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Chapter Twenty-Eight

Ronnie

D eep rumbling thunder ran through the earth as dark clouds swarmed above. My breath hitched with each throb of my lungs, my stomach turning and twisting, the contents already spewed out to the side of me when Jacob threw me down onto the floor. His swift kick to my stomach had my throat retching and body burning with feverish pain.

I heard the voices of the Russian men, followed by Jacob, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

I knew my consciousness was dancing on the edge of the darkness, fluttering shadows passing over my vision. But I was aware.

I was aware that I was helpless on the floor. I was aware that Jacob was sending off his Russian allies. And I was aware of the Zippo flicking open and closed in his hands.

Jax was going to burn.

Dirt and stones dug beneath my nails in a desperate attempt to drag myself toward the house, toward the man chained up inside, toward my most important person. The blurred image of him chained to that radiator, body soaked in gasoline, eyes burning with frustration… it was haunting me.

I couldn’t let this happen, I could—

“Get up, you adultering bitch,” Jacob growled, hot pain radiating down my back as he hoisted me from the dirt. My knees were dragged beneath me, but I no longer had the strength to prop myself up, only helped by Jacob’s thick hand around my neck. My body protested in pain, but even screams were beyond me as a weak whimper slipped from my lips.

“I want you to look,” Jacob growled, shoving my head toward the house. It was blurred, swaying with my vision in front of me, but even beyond my incapability to see, I could tell that beautiful old farm house apart from any other. The homely, cherished home that had stood for half a century was facing me.

“Jacob…,” I groaned. “…don’t… please….”

Jacob let out a harrowing laugh, the thing crisp and crackling like a rabid hyena. “I think I’ve had enough of your begging. It’s gotten old.”

I heard the heavy clink of the lighter flipping open and the whispering breath of the flame.

“Say goodbye.”

He tossed the lighter.

The heavy clunk of the thing landing on the porch was but a pebble on the surface of a lake. Such a small, tiny sound, but the effect stretching on for eons.

I couldn’t say how much I wanted that moment to freeze. To stop. Even if it was forever, never moving forward. Never letting this kind of future happen.

But that idea went up in the flames. They surged like a titanic wave bursting up the side of the house and capturing the entire outside frame within seconds. The old farm house was coated in bright amber light, the windows bursting glass shards and the wooden panels blackening to ash.

“No…,” I moaned, shaking my body loose from Jacob’s grasp. His hand released me, and I fell onto my stomach. Pain wasn’t even on my radar as my hands lunged forward, nails digging into the hard dirt and with strength I didn’t have left, I pulled myself forward, the hot heat searing into my skin. “No!” I cried, my eyes dried and burning as I stared at the bonfire. “NO! JAX! JAX!”

Another window smashed, and I felt the spray of glass shards splintering across my back. “ JAX! PLEASE! JAX!”

Too wrapped in my desperation, I didn’t even notice the boots coming up on my sides. It wasn’t until the thick hand clamped down hard on my shoulder, and with a heavy shove, flipped me onto my back. My breath was thrown from my lungs on a choking sob, as I looked up to see Jacob standing above me, gun aimed to my head.

I didn’t care.

I couldn’t.

“Let me go, Jacob!” I cried. “Let me save him.”

Disgust. That was the only emotion on Jacob’s face. Not pity or even an ounce of sympathy.

“He’ll be burnt to a crisp soon,” Jacob taunted. “I’m just putting a squealing pig out of its misery.”

He cocked back the gun.

“You’re a monster.” I sobbed, the cold hard truth hitting me in the chest. I knew Jacob was nasty. Knew he was corrupt. Knew he was cruel. But I hadn’t realized how little humanity he had in him. If he could even be considered human any longer. “I always thought I was the weak… the pathetic one. That’s who you made me out to be.” I coughed, black smoke seeping into my lungs. “But I’m not. I’m not weak. I’m strong. You’re the pathetic one, Jacob. I was just like you at first. I thought everything was Jackson’s fault. I blamed him for all my problems. But that’s not right. It was my own life. They were my own problems. Sure, Jackson had a part to play, but I can’t blame him because I was too much of a coward to get out of your shadow. Too much of a coward to fight for what I truly wanted. Too much of a coward to risk what I had for something worth so much more… That’s on me.”

“And this.” I stared my eyes down the barrel of the gun. “This is you just casting yourself into the dark. You’re not stepping out from Jackson’s shadow. You’re thriving in it. And you’ll never change. You’ll be the pathetic, second-rate man you’ve always made yourself to be.”

If what I had thought on Jacob’s face before was madness, then what I was looking at now must have been pure evil. The darkness in his eyes, the burning torch of the house against his dull skin and the curved snarl on his lips… it was the devil himself.

“Say hello to your lover in the afterlife, bitch .”

BANG.

* * *

C old, wet rain pattered against my cheek.

The burning hot pain across my chest, the taste of metal in my mouth, and the dry, crisp gasps of air snatched from the smoked filled sky, none of it belonged to a gunshot.

The droplets of moisture fell harder, clinging to the soot and ash and blood dried and burned into my skin. My hand reached for my chest, the dampness of my clean clothes coldbeneath my fingertips. I was… okay?

I heard Jacob’s bellow before my mind could comprehend what had happened. The heavy thump of the gun hitting me in the side of the hip woke my brain before the metal contraption collapsed onto the ground next to me.

My eyes tried to focus on what was going on around me, the blurred, distorted flickers of light and movement unfamiliar and unnerving. The cry of thunder roaring to life around me blocked out my hearing. I was still sprawled on the ground, feeling its heavy rumble grow closer and closer and—

Wait!

That wasn’t thunder.

My head lolled against my shoulder as I saw the familiar glint of metal, rubber, and leather as the storm of dust was thrown into the air. Bike after bike came skidding to a stop, huge men in leather storming the grounds like a SWAT team as they took to the ground.

Heavy, leather boots echoed from a distance as they grew closer to my face. A dark shadow loomed over my face, words being mumbled over my head. His face looked desperate, but whose face it was I wasn’t sure.

Until like a switch, I heard my ears pop.

“JAX!” Hunter bellowed in my face. “WHERE’S JAX?”

I felt my heart drop. The heat of the fire growing into a burning sting across my body as I became all too aware. The rain against my skin were the tears I couldn’t shed, as with the softest, weakest cry I could manage, the words crackled from my lips. “…Hou…se…”

Hunter disappeared.

I heard Wolf’s deep Russian baritone. Mint’s sharp yell. And others.

They all were screaming Hunter’s name. But he was gone.

The house screamed and roared as I heard wood collapsing, and what I assumed was the door swinging open.

“Shit!” Mint’s voice snapped above my head.

“That crazy motherfucker!” Wolf bellowed at the top of his lungs. “Get her out of here!”

“No!” I whimpered, feeling the reprieve of heat as Mint dropped down next to my head, another huge shadow covering my face. The rain against my skin still stung, but his broad shoulders shielded from its harsh shower. “Jax… I need….”

“It’s okay.” Mint’s hand touched the top of my head. “Hunter’s gonna go get him. He’ll be fine. They both will.”

He didn’t sound confident.

“Mint… plea…”

“It’ll be fi—”

Another roar burst from the house, wood creaking and protesting as roof tiles shattered against the floor. The whole thing began to tilt to one side, the pillars of the porch splintering and spluttering black, heavy ash.

I didn’t get a chance to say anything else as Mint’s arms scooped up underneath me and the rain pelted my skin again. I was sure I was crying in pain, but I wasn’t paying attention to myself. All I could hear was the screaming rumble of the house as the fifty-year-old, beautiful home began to collapse in on itself. I heard the shouts of brothers calling for their members, and even my own screams were despondent to the sound of the falling building.

Because I knew.

Neither of them were coming out.