Jax: Black Angels MC, #3

by Fisher, A. E.

  My face spun toward him without hesitation this time. My eyes, for the first time, seeing his deep black irises, the unending cold radiating from them like a grip around my throat. But beyond that, his words rested on my heart.

  “What have you done to him?” I lunged forward.

  Surprised, Jacob dodged back, taking a clear step away from me as I righted myself to my feet. “If you’ve done something to him, Jacob, I sw—”

  “Here I thought I’d tamed you well. But only a few months with him, and you’ve already reverted back to that wild, uncouth personality.” Jacob sneered, raking his eyes up and down me. “I had to admit, I had thought you’d just climbed onto the saddle of one of those biker retards, but I was surprised when I saw a familiar face. No matter how many years have passed, you still go running to him like a starving dog to meat.”

  “Jaco—”

  “DO NOT TALK BACK TO ME!” he roared, and my body swallowed down in instinct. I made myself as small as possible, and even Max had gone deathly quiet within her confines.

  “You came begging at my feet like a worthless animal to let you protect the horses and the farm. That you’d give your everything to me. Even if it meant becoming my wife.” His feet paced back and forth around the barn, hay being kicked up around him. “What a poor excuse of wife you were. You were supposed to serve me at every moment. You were to do only what I told you. And you were to produce me an heir.” He shook his head. “You couldn’t even do the one thing of worth on that pathetic man-body of yours.”

  “I—”

  “You have turned out to be nothing but a whore in the end, after all,” he growled. “You were my wife, but the second you smelled his scent, you were already opening your legs. Why must Jackson have everything of mine?”

  “The farm, the praise, the girls.” Jacob sneered. “I thought even if I could take one of his possessions away, that it’d be enough.” He took a step into my space, his leg fitting between mine. My hands shoved out, but I was too weak to budge him. He pressed against me harder until I was ground between the wall and his wide body.

  “Jacob—”

  “Fuckin’ whore,” His hands wound up around my neck, pinning me in place.

  My hands snapped to his thick wrists, wanting to break free but not having the strength to do so. Even though he never worked on a farm, he worked at a fancy gym and kept his body fit for the sake of having all the praise that a man with a six-pack could have at thirty.

  And just like that, with such falsified strength, he overwhelmed me in an instant.

  “Jacob!” I hissed through clenched teeth. “Let me go!”

  “If only you had died that night. Then I wouldn’t have had to chase you around like this. I could have been a grieving man and remarried under the stupid eyes of the church. Instead I had to face the gossip and rumors of an unfaithful wife leaving me for another man. I became pathetic in the eyes of every man, woman, and child I saw!” His grip tightened. Black dots danced around the edges of my vision and I could hear the faint whinnies and cries of Max growing more distant.

  “But it’s fine.”

  His grip released, and I slammed hard into the floor, my limp weak body panting in an effort to breathe. My throat burned like razor blades, the walls of my chest like they were collapsing in on top of me.

  “You did that on purpose…,” I wheezed. “All because I couldn’t bear you a child?”

  “It was the one thing you should have been useful for.” He turned and looked down on me, the shadow over his face unable to hide the piercing glare weighing down on top of me. “The one thing I could take away from Jackson.”

  All of this… everything he put me… all the pressure for a child… just to get back at Jax…?

  “When will your obsession with him end?” I wanted to cry, but the noise barely came out as a cracked whisper.

  “Today,” he answered, simple and content. The calmness in his voice had my breath stopping. “Because today is both his and your last day.”

  He reached down to me, and despite my attempt to resist, it was barely enough to swat him away as his thick paw of a hand came around my wrist and dragged me to my feet.

  Max gave a shrieking whiney, but it wasn’t enough to deter Jacob as he all but dragged me across the barn floor.

  “It’s time to take Jackson away from you once and for all.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Jax

  The soft smell of the couch had my head wanting to loll on it and take a nap. With everything that had happened in the last few hours, I was emotionally depleted and just ready to check out from the world.

  As if.

  I was pissed beyond belief, unable to stop the anger and concern and fear all mixed into one. I was unarmed, tied to the fucking radiator of Mr. Jenkins’ house, having no idea if my club family was okay and not having a fucking clue where Ronnie was.

  I spent the last twenty minutes startling at every little creak, thinking Ronnie was unknowingly about to walk through the door. She’d slip on her ass if she did though. With the amount of fuel that they were throwing on the floor, up the curtains, and on all the ancient furniture; it didn’t take a genius to know what they had in plan for me.

  Why they’d go out of the way to burn me like a witch at the stake, though, was what had my mind reeling.

  If this was business, and they were getting paid, then the only thing left to complete this puzzle would be to find out who the hell was filling their pockets. As a club that liked to dabble on the darker side of the law, there were plenty of enemies out there ready to slit our throats at a moment’s notice. But that was the main thing. Our enemies would be happy to get their hands dirty just to see the life leave our eyes. So far as I knew, the only one who wouldn’t was Ash’s father. He was overseas and had cut all ties to the Black Jacks after getting what he wanted last year.

  There was no one else that came to mind.

  “Fuck,” I grumbled under my breath, my head slamming back against the couch. It creaked backward a little, causing my body to jerk up quick. I skidded my back up against the thing, hiding my hands.

  The little nail in the floorboard was loose, but it was also bent as hell and over fifty years old. The thing had taken me twenty minutes to work half loose and if I was going to have any chance at cutting these cable ties, I needed the tetanus-filled piece of metal. Fucking jackass nail. Maybe this place really did need burning to the ground.

  Hopefully without me in it, however.

  “LET GO OF ME!”

  I froze.

  That voice.

  “RONNIE!” I yelled, not caring about the nail any longer as I threw myself from the radiator. It gave an ancient moan but didn’t move.

  “Jackson…?” Ronnie’s quiet squeak of a voice echoed from beyond the room. I heard heavy footsteps and splashes as her body came into the view from the door frame.

  She was tossed forward, landing front first over the soaked foot ottoman.

  “Ronnie!” I lunged, trying desperately to get close to her but unable to.

  “The two of you are just as bad.”

  I jerked my head upward, the deep southern tone familiar to my ears. I turned my face to see a man I didn’t recognize, but the voice was undeniable. Years had passed and the boy I had once known had aged decades since I’d last seen him. He was a chiseled man with a beard and dark brows and short, cropped hair. Wrinkles lined his eyes and brow as he fixed his dirty brown glare at me.

  “Jacob?”

  “Nice to see you too, cousin,” Jacob Creek snarled, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. “It’s been a while.”

  Everything clicked into place.

  “You’re the one who’s paying them? The Black Jacks?” I looked over his broad shoulder to see one of the men in black leather standing against the banister. Anatoli Ivanov didn’t flinch as he met my glare with a shrug, confirming my guess.

  “What? How? Why?” I growled, tugging once more at the ropes hol
ding me back. They were biting hard into my wrists, and I could feel the faint trail of blood begin to slip down my palms.

  “I came across them looking for work, and it so happened I had a runaway wife I needed tracking down.” Jacob shrugged, his foot kicking out at the leg of the ottoman, shoving it from underneath Ronnie’s quivering body. She hit the floor with a groan, crumpled into a ball on the floor.

  “Ronnie!” I lunged, wanting to scoop her up into my arms. “Ronnie, baby, look at me!”

  Huge booted feet stood in my path and I looked up to find Jacob looking back down at me, blocking my path to Ronnie. “This is the why.”

  My head snapped to one side, the weight of Jacob’s fist heavy against my cheek. I glared down at the floor, shifting my cheeks to spit out the swell of blood on my tongue. “Is that all you’ve got?” I chuckled. “You can’t be doing all this just to land that pathetic thing?”

  “You can’t provoke me, Jackson.” Jacob shrugged, the serene calmness on his face making bile rise up my throat. “I’ve finally gotten everything I wanted: the farm, the money, the fame.” Jacob reached and stretched his hands up over his shoulders, taking in a deep breath. His hands fell back down at his sides, shaking off the stretch. “And now,” he continued, reaching for the canister the Black Jacks had left on the other cushioned seat next to Ronnie. “I can rid you from my world once and for all.”

  He stepped back over to me, and before I could catch a breath, he doused the rest of the bottle over the top of my head. Gasoline burned my eyes and nose as I fought not to inhale or swallow any of the thick liquid.

  I coughed and spluttered whatever made it into my orifices. The hot, painful burn of the fuel seeping into the wounds on my wrists made my stomach churn. My vision blurred over as I shook my head, trying to clear as much of it off my face as I could. I spotted Jacob tossing the bottle onto the floor before he moved his way over to Ronnie’s prone figure.

  “Don’t touch her!” I growled, tasting the horrible liquid on my tongue.

  Jacob chuckled, reaching down to her anyway. He grabbed a handful of hair, and with a squeal, Ronnie was dragged to her knees, her face pushed in my direction.

  “Now look at him,” Jacob growled, using his other hand to grab her chin and force her look at me, covered head to toe in the gasoline and tied to the radiator. “This is the last look you’re going to get so make sure you take it in.”

  “You bastard!” Ronnie hissed, she tried to fight against his grip, but with a swift kick to her side, Ronnie was slumping back against him with a groan of pain.

  “JACOB!” I roared, wanting to rip the man limb from limb. “You’re dead! You hear me!”

  “I think you should save those words for yourself,” Jacob snarled, shrugging off my comment.

  He swapped his grip from Ronnie’s head to her arm and lifted her to her feet before shoving her toward the man with the wild hair and the scraggly beard.

  Anatoli was quick to grab her, covering himself in the fuel. But being the businessman he was, he didn’t say anything. His tattooed, scarred arms got a good hold on her limp body before dragging her out of the house and out of my sight.

  “Jacob!” I growled, my hand scrambling for the nail in the floor. My fingers were slippery and the second I touched the metal and pulled, it slipped from my grip. I couldn’t grab it!

  “You know, no matter what I did, you hung over me like a shadow. My good grades, my business proposals, my girlfriends. You always did better, worked harder, dated prettier. I was second rate. Aunty and Uncle never even glanced at me when you left! I thought at long last they’d see that I should be the heir to the farm, not you. But even when you were gone, they wanted to wait for you to come back. Thought you’d see reason eventually. Wouldn’t even consider changing the will. Even if you had abandoned everything, they still wanted you. Always you. Even Veronica. I married her. I fucked her. I was going to put my baby in her stomach! But it was always you for her, Jackson. No matter how much I made her moan. Made her cry. Made her beg.”

  Rage couldn’t even describe the burning inside of me. It was so furious that it was painful, tearing my own body apart with the need to burst free and slaughter the fucking monster standing in front of me.

  “Now, don’t look at me like that, Jackson.” Jacob shrugged. “You threw her away first.”

  He could have shot me or sliced me a thousand times or cut each limb of mine off. Neither of them would have hurt as much as his words. They were like a match to my body, the flammable liquid searing off my skin and rotting me to the core before he’d even had a chance. Because Jacob was right. I said no to her first. I threw her away. But….

  “That didn’t give you the right to treat her like that!”

  “Maybe not.” Jacob ran a hand through his short hair. “But if you had been there, none of it would have happened either. Just like if you hadn’t existed, maybe I wouldn’t have become like this. If you think about it, you’re the cause of every problem. Whether it was me or Veronica… or your parents.”

  “My parents?” I felt as cold as ice. “The fire….”

  “It was an accident. That’s what the papers said.” Jacob smirked, not admitting, but more importantly, not denying. “I’m sure the papers will say the same thing this time too.”

  “You bastard!” I growled, jerking forward. My knees gave away and I slammed down, chest first into the floor.

  Jacob’s cackle filled the room as I fought not to groan at the ache throbbing across my sternum.

  “It doesn’t matter anymore, Jackson.” Jacob’s footsteps moved toward the archway. “This is it for you now anyway.”

  “Jacob…,” I growled, the unearthly noise rising from a promise I was about to make. “I will kill you. I swear.”

  “No, you won’t.” Jacob smirked. “You’ll be dead.”

  And then he left, the door slamming shut behind him.

  I was alone in the house. My club was in peril. My girl was at the hands of a psychotic murderer. And I was about to die.

  So, this was how it ended.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Ronnie

  Deep 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.