Page 65 of Dirty Gambit

The house phone buzzed against the wall, an unfamiliar shrill of bells. Jaxon met his aunt’s mystified gaze with a questioning one of his own.

Frankie shrugged. “It might be Henri calling to let me know he’s at the airport, but he has my cell number, so I don’t…”

Jaxon pushed out of his chair and wandered over to the device he couldn’t ever recall hearing ring before and plucked up the receiver.

“Hello?”

There was a tense minute of silence where all he heard was static and silence. There was a brief scuffle as if the phone was being passed from one hand to another, then a male voice broke through the line.

“Jaxon. Just the man I’ve been looking for.”

Jaxon glanced over to where Frankie watched him, a brow lifted in question. He turned his attention back to the voice.

“Who is this?”

“You have something of mine,”the voice said coolly.“You have a few items of mine, actually. I want them back.”

The blood turned to liquid ice in his veins. The chill coursed through him in a rapid wave of panic and terror. His first thought immediately jumped to Jessie. He pivoted on his heels to find Frankie already out of her seat, eyes focused. She couldn’t have possibly heard the conversation from across the room, but she must have sensed the change in him.

“Jessie!” He mouthed, stuffing the mouthpiece of the phone against his hip. Frankie didn’t need telling twice. She bolted from the room. Jaxon turned back to the asshole on the other end, willing calm and authority back into his head. “I think you have the wrong person. I have no idea who you are.”

A low, guttural cackle filtered through.“Let’s not play that game. You’ll learn quickly that I hold all the cards and you hold none.”

“Some random guy calls me, and I’m just supposed to know who you are?” Jaxon challenged, biding his time until Frankie returned with Jessie.

“I think you know exactly who I am.”

He did.

He’d never heard the man’s voice, but there was very little doubt in his head that this was Travis and somehow, he’d found Jessie.

“Humor me.”

Frankie took that moment to rush back into the room, a groggy and sleep-tussled Jessie clutched to her chest. Jaxon blew out a breath of relief.

“Fine,”the voice hissed, his calm melting into impatience.“If that is how you want to play, I will oblige.”There was a moment of silence where Frankie edged closer to Jaxon and pressed her ear to the receiver as well. Jaxon angled it for her.“Say hello to your son, Mom.”

Jaxon nearly dropped the phone when his mom’s quiet sob filled his ear. His gaze jumped to Frankie and was met with matching horror. His heart rocketed in his chest, a frantic gallop drowning out the screaming voices in his head. It took all his resolve not to pitch the phone aside and tear out of the house all the way to his parent’s.

“What the fuck do you want?” he snarled before he could stop himself.

“What I want, Jaxon, is to not paint your parent’s beautiful home with their insides. What I want is not to chop them up into little pieces and individually mail each part to everyone in their contact list. What I want is my money, my daughter, and that stupid whore who took both. So, what do you say, Jaxon? A fair trade, your parent’s life for the things that don’t belong to you.”

He was at the house.

He had Jaxon’s parents.

He was prepared to mutilate and murder to get what he wanted.

Jaxon peered at his sister’s dark head resting against Frankie’s collarbone, eyes closed as she drifted back to sleep, completely oblivious to the danger. He thought of Lena up in his bed, unaware of the monster sniffing for her blood. Finally, he turned to his aunt, ashen and drawn under her crimson lipstick.

“Okay,” he murmured, at last, ignoring Frankie’s widening eyes. “Where are you?”

The voice chuckled.“You know where I am. You have two hours to bring my things to me.”

“I won’t make it in two hours,” Jaxon argued, mentally calculating his distance. “I need at least four.”

The voice groaned as if the inconvenience was killing him.“Fine. Four. I don’t know what we’re going to do in that time, but I’m sure we’ll think of something.”

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