Burn (26 page)

             
Instant relief swept me. Sighing, I set the gun down and rested my head against the headrest of the seat. “Thank fuck.”

             
“You did well. I’m impressed.” He nodded his head in approval; it was the kind of pride you’d see in a parent watching their kid make the winning shot.

             
“Really?” I beamed at him, hardly able to suppress my satisfaction.

             
He nodded. “Oh, yeah. And the Rita thing – wow. I honestly did not see that fucking coming, woman.”

             
“You could have tied her up!”

             
“Didn’t have time. We needed to get that done quickly. You did fucking amazing.”

             
“You weren’t so bad yourself.” In fact, his acting was pretty incredible. It almost frightened me. Almost.

             
When Jaxon had directed me to put a gun to Fritz’s head, I’d almost lost it from the disbelief that it was Fritz who had been the insider from the start. This was the guy that spouted on and on about warring with the Scorpions.

             
“I can’t believe it was you all this time,” I muttered with a shake of my head. “You always hate on the Scorpions.”

             
He shrugged, focusing on the road with a lot more sobriety than I’d taken him for. “Gotta find a way to remove all suspicions, right?”

             
“Why are you helping him?”

             
He hesitated. “I got my reasons. I’m not impulsive like you, dumb one.”

             
“Dumb one? Look at what I just did!”

             
“What you did was dumb.”

             
“What about you? You drugged Barge, planted the gun in front of everyone, pretended to be drunk and asleep–”

             
“And no one’s going to know a thing because I’m awesome like that. Now what
you
did on the other hand took massive balls. I’m talking meteorite balls. People are going to get paid trying to kill you for this kind of stunt. You showed your face, showed your cards, showed the world of the Jackals that you’re a snake and a liar. There isn’t anything worse than that. You did it all for the price of a man.”

             
Well, shit, when he put it that way… I went quiet. Wow. Did I really just do that? Me, Sara Nolan?

             
What.
              The.
              Fuck.

             
Talk about risking it all.

             
“So where are you taking me?” I asked, determinedly steering the conversation away from my apparent stupidity.

             
“Jaxon didn’t tell me. Didn’t want the information in the wrong hands. He said to meet him ‘in the grass.’ Whatever the fuck that means. Said you’d know.”

             
I looked perplexedly out of the window.
In the grass.
Well, might as well turn this car back around because I had absolutely no clue. Biting my nail, I searched through the recesses of my mind, digging up any grass references.

             
“You have no fucking clue, huh?”

             
I didn’t answer him. I concentrated on our every encounter. Why would Jaxon give me such a vague clue? He couldn’t be referencing a vague memory. This had to be central to a time–

             
My eyes widened and my cheeks went crimson in realization. I knew exactly where to go.

*****

The car stopped in the emergency lane, head lights still on. I stepped out and looked around the deserted road. Th
e cool wind swept my hair back and a chill ran down my spine.  Clearly unprepared but in too much haste to care, I’d left in only a plain white shirt and jeans.

             
I waded into the knee length grass, staring fondly at the vineyard beyond. Interesting choice of destination for Jaxon, bringing me back to our horny days. I stopped in the spot we made love and looked back at the nearby road. I cringed remembering the honks and the men that bellowed their appreciation for what they’d obviously witnessed in vivid detail.

             
Fritz stepped out of the car and rested against the door, crossing his arms. I continued looking around, waiting expectantly for the face I’d been longing for. I mean, this was the place he meant, right?
In the grass.
Had to be. Yet everywhere I turned, I couldn’t see him. Shouldn’t he have been here waiting?

             
Panic swarmed my chest. What if something went wrong on his end? What if he was unable to make it? What then? I knew I shouldn’t jump to the worst conclusions just yet. Besides, Fritz looked calm. Surely he’d be pacing restlessly like I was doing right now if there was something to worry about.

             
The sound of an engine in the air drawing nearer pulled me away from my thoughts. It was a motorcycle. Now I was really panicking. What if it was Remy catching me in the act? Fuck. Fuck. I stood my ground and waited until I made out the headlight of the black bike coming at us. It slowed down just beside the truck. To my relief, it was not Remy’s bike.

             
When the bike went off, so did the helmet. My heart leaped at the sight of Jaxon jumping off of his bike, donning a black leather jacket and jeans. Always the same apparel from this one.

             
I watched him approach Fritz.

             
“Where is she?” he asked cautiously.

             
Fritz cocked his head in my direction and Jaxon followed. When his eyes landed on me, he gave Fritz a stern nod. I’d expected him to be happy seeing me, but he looked… blank.

             
“So there were no problems?”

             
Fritz shook his head. “No. She did a damn good job. If I were you, I’d get the hell out of here ten minutes ago. Place will be crawling come morning. Every inch of Gosnells will be in the hands of the Jackals.”

             
“Yeah.” Jaxon stood still for a moment, thoughts passing through him at lightning speed. “Anyway, thanks, man. I’ll keep in touch with you, Dean.”
Dean?

             
“Send me some alcohol as thanks,” Fritz mumbled. He walked through the grass and stopped right in front of me. He regarded me sweetly. “What I said in the car–”

             
“About me being dumb?”

             
“Yeah, I still think you’re dumb.” He smirked at my frown and added, “But… I admire what you did. If I had a heart, I’d cry. Maybe even write you a fuckin’ sonnet. Keep yourself hidden. I’d hate for you to be in the hands of Remy after this.” His demeanour switched to discomfort. “He’s a ruthless fucker when it comes to enemies. You’ve just made yourself one.”

             
I gulped hard. “Yeah.”

             
“Take care, Sara.”

             
“You too.”

             
He walked back to the car and, while climbing in, nodded one last time at Jaxon. Seconds later he was gone, driving back in the direction we’d come from, his engine fading in the distance.

             
Shrouded in the darkness of night, I waited for Jaxon to signal me over. He stood still, his face turned away from me with his hands in his pockets. The air was thick with tension, the kind that stiffened me with anxiety. I slowly made my way over to him and stopped when I was four feet away. Maybe he needed some distance.

             
Did he hate me? Did he regret doing this? Why was he so damn hard to read?

             
“Come on,” he finally said.

             
I followed him to his bike and watched him open the top box. He withdrew a helmet and turned to me.

             
“Come here.” When I did, he placed the helmet over my head and buckled it. Then he took his jacket off. “Put this on. It’s going to be cold.”

             
I put it on and zipped it up and looked back at him for more directions. He eyed the jacket, then my helmet and then turned to the bike, securing his own helmet back over his head.

             
“Where are we going?” I asked him as he climbed over his bike.

             
“Far, far away,” he answered. “Climb on.”

             
I was a pro when it came to bikes now. Having ridden behind Remy the last –
Fuck, stop thinking about him!

             
I took my seat behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist. I felt his muscles tense at my contact. I didn’t like his uncertainty. I may as well have been hugging a log.

             
“Hold on tight,” he said. “As I ride, move along with my body. With every turn, lean with me.”

             
He didn’t have to tell me all this. I already knew. “Okay,” I said anyway.

             
He started the bike and off we went, to the unknown place he called far, far away.

Nineteen

We’d been on the road for hours. He stopped at one point at a gas station to fill up. That was the one and only pit stop.

              At first I thought he was just riding for the sake of getting as far away from Gosnells as possible. But I thought this was very unlike Jaxon. Just as he masterfully put together the plan for my escape, I’m sure he had an escape destination in mind.

             
I was right.

             
About ten minutes outside of Maddington, a popular tourist town three and half hours from Gosnells, he turned off the road and onto a dirt path into the bush. At this point I was exhausted, my ass was numb, and my legs felt like deadweight. I just wanted off the damn bike, even if it meant sleeping on the ground for the rest of the night.

             
When he finally stopped the bike, I hurriedly threw my helmet off and took in the log cabin he parked us in front of. In the darkness I couldn’t make out much except that it looked to be a decent size with a wraparound wooden porch.

             
He climbed up a set of steps and withdrew a key from his pocket. I followed him up and by then the door was opened. Two steps in and the lights went on. He was standing beside the light switch, glancing back at me for half a second before disappearing down the hallway and into another room, leaving me standing in the middle of a decent sized living room.

             
I shut the door behind me and observed my surroundings. It was very well set up: white couches, pine wood coffee table with a mountain of magazines on top, a shaggy cream coloured rug, log walls, rustic fireplace and decorative nature pictures hung from every wall… It seemed like a neutral, impersonal space that didn’t belong to an owner, but a place reserved for guests.

             
I walked down the hallway and turned to the room Jaxon had gone in. It was a small kitchen and, judging by the stainless steel appliances and marble countertops, was surprisingly modern. I hated that my previous perception of cabins were of insipid, old school, run down looking shanties. This certainly was not the case at all.

             
He was at the fridge unloading a carton of orange juice and cold meats on a plate. He set them on the counter before turning to me.

             
“Thought I’d have some food for us. You must be hungry.” The flat, disinterested line rubbed me the wrong way. Why couldn’t he be a little happier? Look at what we just did, for crying out loud!

             
I shook my head. “I’m not hungry. Just want to sleep.”

             
I followed his eyes at a round clock on the wall. It was one in the morning, holy hell.

             
“I’ll show you to your room then,” he said, walking out of the kitchen.

             
Your room.
I pursed my lips and scrunched my eyebrows in distaste. Your room? I followed him down the hall and to the only bedroom in the cabin. The
only
one, dammit, which meant this was
our
room!

             
He turned the light on and pointed at the door in the corner. “There’s the bathroom. There are some clothes in the dresser I asked… a friend to put in for you.” The way he said friend didn’t escape me at all. I darted his back some evil eyes. This shit stunk.