Chapter 2 - The SUV in the Rain
Jax moved before anyone else understood what was happening.
“Darla, kill the front lights.”
“What?”
“Now.”
Something in his voice made her obey.
The diner dropped into a dim amber glow from the kitchen. Outside, the black SUV remained parked with its headlights pointed straight at the windows.
Eli grabbed Jax’s vest. “Is that them?”
“I don’t know.”
It was a lie.
Jax knew the vehicle.
Not the exact plates. Not the driver. But the style was familiar: black paint, government-fleet tint, no dealership frame, clean enough to disappear in traffic. Men who wanted to be noticed drove loud cars. Men who wanted to take people quietly drove something ordinary.
One of the bikers, Vince, stood. “Want us to go ask?”
“No.” Jax pointed toward the kitchen. “Everybody stay inside.”
The diner door opened.
A tall man in a gray raincoat stepped in alone.
He was in his forties, clean-shaven, expensive shoes, no umbrella. Water ran from his shoulders. He looked around as if he were choosing a table.
Then his eyes landed on Eli.
“There you are,” he said.
Eli stepped behind Jax.
The man smiled. “I’m a friend of your mother.”
“No, you’re not,” Eli whispered.
Jax planted both hands on the counter. “Name.”
“Daniel Reed.”
“Try again.”
The man’s smile faded a fraction.
Darla quietly reached beneath the counter for the phone.
Reed saw her.
“I wouldn’t,” he said.
That changed the room.
Three bikers stood. Then five.
Reed raised both hands. “Nobody needs trouble. The boy’s mother asked me to bring him home.”
Eli shook his head hard. “She told me not to go with anybody.”
Jax watched Reed’s right sleeve. It hung heavier than the left.
A shoulder holster.
“Leave,” Jax said.
Reed’s eyes shifted to the faded photograph still trapped under Jax’s palm.
“So she finally showed you.”
Jax felt a pulse of old fear.
“You know Hannah?”
Reed’s expression sharpened.
“Better than you do now.”
Jax stepped around the counter.
“Where is she?”
Reed backed toward the door. “Ask your brother.”
Jax stopped.
His brother had been dead for eleven years.
At least that was what Jax had been told.
Reed opened the door and stepped into the rain.
By the time Vince reached the window, the SUV was already reversing.
Jax grabbed the note again.
Mile Marker 17.
A place only three people had ever known mattered.
Jax.
Hannah.
And his brother, Cole.
Darla stared at him. “Jax, who was that?”
Jax looked down at Eli.
Then his phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
May you like
One text.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED GONE.
