I should have been with her. I shouldn't have run away, pissed or not. I lost sight of what mattered. Her safety. Now I'm facing the possibility of losing her the way I lost Marissa.
I pass a diner, my stomach rumbling. I can't even stop, no matter how hungry I am. I can eat after I find her.
***
By the time I arrive at the campus, it's nearly daylight. It's been the longest night of my life.
I see the tower in the distance. Before getting any closer, I pull out my phone to dial 911. I tell the operator where I am, and why. "Please, send all the cars you can to the tower. I hope I'm not too late. This man is crazy." Then I continue, hoping to head them off.
I park my bike several hundred yards away from the tower. There are no other cars in sight, so maybe I beat them here. He might have stopped at some point to get food. I hope I wasn't completely off-base with my theory. I might be leading the police on a wild goose chase. They won't be my biggest fans if that happens.
After a few minutes, a car pulls up. Since it's winter break, the campus is almost empty. The presence of a car breaks up the near-silence all around me. I watch from my position behind a dumpster as a man gets out from behind the wheel. He looks slightly older, a little paunchier. But there's no mistaking that face. I've seen it in front of me for the past six hours, along with Christina and Marissa. Tommy.
He looks around, then walks to the trunk. My heart clenches. He opens it, bends down. I can't see at first, but when he closes the trunk there's no mistaking Christina. Jesus, he had her in there all this time? She can hardly walk. He has to nearly carry her. Her legs must feel cramped and stiff after being curled up in that tight space all this time. I want to kill him for doing this.
He's babbling something to her, his mouth moving a mile a minute. Completely insane. I crouch, running toward them. Using hedges to hide me somewhat. The closer I get the more I can hear of what he's saying.
"I told you we'd be together, didn't I? Didn't I always say you could never hide from me? There's no way. I love you too much to lose you to any man, especially not a scumbag like that bastard you were with. I don't know if I can forgive you for that, but if I do it'll take a long time. I can't believe you'd go from me to a man like him. What's happened to you?"
On and on he goes, unable to stop babbling. He's dragging her to the tower, overlooking campus. I realize he wants to take her up into it, maybe to the very top. There's no telling what he'll do once he gets her up there. I can only imagine he'll throw her from the top.
"Stop!" I run toward them. They both freeze. Christina turns in my direction, frightened at first. Then she sees it's me, and I watch her face crumple in tears.
"Jax!" she cries, reaching for me. Trying to break free of his grasp. He's too strong for her.
"Shut up, bitch!" Tommy pulls her toward himself. "I should have known you were lying. You had your boyfriend come after us."
"I didn't! I didn't know! How could I know?"
I hold up a hand-the one not holding the gun in my pocket. "No, Tommy. She didn't know I was coming. It's just me. It was my idea."
"Really? What did you think you were going to get out of coming after us?"
"I just wanted to be sure she was safe, man. That's all." I glance at her, taking her in with my eyes. I want to see if she's actually okay. She was wearing a knit hat when he first pulled her from the trunk, which fell off as she struggled. There's dried blood in her hair. She's not bleeding anywhere else I can see. No marks on her wrists. She's been crying, her face red.
"You want to make sure she's safe?" He throws back his head, laughing. He sounds crazier than I thought he was. "That's hilarious! You should have been a comedian!"
"What do you mean?" I have to stall. I don't want to try to take this guy alone, though I know I could if it was just the two of us. I could break him in half with no problem. I want to. But Christina's in between us. I can't risk her getting hurt.
"You think I'm the one who's a threat to Chrissie?" He strokes her hair. She closes her eyes, squeezing them tight, grimacing at his touch. I want to rip his hand off.
"Well, I mean, come on. You took her. There was blood on the floor."
"Only because you're the one who convinced her she shouldn't be with me anymore!" He's shouting, out of control.
"Tommy, I only met her a few days ago. I didn't convince her of anything. She made her own decision." I watch as his hands tighten around her arms. Okay. That was a mistake. I have to be the bad guy so that he won't hurt her. My shoulders slump.
"Okay. You're right. I'm the one who turned her against you." I let my eyes flicker over toward her, hoping to keep her quiet. "I was jealous of the relationship you two had when you were together. I knew from the way she talked about you that she'd never feel that way about me. I'm not the sort of man you are. I didn't go to college. I don't have any friends. I'm just … a white trash biker. I have nothing to offer her."
"You're right. You have nothing. Hear that, Chrissie? He said he has nothing. I told you so, didn't I?" He jerks her by the arms, pulling her to him. I see the pain in her eyes.
"But, Tommy … you have to understand how this looks. Hurting her to get her to come with you. The police aren't very happy about that. Did you think about what might happen if they catch up to you?"
He shrugs. "Why should they? They'll just blame it on you, right?"
I frown, squinting at him. "Why would they do that?"
"Because you're already on their shit list. Aren't you? Or am I thinking of a different Jax Fairbanks? The one whose wife didn't die mysteriously in the woods one day?"
My stomach is ice. How does he know this? How much homework has he done on me?
"That's right," he says, reading my reaction. "I know everything about you. Your criminal record, your history with the club. Everything there is to know. And I know the cops are just dying for a reason to put you in jail for good. So, I'm giving them their reason." He strokes Christina's hair again. "Don't worry. I have no intention of actually hurting her. Just making it look like she was hurt." He laughs.
"What's so funny?" I ask, glancing at her again before looking back at the insane man in front of me.
"It's just … I win. I get back the girl I love while putting you in jail. The man who took her from me. It doesn't get much better than this."
"You're right, Tommy. You win." I hold up my hands, the gun pointing to the sky. "I lose."
"Jax! Be careful! He has a gun!" He grips her so hard, she screams.
"Don't you hurt her!" I make a move toward them, then stop myself. I don't want to take chances if he's armed.
Tommy only laughs. "I don't have gun, you stupid bitch."
"What?"
"I only told you that to scare you. Jesus. You're so dumb. You could at least have asked to see it."
If he calls her stupid or a bitch one more time, I don't know if I can be held responsible for what I do. I take another step toward them.
"Not another inch, Jax. Not if you don't want to see her get hurt. I don't need a gun to hurt her. Do I, sweetheart?" He twists her arm. She cries out. He looks at me, sneering. "Besides, I think you should drop the gun and kick it away if you don't want to be in even bigger trouble."
"I can't do that," I say, gun still pointing up.
"Why?"
"Because Christina looks afraid."
"She's afraid of you!" He jerks her by the arm. "Tell him. Tell him you're afraid of him."
"I'm-I'm afraid," she says, her voice a tiny squeak.
"You're afraid of him! Tell him!"
"I'm afraid of you!" She cries, tears flowing down her face. "Please. I'm afraid."
"I'm sorry," I say, staring at her. "I'm sorry you're afraid. I'm sorry I couldn't make it so you felt safer."
"Looks like you can't keep a woman, Jax." Tommy sneers.
I glance at him, then back at Christina. "I have a story to tell you." I keep my eyes on her, ignoring Tommy except to ensure he doesn't pull any quick moves.
"What is it?"
"I've never told anybody the full story. Not even Adam. Marissa tried to kill herself that day. She went to the woods to kill herself."
She's staring at me, eyes full of tears. "Why?"
"Because she was a sick, mixed-up person. She was into drugs, stealing from the cartel the club was working with. She had an affair with the man who was president of the club at the time. Only the stealing wound up getting him and a bunch of our guys killed. She couldn't handle it. So she took my gun into the woods. I ran after her as soon as I knew what she was doing." I take a deep breath, getting to the part I didn't tell Adam. "She pointed the gun at me first, to keep me away from her while she told me the story … then to shoot me. She was going to kill me, rather than let me stop her. She wanted to die that badly."