The Husband They Threw Away Runs This Town Now

Chapter 13 — Predators Don’t Flinch

"Total electrical failure," the driver shouted over the storm, flashlight beam trembling across the steaming engine. 

Remi shoved her aside without hesitation, plunging her hands into the mess of wires. Her manicured nails tore through connections with practiced precision. Thirty seconds was all it took to confirm her worst fear - this wasn't an accident. The car had been remotely bricked via military-grade encryption. 

"Inside. Now," Remi snapped. The driver scurried to call for help, but they both knew no one would come in this storm. 

The car door slammed shut, sealing them in a dripping cave of tension thicker than the rain outside. 

Erick sat rigid beside her, rainwater tracing the sharp angles of his face. His knuckles whitened around the steering wheel. 

"Who are you?" Remi's voice cut through the dark, lower now. Dangerous. 

Erick wiped rain from his brow with deliberate calm. "You know who I am." 

Remi laughed - a sharp, broken sound. She grabbed his tie, twisting the silk tight in her fist. " Five years watching you disappear every Wednesday night while my family treated you like furniture." Her breath came fast against his cheek. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice? Wouldn't follow?"

Erick's eyes darkened. "You don't know what you're playing with." 

"I know you don't go to bars." Remi's grip tightened. "I know about the Brooklyn apartment. The fake name." Her lips brushed his ear as she whispered, "Quade."

The name hung between them like a gunshot. Outside, lightning flashed, illuminating the moment Erick's carefully constructed mask finally slipped - revealing something far more terrifying beneath. 

Remi smiled. "Now we talk."

"You should stop digging into things that can get you killed."

Remi's laugh came out bitter.

"There it is." She pointed at him. "That. That right there." Her breathing sharpened. "You say things like a man who's used to deciding whether people live or die."

Erick stared ahead through the rain-covered windshield.

The truth was becoming unavoidable now.

 Remi was smarter than everyone else in that family combined. She noticed patterns, and it was dangerous.

The driver knocked nervously on the window. "Miss Laurent, there's no signal out here. We may have to wait for roadside assistance—

"Go sit in the other car," Remi ordered without looking away from Erick.

"There is no other..."

"Then walk."

The poor woman practically fled into the storm.

The moment she disappeared, silence filled the car again.

Remi turned fully toward him. "No more bullshit."

Erick exhaled slowly through his nose. "You really want the truth that badly?"

"Yes."

"You won't like it."

"I already don't like it."

"Five years ago, my father died because people like Leroy Laurent and Senator Clarke decided they could carve up Gerard Dominion after the crash."

Remi froze at the way he said them.

"They thought Quade died in the accident,t too," Erick continued quietly. "That made things easier for them."

Remi's heartbeat thudded painfully.

"You're saying..."

"I'm saying powerful men get greedy when they think no one's watching."

"That's not an answer."

Erick looked at her and for the first time since she met him...she saw a real exhaustion.

"Do you know what your father did after Lawrence Gerard died?" he asked softly.

Remi stayed silent.

"He attended the funeral." Erick smiled faintly. "Shook my hand. Told me my father was a visionary." His eyes darkened. "Then he spent the next six months stripping our contracts apart like vultures."

Remi suddenly understood why Victor Hale looked terrified tonight.

"You married Dominique to get close to Leroy," she whispered.

Erick said nothing.

Remi leaned back slowly, stunned.

"Jesus Christ..."

"She was never supposed to matter."

The words sounded almost like regret. Almost.

"But she did," Remi said quietly. "You love her."

Erick looked away first.

Remi studied him carefully now. She felt ice run down her back. 

"You could wipe out my family whenever you wanted," she said, voice shaking.

"Yeah." 

Remi swallowed hard.  "Tonight?" she asked. "Was that you?"

Erick tilted his head just slightly. 

"The board verification leak."

Which meant yes.

Remi barked out a laugh, rubbing her face with both hands. 

"Wrong," Erick said calmly. "I set up options. Your family picked the fast track."

"By humiliating you in public?"

"They made it easy."

The car suddenly felt like a coffin. 

Remi realized something then that made her stomach twist. The man next to her wasn't just rich or powerful. 

"You don't act like a man. You act like infrastructure."

Erick gave her the ghost of a smile.  "Victor said the same thing."

Then Remi asked what she'd been avoiding all night: 

"What happens now?"

Erick stared through the rain-streaked windshield at the dark road ahead. 

"Now?" he said softly. 

His face went stone cold. 

"Now your father learns what happens when men like him don't finish what they started."

Remi's pulse pounded in her ears. "You think my father killed yours?"

Erick finally turned to look at her. "No," he said softly. "I know he did." 

Remi stared at him. "That's not helpful."

The black SUV behind them accelerated sharply. 

Erick's whole body changed instantly. "Lock the doors," he said calmly. 

Remi's stomach twisted. "Erick..." 

"Now."

The SUV smashed into the back of the Aston Martin, throwing them both forward violently. 

Erick checked the side mirror once before saying four words that turned Remi's blood to ice:  "They found me first."