Chapter 2 - THE EDGE
Jake fought the steering wheel.
The truck slammed into the bridge barrier.
Metal screamed.
The SUV snapped sideways with it.
Inside the SUV, Tyler Brooks gripped the wheel.
“OH SHIT!”
Jake saw him through the windshield.
Young.
Terrified.
Not calm enough for someone who planned a suicide crash.
The two vehicles skidded together.
Cargo shifted.
Straps stretched.
Jake stomped the brake.
“BRAKE! BRAKE!”
Tyler did the same.
The SUV stopped first.
Its front wheels hung over the bridge edge.
Jake’s truck kept moving.
The hooked strap pulled them together like a rope between falling weights.
Tyler screamed:
“WE’RE GOING OVER!”
Jake felt the front axle climb the broken barrier.
Then drop.
Half the truck’s front end hung over open air.
The river looked impossibly far below.
“DON’T MOVE!”
Tyler froze.
The SUV slid another few inches.
One cargo strap snapped.
Then another.
The pallet shifted.
Jake heard the final strap creak.
Tyler looked back.
“It’s breaking!”
Jake stared at the hook.
It had not caught randomly.
It was mounted on a retractable steel arm beneath Tyler’s bumper.
Designed.
Not improvised.
Then the final strap started to tear.
Jake did something that felt insane.
He released the parking brake for half a second.
The truck rolled forward.
Tyler screamed.
Then Jake turned the wheel hard and hit the brake again.
The movement changed the angle.
The hooked pallet dropped partly sideways onto the damaged barrier instead of pulling straight down.
The strap snapped.
The SUV lurched free.
It slid backward six inches.
Stopped.
Jake’s truck shifted forward.
Then stopped too.
Silence.
Both vehicles remained hanging.
Alive.
For now.
Then Tyler looked across the gap between them.
Jake saw something worse than fear on his face.
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Recognition.
Tyler knew exactly whose truck he had hit.
