Chapter 8 - The Other Prisoner
Jax parked half a mile from River Cold Storage.
Miriam met them beneath an abandoned railroad bridge, wearing a rain shell over body armor and carrying a small field bag.
She looked older, smaller, and just as dangerous as he remembered.
Then she saw Eli.
Her face softened.
“You brought the child?”
“He refused to stay behind.”
“I’m eight,” Eli said. “Not invisible.”
Miriam almost smiled.
Jax handed her the photograph of Hannah. “Who else is inside?”
Miriam took out a tablet. Grainy surveillance images filled the screen.
A man was being moved between two buildings by armed guards.
Jax stared.
“No.”
The man was thin, gray-haired, limping badly.
But Jax knew the posture.
“Aaron Carter,” Miriam said.
Eli stopped breathing.
“My dad?”
Jax looked at Miriam. “He died six years ago.”
“He disappeared six years ago.”
Eli stepped closer to the screen.
“That’s my dad?”
Miriam crouched beside him. “I believe so.”
Eli’s eyes filled with tears. “Mom took me to his grave.”
Jax felt anger hit him in a clean, hard wave.
“Why fake Aaron’s death?”
Miriam pulled up another file.
“Aaron was an accountant for a transportation company tied to Cole’s network. He discovered money transfers connected to the old ledger. He tried to go federal.”
“And Bell handed him back.”
“Looks that way.”
Eli whispered, “Why didn’t Dad come home?”
No one answered.
Miriam looked toward the distant warehouse lights.
“I counted seven armed men outside, maybe more inside. We do not storm that building.”
Jax held up the brass key.
“Cole wants this.”
Miriam’s eyes narrowed. “Where did you get it?”
“Hannah gave it to Eli.”
“That key isn’t for a door.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’ve seen one like it.”
She opened another image.
A small bank-style deposit box with a mechanical key slot and a biometric plate.
“Cole used private storage lockers for insurance files. Two-factor access. Key plus fingerprint.”
Jax looked at the letters stamped into the brass.
C.M.
“So he needs his own key?”
“No,” Miriam said. “Those initials aren’t Cole Mercer.”
She zoomed in on an old corporate document.
The storage company had been founded under a shell name.
CARTER MERCER HOLDINGS.
Jax turned toward Eli.
May you like
Miriam’s voice became very quiet.
“The key belongs to Eli.”
