Page 10 of Maddog

“What are you talking about?” Jax said, looking at him all innocent-like. “I didn’t see no phone.” He lifted his chain at Razor. “You seen one?”

Razor grinned. “Nope. Now, come on. Let’s go sit over here. There’s a nice seat waiting for you in the middle of some really beautiful women.”

Chapter Five

Jax

“I’ve seen some stupid motherfuckers in my time, but this guy takes the fuckin’ cake.” I was watching Shotgun go through the files on Alistair’s phone while we were still in the air. Holly had called Celeste and Wrath, both of whom had said nothing other than how happy they were that she was OK. They hadn’t mentioned how worried they were or how stupid it had been of her to take off like she did, and I breathed a small sigh of relief. After that, she and Shotgun had discussed what she’d found.

Holly had gone to sit in the crew section while Shotgun and I looked this over. Shotgun because he was the Black Reign MC tech guy. Me because I wanted the information first, Goddamnit. If Wrath got this before me, he’d murder the man the second he stepped off the aircraft. Shotgun said the plane’s sat connection was secure and not as slow as I might think, but he wanted to take more than a couple of hours to analyze the phone data. Working on this now might not speed things up, but it didn’t hurt to try. We were less than an hour out, but we continued to comb through what we could. The more questionsandanswers we had before we had to interrogate the man directly, the better.

“Surely to God neither him nor the senator could be this fucking stupid. There’s got to be a simple explanation.” Shotgun sounded as perplexed as I felt. Thing was, I absolutely could believe this guy was that stupid.

“I mean, no one ever accused anyone in Washington of being smart. Right?”

“Humm… You have a point there. OK. So, if we assume theyarethat stupid, is there any possibility we’ve interpreted this wrong? I mean, maybe the phrase, ‘get top dollar for the bitches’ could mean almost anything.” Shotgun actually said that with a straight face.

“I want you, Eden, and anyone else you want to have eyes on it, to make sure this is legit, not some blackmail scheme or political entrapment or whatever bullshit they do in Washington to get and hold power. I want concrete proof, Shotgun.”

The other man raised an eyebrow. “You givin’ me orders, pup?”

“I’m lead in the field on this one, so yeah. I’m givin’ you fuckin’ orders.” I kept my gaze leveled on Shotgun until the man burst out laughing.

“You’re so full of shit. And a dumbass.” Shotgun looked genuinely amused, not like he was calling me out for not showing respect for my elders. Which reminded me, I needed to apologize to him for that very thing. And phrase it that exact way. Should be fun. “You were trying to stare me down, bro.”

When I continued to stare at him, he cracked up again. “Over a video call! Which means you’re lookin’ at my eyes, but you’re really lookin’ into the screen. Not the camera.”

“I don’t know how Eden puts up with you, man. Now I’m thinkin’ you’re the one who’s stupid.”

The other man grinned at me. “In all seriousness, Jax. Don’t kill the fucker. In fact, stay as far away from him as possible. Let Razor babysit.”

“You afraid I’d kill him?”

“Absolutely that’s what I’m afraid of. Not that I care overmuch, but El Diablo will. You know he takes killin’ seriously. And if these guys really are guilty of human trafficking, El Diablo gets to set and carry out their punishment.”

“I can be as creative and diabolical as El Diablo.” I winced. Because yeah, I sounded sulky.

“Not sure I’d bet on you there, Jax. Just get Holly as far away from that guy as possible.”

I started to tell him I could absolutely get behind that plan when there was a bloodcurdling scream. Followed by several battle cries.

“The fuck was that?” Shotgun’s eyes were wide. You comin’ in hot?”

I hurried out of the little room to the main part of the plane and to where the women had been sitting in a group. Razor leaned against the bulkhead in front of the seating separating the passenger section from the crew section. In one of the seats, Chris Alistair was tied with his hands behind his back and his legs tied at the knees, spreading them as far apart as they’d go in his chair.

“Nothing.” I shrugged. “The girls are having a, err, therapy session. Yeah. Therapy session.”

“Great.” Shotgun’s dry tone and the roll of his eyes nearly made me grin. But I honestly didn’t feel like it at the moment. And yeah. I knew the other man was trying to take the edge off my anger. “I’ll let El Diablo know you guys are bring home a half-dead senator’s son.”

“You’re assuming he’ll be only half dead.”

“Point.” Shotgun gave me a little wave before ending the call.

I wasn’t sure how much I trusted myself to be anywhere near Alistair at the moment, but I had to get Holly and make sure she was ready to face everyone when we landed. No doubt her mother and father would have some words. Wrath and Celeste would give Holly time to process, but I was feeling more than a bit protective of her.

With a shrug I went forward to the crew section. Fuck that little prick, Alistair. If the girls castrated him, so much the better. There were usually soldiers at the monitor banks, but this mission had been extraction only. This close to home, Mechanic kept up with the flight instrumentation and Razor would be back in the cockpit before they got ready to land.

Holly sat in one of the console stools. She was spinning around and round. Whenever she slowed, she’d push off with the workstation and start spinning again. I’d seen her do this same thing all the time at the bar in the compound. It always meant she was stressed about something. When she was little, it had been her cancer. Having childhood leukemia meant she’d grown up used to needles and medications and chemo treatments…

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