Page 55 of Traitorous Lies
Chapter
Fifteen
November 10th
10:00 A.M.
Fear gripped him as Jax shoved Monique to the ground and flung his body protectively over hers, covering as much of it as he could.
Had she been hit?
He didn't feel any burning pain to indicate the bullet had struck him, but then again, adrenaline had flooded his system and could very well be masking it. Still, he was able to think clearly and move so if he had been struck, he didn't think it could be a life-threatening injury.
Already his weapon was in his hand, and he scanned the area where the shot had come from. Without shifting his body from where it kept Monique pressed into the ground, he spotted a shadow and lifted his weapon, firing off a single shot.
When no more shots came, he had to assume that he’d hit his target.
Hit that one, but there’d be more out there.
More coming.
And it was just him there to protect Monique.
Waiting another full minute to make sure there hadn't been anothershooter within range, when no more shots fired he eased up an inch off Monique, just enough that he could look down at her and see her face.
Wide eyes stared up at him, and he could see her pulse fluttering in the hollow of her neck. But she was alive and breathing, and that allowed him to take a full breath.
“Are you hit?” he asked, keeping his voice pitched low. It wasn't just a guess that the shooter wouldn't be there alone. He’d dealt with the teams her father kept sending several times over, and it was never just one man. At least another five would be out there somewhere, possibly in the woods already, possibly waiting in a van hidden somewhere close by. Wherever they were, they’d have heard the shots and be coming. Could already be on their way.
“N-no, I don’t th-think so. They followed you here,” she said, her voice shaking, and her body joining in, he could feel it trembling beneath him.
“Yeah, they did,” he agreed.
Now wasn't the time to get into a discussion on whether these men had been sent by her father. Jax knew they had, but Monique wasn't in a place where she was ready to accept that yet. Although she was getting there. She’d been willing to talk, he knew she was even though she hadn't said the words, and he wasn't going to go and die, or let her die, until they had everything between them straightened out, and had hopefully lived a long and happy life together.
“We’re going to run for my car, okay?” he told her, still scanning the area so he was prepared for the next shot when it came.
“Why not my house?”
“Because there are more of them than there are of us, and I don’t want us to get trapped somewhere. My car can move, can get us out of here. If they contain us in the house, they can just call in more men, and I’ll never be able to pick them all off before they get to you.”
While Jax knew originally he had been her father’s target, since Monique had been dragged into this he had to assume that her father now viewed her as a liability who had to be eliminated. Her father had to know that he’d told her everything, but had no idea that she was so far defending him. All Samson Kerr had wanted to do all along was clean house and keep his secrets. Unfortunately, his own daughterhad now become a problem that needed to be cleaned up and disposed of.
Not going to happen.
Not on his watch.
“Okay,” Monique agreed, looking up at him with such a trusting expression that his heart squeezed painfully tight in his chest.
Already once before he’d let her down. In fact, he was the one to drag her into this mess to begin with. And yet she still believed that he could get her out of this alive. That trust humbled him even as he knew it didn't extend to anything other than him keeping her alive.
Still, if she could trust him to do that, he had to believe that with enough work on his part he could gain back all her trust.
“On three we’re going to move. You’re going to jump straight into the driver’s door since it’s closer and open. Then you're going to climb over to the passenger side and get down in the space between the front of the seat and the dash. Can you do that for me?”
“You can't drive and shoot back at them if they shoot at us,” Monique protested.
“I can and I will.” He would do whatever it took to get Monique some place safe. He’d always known that her father would have someone watching her property, and that person would report back that he was there, still in contact with her. It was a calculated risk since her father might only act if Jax was still there, but then again he might not, and there was no way he was going to leave her alone and unprotected.
