Chapter 9: The Ultimatum
"Listen to me, Leo," Jax said, standing up to tower over the boy. His voice was steady, unyielding, but laced with genuine concern. "That place is dangerous. It's not a playground, and it's not a movie. There are men with guns there. Men who want to hurt me."
"They took my mom because of you!" Leo shouted, his voice cracking with emotion. Tears pricked the corners of his big hazel eyes, but he refused to let them fall. "If you leave me here, I'll just walk down the highway until I find a bus. I'm not staying behind."
Jax stared at the boy. In Leo’s stubborn stance, his clenched fists, and the fierce glint in his hazel eyes, Jax saw a reflection of himself—refusing to accept defeat no matter how impossible the odds. It was the exact same stubbornness that had kept Leo pulling him out of that freezing river when anyone else would have run away.
Jax let out a long, slow breath, running a hand through his dark, slicked-back hair. He realized fighting the boy would waste precious time, and leaving him unguarded at the cabin was a tactical liability.
"Fine," Jax said quietly. "You come with me. But you stay in the vehicle, under any and all circumstances. You lock the doors, you keep your head down, and you do exactly what Miller tells you to do. Do you understand?"
Leo nodded fiercely. "I understand."
Ten minutes later, the black SUV rolled quietly down the gravel driveway, its headlights turned off until they hit the main paved highway. The night was pitch black, the moon obscured by heavy storm clouds gathering overhead.
Inside the cabin of the vehicle, the atmosphere was tense. Miller sat in the front passenger seat, checking the clip of his sidearm with practiced ease, while another guard drove. In the back, Jax sat beside Leo. Jax reached into his trench coat and pulled out a small, encrypted satellite burner phone, dialing a direct line.
The phone rang twice before a smooth, arrogant voice answered.
"Vance. I wondered how long it would take you to crawl out of the river," Marcus Sterling said on the other end, his voice dripping with condescension.
"Save the speech, Marcus," Jax replied coldly. "You want me? You got me. Let Sarah go."
"Oh, it's not that simple, old friend," Sterling laughed softly. "You built an empire on total control. Now you get to experience what it feels like to lose everything. Come to Pier 42 alone. Walk through the front doors of the old processing plant. Then, and only then, we'll talk about the woman."
"I'm coming, Marcus," Jax said, his voice dropping an octave into a dangerous register. "And if she has so much as a scratch on her, I will take everything else you have left."
May you like
The line went dead with a click.
Jax lowered the phone, his face carved from stone. He looked at Leo, who was staring intently out the window at the flashing neon signs of the city skyline as they approached the industrial district.
