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.
"Where is it that you're going, son?"
I peer up through my haze of tears to see a big and broad Black man holding on to the overhead rail of the bus and staring down at me with large and round Amber eyes. He's wearing an all black suit and black button up shirt with a blood, red tie. I gape at the vibrant color that's so shiny it appears to be wet. Forgetting what the man asked me, I just wipe my nose on my sleeve.
"Are you lost?"
I shrug again.
"Where are your guardians?"
I shake my head.
"Do you have guardians?"
His question provokes fresh, stinging tears and I shake my head again.
He nods, mulling over my responses and appearance. "Tell you what... If you'd like, and this is all your decision, but if you'd like, you can come with me. I'm getting off at this next stop. I can take you in and take care of you and if not that, at least I can take you to an orphanage. What do you say?"
I bite my bottom lip, anxiously.
This man wants to help me? But what if he's lying? What if he hurts me?
"I promise I won't hurt you," he says, as if to read my mind. "I only hurt those who deserve it... I'm also a good judge of character and I can feel that you're a good, young man."
What does he mean by that...?
"Anyway, think it through. If you want to come with me, you can follow me off the bus."
And with that, he begins making his way toward the front of the bus in preparation to get off.
I start to panic.
Should I follow him? Should I trust him?
He does seem trustworthy, but some of the worst people do...
But, if I don't get off with him, where will I go?
To the end of this route?
And then what?
I have no more money. I spent it all on this bus ticket...
To escape...
As the bus rolls to a stop and the doors swing open, my heart knocks on my rib cage frantically. I watch as the broad, Black man descends the steps and doesn't even pause to glance back. Person after person files off the bus and my eyes dart from my twisting, nervous hands to the all black suit getting farther and farther away. The doors of the bus swing shut and it lurches forward to continue its route.
"WAIT!" I yell.
The bus driver glances back at me in her rearview mirror.
"That was my stop!"
Seeing the urgency in my eyes, she pulls off the road and stops. I shove through the opening doors and bolt towards the retreating black suited figure. "Wait! Sir! Please, wait!"
He stops as if he was waiting for me all along and turns to look at me with a warm smile that lights his Amber eyes.
"You can call me Byron. And what's your name, son?"
"Jaxon."
Upon reaching a grove of trees 100 yards away from the warehouse, Jaxon parks, removes his pistol from the motorcycle seat and heads straight for a tombstone that's cemented in the dirt a few feet away. The stone reads: Byron Bradford, November 24, 1972 - January 11, 2017.
He wedges his fingers beneath the tombstone. It gradually lifts diagonally to reveal a steep staircase underneath that disappears into a world of blackness. "And you always thought this was your dad's burial sight..."
He descends the staircase and closes the misleading mirage behind him.
I've been beaten and taken advantage of by every putrid man in this warehouse and I'm hanging onto consciousness by a thread. Every limb on my body is strained from my entrapments and throbbing with heartbeats of excruciating pain. My head is pounding and spinning at the same time and my eyes are swollen shut. I know I have a plethora of broken bones across my body, but I don't even care.
All I can think about is our baby. Gabriel took a massive beating beneath my skin and I could feel him struggling in protest. I'm afraid our little angel is...
I can't even think the word...
I recite a mantra to the heavens again and again.
Please, keep our baby alive. Please, keep our baby alive. Please, keep our baby alive.
"Have you spotted him yet?" Khleo's rancid voice pollutes the air.
I always knew I hated that man.
"Not yet," Ian answers. "I've been watching from the front entrance and Kade's been watching from the back."
And I can't believe Ian and Kade are back. They finally got their way with me and it makes me so furious, I would rip my own hair out if I could. I've never felt so hopelessly helpless in all my life. It makes me feel nauseous just thinking about all the atrocities they did to me. But I didn't stand a chance against all of them and their pistols.
Maybe if I had my old pistol... The one Jaxon bought for me...
"THEN WHY THE HELL ARE YOU IN HERE?? KEEP WATCHING AND DON'T COME BACK UNTIL YOU HAVE THAT B*STARD IN HANDCUFFS!"
"Yes, boss."
Khleo's words aggravate the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I begin another mantra to the heavens.
Please, keep Jaxon safe. Please, keep Jaxon safe. Please, keep Jaxon safe.
My body is fighting to stay awake, pushing through the thick fog of exhaustion and pain because I want more than anything to ensure that Jaxon doesn't get hurt.
"WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING HIM SO LONG??" Khleo bursts in impatient rage.
As if to answer, a shattering succession of bullets rings through the barren warehouse, followed by a domino train of what sounds like bodies thudding to the ground.
What the?
I try desperately to force my swollen eyes open, but it's no use. They won't budge.
"Jaxon??" Khleo gasps in horror.
Jaxon? He's here?
"How'd you get in here??"
"Your dad's grave," Jaxon laughs.
"What?? Ho-"
Nothing but the slice of a bullet answers in reply, followed by Khleo's frantic wailing. The sound is otherworldly and sends goosebumps across my tattered skin.
What did Jaxon do to him?
"TRY STICKING THAT FILTHY THING IN HER NOW!"
Holy crap. He shot off his...
"What's going on in here??" Ian's voice is back. Followed by Kade, "What happened to-"
But they are cut off by Jaxon. "You worthless, little *****!"
"Jaxon??" Ian sounds incredulous. "How did you-"
"Time for your special reward..."
"Please! No!" Ian and Kade beg pathetically.
Two more loud snaps of a bullet tear through the air, followed by frenzied screams, just as otherworldly as Khleo's and just as chilling.
The screaming of Khleo, Ian and Kade reverberates every wall of the warehouse. It's ear-deafening. Then 3 more cracks of a bullet and silence.
I breathe a sigh of relief.
"Charlotte!" Jaxon bounds to my side.
"Holy ****!" Trey's voice comes from the same place that Jaxon's emerged from earlier. "What the hell happened here?"
"Oh, Trey! Thank goodness, you guys are here! Take care of the bodies. I'm taking Charlotte to the hospital."
Back up is here and Jaxon's okay. Thank God in heaven that Jaxon's okay.
And it's then that my body can't fight through the fog of exhaustion and pain anymore.
My world goes black.