Traitors shall die.
The warehouse door opened and hope flared in Arianne’s chest. But when she saw the two Jacks silhouetted in the doorway, she sank back in her chair. No one was coming to rescue her. She would have to figure a way out herself.
Viper waved them over to the truck. “We gotta get the weapons outta here in case someone comes nosin’ around. Load them into the truck and hurry it up ’cause I got business to finish here.”
“You did this to yourself,” Jeff said, pushing himself up. “If you hadn’t kept defying him, just like mom did, things would have been different.”
Arianne slid her hand out of the cuff. “All I’ve ever wanted was for us to be free and to get you help. I wanted us to be happy, the way we used to be.”
“We were never happy.” His voice dropped, devoid of emotion now. “Happy is not hiding on the roof while your mother takes a beating meant for you. Happy isn’t being a constant disappointment to your father because you’re always being measured up against your fucking perfect sister.”
Perfect sister? How could he begin to think Viper would compare them? She had dared to be born a girl. “I could have gotten us out.”
Jeff walked toward her, his face blurring into the shadows. “You don’t get it, do you? I don’t want out. I never wanted out. I want to make him proud—” His face twisted in anger and his voice rose to a shout. “—I wanted us to be a family. But you left when I was sixteen, and you’ve betrayed us again, just like mom. You’re a traitor. And now you’ll pay the price mom paid.”
Puzzled, she frowned. “What are you talking about? What does mom have to do with this?”
“She was having an affair.” His voice wavered. “Viper told me. He said sometimes a man has to do things he doesn’t want to do because there is nothing more important than honor. He knew about that bald-headed guy with the glasses who came to the house all the time. He killed her because she was cheating on him. She didn’t want us to be a family. And neither do you.”
Arianne looked at him aghast. “Oh God, Jeff. He was a doctor. Mom’s best friend’s husband. He came over to look after her every time Viper beat her up. She wouldn’t go to the hospital in case Social Services took us away, and he couldn’t bear to let her suffer. She took those beatings and she didn’t go for treatment, because she wanted us to be a family. Just like I wanted to leave so we could be a family, too.”
Jeff’s face froze in a mask of horror. “I didn’t know.” He slumped forward, clutching his head in his hands and his voice dropped to a whispered rasp. “I didn’t know. I was the one who told him, Ari. I was too young to know he would think she was having an affair, but I told him she’d broken the rule about visitors in the house, because I wanted him to be proud of me. He was always so proud of you because you did everything right.”
She gritted her teeth. “If he was, he never let me know.”
“Even when we were older”—Jeff fisted his hands against his knees—“he said the day you put the gun to your head and told him you would rather die than live with him was the proudest moment of his life. He admired your grit and determination. He admired how you never gave up, no matter how hard he beat you. He said I would never live up to you. I loved you, but I hated you for that. And I hated needing your love. The only peace I ever had was when I was high. Then everything would go away. I just want it all to go away.”
*
When the warehouse came into view, Jagger pulled over and pushed his bike along the side of the road to the building. No point alerting the Jacks to his presence if the distant rumble of his bike hadn’t done so already.
After parking at the side of the warehouse, he plastered himself against the wall under the window, straining to hear through the corrugated metal.
Nothing.
Weapon unholstered and heavy in his hand, he stretched up to peer through the grimy window. There. A light in the darkness. He glanced over at the door and fought back the urge to kick it in, but he had no idea how many Jacks were inside or whether they were armed—or whether Arianne was even with them.
Jagger gritted his teeth and ran a quick reconnaissance around the building. Windows, mostly inaccessible. Front door. One rear exit. But without a visual, he would be going in blind.
Side exit, it would have to be. He reached for the handle, turning it slowly until it clicked.
“Don’t move.”
He froze and then looked over his shoulder.
Wheels. And with a weapon pointed at Jagger’s back.