“They’re gone,” Jax’s soft southern voice announced.

I let out a shaky breath, my head throbbing in my hands as I dropped it yet again. Pain radiated through my chest, and I felt like I was balancing myself on the edge of an endless hole just at the edges of my feet, leaning over it, my elbows on my knees, my hands holding back my hair as all I could do was stare down at it.

“Are you sure you didn’t want to say goodbye?” he asked, the sound of his voice blurred as if I were deep underwater as he propped his slender hip against the door. His belt knocked softly against the wooden doorframe, and just at the corner of my vision, I caught the action of one of his boots hooking around the back of his other ankle.

I felt like I was going to be sick.

“How am I supposed to stop them, Jax?” I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth, trying to fight the urge to gag as my stomach curled, threatening to spill its contents. “What am I supposed to do when Ash doesn’t want to fight anymore and Wolf is forced to throw her to the wolves to protect the club? How am I supposed to stand in the way of that?”

“Fuck, I dunno, Anna.” Jax sighed, unhooking his feet as he let his boot drop to the floor, crossing the wooden panels to drop down next to me. His heat felt humid as it touched my cool, goose bumped skin covered in a sheen of cold sweat. “You’ve done so much shit, I’m sure you could have thought of something. Sitting here like this, scared out of your mind, isn’t like you.”

It wasn’t like me. I knew that. And the fear that was beginning to chew through my stomach lining was threatening to have me fire off the nearest gun into my head just to stop this horrible, overwhelming anxiety. What if they don’t come back?

I knew what they went to do; I couldn’t have any part in it. And I knew that, if everything went according to plan, Ash wouldn’t come back. And if it didn’t... neither would Wolf.

And if Wolf came back without Ash... I couldn’t.

I pressed my hand to my stomach, my finger’s numb against the softness of the flesh there.

“You know Wolf didn’t have a choice, right?” Jax reached out his hand, flinching as it covered my own, his skin like a furnace as he felt the depth of the chill eating through my core.

My stomach heaved, and I lunged from Jax’s side and raced for the toilet, barely making it before I threw up everything with horrible retching.

Fuck, not now.

Jax quickly ran clear from the room, and for a second I thought the bastard had abandoned me. Despite being slightly annoyed, I was mostly relieved, because I didn’t want him sticking around and making assumptions. But then he returned with a glass of water. Why did the bastard have to be so nice to women?

“Hey, are you all right?” Jax’s concerned voice had my defenses up as his dark eyes traveled up and down my body. I knew he would see a pale, shivering girl heaving up all over the toilet in the late hours of the morning. The same hours I had managed to hide away from Wolf these past two weeks.

“You don’t look all right,” Jax quickly concluded his own answer as he dropped to his haunches, reaching with his hand, the only part of his skin, other than his face and dick—yes, I had seen it before and yes, it was big, though not as big as Wolf’s—that was spared of ink, and placed the rough, calloused skin on my forehead. “No fever, but why are you—”

I saw the pupils of his eyes dilate, knowing he had managed to separate what was my fear for Wolf and Ash and what wasn’t. He opened his mouth, and my heart leaped with adrenaline. “Hey, are you—”

I would like to say Jax simply stopped there and his mind got distracted by some kind of bimbo or club slut. But although his mind was distracted and I was saved, it was because of something much worse than Jax finding out the truth.

Gunfire.

* * *

The first screams started only seconds after the first round of bullets went off.

“Fuck,” Jax hissed, his hand immediately reaching out to wrap around my arm and pull me to stand. My stomach rolled with the fast movement, but I didn’t have the luxury to pay attention to it as I had to focus on staying upright while Jax dragged me out of the bathroom.

I tried to pull out of his grip, but it was too strong, and all I did was jerk him, forcing him to turn and look at me.

“Let me put my boots on,” I argued, pulling free this time as he let me rush over to my red boots. I forewent my socks and ignored the ache in my ankle and hand as I forced my feet into them and did up the zips.

The next thing I did after that was head straight back toward Kay’s side of the bed, reaching my hand deep into the drawer until I felt the cold press of metal against my fingertips.

Thank fuck for Kay, I thought as I pulled the small Glock 19loose from the clasps holding it to the roof of her drawer. I almost dropped the gun as the metal slipped on the cold sweat on my hands, my shaking fingers unable to keep my grip. I took a deep breath and gripped the cool handle as firmly as I could with both hands, fitting it into my smaller hands. Though it wasn’t as comfortable as my slightly smaller CW9 might have been, I more than preferred the fifteen-magazine round, outdoing my own gun tucked into the bedside drawer on my side of the bed I shared with Wolf on the lower floor of other side of the compound, at only six rounds per magazine.

I quickly dug through the other drawers in hopes for a second magazine but found my luck ran out. I turned back to Jax, who had his head out the door, leaning ever so slightly around each corner as he checked for enemies.

I ignored my throbbing foot and made sure to crouch lower against the opposite doorframe, giving me a wider view over Jax’s shoulder.

He put his thumb and finger out, making the universal phone sign and putting it up by his ear then shaking it at me with a silent raised brow. I shook my head. My mobile still sat on my purse on the chair in my room, where I had put my clothes before I got my shower, and then it had been the last thing on my mind up until now.

He bared his teeth in annoyance, letting me know he had no phone either.

He nodded when the coast was clear, and after another quick check, I did the same. Jax gestured me with his thumb across the hallway where Hunter’s room was. Adair had started kindergarten recently, since Mallory insisted on Adair interacting with other kids his own age, but that had made Mallory come hang out at the club in the mornings, so I knew for a fact she was here. Whether or not she was in her room, which she usually wasn’t unless Hunter was here, too, was anybody’s guess.

Jax dropped his shoulders low and quietened his feet as he moved from the doorway and across the hall, staying vigilant on his side of the hallway as I kept an eye on mine. Once he made it to the other side, he waited for my all-clear before he quietly opened the door to Hunter’s room. Jax dipped into the doorway, giving himself good cover before gesturing me across.

I didn’t linger in the doorway like Jax did, however. I made my way straight into their bedroom, my eyes going to the double and single bed tucked into the corner as I searched every inch of the room.

Walking into the bathroom, the sight of the toilet made me want to go for a second round of hurling, and I felt myself gag before I managed to turn away when I found the room empty.

I headed back out to Jax, shaking my head as he flashed his teeth again, both of us knowing his best friend’s wife was downstairs.

Just as the thought crossed my mind, we heard another round of gunfire go off and screams and what sounded like a door being kicked in. Jax bolted out the doorframe, and I managed to lunge for him, just in time to catch him by the belt loops and drag his ass back into the doorway, biting my lip before I hurled on him in punishment. He turned to me, his eyes flashing with impatience and rage, but I shook my head at him, knowing we couldn’t rush in without knowing the situation.

Jax took a breath and gave me a stiff nod before I let him go. But when I went to go first, thinking the cooler-headed of the two of us should lead, that’s where Jax put his foot down. He pushed me behind him before taking the lead out of the doorway and into the hall.

We followed it until we came to the stairs, and thankfully, we had corners and crevices in many of the walls, providing good cover as we made our way down the steps, one by one, pressed into the wall until I saw a flash of red hair.

Mallory sat on her knees, her hands over her head in the center of the clubroom floor. I couldn’t see her face, but her shaking shoulders were enough to let me know what was going on. I also saw Pretty and Mint sitting in front of her, their bodies providing a barrier between them and what I guessed was the armed enemy. After taking another step down, I managed to peer over Jax’s tall shoulder and spotted Baby, Sweets, and Ember huddled on Pretty’s other side.

I didn’t see Kay, and I knew Bell was at school. Everybody else was out, as mentioned in the phone call Wolf received earlier. The boys had wanted to call the kids and the women back to the clubhouse, but Wolf had forbidden it after Lamb warned that tipping them off might be a bad idea since they must have had men on all of them.

I held my breath against my body’s wishes as Jax wound his hand out behind him to keep tabs on where I was. His hand reached to my arm, and as he took a risky step down to the edge of our cover, he flattened his palm, stopping me from following him.

I saw Mint’s body stiffen from Jax’s movement, and Jax stepped back. Out of the corner of his eye, though it was barely visible from his firm posture, Mint had noticed us.

I breathed a sigh of relief, the wooden plank on the stair creaking ever so softly underneath my weight.

Until I realized that it wasn’t my step that creaked.

I only had enough time to turn around before I saw the barrel of the gun.

Bang.