JAXON Golf estate. It’s not exactly an estate, but it did earn its name for various reasons. The outskirts of Durmont feel like another world entirely. It’s dark, quiet, and almost forgotten. Only a twisted fuck like the man I’m about to deal with would want to be anywhere around here. There are almost no signs of life. Which is to be expected. It leaves me feeling like he’s played a cruel trick on us. I press the phone closer to my mouth, lowering my voice to a whisper. “This place looks dead. There’s not a single sound.” Ronan’s voice is sharp and steady in my ear. “And that’s exactly what he needs. Stay alert. There’s no way of knowing what he’s planned.” I glance at the girls walking behind me and signal for them to close in. We barked our bikes a few blocks away from house 33. If he’s really there, we don’t want him to hear us. There’s no way of telling if he has plans to leave with Sarah. “Keep your eyes open,” It’s a quiet order. “There might be people on the lookout for him. We want to remain unspotted till we find her.” But the farther we go, the emptier it seems to get. My jaw tightens as my eyes sweep the silent houses and skeletal trees around us. He really didn’t keep anyone on the lookout. If he didn’t have the woman I loved the most as a hostage, I would have stopped to laugh my head off. Did the bastard really think hiding Sarah here, in this wasteland even the government has forgotten, would make him untouchable? He should’ve known better. There isn’t a single place on earth he can take her where we won’t find her. We pull up to the edge of House 33, its rotting fence swallowed by wild overgrowth. Behind it, almost hidden by thick, skeletal trees, sits a massive warehouse. There’s a truck parked beside it. I don’t recognize the truck, and I can’t tell if anyone is inside or not from where I’m standing. I look behind me to find the girls. “One of you should flank left. The other, circle right, and you…” I point to the middle one “Stay close to me. We’ll go in together.”The girls nod silently, splitting up as ordered, their boots hiss softly against broken gravel. One step after another, I get closer to the truck. Close enough to see it’s empty, but a jacket sits on the driver’s seat. I might not have always been the smartest kid on the block, but I know a jacket is definitely a sign of life. It appears Luke has been given more credit than he deserves. He’s dumb as fuck. Getting to the warehouse, we find a thick, rusted chain wrapped around the door. It’s been padlocked from the outside. I press the phone to my lips again, whispering to Ronan, “Doors are chained. But there’s a truck here with some clothes in it. I know he’s around but I can’t tell where.” “For fuck’s sake. Mal is still on a call. You can’t hear voices from inside?” “It might be soundproof. I can’t hear shit.” He sighs. “Stay put. Our pins are close, Jax. She’s in there somewhere. Hold position and check the area.” I grind my teeth. My patience is getting thinner with every second. “What if Luke caught wind of our plan? What if he took her and left her phone here to throw us off?” My heart hammers against my ribs. I can’t breathe. I can’t wait. As if on cue, it finally comes…the sign I’ve been waiting forever for. A scream. Not just a scream, but SARAH’s scream. It’s muffled but sharp enough to slice straight through my bone. My breath hitches in my throat. “Ronan…” “Go in now! That fucker just drove a screw into her leg.” The world goes pitch black. Everything…from the trees, the gravel, even the walls of the warehouse are bathed in blood in my vision. I don’t feel my body anymore, just fury burning…scotching my veins. “Find me a fucking door. If there are no open doors, shoot a window down. Now!” It’s only a matter of time before one shouts from the right. “Over here!”I sprint before she can finish, barely registering the lock before ramming my shoulder into the metal. The force tears through me, but I don't care. Gathering all the strength I can, not minding the slicing pain in my shoulder, I crash into the door with all the force I can muster. It gives, falling into the dark warehouse and skidding across the concrete floor. The building is massive, cold air stinking of rust and rot. My boots pound against the floor, reaching for my dagger in my jacket. Then, I see her. Sarah… Her eyes are swollen, tears streaking her cheeks. Her hair clings wetly to her face, clothes damp, skin pale. She looks terrified. Broken. And he’s there, crouched near Sarah’s feet with the screw glinting in his right hand. Blood stains the concrete beneath her, it’s fresh and dark. I tear my eyes away from it and zero my gaze on Luke. “Step away from her now.” I snarl at him. Luke doesn’t even flinch. Instead, he glances at the phone screen in front of him and lets out a low, humorless laugh. “I should’ve known something was off when you called me, Abel,” he rises slowly to his feet. “I underestimated you. Again.” My uncle and brothers are silent. I can’t tell where my own phone is anymore. Sarah’s scream…it wrecked me. Then he steps behind Sarah, pulling a knife from his pocket and pressing it to her throat. A thin line of red blooms instantly against her skin. “But you underestimated me too.” My vision tunnels. Sarah’s blood is pooling at her neck. She’s looking straight at me, pleading silently, begging me to save her from the pain I—we caused. I stretch my hand toward the girl by my left without breaking eye contact with Luke. “Give me your gun.” His smile sharpens as his grip tightens on the blade. “You don’t want to do that, son. If you take that weapon, she dies.” The girl hesitates. “Gun,” I repeat, slow and deadly. I drench that one syllable in a deadly promise. Nothing else matters anymore.Luke has to die. He presses the knife harder against Sarah’s throat, a bead of blood sliding down, soaking into the collar of her shirt. “Don’t do it boy. I’m really going to cut her open. You know me. You know what I can do.” “Yes,” I rasp, my voice scraping raw against my throat. “I also know I’m going to kill you where you stand.” He smirks. “Don’t test me boy.” My pulse hammers like a war drum. Every muscle in my body coils, every instinct screaming to charge forward, but Sarah’s shallow breaths pull me back, hold me in place like chains. Her glassy, tear-swollen eyes are locked on mine, silently begging me to save her. And then she whimpers. Just once. So small, so broken. I see red. Abandoning the gun, I lunge forward before he can react. Shots explode around us, and Luke jerks, dragging Sarah to the side as his blade cuts into her shoulder blade. “Sarah!” I roar. The alarms in my head go off as she screams. The sound will surely haunt me for the rest of my life.