Page 67 of Jax

Jacob races into the cage, followed closely by Finn. Immediately, Jacob finds the wound, tears his shirt off, and holds it to his side. With his free hand, he turns his phone screen on but in the background, we hear one of the agents talking into a coms system, asking for EMS to report inside.

“Kyla’s going to kill me,” Jacob says, lips thinning as his shirt turned bandage becomes drenched.

Finn grips his brother’s hand, face solemn. “Why?”

“She told me not to let any of you get hurt.”

He breaks a smile but at the same time, his voice cracks. “Tell her I want to see her. She can come visit this guy when he recovers from this.”

Jacob nods as I watch the rising and falling of Jax’s chest. I keep staring and staring, willing it to keep moving. I know nothing about gunshot wounds. Is the side a good place to get hit? A bad place? What’s the probability that he’ll live? All I can go by is Jacob’s face, and I don’t like how worried he looks.

“Miss Lovell?” I gaze up at the agent who interrogated me. “It’s time.”

Panic shoots through me. What if this is the last time I see Jax? I start to shake my head. It can’t be time. I have things to say to the man lying in the cage.

“Can’t you wait?” Leenie pleads. Her face is so distraught that I want to hug her. I want to hold her and make her feel better like she did for me.

“I’m afraid I can’t.”

I throw myself at Jax. “Please, please, please,” I beg, my fingers slipping all over his sweaty skin. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Miss Lovell,” the agent says again, this time more firmly. “You’re under arrest for grand larceny. Please get to your feet.” I do as he asks, rising on shaky legs as Jax gets whiter and whiter. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law.”

I tune him out as soon as the cold metal of the handcuffs slip around my wrists and tighten. He starts walking me away. “Finn!” I call out. As soon as he looks up, I say, “Tell him I wanted to be there. Tell him I love him. I’m so sorry.”

“He knows,” Finn says, giving me a wobbly smile. “He knows.”

Being walked out of the Ring in cuffs and away from a hurt Jax will go down as the worst possible moment in my entire life.

30

Fortunately, I don’t have to wait for long to get a Jax update. Jacob comes to see me in the holding cell. As soon as I hear footsteps, I stand from the bench and walk toward the bars. In my head, I’m in the finale of a movie and Jax is limping toward me. We embrace through the cell, and he tells me he got me out so that we can spend the rest of our lives together starting now.

It’s nothing like that. Real life is no fairy tale.

“How is he?” I ask, trying to mask my initial disappointment of seeing him. Jacob has done so much for me. He’s why I’m sitting here in this holding cell while the others are already in real cells, awaiting their time in front of the judge. The judge will tell them they’re spending time in prison while they wait for their trials.

“He went into surgery. The doctor says everything looks good, but they need to do some repair work on the inside. He woke up right before they took him back. He was asking for you.”

The bars gripped in my fists feed the slivers of icy chills that race down my back.

“Don’t worry. We told him you wanted to be there. He tried to fight the hospital staff off so he could come see you, but Finn talked some sense into him.”

“Thank God for Finn,” I muse, knowing Jax is way better off in the hospital than fulfilling my fantasies.

Jacob looks both ways before he settles his gaze on me. “I spoke to Cole. He said he knows someone who can get you out of this.”

My knuckles turn white. It’s tempting. So damn tempting. In my head, though, I know it’s not what I want. Or what Jax wants for that matter. I can’t imagine what he would think about accepting so much help from the leader of a gang. “Is it bad?” I ask.

“I think you’ll be spending at least six months in jail. At the very least. You can plead that you were coerced and you were afraid for your life. There’ll be restitution charges too. You’ll be asked to pay back the families that you stole from.”

“I want that,” I say automatically. “I’ll work until I die to pay them off.” A picture of the old man’s face pops into my head and guilt nearly slams into me with the full force of a tornado. I knew it was wrong but I did it anyway. I was selfish, and it’s time that I own up to my mistakes. “I’ll take whatever they want to give me.”

“You’ll need a good lawyer.”

“Court appointed?”

Jacob shakes his head. “Not if you can help it.”