CHAPTER 129
JAX'S POV
"She crushed her earpiece," I said, staring at the small electronic fragments scattered on the asphalt. "She fucking crushed it."
"I know," Harry said through gritted teeth. "I heard it happen."
Lucas was already pacing behind our parked cars, his phone out as he tried to track any signal from the devices Skylar was carrying. "Nothing. Either she's in a dead zone or she ditched everything electronic."
The smart thing to do would be to wait. Give her the ten minutes she'd asked for, then assess the situation. But every instinct I had was screaming at me to charge into that warehouse and get her back.
"We can't just sit here," I said, checking my weapons for the third time in five minutes.
"She's right though," Harry said reluctantly. "If we go in blind, we're playing into Jack's hands. He wants all of us together so he can eliminate the threats to his control over Skylar."
"So what, we just abandon her?"
"We don't abandon her. We be smart about this." Lucas stopped pacing and pulled up the warehouse schematics on his tablet. "Look, there are multiple entry points. If we split up, come at him from different angles..."
"No." Harry's voice was flat, final. "No more splitting up. That's how we lost her to Bentley, that's how we almost lost her to William. We go in together or not at all."
I wanted to argue, but I knew he was right. Every time we'd separated, Skylar had ended up in more danger. Our strength was as a unit, protecting each other and her.
"Five minutes," I said, checking my watch. "She's been in there five minutes."
My phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number. I opened it and immediately wished I hadn't.
The photo showed Skylar on her knees in what looked like a concrete room, her hands zip-tied behind her back. Her face was defiant, but I could see blood on her lip where someone had hit her.
"He has her," I said, showing the others.
Lucas grabbed the phone, studying the image. "That's not the main warehouse floor. Look at the walls, the lighting. She's in the basement level."
"Which means she's exactly where he wants her," Harry added grimly.
Another text came through: "She's very pretty when she's helpless. Come join us. Level B2, Room 6."
The message was clearly meant to provoke us, to make us do something stupid. But as I stared at the photo of Skylar bound and bleeding, I found that I didn't particularly care about being smart anymore.
"Fuck this," I said, starting toward the warehouse. "I'm getting her."
"Jax, wait." Lucas caught my arm. "Look at me. Really look at me."
I turned to face him, seeing my own desperation reflected in his eyes.
"If we go in there angry, if we let him control our emotions, Skylar dies. You know that, right? He's counting on us to lose our heads, to make mistakes."
"Then what do you suggest?"
"We give him what he wants, but on our terms." Harry had joined us, his face set in the cold, calculating expression I'd seen before major operations. "He wants all of us in that room? Fine. But we don't go in as his victims. We go in as his executioners."
Lucas was already moving, pulling equipment from the trunk of his car. "Explosives on the support pillars. If this goes wrong, we bring the whole building down and make sure he can't hurt anyone else."
"What about the other girls? The hostages?" I asked.
"We get them out first," Harry said. "But if it comes down to a choice between letting Jack escape and saving Skylar..."
"We choose Skylar," I finished. It wasn't even a question.
We spent three precious minutes rigging the warehouse with enough explosives to level a city block. Lucas's fingers flew over the detonator, setting up a dead man's switch that would trigger if our heart rates all flatlined simultaneously.
"Seven minutes," I said as we approached the main entrance.
"She's strong," Harry said, but I could hear the worry in his voice. "She can handle whatever he's doing to her for a few more minutes."
"It's not what he's doing to her I'm worried about," I admitted. "It's what he's making her become."
We'd all seen the changes in Skylar since learning Jack was alive. The coldness, the calculation, the willingness to do whatever was necessary to win. She was becoming exactly what her father had tried to make her - a beautiful, deadly weapon.
The question was whether she'd still be Skylar when this was over, or if Jack would finally succeed in turning her into a reflection of himself.
The warehouse was eerily quiet as we descended toward the basement. Emergency lighting cast everything in harsh red shadows, and I could hear the distant sound of muffled voices. One of them was definitely Skylar's - defiant, angry, unbroken.
"Room 6," Lucas whispered, pointing down a corridor lined with heavy metal doors.
As we got closer, we could hear Jack's voice clearly. He was talking to Skylar in the same calm, measured tone I'd heard him use when she was a child. The tone that always preceded something terrible.
"...disappointed in your choice of companions, sweetheart. I had such high hopes for you."
"Go to hell," Skylar's voice, strong despite whatever he'd done to her.
"Such language. Your mother would be ashamed."
"My mother would be ashamed of you. For what you did to her, and what you tried to do to me."
Jack's laugh was like ice water in my veins. "Your mother died because she forgot who she belonged to. I'm hoping you're smarter than that."
Harry held up his hand, signaling for us to stop. Through the small window in the door, we could see into the room. Skylar was indeed on her knees, hands bound, but she was very much alive and alert. Jack stood in front of her, and there were at least four other men positioned around the room.
But what made my blood run cold was what I saw in the corner - Claire, unconscious and tied to a chair, and a small cage that held what looked like a child.
Jack wasn't just using hostages to control Skylar. He was using them to control us.
"He knows we're here," Lucas whispered.
"Of course he does," Harry replied. "The question is, are we walking into his trap, or is he walking into ours?"
I checked the explosive trigger in my pocket one more time, then looked at my watch.
Ten minutes. Skylar had asked for ten minutes, and time was up.
Time to bring this war to an end.
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