Текст книги "Shattered"

Автор книги: Cynthia Eden

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Текущая страница: 16 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

Chapter 16

THE POLICE STATION WAS A FRENZY OF ACTIVITY. When three officers were killed and another was sent to intensive care, the brothers-in-blue went into serious attack mode. They were combing the streets then. Talking to witnesses. Flashing photos of Jax to the media.

Sarah and Emma were at the station, trying to keep tabs on all the chaos so they could catch any leads that the police might get.

Gabe was in the captain’s office, making deals, as usual, to keep LOST fully in the loop.

Dean was at the hospital, waiting for Brent to get out of surgery so that he could find out what else the guy might know. Brent was their best bet right then. Their main chance of getting a lead on the bastard who’d taken Jax.

“He’s alive, right, Sarah?”

She turned at Emma’s soft question.

“The guy wouldn’t take him to just . . . just kill him right away. Jax is still alive.” But her words sounded more like a question than anything else.

Sarah nodded. “He’s alive.” And she was going to find him. She wouldn’t give up on Jax. Because he wouldn’t give up on her.

I love you.

Her gaze slid around the station. So much chaos. Tips were coming in, but, so far, those tips weren’t panning out at all.

“Your father didn’t know who we’re after?” Emma asked her.

Sarah’s lips thinned. “All my father wanted to do was tell me to get the hell away from Jax. He thought Jax was the threat.”

“Jax isn’t!” Emma’s denial was immediate. “I know his past is dark. He’s done things that crossed the line, but I swear, he’s good inside, Sarah. He’s—”

“You don’t have to convince me,” Sarah told her softly. “I know exactly what he is.”

Emma swallowed. Her arms wrapped around her stomach.

“And we’re going to find him, Emma. We are.” If she said those words enough, Sarah knew they had to be true. She knew—

My father wanted me away from Jax. He wanted me to stay with LOST. He’d been intent on driving Sarah away from Jax. But if Jax wasn’t the threat, and if her father had known that . . .

Then my dad thought the killer was coming for Jax. He thought I could be in danger, just because I was near him.

“Emma, you didn’t know about Jax’s childhood, did you?”

Emma shook her head. “Not until Dean told me. Jax was always so private. He never talked about what his life was like when he was a kid. Jax didn’t share his secrets with anyone.”

He’d shared them with Sarah.

Look at this all again. You’re missing something. Think!

“If Jax were going to tell someone, who would it be?” Sarah asked. “His closest friend? Who’s that, Emma? Who is it?”

“Carlos,” Emma whispered. “They’ve been tight for years. Ever since Jax found Carlos in an alley. Two jerks were cutting him, holding him down, and Jax stopped them.”

Carlos. “Where is Carlos now?” Because he wasn’t being her shadow any longer. Actually, she hadn’t seen Carlos since she’d returned to New Orleans.

But, before then, the guy had been her guard. Hanging in the shadows, watching her, watching the LOST agents . . . he would have been aware of every move that they made.

“It’s night now, so he’s probably at the bar. He may not even know that Jax is missing.”

If he’d turned on a TV or radio, he’d know. Sarah nodded. “I need to speak with him. Now.”

Emma’s face tightened. “Carlos isn’t involved.”

Maybe. Maybe not.

“Molly said a blond man lured her away. Carlos isn’t blond, and the guy’s scar is pretty hard to miss. If she’d seen him, Molly would have—”

“We don’t know that the killer is working alone.” Because she’d seen partnerships in the past. And when those partnerships were formed, they were the deadliest combination she’d ever witnessed. “I need to see him.”

Emma stepped closer. “I’m coming with you.”

She’d been hoping Emma would say that. Emma knew the city better than anyone else in LOST, and she was well-acquainted with the darkness that surrounded Jax’s life.

Emma pulled out her phone. “I’ll tell Dean where we’re headed. Viki and Wade can take over here.”

Sarah sucked in a deep breath. She could feel her control fraying. She’d always tried to be so careful on her cases. She’d played by the rules. Done everything right.

Only now, everything was horribly wrong. Jax was gone. He could be hurt, dying, and she had to find him.

Sarah knew it was time for her to let go. To stop holding back. It was time for the world to see her as she truly was.

Time for the bastard who’d taken Jax to realize . . . Sarah was her father’s daughter.

And she had a monster inside, too.

Sarah slipped away while Emma made her phone call. She’d been watching the detectives, and she’d seen one guy put his gun in his desk. The guy hadn’t even bothered to lock that desk drawer. Sarah took the gun and slipped it under the hem of her shirt.

I’m coming, Jax. Wait for me.

SHADE WAS PACKED. Men and women were drinking, dancing, and damn near fucking in the middle of the bar. Voices filled the air and Sarah had to shove gyrating bodies out of her way. She didn’t see Carlos. Not—

“There!” Emma grabbed her arm. “He just slipped behind the bar.”

Sarah pushed toward the bar, and there was Carlos. He was smiling. He had a tequila bottle in one hand and a glass in the other.

Smiling.

Sarah could feel heat spreading up the sides of her face. She stalked toward that bar. “Carlos!”

His head whipped toward her. His smile dipped.

She put her hands on the bar. The people around her were too damn loud. “Where is he?”

Carlos glanced at the folks shoving against the bar. Then he motioned toward Sarah and Emma. He gave a quick curl of his finger as he headed away from the bar and toward the door marked PRIVATE.

The door opened. Carlos walked inside, strolling slowly. “Look . . .” It was quieter in there, so she could hear him easily. “Jax told me to pull the guard on you. I get that you two are done, but you need to let go—”

She wasn’t letting go of anything. Sarah grabbed him by the shirtfront and pushed him against the nearest wall.

Carlos blinked at her.

“Jax is missing, my control is gone, so don’t even think of feeding me bullshit.”

Emma shut the door behind them, then she took up a position right next to Sarah.

“Missing?” Carlos’s scar twisted even more as his brows shot up. “What the hell are you talking about?” His gaze jumped from Sarah to Emma. “Em?”

“His house is ashes,” Sarah told him. She was screaming on the inside, but when she spoke, her voice was flat. Almost calm. Such a lie. “Three cops were killed there and Jax was taken. Then I come in here and find you having a good old time with your tequila in his bar—”

“My bar!” Carlos snapped. “Jax gave it to me. Signed it over right before he flew off with you . . . said he was looking to make some changes.”

What?

“I thought that meant he was going to try and live on the right side of the law. For you.” Fear flashed in his eyes. “But he’s . . . gone?”

“You haven’t watched the news,” Emma muttered. “You should really turn on a TV sometimes.”

“I never watched the damn news!” Carlos shouted. “When? When was he taken?”

“Two hours ago.” Hours that were eating at Sarah’s soul.

“No.” Carlos jerked away from her. “Liar. You’re lying!”

Emma was right beside Sarah. “Two hours ago,” she said.

Carlos pulled out his phone. “He texted me!”

Sarah snatched that phone from his hand. Her fingers slid over the screen as she pulled up the texts and sure enough, there was a note from Jax.

It’s Jax. Pull off detail on Sarah. We’re done.

Goose bumps rose on her arms. She shook her head. “This isn’t Jax’s number.”

“The guy keeps burner phones. With our lives, it pays to have a few of those.” He shrugged, but his eyes were darting nervously between her and Emma. “I didn’t . . . didn’t even question him.”

You should have. “Jax and I aren’t done.” Her chin lifted. “That text came in an hour ago.”

She heard Emma’s hard inhale.

“He wants me unprotected,” Sarah said. “The perp wants to make sure that no one follows me . . .”

So he’d texted Carlos. Gotten the guy to back off. “But I’ve got you,” Sarah whispered. She called Gabe. He answered on the second ring. “I have a number I need you to monitor. If we can find this phone, then we can find Jax.”

JAX JERKED AGAINST the ropes that bound him. They were cutting into his wrists, slicing his skin. He could feel the blood dripping down his hands. The bastard had tied him up tight.

The dead bastard.

Or, rather, the man who was supposed to be dead.

“You can pull against those ropes all night long,” Mitch Fontaine told him with a cold smile. “It won’t do you any good. You’re not going anywhere.”

“How the fuck are you still alive?” Jax demanded. The guy’s neck had broken. He’d been dead.

“I guess it takes a lot to kill me.” Mitch strolled toward him. Moving like he didn’t have a care in the world and taking his sweet-ass time. The knife in his hand glinted. “Let’s see how much it takes to kill you.” Then he drove the knife into Jax’s side. The burn of that blade was white-hot as it sliced into him. And it went deep, shoving until the hilt hit him. “This is the start,” Mitch said, “of the payback I owe you.”

Jax slammed his head into the guy’s chest, and Mitch stumbled back. He yanked the knife out of Jax as he fell back.

“You going to kill me?” Jax locked his jaw against the pain and snapped, “Then do it!”

Mitch shook his head. Mitch . . . Mitch. The bastard even looked the same. Same dirty blond hair. Same eyes—eyes that were darker than Jax’s. He and Mitch kind of looked alike—that was why everyone had believed that Mitch was Jax’s father. But he wasn’t!

Mitch’s hair was longer and stubble covered his jaw, but it was as if all of those years hadn’t passed. Jax was staring at the man who’d made his life hell.

The man who wanted to slice him apart.

“You and that bitch dumped my body. You left me in that stinking field to rot.”

“You were my first dead body,” Jax muttered as he bled out. “Sorry if I didn’t do shit right.”

Mitch laughed. Laughed. “Here’s a tip. Make the fuck sure the victim is dead!”

Charlene had been the one who told Jax that he was dead. She was the one who said they had to leave his body out there. Then get away, get out of town as fast as they could. She’d . . . “She knew,” Jax realized. “Charlene knew you weren’t dead!” And she’d wanted Jax to get away from him because she’d been afraid that Jax would kill Mitch.

A muscle jerked in Mitch’s jaw. “After all I did for her . . . she left me in that field and chose you.”

He yanked harder at the ropes. He shoved against the chair.

“She thought that was her chance to be free.” Mitch raised the knife. Stared at the blood that dripped off the blade. “It took me some time, because the two of you had fucked me up so bad . . . had to stay in a hospital for months after that farmer pulled me out of his field, but, eventually, I found her.”

Jax struggled even harder. “No!” He shook his head. “No, you—”

“I didn’t realize how much I liked killing back then. I mean, I was mostly worried about getting caught. So I just made it look like she’d killed herself. Shoved those pills right down her throat. Made her choke on them.” He smiled. “Then I watched her. I watched all that life bleed right out of her eyes, and I finally understood just why he’d done it.”

“You killed Charlene!”

He shrugged. “I’ve killed a lot of people. More than him . . . and I haven’t been caught.”

“Who are you talking about?” Mitch was insane!

“You know, he laughed at me the first time we met. He brought Charlene and your bratty ass to me. Told me I had to take care of you or he’d come back to slice me apart, just like he’d done to your dad.” His eyes turned to slits. “Who the hell was he to talk to me like that?”

Murphy.

“I ran because hell was breaking lose in that city. Took you and Charlene, but you two never appreciated a damn thing I’d done.”

No, they hadn’t appreciated the beatings or the drugs or the shit.

“Then I realized . . . he wasn’t coming after me. I could do anything I wanted.”

And Jax remembered that Mitch had become even more violent. That last night . . . when I pushed him down the stairs, he was about to kill Charlene.

“But you thought you were the one in charge. You shoved me down those stairs. I was in a hospital for all those long months! Trapped in that damn bed! Barely able to move!” Spittle flew from his mouth. “When I got out, I killed that bitch. Then I was gonna kill you but . . .” He shook his head. “I wound up in fucking jail . . . got sent—” Mitch broke off, his lips clamping together.

But the way the guy was raging . . . Jax could put the pieces together, and as he did, shock rolled through him. “You were at the same prison with Murphy.” Sonofabitch. Fate could sure be a twisted bitch.

All that time, he’d thought Mitch was long gone, but the guy had been alive. Alive—and what? Getting kill lessons from Murphy the Monster?

After Charlene had died, Jax had left town—moving again—and he’d never looked back. Jax had been on the streets, moving fast and just trying to stay alive. He’d wound up in New Orleans. He’d never even thought about searching for Mitch. Why would he? The guy had been a dead man.

“When they locked me up, that bastard recognized me. The guards were all scared of him. Let the fool do whatever the hell he wanted.” Mitch yanked up his shirt. Jax saw the slashes across his skin. “He used his shiv on me within forty-eight hours of my check-in. But he didn’t want to kill me. That wasn’t what he did. He just wanted to make me beg. To show me that he had the power.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

“I know about the power rush that comes from death. I felt that power when I took Charlene’s life . . . and after a while, after all of his twisted torture games, Murphy realized we were more alike than he’d thought. He told me things . . . showed me so much . . .” His words trailed away. “I survived by playing him. Then one day, I was free and he was still rotting on the inside.”

“That’s when you came down here.”

“I was just gonna kill you, then I saw Sarah. Beautiful Sarah.” His hand slid over the scars on his chest. “I couldn’t think of a more fitting payback for Murphy.”

Jax shook his head. No. “You aren’t killing her.”

“You aren’t going to be able to stop me.” Mitch smiled and lifted the phone to his ear. He hummed then, a light tune . . .

A tune that Jax had heard Sarah hum, when they’d been in that little motel near the prison.

“Hello, Sarah . . .” Mitch murmured into the phone as he kept his eyes on Jax. “Are you ready to come and find your lover?”

“I’M READY,” SARAH said. She was more than ready. Gabe could track the phone, just like he’d done before, and they’d have—

“You’re not tracing the call this time. I learn from my mistakes.”

She wasn’t so sure he did. “Proof of life,” Sarah demanded.

He laughed. “Screw that. You know you want him either way.”

“Sarah!”

She tensed. She’d heard Jax’s shout. Heard it so clearly.

“Stay away, Sarah! He wasn’t dead! Stay—”

“Come find him,” the bastard taunted. The line went dead.

Sarah looked up. Emma was on the phone with Gabe. They’d been waiting for this, hoping to get the lock when the call came through.

Emma shook her head.

No.

“Where is he?” Carlos asked as he paced in that narrow room. “Where is he?”

VICTORIA STARED DOWN at the bulletin she’d just gotten. Well, it was a bulletin that the desk sergeant had received, but since her current job was to monitor the intel that came through the police station and report back to Gabe, she’d made a point of snagging that bulletin.

She read it three times to make sure there wasn’t a mistake.

Four.

Then she ran toward Wade and Gabe.

“We didn’t get him,” she heard Gabe snap to Wade. They were behind a group of cops, all leaning over a computer. “The techs didn’t have time to locate the phone—”

Victoria cleared her throat. “Gabe.”

He glanced over at her.

“We need to talk. Now.” Her hand fisted on the paper. “Come on.” Because the cops hadn’t made the connection with the bulletin, not yet. After all, why pay that much attention to a bulletin that had come in from so far away?

She hurried toward the first empty office she could spot. Gabe and Wade followed her inside.

“Viki, what is it?” Wade said. “We need to be out with—”

She lifted the paper. “Murphy Jacobs escaped from prison.”

“Fucking, no,” Gabe said, his eyes widening as he snatched that paper from her.

“He was in the infirmary because of—of some accident that had happened . . .” An accident that seemed to have occurred when Sarah was visiting with him. Only Sarah hadn’t mentioned an accident to Viki. “He was cuffed, the guard had just cuffed him—but Murphy had a key. He got free and he killed the guard on his way out.”

“Sonofabitch.” Wade looked shell-shocked. Victoria felt the same way.

“He’s been missing since then. The cops are searching everywhere, but if anyone can vanish . . .”

“It will be Murphy,” Gabe finished.

She nodded.

Wade took the paper from Gabe. “He’s not vanishing.”

He already had vanished! Slipped out of a maximum security prison and gone—

“He stayed in jail for eleven years.” Wade’s eyes burned with gold fire. “He got out now for one reason.”

Gabe’s brow furrowed. “Sarah went up there because she wanted him to tell her who the perp is. Sarah thought Murphy knew the guy’s identity.”

“And the bastard did know,” Wade said. “But he wasn’t going to let Sarah be threatened. The perp had gone after the one person Murphy cares about. So now Murphy is out—”

Victoria backed up a step. Murphy Jacobs terrified her. “You think he’s coming here?” No, that wasn’t possible. New Orleans was too far away from his prison. He’d have to get transportation. Not a plane, no way would he risk that kind of exposure. But he could hitchhike. And, hell, so many big rigs traveled down to the Crescent City. If he’d gotten a ride from one of those drivers . . .

He could already be in the city.

“I think he’s coming to protect Sarah. I think he’s going to kill whoever tried to hurt her. Because that’s what Murphy does best . . .”

Kill.

Gabe already had his phone out. “We have to call Sarah. Now.”

“HE’S NOT DEAD,” Sarah repeated. Jax’s words kept replaying in her head. He’d told her those words for a reason.

Eddie Guthrie was dead. She knew that. Victoria had gone down to the police station and confirmed the guy’s cause of death. The three cops were dead—they’d been loaded into the body bags and driven away from Jax’s burning house.

Brent West was still in the hospital.

Who isn’t dead?

“How many people has Jax killed?” It was a question that she had to ask.

Emma’s mouth dropped open in shock. “What? Look, right now isn’t the time—”

“Jax isn’t a murderer,” Carlos said, throwing back his shoulders “No matter what you might think. Why the guy was so crazy about you I don’t—”

“Mitch Fontaine.”

Carlos clamped his lips together.

“You knew about him, didn’t you, Carlos?”

Carlos looked away.

Emma was staring at Sarah in confusion. “He . . . he killed—?”

“He’s not dead,” Sarah repeated Jax’s words. Jax wouldn’t have said that unless he thought she’d make the connection to the killer. But there was only one man Jax had confessed to killing. The man who’d beat him and Charlene. She lunged for Carlos and grabbed him again.

“Stop doing that!” he snapped.

“What did Mitch look like?”

Carlos glared.

“Do not push me!” Sarah yelled at him. “I don’t have time for that crap. Jax needs me, and I’ll be damned if I let him down.” She shook the guy. So what if he was a foot taller and probably seventy pounds heavier? She was going to make him talk. “Did you ever see a picture of Mitch? Did you—”

“Blond, like Jax. About his size.” His words were grudging. “Darker eyes . . . saw a picture just once. Jax burned that shit after that.”

“Mitch Fontaine,” Sarah whispered. She fumbled and had her phone out again. She—

The phone rang. She nearly dropped it. Her fingers swiped across the screen. “Hello?” Sarah answered, voice scared and tense.

“Sarah!” Gabe’s voice was just as tense. “You need to come into the station. Right now. Come in.”

“No, no, Gabe, listen.” She started walking around that little room. “I’ve got a lead that I need you to follow. A guy named Mitch Fontaine. He was Jax’s—” Hell, she didn’t know how to explain this. “Stepfather. He disappeared years ago, but I think . . . I think he’s in New Orleans. I think he has Jax and—”

“And I think your father is in town, Sarah!”

Once again, the phone nearly slipped from her fingers.

“He busted out after you left. The guards took him to the infirmary . . .”

Because he’d pushed Jax into attacking him. Choking him.

“He was cuffed, but he managed to get a key from the guards . . .”

When they’d swarmed him and pulled Jax away. It had just been a pile of bodies for a moment. They’d all been so close. It would have been incredibly easy to take the key from a guard then.

“He killed a guard and vanished. Murphy is out, Sarah. You need to get back here. We need—”

“I need to find Jax.” He was the only thing that could matter right then. “Please, Gabe, just send me everything the cops have on Mitch Fontaine. Send me everything that LOST has. I need it now.”

“Sarah . . .”

“My father isn’t going to hurt me.”

“You put a gun to his head,” he reminded her.

She didn’t need the reminder. “I need to know about Mitch Fontaine.”

A pause, then . . . “Give me five minutes.”

She hung up the phone. Emma and Carlos were both watching her. Sarah put her hand to her temple. Rubbed. Tried to figure out just what this perp would do. “You wouldn’t go back to the riverfront . . . you already had a victim there. This is your endgame, so you’d want to go to a place where you felt like you had the most control. A place that you’d been using . . . this whole time.”

“Uh, Sarah,” Emma began.

“Mitch, Mitch . . . Jax tried to kill you, so you want him to pay just as much as you want Murphy to pay. If this is about Jax, if he’s what first pulled you to the city, then you studied him.” Her temples were pounding as she kept trying to get into the mindset of this killer. “I was a bonus. You found me, through Jax. And you decided it was time to act. You’ve been here, though, biding your time. Jax drew you. He took what was yours. So you . . .”

“Does she always do this?” Carlos asked.

Sarah’s hand dropped to her side. “You take what belongs to Jax.” She whirled toward Carlos and Emma. “Mitch framed him because he wanted to make sure everyone thought Jax was a killer. He destroyed Jax’s home because he wanted to take it away from him.” Her gaze flew to the door. “We should get everyone out of here. If he wants to hurt Jax, he’ll take this place, too—”

“It’s my bar now,” Carlos reminded her as he stepped in front of that door, barring her path. “And, hell, Jax has plenty of property in this town. If the guy wants to take things away from Jax, he’s got tons of options.”

A cold fist had closed around Sarah’s heart. “A building that’s secluded. No close neighbors. One that wouldn’t attract attention.”

Carlos nodded. “Yeah, yeah . . . there’s a place like that in the Quarter. On Tibideaux Street. He buys houses, fixes them up. He’s always trying to fix things . . .”

To make up for his past.

“But he hadn’t started on this one yet. He met you and everything else fell away.” He shook his head. “He’s got that one . . . and another, closer to Slidell. An antebellum place in the swamp. Guy thought he could turn that snake hole into something special.”

Her phone was ringing again. She shoved it to her ear. “Gabe, what did you find out?”

“Mitch Fontaine did two tours of duty in the military. Want to know his specialty back then?”

“Explosives,” Sarah whispered.

“He got out, had scrapes with the law, and vanished for a long time.”

Yes, she was sure he had.

“But then he turned up years ago, got busted for assault and drug running. He wound up in Biton Penitentiary—”

Biton? “With Murphy.” And it all made sense.

“The guy went dark after he got out. Slipped parole and no one has seen him since. According to the report, his parole officer figured he was dead.”

“I think that happened a lot.” She shoved back her hair when it tried to fall forward. “Look, Jax has two houses that are sitting empty right now. We need to check them out.”

“You think the perp is keeping Jax at his own place?”

“Why not? He wants to hurt Jax . . . why not kill him in his own home?”

Gabe swore. “All right, let’s hit them.”

“Emma and I will go to the one in the Quarter,” Sarah said, thinking quickly.

“I’m coming!” Carlos said immediately. “There is no damn way you’re leaving me behind. If Jax is in danger, I’m there.”

Her gaze met his. She read the steely determination in his stare. “Carlos is coming with us.” They might need him because Sarah had no idea what they’d find when they arrived.

Carlos’s shoulders straightened. “Damn straight I am. Jax is my friend. I owe him.”

“Carlos, give me the addresses for the two houses.”

He rattled them off and she immediately told Gabe the locations “You take a team to the house near the swamp, and I’ll cover the one on Tibideaux Street. We split up and we find him faster . . .”

“No, Sarah,” Gabe argued, “we need to stick together. With your father on the loose—”

“I told you, Jax is my priority.” Not her father. “I need your help, Gabe. I need the team.”

“Dammit . . .” His rough sigh carried over the line. “Get Dean. You and Emma need more backup and that guy will kill me if Emma rushes into danger without him at her side.”

Sarah slanted a glance over at Emma. The other woman was already on the phone. “He’ll be there with us,” Sarah said.

“Be careful,” Gabe told her.

“You too,” Sarah whispered. The gun was a cold weight against her.

HE SAW SARAH rush from the bar. Run as if she were escaping hell.

Or rushing straight into the fire.

Two others were with her—a man and a dark-haired woman.

Sarah didn’t even bother to glance around before she jumped into the car and sped away.

He shook his head. He’d taught her so much better than that. Sarah was taking too many risks. Risks for no reason. “I told you, Sarah,” Murphy whispered, “you should stay away from him.” But Sarah hadn’t listened. He’d been afraid of that. Especially when he saw the way she looked at Jax Fontaine.

Did Sarah even realize all that she’d given away to him during that little visit at the prison? She used to control her emotions so much better.

If he’d realized her weakness, then others would, too.

Like the bastard who was trying to hurt his baby girl.

Your mistake.

He cranked his car. The car he’d stolen twenty minutes ago. Then he pulled onto the street. It was rather good to be back in action again.

Now, if he could just get his hands on a really sharp knife . . .