Chapter 6 - The Key
Jax stared at the brass key like it had crawled out of a grave.
“Where did your mom get that?”
Eli curled his fingers around it. “She said not to give it to anybody.”
“That includes me?”
“She said especially you if you looked scared.”
Vince let out a dry laugh. “Smart woman.”
Jax ignored him.
Sheriff Bell struck the diner door again. “Open it or we’re coming in!”
Darla whispered, “Back exit leads to the alley.”
“No,” Jax said. “That’s where they expect us.”
He pointed to the floor hatch beneath the pantry shelves.
Darla blinked. “The grease crawlspace?”
“Where does it come out?”
“Old storm culvert behind the laundromat.”
“Perfect.”
“It smells like death.”
“Even better.”
Bell gave one final warning.
Jax lifted the hatch.
Vince went first, then Eli. Darla stayed behind to deal with police and keep the other bikers from escalating things.
Jax started down.
Darla caught his sleeve. “Bring that kid back.”
Jax met her eyes. “I will.”
“And Hannah.”
He hesitated.
Darla tightened her grip. “Bring them both back.”
The front door shattered.
Jax dropped into darkness and pulled the hatch closed above him.
They crawled forty yards through cold mud and old pipes before emerging behind the laundromat. Vince’s pickup waited one block away.
As they ran, Eli held the brass key beneath his shirt.
“What does C.M. mean?” he asked.
“Cole Mercer.”
“Your brother?”
“Yes.”
“My uncle too?”
Jax stopped walking.
Family relationships were suddenly weapons.
“Technically.”
“Is he bad?”
Jax looked at him. “Yes.”
Eli nodded as if confirming something he already knew.
Vince started the truck.
They drove east with the headlights off for the first quarter mile, then joined the highway.
Mile Marker 17 sat near an abandoned quarry and an old river service road.
Halfway there, Eli said, “Mom told me something else.”
Jax glanced back.
“She said if you found the ledger, you’d want to burn it.”
Jax’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“She said don’t.”
“Why?” Vince asked.
Eli looked at Jax.
“Because my dad’s name is inside.”
Jax nearly missed the turn.
Eli’s father, Aaron Carter, had died in a car accident six years ago.
Or so Jax had heard.
He took the dirt road too fast.
At the fourth drainage tunnel, they stopped.
Under the second support beam, exactly where the numbers pointed, someone had recently dug into the packed earth.
The hiding place was empty.
May you like
Pinned to the beam with a hunting knife was a fresh photograph of Hannah.
She was tied to a chair.
