Page 15 of Traitorous Lies
Who was this man?
One thing Monique was sure of was that Jax was not the usual kind of man she’d meet at one of those events.
Not that that explained who he was.
But it did explain how he could be so calm in the face of danger, how he could come up with a plan he seemed confident with, and maybe even why he’d apologized to her.
Because she would have sworn that she remembered him saying sorry to her after the crash. It was possible she hadn't remembered correctly, or that it was merely a hallucination from the concussion she very obviously was suffering from, but somehow, she didn't think so.
Whoever Jax was, she trusted him.
If anyone could get them out alive, it was him, that was something she believed down to her bones.
So when the doors to the back of the van were thrown open and Jax quickly shoved her down so she was lying on her side, she surreptitiously attempted to move her limbs into something resembling the recovery position. Jax had said to pretend she was weak and dizzy, not at all a stretch given both things were true, so she was going to take that role and run with it.
“Get out,” a voice ordered, a different one from the one that had been giving orders earlier, although she suspected that man was around here somewhere, too.
“She’s unconscious,” Jax said, a tiny hint of reproach in his tone.
“Then bring her out with you,” the other man commanded.
Somehow, she couldn’t imagine Jax being someone who enjoyed following commands. Then again, he said he’d had some training, so maybe he’d served in the military or something before doing … whatever it was he did now.
Which she had no clue about because she’d just agreed to get in a car with him and be taken away from a safe place filled with people. A decision she absolutely regretted, even though she didn't place the blame for their current predicament on Jax’s shoulders.
“I would, but I'm not feeling that great either. You guys did run us off the road after all,” Jax added.
“And if you'd died in the crash like you were supposed to, we wouldn't all be out here in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night,” the man huffed back, clearly not amused about the situation.
Step in line.
If anyone had the right to be unhappy about all of this, it was her and Jax, not these men who wanted them dead.
Only if they wanted them both dead, how did they expect to get paid a ransom?
Was it possible this had nothing to do with someone trying to extort money from her family?
That was the conclusion she’d come to because it seemed like the most logical given her history. But maybe she was wrong. Maybe this was something else, although she couldn’t fathom what.
“I'm serious, I think I broke some ribs, you’re going to have to get her yourself. But be gentle,” Jax growled.
“Fine,” the man said with another irritated huff, and the van moved a little as she assumed he was climbing into the back of it.
Fighting against her worry that Jax wasn't lying about the broken ribs and that he might be more seriously injured than he’d let on while they’d been sitting in the back of this van for what felt like hours, Monique forced her limbs to be still and heavy. Since that was absolutely how she felt, and she’d love nothing more than to stay nice and still and possibly be able to get some much-needed rest, it was easy to accomplish even with the terror she felt breathing inside her.
Someone knelt beside her, and she felt hands touch her body.
Not warm, strong hands like Jax’s, these ones were cold, and much too rough as they shifted her, ready to pick her up.
But they never did.
There were the sounds of movement, then a small snapping sound, before something went thud.
Her breathing increased.
Was it Jax who had eliminated a threat, or had the man sensed they were up to something and decided to just kill them and get it over with?
“Hey, princess, you did amazing. Perfect,” Jax whispered, and his fingers brushed lightly across her temple.
