Chapter 9
The red laser dots danced across the front of Jax’s leather vest like angry fireflies, casting an ominous glow in the damp darkness beneath the overpass.
Jax didn't move a muscle, his massive frame shielding Leo completely from the line of fire.
"Drop the knife, Jax," Vance commanded, his smooth voice dripping with absolute authority. "You're a tough man, but even an old dog like you can't dodge three automatic rifles at this distance."
Jax slowly opened his fingers, letting the heavy butcher’s knife slip from his hand and clatter loudly against the concrete.
He raised his hands to shoulder height, his breath coming in slow, controlled intervals to keep his adrenaline spike in check.
"Leave the kid out of this, Vance," Jax said, his voice disturbingly calm. "He doesn't know anything about the ledger, the money, or the syndicate. He's just an eight-year-old boy."
Vance tilted his head, studying Jax with a cold, analytical curiosity, as if examining a rare insect under a microscope.
"Sentimentality, Jax? After everything we went through, you've gone soft," Vance sneered, taking a slow step forward. "The boy is Sarah’s son. Which means he carries the bloodline. And the syndicate doesn't leave loose ends, especially when those ends have your DNA."
Leo, hiding behind Jax's legs, let out a sharp gasp, his fingers clutching the fabric of Jax's jeans.
Jax felt a surge of lethal rage build up inside his chest, but he forced himself to stay still, waiting for the exact right micro-second.
"You want me," Jax said, locking eyes with Vance. "Take me. Let the boy go to his mother."
Vance laughed softly, a dry, humorless sound.
"You overestimate your value, Jax. We're taking all three of you. The motel is already secured by our primary team. Sarah is waiting for us right now."
At the mention of Sarah, something snapped inside Jax.
All the restraint, all the careful calculation vanished in a split second.
Jax dropped violently to the ground, sweeping his long leg out in a powerful arc that caught the nearest gunman behind the knees, sending him crashing hard into the concrete and knocking his rifle loose.
"Run, Leo!" Jax roared, lunging forward to grab the fallen automatic weapon.
"Shoot them!" Vance screamed, his calm facade shattering instantly as chaos erupted beneath the overpass.
Deafening gunfire echoed off the concrete pillars, shattering the silence of the night as bullets chipped away at the stone and chewed up the asphalt around them.
Jax snatched the rifle off the ground, firing a single burst into the air to force the remaining gunmen to take cover behind their pillars.
"Leo, move!" Jax yelled, grabbing the boy by the jacket collar and hauling him toward the dark drainage pipe.
They scrambled into the narrow concrete tunnel just as a hail of bullets ripped through the space they had occupied a second before.
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Crawling through the damp, cramped darkness with the sound of shouting guards fading behind them, Jax pushed Leo ahead of him until the faint, grey glow of the creek exit appeared in the distance.
They burst out into the pouring rain beside the churning creek bed, coughing and soaked to the bone, just fifty yards away from the flickering neon sign of the Horizon Motel.
