Chapter 7
The rain lashed against Jax’s face like tiny shards of ice as the chopper tore down the empty interstate, the speedometer needle climbing past ninety miles per hour.
Behind them, the three unmarked black SUVs emerged from behind the transport truck, their high beams cutting through the heavy downpour like searchlights.
Jax gripped the handlebars tighter, his knuckles turning pure white as he leaned hard into a sharp curve, the heavy bike scraping dangerously close to the slick asphalt.
"Hold on tight, Leo!" Jax shouted over the deafening roar of the engine and the howling wind.
"I'm holding!" Leo yelled back, pressing his face firmly against Jax's leather-clad back, his small arms locked in a death grip around the biker's waist.
Jax glanced down at his dashboard clock. They were still ten miles away from the Horizon Motel where Sarah was hiding.
If these men in the black SUVs caught up to them before they reached her, none of them would walk away alive.
The lead SUV suddenly accelerated, roaring up alongside Jax's left flank, trying to force the motorcycle off the shoulder of the highway.
Jax gritted his teeth, refusing to yield an inch. He downshifted aggressively, the engine screaming in protest as he shot forward, narrowly avoiding the heavy steel bumper of the SUV as it swerved violently toward him.
"Bastards," Jax muttered, his eyes darting between the road ahead and the side mirrors.
The passenger-side window of the SUV rolled down, and a masked man leaned out into the rain, leveling a heavy black firearm directly at Jax’s back tire.
Instinct took over. Jax swerved violently across the wet lanes, a deafening crack ringing out as a bullet sparked off the highway guardrail just inches from his front wheel.
"Are we going to die?" Leo cried out, his voice trembling with a raw, heartbreaking terror that broke through Jax’s emotional armor.
"Not today!" Jax roared back, his voice filled with a fierce, unbreakable determination. "Not while I'm breathing!"
Up ahead, a dark, rusted highway overpass loomed out of the mist, offering a temporary maze of concrete pillars and shadows.
Without signaling, Jax yanked the handlebars hard to the right, sending the chopper hurtling off the main highway and onto the crumbling gravel access road leading beneath the overpass.
The SUVs overshot the turn, their tires squealing in protest as they tried to brake and follow.
Jax killed the headlight, plunging the motorcycle into absolute darkness as they raced beneath the massive concrete arches, the sound of their engine echoing off the walls like thunder.
They cut the engine, coasting silently into the pitch-black shadows behind a rusted, abandoned construction trailer.
Sitting in the deafening silence, listening to the heavy rain drumming on the metal roof above, Jax slowly let out a long, ragged breath.
He turned around in the saddle to check on the boy.
Leo was shaking uncontrollably, his hazel eyes wide and glassy in the dim ambient light filtering through the concrete pillars.
"We... we lost them?" Leo whispered, his voice barely audible over the rain.
"For now," Jax said softly, reaching out to gently squeeze the boy's cold shoulder. "Stay right here. I need to check something."
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Jax dismounted carefully, pulling the heavy butcher's knife from his belt as he crept toward the edge of the shadow to peer back out at the highway.
As he reached the light, his heart skipped a beat. Parked right at the entrance of the access road, blocking their only way out, was a fourth vehicle—a sleek black sedan with its hazard lights flashing rhythmically.
