“Are you going to pay up like a good boy, or just stand there and watch your grandfather die?”
I was about to respond when my phone suddenly rang.
It was a call from Chief Logan Reed, the Chief of the LAPD.
I answered immediately.
“Chief Reed.”
His anxious voice burst through the speaker.
“Michael, the I-405 is completely jammed. Our units can’t get through at all!”
My heart dropped instantly.
Across from me, Frank Wood let out a roaring laugh—delighted by my reaction.
“Chief Reed? Who the hell are you pretending to be?”
“If you’re so capable, why don’t you call that Chief over here right now?”
“A redneck like you? Please. Stop acting.”
His smug face made bile rise in my throat.
Frank shot a glance at the completely empty lane ahead of his luxury car.
“This whole freeway is blocked—except right in front of us. If I don’t move, you’ll never make it to the hospital.”
“So, hurry up and compensate us, and maaaaybe your wrinkled old grandpa can crawl back from death’s door.”
My thoughts flashed to my grandfather in the back of the Federal-Grade Armored Medical Transport.
He was running out of time.
There was no more room to argue.
“Two hundred thousand dollars? I’ll pay.”
“Give me your bank account. I’ll transfer it now.
Get out of my way!”
Frank grinned, unlocking his phone and thrusting it toward me while still laughing loudly.
“Hahaha! Look at you pretending so hard. Come on then! Transfer it!
I gotta see how long you can keep this act up.”
“You’ve probably never even seen that kind of money in your entire—”
Before he could finish, a notification chimed loudly from his phone.
Transfer received: $200,000.00
His face froze—words dying in his throat.
I stared him down coldly.
“Now, will you move?”
People around us gasped.
“Holy—this kid didn’t look rich at all… and he really had the money!”
“Frank’s face is priceless! Serves him right. Acting all high and mighty—now look at him!”
“But what if that was their family’s last lifeline? If they already paid… how will they afford treatment now?”
Frank’s stunned silence cracked, replaced by a vicious snarl.
“Don’t get cocky, punk.
Two hundred thousand? That’s just our Miss Neal’s daily pocket money.”
“But for you?
That money probably cost you your LIFE.”
“Even if you make it to the hospital, your old man’s as good as dead. Maybe you should just give up now.”
At that moment, Dr. Leonard Hayes’s voice came from inside the medical vehicle.
“Michael, hurry. I can keep him stable for maybe thirty minutes—no longer.”
“After that… not even a god could save him.”
My chest tightened.
If Dr. Hayes, the best in the country, said that…
then it was the truth.
Thirty minutes…
Under normal traffic, we’d reach Cedars-Sinai Hospital in ten minutes.
But Frank had already wasted so much time.
If we delayed any longer…
my grandfather would really die.
I looked straight past Frank and locked eyes with Victoria Neal, who stood behind him—smug and untouchable.
“There’s a high-ranking figure inside this transport.”
“The Chief Commander of the Federal Intelligence Division.”
“Samuel Shaw.”
