THE ESCAPE
She reached the railing.
Her hands were on the cold metal.
She could feel the wind pulling at her, urging her forward, down, into the dark.
Danny was watching.
Vance was smiling.
And Maya was done being a victim.
She turned.
“I’m not going to jump.”
Vance’s smile flickered. “You don’t have a choice.”
“Everyone has a choice.”
She reached into her pocket. Not for her phone. For something else.
A recorder.
Not the one from the safe. A different one. Smaller. One she had hidden in her jacket before she left the car.
“You didn’t delete everything,” Vance said.
“No. I didn’t.”
She pressed play.
His voice filled the night.
“You’re going to walk to the railing. You’re going to climb over. And you’re going to jump.”
“I can. I’ve done it before.”
“Not if you do what I say.”
Vance’s face went white.
“I’ve been recording this whole conversation,” Maya said. “From the moment you put me in your car. It’s already backed up to the cloud. If anything happens to me, the recording goes to every news outlet in the country.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Try me.”
They stood on the bridge, the wind howling between them.
Then Vance laughed.
“You’re good. I’ll give you that.”
He pulled out his phone. Pressed a button.
The black SUV appeared at the end of the bridge. Headlights blinding.
Danny and Kaela were inside.
Leah Park was driving.
“Let them go,” Maya said.
“Let me go first.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“Oh, I think I am.”
He walked to his car. Got in. Started the engine.
“The recording doesn’t matter. I’ll say it was coerced. Forged. You’re an obsessed reporter who tried to frame me.”
He drove away.
The black SUV followed.
Maya stood alone on the bridge.
The wind was cold.
The water was dark.
And she had never felt more alive.