Page 112 of From Hell

39

JAXON

From my car, I watch the scene unfold.

What the fuck is she doing?

I’m torn between striding over there and shooting everyone, including her dickhead cousin, and taking her away.…

And duty.

After I blacked out, the Ripper took over. I know he did because my clothes stank of gasoline, and my knuckles were raw and bruised, bleeding when I woke up in my car, parked outside Berners House.

Just like I did outside Laine’s house the night of the fire. All of the letters he’d ever sent her were strewn over the passenger seat. Despite his demands to have control, he has a hard time keeping hold of it. He wasn’t meant to front all the time, and there are things I deal with that bore him. Even with my offer of giving him everything, he has yet to take it.

“Did you hurt her?” I seethed at him. She’s the last thing I remember before he took over. Usually, we try not to communicate. I do my very best to pretend he doesn’t exist, keeping parts of my life hidden from him even now. But, like with Addison, I needed to know.

Did you know that you dream about her often? That’s how I knew you were hiding her,he chuckled.

“Did you fucking touch her?” I raged at him.

She’s the reason why I signed the paperwork accepting the job at Mitre on our behalf. You thought you’d kept her from me, but I was just enjoying the game. I sent her letters.

“I saw the letters.” I felt his callous smile on my lips then, and when I glanced at the rearview mirror, he was looking back at me, his eyes sinner black.Don’t get mad at me, brother. I’m not the one who wants our birdie dead. And don’t fucking worry. I fixed our little problem.

I didn’t get to ask what he’d fucking done this time because an unknown matte black SUV pulled in, and to my fucking surprise, Laine got out with two men. I recognized them as cousins of hers, both well-known in London for their unsavory business dealings.

It’s obvious why she’s here.

“What did you do?” I demanded, but he’d already slipped back into the depths of my subconscious.

Until the moment when my father kneels before my little fox, her gun pointed blankly at his head. Until Shepherd appears and shoots her idiotic fucking cousin. Only then did my alter, Jack, emerge like a raging bull, his untapped fury spiraling through every part of my body.

So I let him out. Consciously. Something I’m starting to do more often. If he’s known about Laine for a while, and he hasn’t killed her yet then it’s likely he’s not going to.

And I need him.

But we’re too far away to stop that bastard Shepherd smashing her with the butt of his gun, knocking her out cold.

Then we’re running, gun in hand, executing anyone who stands in our way.

“Why do you fucking care?” I exhale between kills. “You tried to kill her.”

He laughs, darkly,That was before when she liked you better than me. She likes it when I come and watch her. Maybe you were right. She belongs to us both, brother.

He’s not my brother, but I don’t correct him. For the first time, we agree on one thing…

She belongs to us both.

Laine is all that matters. I’ll think about whether sharing her with my twisted darkness is a sane thing to do later.

The first time I found her, I kept my distance. When he found her, I stayed away to keep her safe from me, and ultimately him, but failed. Now, leaving her would be impossible. Bullets roar through the air, people are running, screaming. There’s blood all over me, but I don’t fucking care. She’s mine.

Ours.

“Where is she?” I ask over and over to the men who haven’t yet died, but I know where she is, where my father has taken her.

To the altar.