“Why the fuck did you do that?” Rafe shouted at Jax. He nudged Cleft’s body out of the way and slammed the door before turning the lock. He set me on my feet then grabbed a chair and wedged it underneath the knob.
I stood frozen in place, arms wrapped around myself. I couldn’t rip my gaze from Cleft. He stared at me with unseeing eyes, his head at an odd angle, as if he’d fallen and broken his neck. Blood pooled from underneath his brown hair, and the edges of my vision started to go red again. The gunshot rang in my ears, a continuous bang that muffled all sound, even the thump of my heartbeat. I felt it at my throat, my temples, pounding through my chest.
“Alex.” Rafe shook my shoulders, and my attention snapped to him. “That’s it. Look at me.” But his worried gaze swerved toward the back of the room.
I turned and found Jax fingering one of the oversized portraits of his mother. He lowered his arm, glanced at Cleft, and his face went pale.
“He deserved it.” His jaw slackened, as if he couldn’t believe he’d pulled the trigger.
“Jax!” Rafe shouted as footsteps thundered from the tunnel. “Punch in the fucking code!”
Blinking with a jolt, Jax dragged his gaze from Cleft and hurried to the door that stood between us and freedom. His fingers trembled as he entered a string of numbers, but nothing happened. “Fuck!” He rested his head against the door, closed his eyes for a few moments, then tried again.
Someone banged on the door leading to the hall. “What’s going on in there? Cleft?”
Rafe and I exchanged a glance, and his fingers threaded through mine. The doorknob jiggled.
“Hurry,” Rafe told Jax in a loud whisper.
More beeping. More cursing. More footsteps.
“Open up!” That sounded like Brock, and the consequent body-slam that shook the door supported my suspicion. I jumped, and Rafe and I backed toward Jax, who wrenched the heavy door open. We scrambled up the darkened staircase, but Jax stalled at the bottom to close and lock the entrance.
“Can they get through there?” Rafe asked.
“No. Door’s made of steel and no one but me and Cleft knows the code…knew the code.” He slumped toward the bottom step. “I killed him…”
“Get the fuck up,” Rafe said, taking a step downward. “You can have a pity party later.”
Jax’s features hardened in determination, and he began climbing the stairs. He squeezed past us and opened another door. The three of us entered what must be the basement of the house. Decades worth of furniture and art cluttered the space between the slab walls.
Rafe slid the hood off his head and shrugged out of the jacket. “Can you get that fucking thing off her neck now?”
As I pulled the hoodie on, covering my breasts, Jax shuffled through several keys until he found the one he was looking for. I tilted my head back, baring my neck. The lock clicked over and the choker fell free, dropping to the floor where the chain pooled around the collar.
I drew in a deep breath, but it didn’t quite fill my lungs. “Can we get out of here now?” I wouldn’t be satisfied until this place was behind us. I didn’t know if I could handle getting this far just to have Lucas toss us back into that tunnel. I thought about the women still trapped down there and shuddered.
“What about the others?” Rafe asked, as if he’d read my mind.
“We’ll figure it out after we get the fuck outta here.” Jax strode toward another door, and we climbed another flight of stairs. Entering the ground floor of the estate was like stepping into an alternate reality. The decaying brick and stone, the dusty rooms, the darkness—all of it was gone, replaced by open spaces that allowed the sunlight to stream through the windows. My bare feet glided across the smooth hardwood in the dining room.
I’d been here before, sitting at that very table with Lucas as he wined and dined me. A whole world of horrors had existed at my feet, several layers below the earth, while he’d attempted to work beyond my indifference with his charming smile and conversation.
Jax led us through a French door, but the alarm started its countdown. Cursing under his breath, he punched in a code, silencing the beeping with a sigh of relief. Sunlight hit my face, and I nearly gasped at the warmth, the blinding brightness. I lifted my chin toward the sun and closed my eyes for a few seconds. A slight breeze ruffled my hair. It was almost too much, after being confined in darkness for so long. Rafe tugged on my hand, and we padded over the grass, like silk underfoot.
“My van’s parked over there,” Jax said, pointing to a shaded spot between two trees just off the driveway. We changed direction and Rafe came to an abrupt stop, his attention locked on a gas generator standing a few feet from the house.
“Does that thing supply power to the tunnel?”
“Yeah, why?”
Rafe cranked his head, apparently searching for something, and his gaze landed on a shed. “I have an idea.”
I swallowed hard, remembering what happened the last time he had an idea. He pulled me along after him, and Jax scuttled to catch up.
“What’re you doing, man? I just killed my cousin down there. The old man is gonna be on our asses soon. We need to get the fuck outta here.”
Rafe tried the knob on the shed without success. “Stand back,” he warned, letting go of my hand. I retreated, and he studied the door for a few seconds before sending a swift kick below the knob. After four more strikes, all impacting the same spot, the frame cracked at the latch, and Rafe pushed open the broken door.
“Dude, what the hell are you doing?” Jax followed him inside.
“Looking for something,” he mumbled.
I pulled the jacket tighter around my body and cast a furtive glance toward the driveway that ended at the garage, expecting to find Lucas’ black SUV pulling in. The next minute passed in an eternity, and I heard nothing but my rapid breaths mixing with the subtle chirp of birds and passing of vehicles.
They exited the shed, playing tug-of-war with a gas can.
“Don’t be stupid!” Jax shouted. “If you blow the power, those girls will never be seen again. They’ll just move the operation elsewhere, and the old man will lay low, protected by his fucking cop buddies until it blows over.” He yanked the jug from Rafe, and fluid sloshed inside. “We need some time to figure this out.”
Rafe swiped a hand through the air. “I’m not fucking kidding. Hand it over.”
“No way!” Jax put the jug back in the shed. “What are you thinking?”
“He’s gonna pay for this! That’s what I’m thinking. He killed Nik…that bastard fucking hurt Alex.”
“It’s always about your lying whore, isn’t it?”
The harsh words punched me in the gut, and Rafe pummeled Jax in the nose. They tumbled to the ground, Rafe wailing on his face, unleashing blow after blow as if he couldn’t stop.
As if he wouldn’t.
“Stop it!” I screamed.
Jax pushed against his shoulder and raised a knee. He squirmed from beneath Rafe by a few inches, and they rolled. But Rafe was too irate.
Out of control.
His face scrunched in exertion, blanketed with sweat. Rafe pinned him to the ground again, his hand reaching for the gun in Jax’s waistband. He pulled it free and held the barrel to his head, then pressed an arm across his throat. “You did this.”
“Rafe!” I grasped his back, but he applied steady force to Jax’s neck, and he wasn’t letting up. He was too far gone.
“You’re killing him. Please, Rafe! He got us out!” Biting back a sob, I tried pulling on his shoulders, but they were like rocks under my hands. “Rafe!”
With a roar, Rafe sprang to his feet, breath coming fast and hard, his body trembling from the surge of adrenaline.
Jax gasped for breath, fingers clawing his throat, feet kicking the ground. He rolled to his side and spasmed with coughing fits.
“Her brother raped her!” Rafe waved the gun in the air. “Those fucking assholes in there violated her. I fucking violated her. Don’t you ever call her a whore again, do you understand me?”
Jax pushed to his knees and stared up through his shaggy hair, the tips tinged with the blood dripping from his nose. “I got it,” he said, pulling his T-shirt off. “She’s not a whore.” He bunched the shirt and pressed it to his nose.
“She’s fucking mine, and I’ll kill anyone who touches her again.”
“I’m on your side. I got her out, didn’t I?”
“Which is the only reason you’re still alive.”
Rafe’s words seemed to pummel Jax more than his fists had. His shoulders drooped. “Won’t happen again.”
“You let this happen,” Rafe said, jabbing a finger at Jax’s defeated form. “You could have stopped it, but you didn’t. You let them fucking beat the shit out of her.”
“She lied to you,” Jax said, wheezing air between his lips. “She made you go crazy in that prison. I was there, and that’s all I knew. That’s all I had to go on. I had to do it.”
“You didn’t have to do anything.”
“This isn’t the place to talk about this, man. We need to get the fuck outta here.”
“I’m not leaving until Perrone comes back.” Rafe jammed the gun into his waistband.
“You’re not the only one who wants payback. Get into the damn van. We’ll figure something out.”
“And go where?
“We have a safe house, you and I. Money. No one else knows about it.”
Rafe frowned. “You could’ve gone off on your own and no one would be the wiser. Why’d you get us out of there?”
“Because you’re under my fucking skin the way she’s under yours.” Jax stomped past us and headed toward the van.