Emma shook her head.
No.
“Where is he?” Carlos asked as he paced in that narrow room. “Where is he?”
VICTORIA STARED DOWN at the bulletin she’d just gotten. Well, it was a bulletin that the desk sergeant had received, but since her current job was to monitor the intel that came through the police station and report back to Gabe, she’d made a point of snagging that bulletin.
She read it three times to make sure there wasn’t a mistake.
Four.
Then she ran toward Wade and Gabe.
“We didn’t get him,” she heard Gabe snap to Wade. They were behind a group of cops, all leaning over a computer. “The techs didn’t have time to locate the phone—”
Victoria cleared her throat. “Gabe.”
He glanced over at her.
“We need to talk. Now.” Her hand fisted on the paper. “Come on.” Because the cops hadn’t made the connection with the bulletin, not yet. After all, why pay that much attention to a bulletin that had come in from so far away?
She hurried toward the first empty office she could spot. Gabe and Wade followed her inside.
“Viki, what is it?” Wade said. “We need to be out with—”
She lifted the paper. “Murphy Jacobs escaped from prison.”
“Fucking, no,” Gabe said, his eyes widening as he snatched that paper from her.
“He was in the infirmary because of—of some accident that had happened . . .” An accident that seemed to have occurred when Sarah was visiting with him. Only Sarah hadn’t mentioned an accident to Viki. “He was cuffed, the guard had just cuffed him—but Murphy had a key. He got free and he killed the guard on his way out.”
“Sonofabitch.” Wade looked shell-shocked. Victoria felt the same way.
“He’s been missing since then. The cops are searching everywhere, but if anyone can vanish . . .”
“It will be Murphy,” Gabe finished.
She nodded.
Wade took the paper from Gabe. “He’s not vanishing.”
He already had vanished! Slipped out of a maximum security prison and gone—
“He stayed in jail for eleven years.” Wade’s eyes burned with gold fire. “He got out now for one reason.”
Gabe’s brow furrowed. “Sarah went up there because she wanted him to tell her who the perp is. Sarah thought Murphy knew the guy’s identity.”
“And the bastard did know,” Wade said. “But he wasn’t going to let Sarah be threatened. The perp had gone after the one person Murphy cares about. So now Murphy is out—”
Victoria backed up a step. Murphy Jacobs terrified her. “You think he’s coming here?” No, that wasn’t possible. New Orleans was too far away from his prison. He’d have to get transportation. Not a plane, no way would he risk that kind of exposure. But he could hitchhike. And, hell, so many big rigs traveled down to the Crescent City. If he’d gotten a ride from one of those drivers . . .
He could already be in the city.
“I think he’s coming to protect Sarah. I think he’s going to kill whoever tried to hurt her. Because that’s what Murphy does best . . .”
Kill.
Gabe already had his phone out. “We have to call Sarah. Now.”
“HE’S NOT DEAD,” Sarah repeated. Jax’s words kept replaying in her head. He’d told her those words for a reason.
Eddie Guthrie was dead. She knew that. Victoria had gone down to the police station and confirmed the guy’s cause of death. The three cops were dead—they’d been loaded into the body bags and driven away from Jax’s burning house.
Brent West was still in the hospital.
Who isn’t dead?
“How many people has Jax killed?” It was a question that she had to ask.
Emma’s mouth dropped open in shock. “What? Look, right now isn’t the time—”
“Jax isn’t a murderer,” Carlos said, throwing back his shoulders “No matter what you might think. Why the guy was so crazy about you I don’t—”
“Mitch Fontaine.”
Carlos clamped his lips together.
“You knew about him, didn’t you, Carlos?”
Carlos looked away.
Emma was staring at Sarah in confusion. “He . . . he killed—?”
“He’s not dead,” Sarah repeated Jax’s words. Jax wouldn’t have said that unless he thought she’d make the connection to the killer. But there was only one man Jax had confessed to killing. The man who’d beat him and Charlene. She lunged for Carlos and grabbed him again.
“Stop doing that!” he snapped.
“What did Mitch look like?”
Carlos glared.
“Do not push me!” Sarah yelled at him. “I don’t have time for that crap. Jax needs me, and I’ll be damned if I let him down.” She shook the guy. So what if he was a foot taller and probably seventy pounds heavier? She was going to make him talk. “Did you ever see a picture of Mitch? Did you—”
“Blond, like Jax. About his size.” His words were grudging. “Darker eyes . . . saw a picture just once. Jax burned that shit after that.”
“Mitch Fontaine,” Sarah whispered. She fumbled and had her phone out again. She—
The phone rang. She nearly dropped it. Her fingers swiped across the screen. “Hello?” Sarah answered, voice scared and tense.
“Sarah!” Gabe’s voice was just as tense. “You need to come into the station. Right now. Come in.”
“No, no, Gabe, listen.” She started walking around that little room. “I’ve got a lead that I need you to follow. A guy named Mitch Fontaine. He was Jax’s—” Hell, she didn’t know how to explain this. “Stepfather. He disappeared years ago, but I think . . . I think he’s in New Orleans. I think he has Jax and—”
“And I think your father is in town, Sarah!”
Once again, the phone nearly slipped from her fingers.
“He busted out after you left. The guards took him to the infirmary . . .”
Because he’d pushed Jax into attacking him. Choking him.
“He was cuffed, but he managed to get a key from the guards . . .”
When they’d swarmed him and pulled Jax away. It had just been a pile of bodies for a moment. They’d all been so close. It would have been incredibly easy to take the key from a guard then.
“He killed a guard and vanished. Murphy is out, Sarah. You need to get back here. We need—”
“I need to find Jax.” He was the only thing that could matter right then. “Please, Gabe, just send me everything the cops have on Mitch Fontaine. Send me everything that LOST has. I need it now.”
“Sarah . . .”
“My father isn’t going to hurt me.”
“You put a gun to his head,” he reminded her.
She didn’t need the reminder. “I need to know about Mitch Fontaine.”
A pause, then . . . “Give me five minutes.”
She hung up the phone. Emma and Carlos were both watching her. Sarah put her hand to her temple. Rubbed. Tried to figure out just what this perp would do. “You wouldn’t go back to the riverfront . . . you already had a victim there. This is your endgame, so you’d want to go to a place where you felt like you had the most control. A place that you’d been using . . . this whole time.”
“Uh, Sarah,” Emma began.
“Mitch, Mitch . . . Jax tried to kill you, so you want him to pay just as much as you want Murphy to pay. If this is about Jax, if he’s what first pulled you to the city, then you studied him.” Her temples were pounding as she kept trying to get into the mindset of this killer. “I was a bonus. You found me, through Jax. And you decided it was time to act. You’ve been here, though, biding your time. Jax drew you. He took what was yours. So you . . .”
“Does she always do this?” Carlos asked.
Sarah’s hand dropped to her side. “You take what belongs to Jax.” She whirled toward Carlos and Emma. “Mitch framed him because he wanted to make sure everyone thought Jax was a killer. He
destroyed Jax’s home because he wanted to take it away from him.” Her gaze flew to the door. “We should get everyone out of here. If he wants to hurt Jax, he’ll take this place, too—”
“It’s my bar now,” Carlos reminded her as he stepped in front of that door, barring her path. “And, hell, Jax has plenty of property in this town. If the guy wants to take things away from Jax, he’s got tons of options.”
A cold fist had closed around Sarah’s heart. “A building that’s secluded. No close neighbors. One that wouldn’t attract attention.”
Carlos nodded. “Yeah, yeah . . . there’s a place like that in the Quarter. On Tibideaux Street. He buys houses, fixes them up. He’s always trying to fix things . . .”
To make up for his past.
“But he hadn’t started on this one yet. He met you and everything else fell away.” He shook his head. “He’s got that one . . . and another, closer to Slidell. An antebellum place in the swamp. Guy thought he could turn that snake hole into something special.”
Her phone was ringing again. She shoved it to her ear. “Gabe, what did you find out?”
“Mitch Fontaine did two tours of duty in the military. Want to know his specialty back then?”
“Explosives,” Sarah whispered.
“He got out, had scrapes with the law, and vanished for a long time.”
Yes, she was sure he had.
“But then he turned up years ago, got busted for assault and drug running. He wound up in Biton Penitentiary—”
Biton? “With Murphy.” And it all made sense.
“The guy went dark after he got out. Slipped parole and no one has seen him since. According to the report, his parole officer figured he was dead.”
“I think that happened a lot.” She shoved back her hair when it tried to fall forward. “Look, Jax has two houses that are sitting empty right now. We need to check them out.”
“You think the perp is keeping Jax at his own place?”
“Why not? He wants to hurt Jax . . . why not kill him in his own home?”
Gabe swore. “All right, let’s hit them.”
“Emma and I will go to the one in the Quarter,” Sarah said, thinking quickly.
“I’m coming!” Carlos said immediately. “There is no damn way you’re leaving me behind. If Jax is in danger, I’m there.”
Her gaze met his. She read the steely determination in his stare. “Carlos is coming with us.” They might need him because Sarah had no idea what they’d find when they arrived.
Carlos’s shoulders straightened. “Damn straight I am. Jax is my friend. I owe him.”
“Carlos, give me the addresses for the two houses.”
He rattled them off and she immediately told Gabe the locations “You take a team to the house near the swamp, and I’ll cover the one on Tibideaux Street. We split up and we find him faster . . .”
“No, Sarah,” Gabe argued, “we need to stick together. With your father on the loose—”
“I told you, Jax is my priority.” Not her father. “I need your help, Gabe. I need the team.”
“Dammit . . .” His rough sigh carried over the line. “Get Dean. You and Emma need more backup and that guy will kill me if Emma rushes into danger without him at her side.”
Sarah slanted a glance over at Emma. The other woman was already on the phone. “He’ll be there with us,” Sarah said.
“Be careful,” Gabe told her.
“You too,” Sarah whispered. The gun was a cold weight against her.
HE SAW SARAH rush from the bar. Run as if she were escaping hell.
Or rushing straight into the fire.
Two others were with her—a man and a dark-haired woman.
Sarah didn’t even bother to glance around before she jumped into the car and sped away.
He shook his head. He’d taught her so much better than that. Sarah was taking too many risks. Risks for no reason. “I told you, Sarah,” Murphy whispered, “you should stay away from him.” But Sarah hadn’t listened. He’d been afraid of that. Especially when he saw the way she looked at Jax Fontaine.
Did Sarah even realize all that she’d given away to him during that little visit at the prison? She used to control her emotions so much better.
If he’d realized her weakness, then others would, too.
Like the bastard who was trying to hurt his baby girl.
Your mistake.
He cranked his car. The car he’d stolen twenty minutes ago. Then he pulled onto the street. It was rather good to be back in action again.
Now, if he could just get his hands on a really sharp knife . . .
Chapter 17
I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU FUCKED HER,” MITCH SAID. He’d wiped the blood off the knife. Now he held that gleaming edge up, letting the light from the lanterns bounce off it. There was no electricity in the old home, because Jax hadn’t connected the power yet.
Jax recognized the house. He’d had plans for this place. Those plans sure hadn’t included dying there.
“I mean, I get that Sarah is hot. A nice piece of ass, but you knew who she was.” He laughed then. “Oh, wait, you didn’t know everything about her father, did you? You didn’t know that he was the one who—”
“I know he killed my parents,” Jax rasped. “He told me.”
Mitch looked momentarily surprised. “You . . . talked to Murphy?” What could have been fear cracked in his voice. The emotion was mirrored in the flash of his eyes.
I guess we’re all afraid of something . . . or someone. “That’s where Sarah and I went . . . you know, when you were busy dropping a body in my house.”
Mitch smiled. “Did you nearly shit a brick when you saw him? That one was too good. I almost didn’t blow the house because it was such a good way to tie you to old Ron’s murder . . . but then I realized, hey, his DNA will still be there. The cops will find some pieces of him left. And you got to lose out on that fancy-ass house that you never should’ve had.” Mitch stalked toward him, that knife gripped tightly in his left hand. “I like the fire. It’s a pretty bitch when it burns.”
Mitch was insane. He’d always been, Jax just knew it now.
Mitch leaned toward him. “Murphy lied to you.”
Jax tilted his head back as he stared up at the guy.
“Oh, he killed your old man, all right . . . sliced him apart. But he didn’t kill your mother. Your mother, sweet, stupid Charlene, was with you all along.”
“No,” Jax said. That wasn’t possible. The guy was jerking him around. Playing mind games, just like Murphy.
“I killed her.” Mitch smiled.
“You’re fucking lying! Charlene wasn’t—”
“She was so afraid Murphy would come after her. She dyed her hair, changed her whole life . . . said that the woman she’d been died. That she was someone new.” His laughter was mocking. “She even used to tell you that she was someone new, that she was different. Made you repeat that shit with her over and over again.” His eyes gleamed. “In case you didn’t know it, your mom was crazy. Murphy’s attack did that to her . . . she never got over it.”
Your old life is over . . . He could see Charlene in his mind. Staring at him, with tears in her eyes. But I promise, I’ll protect you. I’ll be with you. It won’t be like it was before.
“No,” Jax said once more. Forcing that word out. Mitch was just screwing with him. It couldn’t be true . . .
I love you. Charlene’s words whispered through his mind. But you can’t ever go home. You have to stay with me.
“I killed your bitch of a mother. Just like I’m gonna kill Sarah, and then I’m gonna kill you.”
Something seemed to switch off inside Jax. He wasn’t afraid. Wasn’t angry. He wasn’t anything at all. “You won’t hurt Sarah.”
“You’re tied up, and I’m about to slash your veins wide open. All you’ll be able to do is bleed and watch.” He seemed to consider that. “I wonder which one of you will go out first. Do you want Sarah to die first? I
mean, the expression is . . . ladies first, right?”
“I’m going to break your neck,” Jax told him softly. “I’ll do it with my bare hands this time. There won’t be any doubt that you’re dead when you hit the floor.”
Mitch’s hold tightened on the knife.
“I loved my mother,” Jax said. “She loved me.” Charlene’s tear-filled gaze flashed in his mind.
Mitch didn’t move.
“And I love Sarah.” He yanked hard against those ropes and felt the thick hemp slice even deeper into his wrists. He didn’t even mind the pain.
“You think Sarah loves you? She’s like Murphy, she can’t love, she can’t—”
“Like you fucking can.”
Mitch looked at the knife, then he drove it into Jax’s arm.
“DEAN IS ON the way,” Emma said as she put down her phone. Emma was in the front of the car and Carlos was leaning forward from the backseat. “We’ll beat him there, but he wants us to wait—”
Carlos lunged forward, grabbed Emma’s head, and slammed it into the passenger side window.
Sarah screamed.
Carlos pressed a knife against her side. “Just drive.”
The knife sliced into her.
“Drive the damn car. Keep going just like you’d planned.”
When she’d gotten in the vehicle, Sarah had put her gun in the glove box. Dammit. She needed that weapon! She cast a fast glance over at Emma. Blood trickled from her head, and Emma’s eyes were closed.
“She’s still alive,” Carlos muttered. “And if you keep driving, you will be, too.”
He pulled out his phone.
“You’re working with Mitch,” Sarah realized.
The knife sliced deeper.
“I’ve got her,” Carlos said into his phone. “I’ll leave her with you, and then I’m out. Got it? Whatever you’re doing, I don’t want to see that shit.”
He put the phone back down. She could feel his eyes on her. “I thought you were Jax’s friend,” Sarah said.
“No, you didn’t. Not really. That’s why you came to the bar tonight, all ready to rip into me. You thought I’d betrayed him. Well, guess what? I had.”
“He gave you the bar—”
“I don’t want to be second place to Jax Fontaine. He’s run this town too long. It’s time for some new blood to take over.”