Page 72 of Timeless

Tae put his hands out as if to calm her down. “He isn’t in this car.”

Amber scoffed and shook her head. “I knew you were lying.”

“Amber, listen to me, he is safe. Cory has him. He is at the airport with Cory.”

“Cory is here? In the country?” Amber looked slightly shocked and then her expression hardened. “You let Cory near my son!”

“Amber, you know Cory won’t let anyone hurt him. He is the best at his job.”

“He is a mass murderer! And he is caring for my son! Are you fucking insane!” Amber took the gun from her head and aimed it at Tae. “Cory is your personal serial killer!”

My eyes were narrowed on Tae. He was letting a serial killer look after my son?

“Who is Cory? I don’t know him.” I turned and looked back at Amber. I lost some connection to the up and comers while in prison. I wasn’t as well informed about Tae’s criminal activities or members. I had enough of a problem keeping count of my members as they grew.

“You know him.” Amber looked back at me. “He goes by Hunter. Ring a bell now? Our son is with the Hunter!” Amber fired a shot at Tae’s feet, causing him to jump. “You know what, Tae? I might kill you before I kill myself now.” She fired another shot at Tae’s feet.

The Hunter was a mass murderer. He took out groups. He didn’t do one hit at a time. He was skilled enough to take out a group.

He also didn’t care about killing women and children.

My hand went to Adam’s holster and I pulled out his gun. Adam didn’t even know I had it until I was pointing it at Tae and unlike Amber, I wasn’t aiming for his feet.

Tae’s eyes flash to mine. “Jack is safe, okay! That’s all that matters!” He was looking between Amber and I. “You know I love Jack as if he is my own. I wouldn’t let Cory near him if I thought he was going to hurt Jack.”

“I wanted to kill you before this. I wanted to kill you when I found out you stopped Amber from reaching out to me years ago. My need to kill you increased every time you tried to get my woman to marry you. Then you go and send her to her own execution and now you tell me my son is being cared by, a serial killer.” I was going to kill him and he knew it. I aimed for his head. “I told you to stay away from my family.”

Thanks to him, Amber thought she needed to kill herself. My son was in a different state being cared for by a serial killer. And Tae had caused this. He had caused Amber to think the only way to get Jack off the list was to marry him and go to England, or for Amber to die.

Amber clearly didn’t want to fucking marry him, because she was willing to kill herself instead.

I glanced at Amber for a second, and realized she was standing within arm’s distance with the gun down at her side. She had walked toward me. Which was huge, because before she was keeping as much distance between us as possible.

“I was wrong,” Amber said, her eyes locked with mine, “I should have come to you.”

Did this mean she was backing down on ending her life?

“I didn’t want to bring you into my problems. But I forgot. Jack is your son, too.” Amber looked down at the gun and then back at me. “Do you really think we can get him off the list?”

She had to know that I would kill anyone who threatened my family. And it wouldn’t just be ending any man’s life who threatened them. Every man who was loyal to my empire answered to me and would be standing in between the threat and Jack and Amber’s lives.

I lowered my gun off Tae and took a step toward her. She didn’t back away from me.

“Your name and his will be off the list.” I glanced down at her gun, I needed to get it off her. Just in case she changed her mind. She was so close to backing down. I saw it in her eyes. “I made you a promise a long time ago, Amber. I would never let anyone hurt you. Not even me.”

Me keeping that promise meant I did push her out of my life when I knew I was going to hurt her. But now I knew better, I hurt her more every time I pushed her away. The pain she would feel while at my side was nothing compared to what I put her through when I pushed her away.

“I need you trust me.” I put Adam’s gun in my holster and my hand slowly began to reach out to get the gun out of her hand. “You need to trust in us. You know we can face anything and come out stronger.”

“Jax, you haven’t been a part of my life for six years. We never face problems. You push me away.” Amber took a step back. “How can you ask me to trust in us, when we aren’t even an us?”

I fucking knew deep down she still loved me. We mightn’t be an ‘us’ at the moment but we would be. I knew it. And she would have to know it, too.

“There is no life after you, Amber. If you kill yourself now, you are killing me. You are killing a part of Jack.” My voice cracked. I knew my emotions were going to come out, and here they were. “You won’t be saving Jack, you will be killing him.” I just stared into her eyes, the pain clear in mine at the thought of losing her. “There isn’t much left to me now, after not being with you for six years. But if you kill yourself, I can promise you, you will kill the last part of me.”

“Amber, you know what it is like to grow up without a mom. You saw what it did to Dad, losing Mom.” Troy had walked closer to us. “You saw what it did to all of us.”

“You honestly expect us all to live without you?” Cole had also taken the opportunity to get closer to her. “When Mom died, you saw how I coped.”

---