Page 26

I shook my head, my brain struggling to process what happened. “Why did he want to kill us?”

“Fucked if I know.” Jaxson dragged a hand down his face.

Fighting my swirling emotions, I eased back from Jaxson and tried to stand. But the adrenaline that had kept me upright suddenly drained away, and my legs wobbled.

"Whoa, easy." Jaxson grabbed the car door, hauling himself upright with a grimace. As he reached for me, his eyes locked onto my bloody sleeve. "Jesus! You're bleeding."

"It's fine," I said quickly, though the burning sting screamed otherwise.

"That doesn't look fine." His soft tone was laced with concern. "Let me see. "

"Jaxson, I'm fine. We have bigger problems." I gestured toward Eddie's body. "We just killed a police officer."

"No, we didn't. I did." He picked up the gun carefully, one finger through the trigger guard to preserve evidence. "It was self-defense. He was going to execute us, remember?"

"I know, but . . ." A thought hit me like a thunderbolt. "Oh my god! Do you think he was working with the bastards who shot down my plane?"

Jaxson’s eyes hardened. "I'd bet my ass he was." He glared at the body on the ground.

My skin crawled. “But he’s a cop!” I whispered.

“A crooked cop,” he snapped. “I can’t fucking believe it. We’ve worked together for six years.”

“Jesus.”

“This proves we can’t trust anyone.” Jaxson said. “Except my brothers.”

I wanted to argue but the truth was lying three feet away, bleeding onto the dirt.

I could’ve died. Right here. And no one would’ve ever known that an officer of the law did it . . . murdered us.

Eddie looked so normal, like any other man on the street. Not someone who could do cold blooded murder. What made him like that? No, not what . . . who? Jaxson had said it was B. But I hadn’t heard that anyone had figured out who she was.

I leveled my gaze on Jaxson. “So have you worked out who B is?” I asked.

Jaxson froze. “Fuck!” The word exploded from him.

I jerked back.

“Whitney!” Panic tore across his face.

“What?” I stammered.

“My brother is in serious fucking trouble.” He yanked open the back door. “Onyx, in.”

Onyx leaped into the back seat and Jaxson slammed the door shut behind her.

He swiveled to me. “Quick. Get in the car. ”

“But . . .” I glanced at Eddie’s bloody body. “We can’t just leave him here.”

Jaxson’s expression turned as hard as stone. “Hell yes, we can.”

“But—”

“Tory,” he snapped, cutting me off. “We gotta go. Move.”

The edge in Jaxson’s voice sliced through me like a blade, but the thought of leaving Eddie behind, despite what he’d done, twisted something deep in my gut. I never left a man behind.

Jaxson didn’t wait for me to argue. As he slid into the driver’s seat, I raced around to the passenger side and jumped in.

Onyx shifted forward, her sharp gaze locked on the road ahead. She barked, sharp and urgent and I just about jumped out of my skin.

Shadows flickered in the distance, moving fast, racing past the smoking wreckage of Jaxson’s car.

“Oh fuck!” I gasped. “They’re coming! Quick!”

“Hang on!” Jaxson yelled. He threw the car into reverse, twisting in his seat to look past Onyx. One hand gripped the wheel while the other steadied himself on the seat, and the engine roared as he floored it.

I pressed my uninjured hand to the roof for balance as the cruiser jolted violently over the uneven dirt track, hurtling backward.

Three figures chased after us with their silhouettes backlit by the flickering flames of the wreckage.

My heart slammed against my ribs. “Hurry, Jaxson! Go!”

“I am!” he cried as the tires spat gravel into the darkness.

Sparks pinged off the cruiser’s hood.

“Shit! They’re shooting at us.” Panic surged through me as I shielded my face with my arm.

A bullet punched clean through the windscreen and out the back window, barely missing Onyx. I screamed as a spiderweb of cracks exploded across the glass, spraying shards across my lap and arms.

“Get down!” Jaxson yelled.

A deafening clang rang out as another round struck the roof. I yanked on my seatbelt with fumbling fingers and dropped low, curling over the seat edge.

The cruiser bucked again, bouncing uncontrollably as Jaxson floored it, desperate to outrun the hail of bullets.

Finally, the gunfire faded and I sat up.

“Hang on,” Jaxson yelled, and with a sharp jerk of the wheel, he spun the car in a brutal arc. The tires screamed, fishtailing wildly as we whipped around. My body slammed into the passenger door, and a white-hot bolt of pain tore through my injured arm.

I bit down a cry as my breath caught in my throat.

Jaxson straightened the wheel in one smooth motion, now facing forward, and slammed on the gas. The engine roared like a beast unleashed as the cruiser tore down the dirt track at breakneck speed.

Wind howled through the bullet hole in the windscreen as I clutched the door handle, swallowing back the agony burning through my arm.

The world outside blurred as trees, shadows, and everything else smeared into chaos.

The car skidded and fishtailed, and a blinding cloud of dust and gravel exploded around us.

“Jaxson, slow down.”

Branches clawed at the sides of the cruiser as the headlights slashed through the dark in jagged beams, illuminating the narrow, bumpy path ahead.

But Jaxson didn’t let up. He drove like a man possessed . . . focused, furious, and absolutely determined to get us out alive.

“Where the hell did you learn to drive like this?” I blurted with both awe and panic fighting for attention in my mind.

“Chasing bad guys.” Although his voice was clipped, a hint of amusement crept in.

I looked over my shoulder, trying to see through the swirling dust behind us. “I think you lost them.”

“Agreed.”

“Then you can slow down.”

“Not yet.”

My knuckles ached as I gripped my seat, fighting to stay steady.

The cruiser hit a deep rut, and my head smacked against the roof. “Shit!”

“Sorry,” Jaxson said, wrestling the wheel to keep the tires on the tracks while pressing the accelerator even harder.

From the back seat, Onyx let out a sharp bark and her claws scratched the upholstery as she tried to keep her footing. She growled low, her ears pinned back as her intense gaze flicked between the front windshield and the rear window.

“Even Onyx thinks you’re insane!” I winced as another jolt rattled through the car.

“She’s okay,” Jaxson muttered, yet his focus remained locked on the road ahead.

Onyx barked again, and she leaned into the side door as if bracing for the next jolt.

The speed was dizzying.

“Jaxson! Slow down before you kill us!”

He shot me a quick glance, one brow raised. For a tense moment, he said nothing, then finally he eased off the gas and the roaring engine softened to a low growl.

“Thank you,” I breathed, slumping back in my seat. I cradled my wounded hand in the other as the pain radiated through my swollen finger. Yet the pain from my dislocated finger was barely noticeable compared to the searing burn of the bullet wound.

“You okay?” he asked, his eyes flicking to me for a heartbeat.

The intensity in his gaze stole what little breath I had left.

What the hell is wrong with me?

I nodded, swallowing hard. “Yeah. But seriously, what else is going to happen tonight?”

“Don’t ask,” he muttered, clenching his jaw. His grip tightened on the wheel, and his knuckles bulged white like he was grinding the tension straight into the steering column.

I gave him a look. “Well, now I have to ask. What else?”

“We just need to get to Angelsong,” he said. “Okay?”

“No, Jaxson. It’s not okay.” My frustration bubbled over. “What the hell is going on?”

“I told you.”

“You said your brother was in trouble. But why?” I turned toward him and winced as the seatbelt dug into my bullet wound.

“Because the person Eddie was working with will go after him.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“I just am.” He turned sharply, launching the cruiser off the dirt track and onto a narrow road.

I gasped as my body slammed into the side door, banging my raw wound again. “Jesus. Just slow the fuck down.”

“Okay. Okay.” He eased off the gas again, and as we cruised along the bumpy road, the trees that blurred past us cast long, thin shadows in the moonlight.

“Jaxson, tell me what’s going on. I’m not a fucking idiot.”

“I know you’re not!” he snapped, though it sounded like he was angrier at himself than at me.

I shifted in my seat, wincing as pain flared in my arm. I glanced down at the bloodied sleeve, trying to ignore the sharp, pulsing burn from the bullet wound and the throbbing in my dislocated finger.

We’d already been through hell.

But the way Jaxson clenched his jaw as he strangled the steering wheel told me he was bracing for more hell to come.

And I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.