Page 152 of Sinning for Santa

“Fuck. Jax.”

There’s so much pain in Devon’s voice as he takes in the situation, his eyes assessing everything as he moves a few steps closer.

“Mmmooo.” I cry against the tape covering my lips, and even to my own ears, I can hear that my ‘no’ came out as a very muffled mo, but Devon understands.

Stepping closer, ignoring my plea, he quickly tears the tape off my lips, and a sob escapes me.

“There was a man. He knew my name.” I blubber through my tears. “I thought it must have been the guy that wanted you dead, but he had Melissa down here too. He took her.”

“Fuck,” he hisses, pulling his phone out, and a few seconds later, he’s talking to someone. Finn, maybe. “Jaxcen is in the cellar tied to a fucking chair with a bomb strapped to her. She said a man was here and he took Melissa. Clear the area now. Evacuate the whole fucking town.”

Oh my god. This is really happening. I’m going to die. I’m going to be blown up into tiny pieces. There’s no way I will survive this.

Hot tears stream down my face as I try to come to terms with my reality.

There’s a timeron the front of the bomb. I’m too scared to look at it. I’m too scared to move, let alone see how many minutes or seconds I have left to live.

Holy crap. This is really it.

“Jax. Try to stay calm,” Devon says as he rushes back to turn all the lights on before returning to me and lowering to one knee before me, reaching out and cupping one side of my face. “It’ll be alright.”

“Stop,” I sob, “D-don’t kneel down. Y-you need to l-leave.”

“There’s no fucking way I’m leaving you, little mouse.” He declares so factually that I fear he’s actually lost his mind.

“Y-you can’t s-stay. P-please g-go.”

“No.” He ignores me, releasing my face before taking a closer look at the bomb strapped to me using the flashlight on his phone.

“P-please Dev. It’s okay.”

His fierce gaze shoots to mine. “It’s not fucking okay. Stop asking me to leave you.”

“You can’t d-die, Devon. This t-town, these p-people need y-you. I’m okay t-to d-die. I know it s-seems weird but in t-the last few days since m-meeting you, I’ve lived more t-than I ever thought p-possible.” My words stutter out around my sobs, and when he goes to speak, I cut him off. “I don’t w-want him to hurt M-Melissa. He was s-saying some pretty c-crude things t-to her.”

“Don’t worry about Melissa. My men are handling that. And I’m here handling this.”

Heavy feet coming down the stairs draw our attention to see Finn, his eyes wide as he takes in the scene.

“Fuck.”

His words are a whisper, but I hear them.

Yep. I’m fucked. This is it. My last moments are right here right now.

“Call Warrick.” Devon barks over his shoulder, and I see Finn’s frown as he stares at Devon’s back.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.Get him on the fucking phone!” Devon yells this time and Finn rushes to take out his phone where he calls someone.

“Just keep as still as you can, little mouse. This will all be over soon.”

I mean, he’s not wrong. It will be. My life will be over.

I’ll miss him, which is weird right? We only just met days ago, yet I feel like he knows me better than anyone else.

Finn talks quietly on the phone, before tapping Devon’s shoulder with it and passing it to him.

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