Jackson (Mercy Ring Book 1)

Jackson caught Declan in the jaw with his fist. The man threw a punch straight back. The hit grazed the side of his head.

They danced around each other, biding their time, each deciding when to strike next, and where.

Declan was just inching closer when Jackson’s phone beeped with a message from the desk. Declan stopped, a smile stretching his lips. “Lucky.”

Jackson scoffed, slipping below the rope. “Lucky for you. You were seconds from getting your ass handed to you.”

Declan laughed. “You keep thinking that.”

Jackson lifted his phone and clicked into the message. A chill slithered down his spine.

River: Cole spotted the truck. Agent Widow asked us to follow.

A curse escaped his lips and then Declan was beside him. “What is it?”

“Cole and River spotted Elijah’s truck.” Jackson lifted his phone to his ear, calling River. When she didn’t answer, his fear instantly spiked, and he started moving, grabbing the keys to Declan’s rental from on top of the man’s bag on the way out.

Declan was right behind him. He tried Cole, but the call did exactly the same thing.

“Shit, neither of them are answering.”

He slid behind the wheel, and Declan lowered into the passenger side. Jackson started driving as Declan called the agent. When he didn’t answer, he tried Todd. Both men had given them their numbers before leaving last night.

Todd answered on the first ring.

“They’re at the end of Raider Street,” he said quickly, the sound of a car engine growling in the background. “They’d just turned off Malloy Street when they stopped.”

Jackson’s heart crashed against his ribs. “Stopped? Why the hell would they stop?”

“I don’t know. We haven’t arrived yet. Police were called after gunshots were heard.”

Todd’s words had Jackson’s entire world grinding to a stop. He pressed his foot harder on the gas.

Declan pulled guns from their hiding places in the car. He checked that they were fully loaded before handing one to Jackson.

They were almost to Raider Street when the sirens registered. Even that sound had his heart jackhammering into his throat.

The first thing Jackson saw when they turned the corner was River’s car. Bullet holes dented every inch of the metal. Every window was shattered.

He’d barely stopped the car before jumping out. The police had also arrived, two of them already beside the car talking to Cole.

Jackson scanned the road, his heart rate tripling. She wasn’t there. Had she run somewhere? Was she hiding?

When he looked back at Cole, their gazes clashed—and before any words were spoken, Jackson knew.

“A guy grabbed her and dragged her into the truck,” he said, ignoring the police, all his attention on Jackson. “I shot the guy, but people got out of the cab, so she hid behind the kegs.”

Jackson shook his head. “No.”

“She was boxed in. It was her only choice.”

It all stopped. His heart. His breath. His world.

River’s heart was racing as the truck moved. Her back ached from hunching into a ball behind the kegs. With her head down, she kept her breaths silent.

There was a small light, like one of the guys was using his phone flashlight.

“I can’t believe he fucking killed them. All four of them!”

“No shit. I didn’t get out because I figured four against one meant the asshole had no chance.”

At the sound of a phone ringing, River almost jolted, scared for a moment it was hers. Then she heard Brian speak.

“Fuck. It’s Elijah.”

The other guy cursed. “He knows.”

“How could he?” Brian sucked in a loud breath. “Elijah—”

River heard a loud, angry voice on the phone. It was too muffled and far away to hear exact words, but she heard the fury.

“I know but—”

More words.

When Brian spoke again, his response was clipped, an air of frustration in his voice. “Got it.”

A beat of silence passed.

“What did he say?” the second voice asked.

“He knows what happened. We’re meeting at the usual spot.”

The second guy cursed again. “Would he have preferred we just let the asshole follow us until the cops caught up?”

At the feel of her phone vibrating in her pocket, her heart catapulted into her throat. The paralyzing fear had almost caused her to forget that she still had her cell at all.

“Did you hear that?” Brian asked.

River bit her bottom lip and scrunched her eyes. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she said a silent prayer that they wouldn’t get up and look.

“I didn’t hear shit. I’m too busy worrying about Elijah. He’s been fucking unstable lately.”

The air slowly eased from her chest. Slowly, quietly, she tugged the cell from her pocket, and changed the settings so it wouldn’t vibrate again. She also turned the brightness as low as she could.

Brian grumbled. “I know.”

As Brian and the other guy continued to talk, River fiddled with her phone, opening her messaging app. The second she saw who it was, tears pressed at her eyes.

Jackson: Where are you? Are you okay?

The small flutter of connection to Jackson, to safety, had her heart contracting in her chest.

With trembling fingers, she quickly typed a response.

River: I’m hiding behind kegs in the truck. They don’t know I’m here. Your father’s in the back with another guy. We’re driving to Elijah.

There was barely a pause before he replied.

Jackson: We’re gonna find you. If I call, can you answer and put it on mute? Then we can trace your location. I’ll make sure it’s silent on my end.

The idea had her stomach cramping. But he was right. It was the best way for him to track her.

River: Okay.

When the call came through, her breath caught, because even though Jackson had said his end would be silent, there was still a paralyzing fear that something would go wrong. That the call would expose her.

Ignoring the pitter-patter of her heart crashing against her ribs, she hit answer, immediately turning the volume off so no sound came through to her, just as extra protection.

Jackson: We’re tracking your location now. Hold tight, baby. I love you. And I’m going to come get you.

Some of the anxiety eased in her chest. Jackson knew where she was. If there was anyone in the world she trusted to get her out of this, it was him.

They only drove for another couple minutes before the truck started bouncing. Almost like they were on a dirt road.

When the truck came to a stop, she clenched her fists to ease the trembling. Light filtered into the space as the cargo door opened.

“Elijah isn’t here yet,” the second guy said.

“Good. Let’s do a quick gun check. Make sure they’re all here.”

The blood drained from River’s face—then she heard the men move toward her.

There was no way they’d miss her. The second one of them came over, she’d be spotted.

She slid her phone inside her top, between her bra and chest. She needed it on as long as possible. She needed the connection to Jackson to remain and she needed him to hear whatever came next.

She’d barely lowered her hand again when she saw him. Brian. Standing over her and looking ten times larger than normal.

The second their gazes clashed, his mouth dropped open. For a moment, there was silence. Like the guy didn’t know what to do.

Then the second man came up beside him.

“Am I doing this by my fucking se—” He stopped. “What the fuck?”

The guy reached down and strong fingers latched into her hair, tugging her up. River scrambled to get to her feet as pain tore at her scalp. The guy tugged her forward, around the kegs.

“Where the fuck did you come from?” he growled.

When she didn’t answer straight away, he yanked her closer. Her eyes watered at the pain.

“I asked you a question, bitch!”

Before she could answer, the sound of a car pulling up had everyone’s gazes shooting toward the open back door.

“Goddammit. That’s him.”

The man tugged her to the edge of the cargo area. She saw the narrowed eyes of a third guy, the one who must have been driving, before she was thrown out of the back. Her knees hit the dirt hard, and pain spiraled up her thighs.

A car was just stopping beside them when she glanced up. Brian hadn’t said a word. And if the grit of his teeth said anything, he wasn’t happy.

The same guy who’d thrown her jumped down and wrapped his fingers around her upper arm, digging into flesh as he tugged her to her feet.

Three men stepped out of the car. Two of them were well-muscled and tall. The third, the more average-looking man, she assumed was Elijah.

River vaguely remembered them from Mickey’s club. The guy she assumed to be Elijah walked toward them slowly. One of his guys followed, while the other headed for the trunk, opening it and tugging someone out.

River’s lips separated, a gasp slipping from her throat.

Mickey…

His left eye was swollen shut and the entire left side of his face was bruised and battered. When the guy started to drag him forward, she noticed Mickey could barely hold himself up.

Elijah stopped, his eyes sliding down her body, assessing. River wanted to squirm under the scrutiny, but instead, she straightened, refusing to wither.

When Elijah finally looked to the guy holding her, the air she hadn’t realized she’d been holding whooshed from her chest.

“What the fuck happened, and what is she doing here?” he asked.

There was a tense silence. And when she looked at the man beside her, she saw cold, stark fear.

“We noticed a tail. It was one of the Deltas, so we stopped to kill the guy. He got the upper hand, killing four of our men. Before we could finish him, we heard police. So we got out of there.”

There was a slight narrowing of Elijah’s eyes. When he looked at the truck, unease slithered up her spine.

“And what about her?” The guy’s words were hard. They made her want to step back, away from the biggest threat here.

It was Brian who spoke this time. “She must have climbed into the truck while we were stopped.”

A deadly fury washed over Elijah’s face. It had the fine hairs on River’s arms standing on end. He tilted his head toward one of his guys.

River’s belly cramped, fear fogging her mind as the man approached her. Rough hands skimmed over every inch of her body. When they reached her chest, he dove a hand inside her top, tugging the phone out from where she’d slid it between her bra and chest.

He turned and delivered it to his boss.

If she’d thought the man looked angry before, that was nothing compared to now. He looked ready to kill.

He looked at the phone and pressed the end button before stomping on it.

She glanced to Brian and the other two guys. Their faces were white.

She barely had time to look back at Elijah before the man lifted a gun and shot all three of his thugs between the eyes.

The air cut off in her throat, silencing the scream that tried to escape. Dead. All of them. Including Jackson’s father. She glanced down in shock, vaguely noticing the small specks of blood on her arms. Her top.

Elijah turned to his guys. “Move! We need to get as many guns out of the truck as possible and put them in the trunk. They’ll be here any fucking second.”

The two men got to work, and Elijah turned to Mickey.

“You should’ve listened when I told you those men weren’t welcome in the club.” He took a small step forward. “You chose the wrong fucking guy to have a pissing contest with.”

The gun rose again, and River quickly shut her eyes before the next bullet was fired.

When she opened them again, Mickey was on the ground, eyes wide and blood pouring from the wound in his head.

She pressed a hand to her mouth as bile crawled up her throat.

When Elijah finally turned toward her, her entire body shook in terror. “Al.” One of the men stopped. “Put her in the car. The money we lose on the firearms, we’ll make up with her sale.”

River lowered her hand slowly, breaths sawing in and out of her chest. “My sale?”

Elijah tucked his gun back into a holster, completely ignoring her.

River couldn’t speak again. She could barely breathe. They were going to…what? Drive her over the border to Canada and sell her?

She shot a quick glance the way they’d come.

Nothing. Jackson would be too late.

Out of instinct, she tried to run, the logical part of her brain knowing there was nowhere to go, the terror-filled side needing to try.

Before she could take more than two steps, one of Elijah’s guys grabbed her. Then there was a sharp pain to her skull that turned her world black.