Chapter 285

Chapter 285

The night was completely dark. The salty sea breeze hit his face.

The SUV sped along the coastal highway toward Port 7, its engine roaring across the silent pavement, making the empty road feel even more desolate.

Steve gripped the steering wheel with one hand while pressing the small earpiece to his ear with the other.

"Steve, we've confirmed it. The 'Dream of the Ocean' that Alfonso booked is still sitting quietly at the dock, with no signs of departure. The gunfight at the port is just small-scale skirmish. It's like they're... buying time." Xavier's voice came through the static, tense and urgent.

Buying time?

Steve's narrowed his eyes.

This was too strange.

Alfonso had gone to such lengths, setting up a three-pronged trap. There was no way it was just to play cat and mouse with the port's security personnel.

The headlight beams cut through the thick fog, sweeping past a rusty road sign that read "Quarry No. 7" in faded paint.

Just as the light swept across the intersection, Steve's peripheral vision caught something unusual.

Tire tracks.

Several very fresh, deep tracks from a heavy truck had crushed through the muddy roadbed and turned decisively onto the side road leading to the abandoned quarry.

Steve suddenly remembered a detail.

He clearly remembered an investment report mentioning that three years ago, Alfonso had secretly invested money and bought this long-abandoned quarry under the guise of environmental renovation, and built a private waterway leading directly to deep water.

Suddenly, everything made sense.

The port gunfight was a decoy. And so was the convoy chasing Simon and Benjamin. Even the ship "Dream of the Ocean" was just a huge bait to draw everyone's attention.

This was the real escape route.

Alfonso never went to Dock 7. He might have already set sail.

"Damn it!"

Steve growled, jerking the steering wheel hard. The tires let out a piercing screech on the slippery ground.

He had to get this information out immediately!

But it was already too late.

Just as the car swung around, a violent tremor came from overhead.

Steve looked up sharply.

Through the windshield, he saw a blinding flash of fire shoot up from the towering cliff beside the highway.

Then came the deafening roar of an explosion.

The entire mountain was groaning. Countless tons of boulders and dirt were thrown up by the force of the explosion, mixed with uprooted trees, pouring down toward his position.

A landslide!

This was an inescapable death trap prepared just for him.

Steve felt no fear, only a cold sense of clarity after seeing through everything. He slammed on the brakes, but the huge momentum still made the car slide forward.

He knew he couldn't escape.

In the second before he was completely swallowed by darkness and the roaring crash, his thoughts weren't of himself, but of Simon and Sophie far away, as well as Thomas and Timothy.

The next moment, the world turned upside down.

The massive impact of the landslide instantly crushed his car into an unrecognizable wreck. The screech of twisting metal was drowned out by the earth-shattering roar. The mudslide swept the car away. It crashed through the fragile guardrail, and slid toward the cliff below, shrouded in thick fog.

The piercing screech of tires tore through the night sky, loud enough to hurt the ears.

A battered black sedan executed made a sharp drift, barely stopping at the edge of the continuously collapsing cliff. Under its front wheels, rubble and dirt were sliding down into the abyss.

The car door was kicked open violently.

Benjamin rushed out. The salty sea breeze poured into his lungs, bringing a sharp, freezing wind.

He rushed to the cliff edge, just in time to see that familiar car being pushed by the surging mudslide, helplessly tumbling and falling from the cliff's edge.

"Steve!" He let out a hoarse shout, completely distorted, filled with endless regret and despair.

Benjamin rushed forward without thinking toward the death zone that was still collapsing.

The ground beneath his feet kept cracking, but he didn't care. His eyes saw only that black car accelerating downward.

One step, two steps.

In the last second before the car completely left the cliff and plunged into the abyss, Benjamin leaped and miraculously grabbed the severely deformed car door.

The huge falling force instantly dragged his entire body down, but his other hand desperately dug into a rock crevice at the cliff edge. His fingernails instantly tore and split, blood dripping, but the adrenaline kept him from feeling anything.

Through the shattered car window, he saw Steve in the driver's seat.

Steve's face, usually so stern, was now covered in blood. A wound on his forehead, deep enough to see bone, kept gushing blood.

As if sensing the violent shaking, Steve struggled to open his eyes.

When his blurred vision focused and he saw clearly that the man outside the car, desperately gripping the door, was Benjamin, a trace of indescribable emotion crossed his hollow eyes.

"Hold on!"

Benjamin roared with all his strength. The veins on his arms bulged as he tried to pull Steve out of the jammed driver's seat.

But the car was simply too heavy. It was dragging him, bit by bit, toward the abyss.

In that moment, memories flashed flashed through Benjamin's mind.

As teenagers, they fought side by side on the basketball court, Steve patting his shoulder, smiling brightly.

Five years ago, he watched Steve's cold, desperate eyes as handcuffs were placed on him.

Benjamin could let go.

If he did, he could survive.

But he didn't.

Not only did he not let go, but with his other hand, he gripped the twisted metal of the car even tighter, its sharp edge cutting deep into his palm.

He shouted to Steve inside the car, whose consciousness was already fading, the words of redemption that were five years too late.

"I owe you this. Today I'm paying you back!"

The cliff edge could no longer bear the weight of their bodies and completely collapsed.

The phone that had fallen to the ground suddenly lit up, showing Sophie's anxious incoming call.

But the phone's owner had already fallen with Steve into that bottomless abyss.

The sea wind howled, drowning out every sound.

At the same time, on the distant open sea, a luxury yacht was quietly sailing away from the border.

Alfonso stood on the deck, gazing at the brightly lit land, a cold smile forming on his lips.

"The Scott family, the Brown family... We'll play this game slowly."