A soft chuckle. “Now, I think you and I both know what I’ve really come here for, King.”
Julian attempts to discreetly slide his hand between the arm of the couch and the cushion, but the guard clears his throat, raising an eyebrow in challenge and gesturing with his gun. “Let’s not make any stupid decisions.” Reluctantly, Julian lifts his hands in the air and the guard reaches into the couch, withdrawing a gun. Chuckling, he pockets it. “Clever, but not quick enough.”
He deadpans, “I did as you asked, what more do you want?”
The blade at my throat presses a bit deeper with Jax’s sudden anger, though he doesn’t break skin. “I want Amelia back, you son of a bitch. My son. You stole everything from me and you really think I’d just let it go?”
Julian narrows his eyes. “You were the one that laid out the terms five years ago and I agreed. You really think you can just swoop in after all of this time and demand anything? You didn’t even care enough about her to know she was dead until, what was it, ten years later?”
Warm blood trickles down my throat as his restraint slips. “I thought she left! Got the hell out of here and away from all of this bullshit, found a better life. All she ever talked about was being free, and I wasn’t about to ruin whatever happiness she found by dragging her back into this life.”
“I gave her the freedom she wanted once, and what did she do with it? Got herself knocked up.” Julian’s voice is cold, devoid of any emotion at this point. “Do you honestly think I’d let her ruin her life like that?”
Everything starts clicking into place and I find myself barely breathing. Out of the corner of my eye I see a brief movement, Everett’s shadowed form appearing in the room opposite us across the entryway. He raises his gun, giving me the signal to drop, and I bet everything on the fact that I’m reading between the lines correctly.
Standing straighter, I angle myself between him and Jax slightly, cutting into their conversation to try and get Everett to understand. “Is that why you asked him to give me to you? So that you could save me from the same things he did to your son?”
Ev hesitates before his eyes widen and I know it clicked, nodding once before wiping the surprise from his face. Stalking forward with his gun drawn, he focuses his attention on Jax’s bodyguard. Julian smirks to conceal the flash of rage at finding one of his men inside of his house against direct orders.
“Hate to break it to you,” Ev drawls, looking at Jax, “but if you want a shot at walking out of here, you’ll have to let go of the girl.”
I reach up to curl my hands around his arm at my throat, subtly squeezing once in reassurance, attempting to silently convey what I’m trying to orchestrate. The guard’s attention is split between Everett and Julian, focusing on the more obvious threat while not giving the other an opening. It’s only exacerbated as Grave and Maverick open the front door, blood coating their skin like war paint. It takes less than a second before they take in the scene, turning their weapons in this direction.
It’s a testosterone fueled standstill, Jax holding a knife to my throat to ensure his survival as the two men that just walked in remain out of the loop. My eyes meet Grave’s because of any of them, he’d be the one confident enough to risk a head shot before Jax could slit my throat. I one hundred percent believe he could pull it off, too.
“What starts with an S and is worth its weight in gold?”
He hesitates, frowning before lowering his weapon a fraction of an inch. “Trust.”
I slump against Jax in relief, briefly closing my eyes before refocusing my attention on the room. He connected the dots in a way that no one else in the room could, quickly making the leap between the answer being his name, and what it signifies.
“That starts with a T,” the guard objects, but neither of us correct him. We simply leave the rest of the room in tense silence as he scans my face, the absence of terror, my position, and namely the way my fingers are curled around Jax’s arm instead of flinching away from him.
Grave lifts his gun again, aiming directly between Jax’s eyes. “Sorry, buddy, I called dibs on that one. If you’re determined to steal something tonight, might I suggest the house specialty? We have a Maverick on hand that’s just-“ he uses his free hand to mime a chef’s kiss.
“Fuck off, G,” Maverick growls, gun pointed at the guard, registering that he’s the biggest threat.
Julian gets to his feet, looking smug. “Well, it would appear we’re at an impasse, Hawthorn.”
Jax stiffens behind me, and presses the knife firmly into my throat, careful not to add any more pressure than necessary to maintain the ruse. “So it would seem.” He turns to face Maverick. “I take it my men outside won’t be coming to my aid?”
He grins, the sight feral amidst the spray of blood staining his skin. “Afraid not.”
A heavy minute passes before Jax faces Julian once more. “I loved your sister, no matter how you constantly refuse to believe otherwise.”
Julian’s face twists with instantaneous rage. “You ruined her, and your bast-“ his words are cut off as Everett raises his gun to the side without looking away from the guard, firing a shot through Julian’s temple and blowing his brains all over the pristine couch.
The silence that follows in his wake is louder than anything I’ve ever experienced. Nobody says a word, and yet a roaring fills my ears. I can see the scene playing out before me, but there’s a disconnect, like I’m on the outside looking in.
A hand cups my cheek, and suddenly Maverick is there, pressing a kiss to my lips, as hard as the man giving it. The shock of it helps to snap me out of it, realizing that Jax is no longer restraining me and wondering how long I’ve been in a dazed state of shock, trying to comprehend everything that’s happened quicker than I can seem to process.
I’m still running on no sleep, and the abuse my body’s endured in the last day is beyond anything I’ve had to experience before. My mind is busy playing catch up, but as I see Grave holding a gun to Jax’s head, unsure of exactly what’s going on, but patiently waiting for me to explain, I push past my issues.
Gripping Maverick’s arm, I lock eyes with Grave as I break the news so that he can see the truth in my words. “Julian’s sister was your mom, and Jax was only trying to save me from the same fates you and her endured. It’s the only gift he could give you since you didn’t know he was your father.”
Grave’s eyes widen as he whirls on Jax, pressing his gun impossibly closer to his temple. He doesn’t ask any of the questions I would have had, cutting through all of them to the heart of the matter. “Sophia. She was one of yours?”
Jax cringes, but nods. “I didn’t know who you were then, I swear. It was just an effort to infiltrate King’s home and see what sort of secrets he was hiding. But she unearthed who you were, and once Julian found out, he killed her; slit her wrists and made it look like a suicide, from what I gathered.”
