Chapter 3
The heavy grease-stained metal door of the diner's side exit slammed shut behind them with a dull, echoing thud. The sudden silence of the narrow, sun-baked alleyway offered a sharp contrast to the blaring classic rock and roaring engines echoing from the main street. The scent of rotting garbage and heated asphalt hung thick in the stagnant air.
Jax dropped to one knee, bringing himself down to Leo’s eye level. His calloused hands gripped the boy's thin shoulders, his gaze scanning the child's face for any sign of injury or panic.
"Listen to me very carefully, Leo," Jax said, his voice low, urgent, and fiercely intense. "The men in that black car out front? They aren't cops. They're bad men. Men from my past. The fact that they found you means they tracked you to get to me. We don't have a lot of time before they realize we slipped out the back."
Leo swallowed hard, his pale throat bobbing, but he didn't cry. He just nodded slowly, his messy light brown hair shifting in the hot breeze. "My mom said you'd know what to do. She said you were the only one who ever walked away from them and lived."
"Your mom gave me way too much credit," Jax muttered under his breath, a bitter, self-deprecating smile twisting the corner of his scarred lips. He stood back up, scanning the brick walls of the adjacent buildings for a fire escape or an alley shortcut. "Can you run, Leo? My bike is parked three blocks down, hidden behind the auto body shop. If we can reach it before they circle the block, we might have a fighting chance."
"I can run," Leo said firmly, adjusting the collar of his oversized jacket.
"Good. Stay right behind my left shoulder. Step where I step," Jax instructed, drawing a heavy hunting knife from the sheath concealed inside his boot. The cold steel caught the sliver of sunlight piercing the narrow gap between the brick rooftops.
They moved quickly and silently down the alley, hugging the brick walls to stay out of sight of the main street. The roar of the biker rally slowly faded into a dull background hum, replaced by the crunch of gravel beneath their boots and the heavy, rhythmic breathing of the young boy. Jax’s eyes darted constantly left and right, his survival instincts—honed by years of living on the brutal margins of society—fully activated.
As they approached the corner where the alley intersected with a quiet residential street, a low, ominous purr echoed from the asphalt just beyond the mouth of the brick corridor.
Jax instantly threw out a heavy arm, slamming Leo back against the rough brick wall to shield him. He pressed his back against the corner, holding his breath as the matte-black sedan crept slowly past the end of the alley, its engine purring with deadly precision. The car rolled forward a few yards, then abruptly stopped. The brake lights flared a blinding, violent red against the sunlit pavement.
In the driver’s side mirror, Jax caught the reflection of a man wearing dark aviator sunglasses leaning across the console, speaking into a radio mic.
"They know we're on foot," Jax whispered, his jaw tightening into a hard line of absolute resolve. "They're cutting us off."
"Jax," Leo whispered, his voice trembling as he tugged urgently on the sleeve of the biker's leather vest. He held up a small, crinkled piece of yellow legal pad paper that he must have pulled from his pocket while they were running. "Mom dropped this on the floor right before she... before the men came into our house. She said if I saw you, I had to read you the last line before it was too late."
Jax snatched the paper from the boy's hand, his eyes burning as he forced himself to read the hastily scrawled handwriting in the dim alley light.
They didn't just take the money, Jax. They took the ledger. And your brother is still alive.
May you like
Jax froze, the world spinning violently around him. His brother—a man he had buried in his own mind nearly two decades ago—was not dead at all. And the syndicate had just used an eight-year-old boy to deliver the ultimate death sentence right to his doorstep.
Before Jax could process the agonizing shock, the passenger door of the black sedan suddenly flew open with a sharp click.
