Red Bullets in June

Chapter 36: God's Angry Thunder

Jaxon rushes to Karla's side and gets to work untangling her from the kitchen chair. When she's finally free, she yanks the gag out of her mouth in a sense of panic. "Jaxon! They abducted Charlotte!"
"Who did??"
"A gang of masked men!"
His ebony eyes are mortified.
And suddenly, his new iPhone X springs to life with the words, NEWS ALERT at the bottom of the lock screen. It reads:

3 prisoners have shot their way out of Sing Sing Correctional Facility: Marcus Walters, Wyatt Dunn and Malcom Symone. 10 prison guards have been confirmed dead. If you spot these men, call 911 immediately.

Jaxon glances up at Karla with unadulterated horror. "I know who they are..."
"Who?? Jaxon! You have to help her! And the baby, Jaxon! What about the baby??" Being seized by all the bound up tension and emotion, Karla crumbles into a mound of weeping matter.
Jaxon dashes to her side and places a steady hand on her trembling shoulder. "It's okay, Karla. Everything's gonna be fine. Now, I need you to tell me what you know. What did they say to you?"
"They- they- j- just-"
"It's okay. Take a deep breath."
Karla inhales then exhales deeply between trembles.
"Now what did they say. Please, I need your help, Karla."
"They just- took her..." She gasps between hopeless sobs.
"But do you remember their conversation? Did they mention any place names at all?"
"They said- something about- a sepulcher..."
"A sepulcher...? Whose?"
"Brian or something...?"
"Byron?"
"Oh yes. That was it."
Jaxon bolts for the door. "I know where they are. Stay here. I'll be back with Charlotte and our baby."
Within seconds, Jaxon is on his Ducati once more and zipping down the streets with a crippling sense of urgency that is clawing through his bloodstream like a preying ultimatum; an ultimatum that the woman he loves more than anything and his child, his child, could be taken away from him.
Forever.
He hasn't been driving long when Starlight by Muse dances around through the whirring air. Jaxon wrenches his phone out of his pocket. It's a video call. From Khleo.
"What could he want?"
Jaxon pulls to the side of the road and stops his Ducati to accept the call. A live video of Khleo's face begins streaming before his eyes.
"What is it?" Jaxon snaps with impatience. "If it's not about Charlotte, then don't waste my time!"
"Oh it's about Charlotte, alright..." Khleo smiles, but there's a hint of malice in his eyes.
"You know where she is??"
"Of course I do, Jaxon. She's with me."
"Oh, thank goodness! Is she alright?? Is the baby alright??"
Khleo scoffs with amusement. "Why don't you ask her yourself?"
"What?"
Khleo flips the camera angle and the inside of a dim and abandoned warehouse comes into view. 4 wooden stakes are driven into the dirt floor and Charlotte is lying on it with one of her limbs bound to each stake. She's gagged and completely naked. Her tiny baby bump is visible and it's tainted with bloody bruises as well as the rest of her fair skin. Her emerald green eyes are swollen and plagued with pain and fear.
"No..." Jaxon begins hyperventilating. "No!"
The screen flips to Khleo's face again. "Oh yes, Jaxon."
"UNTIE HER, RIGHT NOW!"
Khleo cackles. "Come to the warehouse by my Dad's sepulcher. Alone. Join that b*stard in the dirt and only then will I let her and your precious baby go."
"Why?? Why are you doing this to me?? I thought you were my brother??"
"No, Jaxon! You've never been my brother! You stole my father and you stole my gang! That asshole always favored you!! You were always better than me!! Always got all of his attention!! Always got what was rightfully mine!!
I HATE YOU!!"
Jaxon is speechless.
"Now, you're gonna come here to bite the dust with the old, decrepit corpse and you're gonna come alone or she dies along with the precious baby in her stomach. That is, if he hasn't already..." He cackles.
"DON'T YOU DARE LAY ANOTHER FINGER ON HER!"
"Too late..." Khleo grins. "I've already laid my fingers all over her; her body, her birth control..." He smirks. "And now, you're gonna have the pleasure of watching some old friends of yours do the same..."
"NO!"
A sadistic smirk seizes Khleo's face before he turns the camera to Charlotte again. Jaxon watches in horror as Ian and Kade come onto the screen and both begin unbuckling their belts while Marcus, Wyatt and Malcom gather around to watch.
Jaxon's eyes catch flame like a demon from hell. He attempts to end the call, but his phone is frozen. He hurls his phone onto the asphalt and it bursts into a litter of glass and plastic that skid across the street.
His Ducati roars to life like God's angry thunder and he catapults down the freeway. Pausing briefly to make a phone call at a gas station pay phone, he sets off again toward the old drug warehouse in Cedarhurst, next to the sepulcher of their old and deceased leader, Byron. The man that took Jaxon in when he had no where to go and acted like the father he never had. The man that treated him like a son.