The estate is still smoldering from the explosives that went off last night. It’s nothing but a shell of those beautiful sandstone bricks.
Max is pacing in front of me, screaming as he counts off the dead. “Julian,” he yells. “Julian is dead!”
“Who gives a fuck about Julian?” I’m barely listening. I can’t get Sasha out of my head. I can’t get that video message out of my head. And now it all comes down to who I should trust.
“Where is he?” Max screams, leaning down into my face. “Where is Nick Tate? I gave you one job,” he roars. “One. Fucking. Job. Get that girl so we can get Nick Tate. And this,” he says, panning his arms towards the rubble. “This is what you delivered?”
“I’m doing my best to figure it out, Max.”
“Madrid says you sent the girl home in a car. A car? It’s a nine-hour drive to her home from Fort Collins, Jax. Just what the fuck are you doing?”
“It was the safest way I could think of to get her there.” And if I was really sending Sasha home, that’s still the way I’d do it.
“One phone call to Madrid and she’d have picked her up.”
Right. Madrid is another unknown I don’t understand.
“But the girl is gone, Jax. And she didn’t take the car.”
“What?” I look up at him. He’s got my full attention now.
“Madrid got a message from Nick saying he sent her to the safe house. Sasha called her pilot friend the minute you left.”
“What?”
“What?” he says, mimicking my reaction. “Are you stupid? That girl played you, goddammit.”
“Look, I’m sorry about Madeline, but Sasha was pretty dead set that she was Company, Max. And why the fuck was Matias here? None ever told me Matias and Madeline were working out a deal.”
“Who gives a fuck about Matias and Madeline! I needed them dead, so Nick Tate did me a favor. But Julian,” he chokes out a laugh. “Julian was not supposed to be part of that.”
“What the fuck does Julian have to do with this? He’s some scumbag who’s been whining about losing his promise for years. I’m glad he’s—”
“He was my true-blood son!”
I don’t react. My life depends on how this plays out. “You told him Sasha was his promise, didn’t you?”
“She was,” he growls. “Her father made a deal with me, long before he made a deal with the Admiral and Nick Tate. I sent you to get her. One job, after all I’ve done for you, Jackson Barlow. One job and you fucked it up. So if you can’t do your job properly”—he pulls a gun out of his coat pocket and points it at the ground—”we’ll do it for you. Madrid is already on her way.”
“You’re gonna have Madrid kill Sasha?”
“If I wanted her dead, Jax, I’d have killed her a long time ago. I need her alive. Everyone needs her alive or we lose our only remaining path to victory.”
I have no choice but accept the truth in front of me. He’s spelling it out, clear as day.
“Put the pieces together, Jax. You’re smart. You know what I’m doing. You’ve always known, you just wanted to be the hero so bad you were blinded. But you’re just as mixed up in this as I am, son. You know the only way to defeat the Company is using their own weapons.”
I just stare at him. And then I shake my head slowly. “No, Max. I’ve never believed that. And if that’s your endgame—to use Sasha to make those killer kids like the Company did—well, you’re on your own.”
“Either you’re in or you’re not, Jax.” He raises the gun and points it at my chest. “And since you just admitted you’re out, then I have no choice, do I?”
The deafening crack of a gunshot hits my ears the same time the bullet hits my chest and the pain is so intense, I barely register the fight that follows. I expect it to be over soon, but I can hear Adam screaming between bursts of gunfire.
Get up, Jax! But that’s not Adam, it’s me. I’m screaming at myself to get up. I roll over on my side, my whole body on fire with the agony of taking a bullet to the chest. I reach under my jacket for my weapon and open my eyes just in time to see Adam go reeling to the side, hitting the ground face first.
Max walks towards him, his gun raised, his mouth moving a mile a minute. I hear nothing but gunshots as they echo through my mind.
He set me up. All these years, that fucker set me up. I spent my whole adult life seeking revenge. For what? So that this asshole could swoop in and take over what’s left of the Company?
I force my upper body up, propping my weight with my elbows, and hold the gun out in front of me. I don’t waste time telling Max to stop or put up his hands.
I just shoot him the only way he deserves. In the back.
He stumbles forward one step, squeezing the trigger on his gun out of reflex, and then falls down on top of Adam.
I close my eyes, giving myself this one moment to let the sting of betrayal wash over me. And then I roll back on the ground, blindly reach for my phone, and press the speed-dial app for 911.