I Beleive Now (15 page)

After Jackson gave the instructions over his cell and even before he was finished, the plane started to rev up and move down the airstrip. They had been given clearance a while ago. Now it was just a matter of time as the plane made its way down the runway. He stood and watched it as it moved faster and faster, toward take-off speed, then suddenly it was airborne. He continued to watch in silence as the plane gained altitude and banked to the left, on its way to Japan.

Jackson turned back to Max and there, standing right beside him, was Kyo.

"So you started the show without me?" Kyo's question was aimed at Jackson.

Jackson smiled. "Finally! You're here." He looked at Max, fully expecting him to be shocked that Jackson knew Kyo would be here. But it was dark and all he could make out was an expressionless face. "You want to collect your prize?" That ought to shock him! "Give me the information on this route, Kyo, and Madden is all yours." Jackson made a motion back toward his car. The driver, who had been standing by it, moved to the back door of the vehicle and opened it. He reached in and pulled out a human form, letting it drop with a thud to the pavement. Then, after shutting the door, he reached down with one hand, picked the person up by the back of the neck, and shoved it forward into the light next to Jackson.

* * * *

Max saw, of course, it was finally Asher, albeit bound and gagged. The young man was looking around and when he saw Max, he jerked in his captor's hands and Max could hear a whine coming from him. Once again that feeling of fear climbed to his throat. He knew no matter how many times he experienced it, it would always take him by surprise. He wanted nothing more than to pull his gun and fill both Jackson and the man holding his boy with every bullet in it then take Asher into his arms and assure him everything was fine, totally under control. But he had to be patient for the moment. He could not break with the path he and his people were going down because to do that might cost lives he did not want to lose, Asher's among them. Right now Max had to play the part of the double-crossed partner but not to the point of messing up Atushi taking Madden out of the line of fire.

"Jackson! What is this? What do you mean, 'collect his prize'?" He put just enough anger in his voice as he looked from Jackson to Atushi then back to Jackson.

"You really didn't think I'd just hand Madden back to you, did you? Even after all of this. I know you. You were never letting us get away with this. Yes, I made you think I believed you would, given the facts. The yakuza are crazy and if you killed both Lucca and me, you'd have trouble with them, I have no doubt. They might even attempt to kill you, but that certainly wouldn't matter to us if both Lucca and I were dead. I never intended to give Madden back. But don't worry about him. Seems Kyo here is very willing to take him off my hands. I think he will be very good to him too. Right, Kyo?"

Atushi let out a quick laugh. "Of course! I will be very good to him, Jackson."

Jackson looked angry. Max wasn't sure exactly why but he had a feeling time had just run out.

"Time to end this!" Jackson raised his hand.

It was a rough signal, pretty obvious, but Max figured Jackson no longer felt the need to be secretive. It was the signal to fire. To kill him. It was all but over now.

* * * *

When Asher saw Max, he couldn't believe it. He had come for him. His first reaction was to run to him but of course, that was not allowed. The man holding onto him jerked him back. He had been a little concerned when during the car ride the blindfold had slipped off, although the man in the car hardly seemed to notice or care. But he was happy because he was able to see Max. Then the man holding him handed him over to Jackson and walked back toward the car.

But…

Something was wrong.

Something was very, very wrong.

They weren't giving him back to Max? Who the hell was Kyo? A foreigner? A guy from Japan? No fucking way! He wasn't going to go with some fucking Japanese guy. He had to do something. He had to escape! But how? And even if he did, Max was still at risk. If they weren't going to give him back then it meant they were going to kill Max. This fucking asshole was going to kill Max!

Then Asher saw two things simultaneously. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadow appear in the doorway of the hangar just to the left and lift up what looked like a rifle, aiming it right at Max. He also saw Jackson raise his arm in an obvious signal, most likely to shoot.

He was out of time.

They all were.

He had one choice, one chance.

Somehow with strength and speed he didn't know he had, he broke free of Jackson. He ran toward Max but there still wasn't enough time! With everything in him, he leaped…

* * * *

Max had also seen the sniper in the doorway. His people must have missed him. Too bad. Hopefully this was a second shooter and the first one had been taken care of, otherwise some of his people were already dead and more were going to die tonight, not just him. The problem was he had been distracted by Asher. Not that his distraction was the boy's fault. He knew it was too late to save himself but he went for his gun anyway. Maybe before he died he could at least take out this sniper. His people were going to have to deal alone with the fallout but he had trained them well. They would save Asher.

The next thing he knew, Asher was running toward him, leaping at him.

No! Asher, no!

* * * *

It all seemed to move in slow motion. Asher didn't have free arms to help him catapult himself through the air and at the same time, there was no way to aim his body. The other thing he knew was hitting the ground was going to be fucking painful since he wasn't going to be able to use his arms to stop himself. Shots rang out as Asher flung himself at Max, twisting his body to try and face the doorway as much as possible, making as big of a target as his slight body could. He felt the impact of the bullets hitting his chest, the pain rocketing through him, as gravity finally took over and pulled him to the pavement. In the split second he was actually airborne he saw Max try to push him out of the way but he wasn't able to. When Asher hit the ground, his head hit first and right before he lost consciousness he heard more shots.
Damn! Did I end up being no help after all? Damn it all to hell!

* * * *

The distraction took its toll. The shots fired never reached Max and he knew, as Asher crumpled to the pavement, he had taken the bullets. It took everything in him to not empty his clip into the man in the doorway. He did riddle him with bullets but held back enough to leave himself some ammunition. Even with Asher now lying on the ground, even not knowing if he were alive or dead, he still needed to move forward with the rest of the plan since his men were still at risk. The most important thing to him now was to secure the area so he could give Asher the help he knew he needed. But if there was yet another shooter his men hadn't found, how could he protect Asher while he lay exposed on the ground?

There was actually a plan for that.

* * * *

Atushi had pulled his gun too when he'd seen Asher wrench away from Jackson and fly at Max. He was too slow and didn't understand what it was Asher was doing until he saw him crumple to the ground. He cringed, knowing he had reached the conclusion too late to take him out of the range of fire. He then took aim at the man in the doorway, but it looked like he was dancing with all the bullets that were piercing his body from Max's gun. He had to hand it to Max; he was fast and accurate with his firearm. Instead Atushi decided to make sure no enemy bullets rained down from the sky and pulled back and away from Max to see if he could get a lock on whoever might still be in the game, but he ended up looking in the wrong direction. He heard more shots fired and they sounded like they indeed came from above. He snapped his head back at Max in time to see him fall.

Damn it!

Was he was too late again?

* * * *

Jackson watched Max flinch back and fall. It seemed to take forever for him to hit the pavement. There was a
crunch
sound as his body thumped to the ground, covering the kid's. Jackson had winced with all the extra shooting he heard but then grinned when Max fell. Obviously the shooter on the roof was just making sure.

All was quiet now. After all the gunplay, the silence was deafening. No one talked. No one moved. There was a rush of white noise in Jackson's brain as he realized it was over. It was finally over. And now he had everything he ever wanted—his career, power, the route to Japan…

He looked over at the dark mound lying very still on the pavement and smiled.

And the best thing of all…

The king was
dead
!

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The king was dead.

The king was fucking
dead
!

Jackson thought it looked like the lover might have gotten in the way too. Kyo was bent over the two of them, pulling Max off the kid.

"Sorry, Kyo. Shit happens."

"You asshole!"

"Shut up, Kyo! We have a job to do." He glanced at Max's limo but saw no movement. The fucking coward of a driver probably ran off. No matter. He hurried to Max's body, pushing Kyo aside, prying the box—containing the flash—out of Max's dead fingers, just like he had dreamed of being able to do. He opened it, only thinking at that moment the flash just might not be in it but it was. He pulled out a very small computer from inside his suit, opened it and plugged the flash in.

Yes!
The information was here—all the names and places. The fucker hadn't lied about that. He pulled the flash back out and pocketed both the computer and the flash after he put it back into its cute little box. Then he kicked hard at the body at his feet and sneered, "I beat you, you son of a bitch! I beat you!" He turned and forced himself to walk to his car, shouting over his shoulder as he went, "Come on, Kyo. We have a lot to do yet. If the kid is alive, pick him up and let's go." He wanted to run he was so elated. He wanted to whoop and holler but he had to remain professional in front of his men.

His men? Where…?

Something wasn't right.

Where the fuck were his men? They were here just a moment ago. The driver had been instructed to wait beside the car after getting the kids out. For some reason he couldn't see him there. In fact, he couldn't see him anywhere. Was he inside the car? He tried to peer through the windows but either he was still too far away or the man was crouching down because he couldn't see him. He scanned the area as he continued to walk toward the car. Where the hell did he go? The other one, his actual bodyguard, had been told to stand out of sight, ready just in case. It wasn't unusual for Jackson to not see him but something still did not feel right.

He kept walking until he stood beside the car. He would have called out the driver's name if he actually remembered it but he couldn't at the moment. Roger? No. Jim…or Jack…

"Hey, Wyatt!"

Shocked, Jackson turned quickly. Did the fucking foreigner have the audacity to use his given name? He heard Japanese people didn't do that kind of thing. Or maybe that cowardly driver of Tyler's had come out of his hiding place.

But when Jackson turned around, what he saw took his breath away. Kyo had not moved. Was that a smile on his face? And Tyler was standing right beside him.
Standing!

What the fucking, freaking
hell
? Tyler was alive? That just could not
be.

But there he stood, right where he fucking fell. And by the look of it, he wasn't even wounded! What the hell were all those extra gun shots then?

Suddenly he knew.

He whipped back around. Could it be? He could now make out a mound, possibly a body, lying on the ground just out of the line of sight next to the hangar. Was that his bodyguard? Had the shots he heard fired actually been fired at his own people?

Damn it all to hell! Was his driver dead too?

That fucking Kyo betrayed me.

He turned back to Max, at the same time reaching inside his coat pocket for his own gun, a 9mm G Date Luger. He had only used it in target practice before, feeling all confident and secure not only because of the muscle he held in his hands but because the dark piece of metal had cost a pretty penny as well. Showing it off to the clientele at the firing range made him feel vital and powerful. He felt significant just for its presence. He was, after all, an important man. Important men carried expensive, well-made guns. And important men could not be defeated, could not be killed.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what must have happened. His sniper on the roof had to have been taken out and replaced with one of Tyler's men who then methodically took out Jackson's people.
That
was the extra gunfire.

No matter. It was all well and good. He had the flash with all the information he could possibly need. The plane with the merchandise was well on its way. So what if his men failed to take out the asshole Tyler? It really was difficult to find good help these days. He had known that all along. Even so, it was going to feel even
more
fucking awesome to squeeze the trigger of his own beautiful gun anyway, killing this man himself rather than having to rely on his idiot subordinates. He'd kill both of these bastards. This was going to be a sweeter victory yet.

"Max fucking Tyler!" he yelled as he raised his gun, feeling nearly drunk with his newfound desire for Tyler's death. "Why aren't you dead?"

"Because then I wouldn't be able to do this."

It caught Jackson's attention, that thing in Tyler's hand. He didn't know at first what it was, really didn't care, but he hesitated nonetheless. He didn't squeeze the trigger, still marveling at the fact if you wanted a job done correctly—or in this case, at all—you needed to do it yourself.