Page 108 of Second Chance for Mr. Alden

Me: Parked. Be there soon.

Gage: Good. By the way I had to grab your sister from behind and drag her to safety. It was necessary.

I bit back a chuckle. Even though I had no idea what had happened Gage didn’t make rash decisions and I looked forward to hearing this story. I was pretty sure he tacked on the last part because Lexi was pissed about how it went down.

Knowing my sister was safe allowed me to take a deep breath. With Lexi outside we could gather intel from her before we entered the building.

A sharp pinch tugged at my shoulder blades. I knew I needed to relax my stance, but not knowing if Jess was safe made it difficult. The irrational side of me wanted to run straight down the dirt road and burst through the front door of the damn place.

I moved quietly toward the trees, sticking to the shadows so I didn’t alert anyone inside that we were here. My eye caught the familiar dark brown of my sister’s hair next to Gage’s blond one.

I cleared my throat to announce my arrival and not freak out my sister. Gage had already been aware of my position well before I stood next to them.

“Jamie!” Lexi whisper shouted and threw herself at me.

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her off to the side. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, no thanks to him.” She glared at Gage. “He gave me a freaking heart attack.”

My gaze scanned my sister to verify she hadn’t been harmed.

“I’m really okay, Jamie. I promise.”

I hated the thought of my sister hurt, but she was right. I didn’t see any signs of physical harm. “Where’s Jess?”

“Inside.” She jerked a shaky thumb at the building.

“Is she okay?” My jaw clenched so hard I was surprised I wasn’t spitting out broken teeth. I don’t know why I thought in the last five minutes since I parked my car that she might have walked out of the building on her own.

“She was when I was last in there.” Lexi frowned and stared at the factory.

I touched the side of my sister’s face to bring her focus back to me. “How did you get out?”

Gage moved to my side silently eyeing Lexi and handed me an earpiece I quickly popped in.

She flicked a guilty glance at him. “Jess pushed me out of the damn door. Said she wanted to talk to Jareth alone and told me to wait and meet you out here in case things went bad.” Lexi hiccupped, a sob breaking free. “I didn’t want to leave her.”

Seeing my sister break down like that, feeling her tremble, made me want to break things. Knowing Jess was inside, not knowing if she was hurt, made me want to kill Jareth.

“What can you tell us about who else is inside or how we can get in?” I asked.

Lexi pointed to a first-floor window on the side of the building that faced us. “That’s a bathroom. They let me use it. Once you go through the door it leads into the hallway they took me through to get to the main room.”

“Excellent, Lex. And besides Jareth, anyone else in there?”

She wrapped her arms around her waist. “Two other guys. They have guns. I’m sorry Alden that’s all I know.”

“It’s not your fault.” I gently passed Lexi over to Gage. “Stay with her. I’m going inside.”

Gage opened his mouth, and I was fairly certain it was to protest.

“I need to know my sister’s safe. If she’s out here alone I won’t be any good in there. I know we’ve always promised to watch each other’s back, but I need you to do this for me.”

Gage pursed his lips and nodded before pulling Lexi tight against his chest. She was crying, letting it all out now that she was safe with us and knew I was going in after Jess. He whispered soothing nonsense words to her and ran his hands over her hair.

“Jamie, be careful,” Lexi whispered, her voice slightly muffled against Gage’s chest.

“I will.”

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