Jax

by Cristin Harber

  See? Are they safe? Alive? What does that mean?

  "Nicola?" Brock followed up.

  "I'm going to need a minute. By myself, please," she quietly whispered.

  "What?" Jax hustled to the closest set of stairs in the giant residence.

  "Who has eyes on Nic? Now, goddamn it," Jared ordered. "Cash? Roman? Ryder? Any snipers?"

  No response, and Jax's panic surged.

  "My name is Nicola, and I know your mommy," Nicola said in a sing-song voice so sweet, it made Jax run up the stairs faster. "I'm going to bring you home. But the first thing we're going to do is play a game. Want to?"

  No response, but they had to be alive…

  "Don't move, chickadee and chickadude. Like a statue—no. Don't move."

  "I know how to hold this," Bianca said.

  Jax faltered. This?

  "Nic," Jared calmly said. "Sing a song if they're armed."

  "Before I bring you home to Glamma and Victoria, can I sing you my little boy's favorite song. It's Twinkle, Twinkle."

  The earpiece was eerily quiet; Jax had never heard it like that before. No one was muted, but everyone was silent.

  "It goes twinkle, twinkle—"

  "Are you a good guy or a bad guy?" Nolan asked.

  "They all lie," Bianca said.

  "Don't move, honey." Nicola drew in a quick breath. "I'm good. So very good. And I promise you, from the bottom of my heart, that I'm telling you the truth, and I know your mommy wants you to put that gun down. Would you do that for me?"

  "Ohfff. Hi, Nolan, thank you for the hug. You're very strong, but I need you to stand behind me. Bianca, move your fingers, baby. Like this."

  "No, thank you," faintly came through the earpiece, and Jax died inside.

  Nicola tried again. "I promise it's okay. I'll trade you my cell phone for that, and you can call anyone. They'll tell you to trust me."

  "She knows Glwamma and Vwictorwia," Nolan said. "I'm hungrwry."

  Jax reached the threshold of the third door and held his breath as he peeked around the corner. Nolan hugged onto Nicola's back. She had one arm outstretched to Bianca while she firmly held the little boy in place against her back and body armor. Bianca cradled a handgun haphazardly in both hands. All his faith was placed solidly in Nicola's hands. His teammate could get them through this. He had to believe that like he'd never trusted Titan before.

  His heart raced. He covered his mouth and whispered into his mic piece, "Say my name. You know me."

  "Jax is my friend."

  Nicola trusted him, no hesitation. Jax held his breath, praying as he inched closer to the edge of the door, catching a glimpse of the squirming boy who Nicola desperately tried to keep pinned.

  "He is?" Nolan's excited voice wrapped around him.

  "He's here and wants to see you. Freeze like a statue so I can take that from you."

  "Okay," Bianca said.

  Relief rolled through Jax that Bianca had stopped fighting. But until that weapon was out of her hands, uncertainty still had him hanging by a thread.

  "You're now a statue," Nicola said. "Do. Not. Move. A muscle or a finger."

  "Can I breathe?"

  "Yes."

  "Can I blink?"

  "Yes, sweetheart. One second. Your brother gets a game too, and I have to move, Bianca. So don't be surprised if I'm moving a tiny bit. Okay?"

  "Okay."

  "What a good statue."

  "Nolan, your part of the game is to lie on the floor like a piece of paper, and I'm going to cover you with my hat and my coat—"

  "Nicola…" Jared's only warning came, and Jax knew that she would ignore it and he wouldn't say it again.

  She slipped off her body armor and covered him. "Okay, you're still a statue. Don't move a muscle. No fingers, no toes."

  Jax watched Nicola cross the fifteen feet, and it felt like an eternity until she had the gun in her hand. "Any other weapons on you, my little statue?"

  "No."

  He moved into the room, taking his face covering off. "Hey, you two."

  Both kids did exactly what he and Nicola had feared. Jax caught sight of Nicola leaning against a wall, shaking her head as though she were catching her breath and maybe reliving the hell of the last few minutes.

  Nolan jumped up and down, waving his arms, and ran, launching into Jax's outstretched his arms, while Bianca rushed, her arms crossed to her chest, hands clasped under her chin, and burrowed for hugs. If that little girl had had a gun in her hand when he'd walked in, no safety and set to semi-auto, there was no telling the damage she would've done to her brother and herself.

  He squeezed them even tighter. "I heard you went on an adventure."

  "It wasn't very fun," Bianca reported.

  He chuckled. "I know, kiddo. Now let's go get your mom."

  "But"—Nolan's bottom lip quivered—"I thought they sent her away."

  Jax dropped to his knee as a firefight broke out in his earpiece and out the window.

  Nolan threw his hand wide. "Thwre were bad guys with guns—"

  "We're going to talk about guns later," Jax interrupted.

  "And thwey were like thwis and thwat." He chopped his hands. "And Victwria said lots of bad words."

  "A lot," Bianca added with a tiny scowl.

  "Then Glamma—"

  "No sign of Seven," Winters said in his earpiece.

  "Hey, my little team. Where's your mama? Do you know where she stays?"

  "She has to leave every night." Bianca leaned against him, and Jax put an arm around her waist.

  "In a rocket humvee."

  The kid knew his vehicle, and Jax's stomach dropped at the thought of Seven in a MRAP. The chance that Suarez militia would bring her on-site during a hostile takeover was slim. They didn't know who was there even if a safe assumption could be made about the kids. But a man like Hernán Suarez had many enemies.

  "Checking the MRAPs," Sugar said as though she were discussing mail call and not a body search.

  Nicola walked out of the room, her gaze meeting his. "You want to go or stay?"

  Jax needed to find Seven like he needed to take another breath. "You met my friend Nicola. Do you want to hang out with her while I go get your mom?"

  Neither said anything as they turned to study her. Bianca grabbed on to his forearm, and Nolan leaned against his chest as, warily, they watched her drop to her knees also.

  He gave them a squeeze that he prayed conveyed his faith in Nicola. "You know what my favorite thing about Nic is?"

  Bianca turned. "What?"

  "She's like a machine. You can tell her something in English, and it comes out another language. Watch." He tapped his head. "I want a cheeseburger."

  "Ich will einen cheeseburger," Nicola offered.

  "German?" he asked.

  "Yup. Good guess."

  Jax hugged the kids close. "How about… I love ice cream?"

  "Somebody's hungry." Nicola came closer with her most disarming grin. "Eu amo sorvete. Portuguese this time. You want to try, Bianca?"

  She shook her head.

  "Nolan?"

  "Say… My shoes smell. Eww, eww, eww!" Nolan jumped and danced, sticking up his feet.

  "Mój zapach buty. Eww, eww, eww!" Nicola scrunched up a silly face, waving her hand. "Polish. But next time I'll try for Pig Latin. Much more fun."

  Both kids fell apart in giggles.

  Jax gave them one last squeeze. "Go with Nic. I'm going to get your mom, okay?"

  Nolan waited for Bianca's reaction. Then the little girl took a step forward. "I'm sorry I picked up that gun."

  Nicola signaled for them to go. "Thank you for listening when I asked you. Let's go get Jax a cheeseburger and ice cream. You too if you want."

  "I'm coming in for your back up," Winters added.

  "Same," Sugar said. "Seven wasn't in the vehicles. But Jax, I left you someone tied to a tire axle if you'd like a Suarez bitch ready to cry uncle."

  "See you two soon." Then Jax hustled out
the way he'd come, mentally slipping back on his warrior mask.

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  The great lawn was littered with bodies and three smoking MRAPs as he approached the back tire of the second militarized vehicle. Gunfire buzzed in Jax's earpiece as smoke billowed from the blazing MRAPs. He stood over the Suarez militant with the tactical gun palmed and his trigger finger itching for a pull.

  His heart pounded, and sweat coated his back. Licking his lips, Jax prayed for strength. "Do you understand English?"

  The bound man shrank against the tire. "Y-yes-s."

  "Good." He tugged his face mask back then ran the muzzle of his weapon along the man's jaw. "Of all the assholes you didn't want to see, I'm the one that will give you nightmares."

  The bastard bared his teeth, hissing at the gun in his face.

  Jax pistol-whipped him. "Those kids? They're very special to me."

  Again, the man's mouth opened, but this time he simply held up his hand and pointed at the gun. "Think hard. I don't kill for sport, and I don't care if you take another breath. I give zero fucks. But the woman who was taking care of those children?" Jax dropped his hand and inched his weapon forward again. "Her, I care about. You have a simple decision. Tell the truth and live. Where is she?"

  The man hesitated, and Jax shook his head. "That was your warning. Next I'll shoot ankle, knee, gut shot. I've seen how they bleed so purple, it looks black. Interested?" He aimed for the man's ankle. "Where is she?"

  "The militia quarters—" Then he buried his face in tied arms, preparing for death, anyway.

  "I gave you my word." He ran toward the barracks to the sound of the man sobbing and thanking him.

  "ACES," Jared barked in his earpiece. "Target is on-site. Find her. Jax, you can get there on foot. Follow the way the MRAPS came."

  "Roger that." He recalled the satellite maps and was already hauling ass.

  The acrid smoke burned the night air as Jax covered as much of the gravel road as he could.

  "Hold your fire! ACES, confirm targets visually or under direct assault only."

  Jax rounded a bend and saw one-story buildings surrounded by a flood of people.

  "Report. What's the situation?" Jared demanded of the change in the operational directives.

  "Freaking chaos." Jax didn't recognize the voice. "Civilian captives released. Scattering like ants out a flooded hill. Young, old. Kids. Women."

  A tsunami of people rolled in every direction. How many prisoners did the Suarez cartel have captive?

  "First priority remains the same," the ACES commanding officer ordered. "Eyes stay on the pivot. Report on back side and jungle line?"

  "They're being pushed in all directions," another unfamiliar voice reported. "Diversions and body shields—"

  "I have eyes on the target, eyes on the target!"

  "Who's that? Where?" Jax rushed through the chaos that the Suarez militia had created. Half the people didn't know who to trust or which way to go, but ACES could manage that. "Where?"

  The faces were indistinguishable. Some people were dressed in rags, while others had been obviously forced into military garb and held weapons awkwardly. Jax took a defensive position and scanned the perimeter, unable to find Seven in the churn of people.

  "Give me your location and her direction," Parker said calmly. "I'll lock a bead on her."

  Jax's heart thundered in his ears as the two men volleyed intel back-and-forth regarding one of the women who had fled toward the jungle. A civilian might've assumed the jungle was safe. But that only took into account the threat of man with his weapons and military maneuvering. Fleeing into the jungle was unlike escaping into the woods at a park. A jungle tree canopy would block the light from the moon and the stars, and most wildlife inhabitants survived by the eat-or-be-eaten code.

  Seven was fierce, but she had no idea what she had walked into.

  "Jax," Parker said. "I'll ping her coordinates to you. Find her, and I'll get you an extraction locale."

  Like there was any other option. He was coming for his woman.

  ###

  Everywhere looked the same as Seven stumbled to the ground. The thick vined plants tangling around her feet were just as black as the sky was above her. No matter which way Seven turned, she smacked into thorned bushes or trees that were wider than the expanse of her arms. Her eyes never adjusted to the dark; she couldn't see anything anymore. What was the point of running away when she didn't know if she was getting any closer to a neighboring village or town where someone could help?

  Her lungs screamed with pain from pushing past any athletic ability she had and from panting against tiny bugs and spiderwebs.

  Seven wrapped her elbow across her face as a mask even as she worked to suck in as much air as possible. She hadn't been able to catch her breath while in Columbia, and today was even worse. But she didn't care because she had to get help and her children back.

  Tears welled in her eyes as she took in the magnitude of the situation.

  "Seven!" Jax's voice sifted through the hot, humid air, and maybe she had been bitten by something poisonous.

  Hallucinations had to be one of the signs that she was losing her mind or had been poisoned by some stupid jungle insect.

  "Seven, stop moving. I'm coming for you."

  She laughed as delirium strangled her common sense. This was what it was going to be like when her mind finally gave up—delusions about Jax riding in to the jungle to save her. She should've guessed.

  The crunch of leaves and branches startled her, and the cold prickle of sweat cascaded down her back and arms. She had nothing to fight off whatever animal may have sniffed her out, sweating and crying.

  "C'mere, princess, I'm here." The snaps of twigs and the crumble of plants underneath steps came so close, she was sure that if she held out her hand, she could touch its source. What she wouldn't do to have Jax with her now. "Target acquired."

  He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight to his chest and dropping his mouth to her sweaty forehead. "Found you. I promised you everything would be okay."

  "Oh God. It's not." Seven sobbed. "Bianca and Nolan." Her arms shook then her body with the full force of terror. But if he was there, maybe there were more resources to save the kids? "Jax, please tell me you're real. Please."

  "Real." He slowly released her.

  "My babies," Seven whispered, trying to make sense of what was true and what wasn't a dream.

  "Titan has them. They're fine. Anxious to see you."

  "God, thank you." Relief found its footing and overtook her. Light on her feet, as if she could breathe fire and float on angel wings all at once, she leapt back against Jax and hugged him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I owe you forever."

  He chuckled. "That's what husbands are for."

  Seven kissed him on the cheek and would kiss him head to toe if she wasn't foul, and they weren't in the middle of the jungle, likely being hunted by the men who had kept her captive.

  "We need to get moving again. I have a rendezvous point for a helicopter pickup. But it's not close, and we have to hustle." He gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Are you good to start hustling?"

  Seven took a deep breath in the dark night. Tears dried on her cheeks as the man she was crazy about held on to her. "I'm so good, I might be able to fly if I tried."

  ###

  "You know, you're my hero." The darkness was all surrounding, and Seven could no longer make out his face.

  "One person's hero is another person's nothing to lose. My job well done happens to mean extreme circumstances have occurred. But Seven, don't make me out to be something more than I'm not."

  His words were everything with a far more evocative texture than she had ever heard before. "You don't have to be perfect to be a hero. You know that, right?"

  At his urging, they began moving again, faster than the leisurely pace he'd let her take before. They had all the time in the world, at least until they found the abandoned field medic station an
d their rescue helicopter came in the next twelve hours. Jax could speedwalk her through the jungle all he wanted, but he couldn't outrun a conversation.

  "Where did you grow up?" she asked.

  He grumbled. "Is this the point in our walk where we start the twenty questions? Is this where you want to pick me apart and figure out what's wrong? What could be fixed?"

  Seven planted both of her feet firmly in the squishy jungle ground, yanked her hand back from his, and, unable to see his face clearly, twisted in his general direction. "What the hell crawled up your ass? I'm the one that's dead tired and not used to jungle walks, thank you very much. If anybody wants to get in a snippy-pants mood, I call dibs. Not you."

  "Keep moving, Seven. We don't have time for this."

  "Then we didn't have time for you to push your lips against mine a few minutes ago. I'm not moving. If you're going to be a dick anytime I ask you a simple question, I'm gonna be a bitch. See how that works? It's the whole yin and yang thing. Like a teeter-totter."

  "Then I'll throw you over my shoulder and get there faster, anyway." Jax took a step closer, his hand jutting out as though he might follow through on his threat.

  "So help me God, big boy. I'll never forgive you if my feet leave the ground, and it's a simple freaking question. Where are you from? Who are your parents? Are they alive? What's the deal with not wanting to share personal information? Because that's weird."

  Jax muttered and snagged her hand but didn't start walking. "They're alive. They live in Jersey. Everybody's Italian and eats sausage and peppers on Sunday." He started walking, and Seven relented, falling into stride next to him. "I played in the river with my friends when we were kids. Football was king. Still is in that town. It was a perfectly normal childhood. Nothing to talk about."

  "Ever been in love?" she asked.

  "Really, Seven?"

  "I want to know who you are. I'm not some nutso chick that's going to go into a jealous rage in the middle of the goddamn Colombian jungle. I have a compulsion with folding when I wish I could control chaos." She grumbled because this moment was pretty much the definition of chaos. "I've never been in love. I thought I loved Johnny. I didn't really know what it was because I grew up with everybody telling me that I was supposed to love him and that we were supposed to date and that we were supposed to get married. It was like a checklist—" She tripped over a branch and stumbled then limped for a step but refused to issue a complaint. "He grew up as one of my best friends, and if I had had a brother, he would've been it. And I understand that's very weird to say because obviously we got married. It was more like he was the boy next door. Essentially, it was an arranged marriage. I never dated anyone else in high school, and when I turned eighteen, we got married."