footwell of the cabin, was Lily, trembling slightly but unharmed. Sitting in the driver’s seat, unconscious and bleeding from a head wound, was a corrupt precinct guard still wearing his full uniform.
Jax reached in, gently scooping Lily up into his arms and pulling her tightly against his chest.
“I’ve got you, angel. Daddy’s here. You’re safe now,” Jax whispered, pressing his face into her soft curly blonde hair as the distant wail of responding police sirens finally filled the air.
Lily wrapped her small arms around his neck, burying her face in his black suit jacket. “I knew you’d come, Daddy.”
Ten minutes later, standing beside the flashing lights of the police cruisers, Jax handed Lily over to a trusted paramedic who wrapped her in a warm woolen blanket. The threat was neutralized, the corrupt network dismantled from the inside out, and the federal agents had secured all remaining assets of the Vance conglomerate.
Jax walked back toward his own ruined sedan. Resting on the passenger seat, miraculously intact amidst the shattered glass of the dashboard, was the crystal decanter of red wine he had brought from the dining room earlier that night.
He reached inside, picked up the heavy crystal bottle, and unscrewed the stopper.
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He didn't drink the poison. Instead, standing alone in the gray dawn light as the rain finally began to clear, Jax poured the entire contents of the decanter out onto the wet asphalt, watching the dark red liquid wash away into the storm drain, leaving the past behind forever.
The empire was gone, the secrets were buried, and for the first time in his life, Jax Vance was entirely free.
