Chapter 16 - Plan B
Darla fought the steering wheel as the van skidded across wet pavement.
Eli screamed from the back seat.
The black SUV hit them again.
“Seat belt!” Darla shouted.
“I have it!”
She cut hard into a grocery store parking lot, using parked cars as barriers. The SUV followed.
Back at the warehouse, Jax heard the crash through Cole’s radio.
His blood went cold.
“What did you do?”
Cole smiled again. “I planned for you.”
Jax threw the brass key onto the concrete between them.
Cole glanced down.
That was all Jax needed.
He lunged.
The pistol fired.
The shot hit metal somewhere behind him.
Jax drove Cole into a stack of plastic crates. They crashed sideways.
Hannah kicked the nearest guard in the knee. Aaron, weak but furious, rammed his shoulder into another.
Vince came through a side door like a wrecking ball.
Miriam’s voice shouted from outside: “Federal agents! Weapons down!”
The warehouse erupted.
Jax pinned Cole’s gun wrist against the floor.
“Call them off!”
Cole head-butted him.
Jax saw white.
Cole rolled free and grabbed the key.
“You should’ve stayed gone,” he hissed.
Then he ran deeper into the warehouse.
Jax started after him, but Hannah shouted, “Eli!”
Jax stopped.
Family before revenge.
He grabbed Cole’s fallen radio.
“Darla!”
Static.
Then Eli’s voice: “Jax?”
“Are you okay?”
“We crashed.”
Darla came on, breathing hard. “We’re moving. SUV’s still behind us.”
Jax looked at Miriam.
She immediately relayed the vehicle description to incoming agents.
“Darla, where are you?”
“Route Nine, passing Miller’s Grocery.”
Jax knew the road.
“Take Old Quarry Road.”
“That’s a dead end!”
“Exactly. There’s a service gate halfway down. Chain looks locked, but it isn’t. I cut it years ago.”
Darla accelerated.
Hannah stared at Jax. “You cut a chain years ago?”
“Long story.”
A minute later, Darla shouted over the radio, “Gate!”
Metal clanged.
Then silence.
Jax held his breath.
Finally Darla said, “We’re through. SUV missed the turn.”
Jax nearly collapsed with relief.
Then a gunshot cracked from the warehouse interior.
Everyone turned.
Aaron looked down.
Blood spread across his shirt.
May you like
And Cole’s voice echoed from the dark:
“Come get your family, Jax.”
