The bar seemed foreign to me. There was so much… space. There weren’t hundreds of bodies crammed in here, or girls stripping on the counters, or men fawning over me… Instead, we were greeted with silence, and it felt strangely more cryptic than the noise.

There was some activity. Several men were drinking around a table, looking dishevelled as they played their card games. A mountain of cash was in the centre of the table, some of the bills crumpled up and set brusquely aside.

When they heard our footsteps, they all looked up. Shock and horror erupted from their faces when they ogled Jaxon’s state. Their game was long forgotten and they pushed up out of their seats, but Jaxon was already out of there, dragging me to the back of the bar where the office was. They hollered his name as we neared the door, but it opened before we got to it.

The doorway was completely filled with the muscled wall of a body that was Damien. My heart surged at the sight of him in one piece. I hadn’t seen him since the night of the crash. I don’t know why I ever thought he’d been hurt. The guy was just so big.

Jaxon let go of my hand and stormed in Damien’s direction. “What the fuck happened to that fucking coup?!”

Damien reached his arm out to stop Jaxon from coming any further. “We never got the chance! He went to make a call–”

“Yeah, a call to send fucking men after us!”

“And then he just disappeared. I don’t know how he found you.”

“After I tortured a man to get that answer, I found a fucking tracker on the bike.”

Damien exhaled in anger. “I fucking warned you about that, Jaxon!”

Jaxon didn’t reply. I watched carefully as the two men stared at each other. Yet again there was that communication carried out by simply exchanging looks. Whatever Jaxon saw in Damien, he didn’t like.

“What’s going on?” I whispered into his side.

“Finley’s a fucking dead man, that’s what’s wrong,” Jaxon gritted out.

He stormed into the office, his anger sharp in his features as he swiped everything off of Finley’s desk with one arm. Damien watched him, unperturbed by the anger display.

“Six years working for that fucker,” Jaxon vented, gripping the corners of the desk until his hands went white. “I depended on you guys for one fucking thing!”

“He didn’t know what we were going to do,” Damien replied calmly.

Jaxon scoffed. “Then why is he gone, Day?”

Damien shook his head. “I don’t know, bro. I don’t know.”

“That shit’s fucking unbelievable. After everything I put her and Fritz through, it was for nothing–”

“It’s not for nothing! He’s gone. Maybe he caught on somehow and took off.”

“The guy has connections, Damien! You know what kind of shit he could send after us now–”

Damien’s phone interrupted him, ringing an unusually springy tune that didn’t suit the large man. He pulled the phone out of his pocket. “Speak of the devil,” he muttered before tossing the phone to Jaxon.

Jaxon caught it and answered. “Yeah?” I watched him pace the room and the stress levels began to rise while he listened with his lips pursed and his brows fused together.

Something wasn’t right.

“Alright, Fritz. Thanks for the heads up.” Jaxon slammed the cell down and the desk vibrated beneath him.

“What did he want?” Damien asked, equally unsettled by Jaxon’s demeanour.

Jaxon sighed. “Jackals saw us riding in. They’re coming to pick me up.”

My heart lurched. “What? We have to get out of here–”

“No,” he interrupted with a shake of his head. “They’ll already be here. I gotta make this right.”

“No! Jaxon, they’ll hurt you. Remy… Remy will kill you. We have to go now.” I felt the hysteria explode out of me. This was bad! BAD!

He didn’t answer. He tapped his fingers against the desk, clouded in thought. I turned to Damien.

“Tell him,” I pressed him. “Tell him we need to run.”

“Nowhere left to run, Sara,” he softly replied. “He always planned for this to happen.”

What? No. No!

Jaxon rubbed his face again and then took me by the hand. He steered us out of the office and then out of the bar, walking hastily past the crowd of Scorpions that had been listening in on us. Damien followed closely behind until we were out of the bar and into the parking lot.

Looking at Damien, he said, “Take her someplace safe ‘til this gets sorted out.”

“No!” I pushed away from his grip, trembling at the rapid change of events. “You aren’t going to dump me off somewhere while you’re here waiting for them–”

“And what if they come and take you?” he interrupted icily. “I’m not letting anything happen to you. I knew this was going to happen. I just wanted some more time to pass before we came back to face them, but that didn’t happen. So I need you safe.”

When I heard Damien’s keys jingle behind me, I took another wild step back. “You’re not going to leave me! If they want you, I’m coming too.”

When Jaxon came at me, I knew exactly what he was going to do. I took another step back, but he grabbed me by the arm and shoved me into his chest. His mouth descended on mine, kissing me with tenderness I was forced to resign to.

“Please,” I begged him, weeping against his lips. “Please, let’s just go.”

“I’m not running, Tiny,” he softly replied. “We gotta settle this.”

“They’re not going to let you go,” I cried. “They’re not! He’s going to kill you–”

Jaxon looked past my shoulder and then an arm went around my waist. Damien lifted me up off the ground and hurried me to a car. I flailed against him. “No!” I screamed, but it was utterly futile. I’d never felt so helpless.

He opened the door to a sleek black car and folded me into the passenger seat. I fought against him, hitting his shoulders and undoing the belt he was constantly trying to put on.

“Do you want me to cuff you?” threatened Damien. “I’ll fucking do it!”

I abruptly stopped, breathing hard as he slowly backed away. Tears continued to fall from my eyes. I looked out the window despairingly. Jaxon was standing a short distance away watching me with a warm reassuring smile. Fuck that smile, it was fake, I was sure of it.