The night air on the highway was thick with the smell of burnt rubber and the lingering heat of friction. The flow of traffic had been a deceptive, stuttering thing, moving in fits and starts like the dying heartbeat of a mechanical beast. Just as Ace Kane had accelerated the Audi Q7 to match the cautious pace of the cars ahead, a sudden wall of red brake lights flared up with a blinding, aggressive intensity. The driver of the floral-printed SUV directly in front of him had stomped on her brakes with a panicked, bone-deep desperation.
Ace Kane didn’t hesitate. His reflexes, honed by years of navigating high-stakes situations where seconds were the difference between life and death, took over. He slammed his foot onto the brake pedal, the Q7’s sophisticated anti-lock braking system pulsin
