Page 85 of Storm and Tempest

“So you stayed?”

“I tried to retire, just in case stepping aside as the figurehead of the company was going to work. Tried to put someone else in my position. They wanted you to quit the Bureau and take over the company, but I told them you’d never do that.”

“Why me?”

His dad shrugged. “They always think in terms of leverage. I’d have a reason to want you alive, and cooperating. You would have a reason to want the same for me. That meant they could use us against each other.” He winced. “I didn’t let them do that. I pushed you away, and then I let you go.”

Jax might owe his father a thank-you. “You protected all of us, even though it meant you were trapped.”

“You have a family now, Son. You know that’s how it works.”

Jax stared at his father, his eyes burning.

From the living room, Maizie yelled, “Jax!”

Ramon rushed in. “We’ve got incoming.”

Jax pushed off the counter. “Gun safe is in my closet.”

Zeyla yelled, “It’s that team from the hospital!”

His dad backed up so fast he nearly toppled off the stool. “They found me here. They know I came to see you, and they’re going to kill all of us.”

Maizie rushed in, clutching her laptop, with Zeyla right behind her. “They’re approaching the house from all sides, and they’re armed.”

Jax nodded. “We can’t stay here.”

“We can’t get out.” Zeyla’s voice shook. “Not without someone getting hurt. And digging in to defend ourselves will only prolong it. They’re going to kill all of us.”

“So what do we do?!” His father’s gaze darted around. “I’m sorry. I didn’t come here to die or get all of you killed.”

“Has to be why they wanted you to find him.”

Jax glanced at Ramon. “So we could all die?”

Ramon only shrugged.

Jax looked at Maizie. “Grab Jolene.”

“The RV?”

He nodded. “The RV. It’s our only way out.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Jax held the wheel with both hands, a vest on just in case they fired through the windows. Everyone else hunkered down in the back. He hit the gas and let the RPMs build before he put the rig in gear and released the emergency brake.

The RV lurched forward and splintered the garage door as it burst onto the driveway and slammed into Ramon’s car.

Jax held the gas pedal down, moving the compact off the drive until he had enough clearance to pull between it and the pizza delivery vehicle at the curb.

The side window shattered.

Jax ducked down, holding on as he turned the wheel in an arc, and they almost toppled over. The giant RV roared down the street, and he blew the stop sign at the corner. With no other traffic around, he sailed through the intersection and away from his house.

In the rear of the RV, Jolene screeched.

Bullets slammed into the back of the RV, and he prayed they didn’t hit the gas tank. Then he felt like a hypocrite for praying at all considering how things were between him and the Lord right now. He should’ve been going to Bible study the past few weeks and reading his Bible in the morning. But the minute he hadeven an inkling of a lead on the search for Kenna, all that went out the window, it seemed.