Chapter 7 - Ambush on the Highway
The rain began to lash against the glass windows of the precinct as the news of the ambush settled over the room like a heavy shroud. Jax grabbed his coat from the back of the chair, his jaw set in rigid determination.
“Who took him?” Jax asked, buttoning his coat with swift, practiced movements.
“We don't know yet,” the lieutenant said, tracking Jax’s movements with a cautious eye. “State troopers found the transport van abandoned near the overpass. The driver and guard were subdued with non-lethal sedatives, and Marcus was forcibly removed. It wasn't a rescue, Mr. Vance. It was an extraction.”
“Because Marcus knows where David is hiding,” Jax concluded, pulling his collar up against the chill. “If David gets to him first, Marcus won't live to see the sunrise.”
“Which is why you need to stay right here and let us handle this,” the lieutenant warned, stepping toward the door to block his exit. “You are a victim in an attempted homicide, Jax. If you go hunting for your presumed-dead uncle, you cross the line from victim to vigilante.”
“My daughter was nearly poisoned tonight in her own home, Lieutenant,” Jax said, his dark eyes locking onto the officer with an intensity that brooked no argument. “My family has been living under a shadow of lies for over a decade. The police couldn't protect my father twelve years ago, and you couldn't protect a prisoner in transit tonight. I’m not waiting around for them to come back for Lily.”
Before the lieutenant could respond, Jax turned and walked briskly out of the glass room. He picked up Lily from the social worker, wrapping her warmly in her white cardigan. The little girl blinked sleepily against his shoulder, safe in the arms of a father willing to tear down an empire to keep her alive.
As Jax pushed through the heavy glass doors of the precinct into the rainy night, a black sedan idling across the street flashed its headlights twice.
Jax froze, instinctively shielding Lily with his body. The rear window of the sedan rolled down smoothly, revealing the glowing tip of a cigar and a familiar face framed in the dim interior light.
It wasn't David. It was Katherine, the very woman who had set the entire nightmare into motion earlier that evening.
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Katherine leaned across the leather seat, her voice carrying clearly over the patter of the rain. “Get in, Jax. If you want to see Marcus alive, and if you want to know the truth about why your father had to die, you’ll leave the baby with the cops and get in this car right now.”
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