Chapter 13 - The Mother's Scalpel
Rachel didn't freeze. As Marcus raised his barrel toward her son, she lunged forward, not with a firearm, but with the heavy steel pry bar Kane had left beside the medical kit.
She swung with the full torque of her body, striking Marcus across the wrist. The assault rifle flew out of his grip, clattering into the churning creek.
Marcus roared in rage, backhanding Rachel with his forearm, sending her sprawling against the gravel. He drew a combat knife from his chest rig and stepped toward her, his face twisted in venomous malice. ""Stupid girl.""
Before he could take another step, Ethan let out a piercing scream.
Daniel tackled Marcus around the waist, both men plunging into the icy, waist-deep current of Clear Creek. They thrashed violently in the rapids, fighting for control of the blade. Daniel’s burned hands struggled against Marcus’s heavier frame as Marcus forced the point of the knife downward toward Daniel’s throat.
On the riverbank, the laptop chimed with a clear, high-pitched digital chime.
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Marcus paused for a fraction of a second, his head jerking toward the sound of the confirmation signal.
That split second was all Daniel needed. Daniel drove his knee upward into Marcus’s injured ribs, wrenched the knife from his grip, and kicked Marcus back into the deep churning pool beneath the rapids.
