AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jackson
We’re racing down the highway through a minefield of crashed vehicles. People are screaming and crying, pointing ahead at a big rig that’s weaving all over the road. It’s crashing through vehicles left and right, clearing the road like a bulldozer. Chase says Cricket is inside, he can smell her. He can smell her rising fear. The knowledge spears through my veins like lava, fueling the rage that I’m nursing.
The truck jerks to the left, crashes into a minivan, and swerves back.
That’s right, Cricket, fight him. Make him pay.
Chase speeds up, pulling in front of the truck and trying to wave him down, but the truck purposely swerves towards him, forcing Chase to veer hard.
“Pull up to the trailer!” I yell to Rachel, pounding on the roof of the truck.
I can see in his side mirror that he’s watching Chase and not me, so as soon as Rachel is close enough, I jump. My body hits the side of the trailer like a ton of bricks, but the driver hits a traffic sign and notices nothing. I pull my way to the roof of the trailer, muscles bulging and veins pulsing with effort. I don’t know who this fucker is, but I’ve got a whole lot of pent-up rage.
And he just gave me a target.
I stand, walking up the trailer with my arm extended for balance. One wrong move and I’m dead, flying off this trailer like roadkill, and I can’t die without saving my girl. The trailer ends, and I jump down to the connection between it and the cab, grabbing the handles on the side and working my way around to the driver’s side window.
What I see inside makes my vision go red. He’s holding my woman by the hair, pulling her towards his mangled manhood, and she’s fighting like mad. I try the handle, finding it locked. Cricket’s fighting too hard for him to notice me. She’s so afraid, she's screaming, fighting with everything she’s got. Suddenly, her eyes roll back in her head as her body tightens, then she’s seizing on the floor.
Registering that her blood is on the butt of his gun is the final straw that snaps the gossamer hold on my rage. As he turns to check his mirror again, I punch through his window and grab him by the neck. He doesn’t get a chance to scream, barely a chance to register what's happening before I yank him so hard the seat belt rips and I pull him bodily out the window.
I hold him with one hand in midair while the truck careens down the highway.
“Mine!” I scream at him, and horror fills his eyes as I throw him into traffic.
The truck is listing to the right, not slowing, and I throw myself through the window feet first. Every instinct in my soul tells me to check on Cricket, pick her up and hold her, but I have to stop the truck before it causes any more damage or kills us both.
I pull the decompression brake, tires squeal and rubber melts. I pull the horn, blaring it at traffic in front of me as the truck skids to a stop so fast it almost topples over. Throwing the truck in park, I jump out of the seat, kneeling over Cricket's body as if an attack might come from behind. I’ll protect her with my own flesh, no one is ever going to touch her again!
“Cricket! Baby… of fuck…”
I gently roll her on her back, my stomach in knots. Her eyes are open, rolling in her head as her seizure starts to ebb. Her face is dripping blood on both sides, her pretty lips cut with what looks like his zipper. Fury is all I can feel, fury that I didn’t crush his neck before I threw him. Fury that I didn’t stay with her in the trailer, that didn’t wake her before I left.
“Jax…?”
Her voice, her beautiful voice.
I stroke her hair away from her face and smile down at her as her eyes begin to focus on me.
Fear strikes her suddenly and she tries to sit up, arms and legs trembling too hard for her to untangle from the floor of the truck. “Where is he? Oh gods, where is he…?” she cries, clinging to me in terror.
“Pretty sure he’s dead,” I tell her, pulling her into my lap with a sigh of pure relief.
“We have to be sure! He’s after the baby!He’s Corey!”
The terror in her voice makes my blood run cold, but it’s the scream outside the door that makes me move. Rachel, in pain, outside… But my body won't move. I can’t let Cricket go. I can’t make my body move.
“Come at me, motherfucker!” Chase roars, and the sound of flesh hitting flesh and men grappling fills my mind.
Cricket is struggling, pulling herself towards the door, but I shove her back to the floor with a bestial growl.
“Don't. Move,” I order.
Standing, I look out the window at the fight outside the truck. Chase has his arm around Corey’s neck, cutting off his airway, and Rachel is on the ground with a bruise growing fast on her face. She’s shaking her head, hand on her mouth, and struggling to stand.
I have to help, I have to leave Cricket…but she’s hurt! I turn to face her, and she’s standing, trying to see around me, and when she screams I know I hesitated too long.
I turn just in time to see Corey pull a bloodstained knife out of Chase’s ribs and stab again. I shift in place, barely registering the change, and fly out of the broken window as a wolf. Chase drops, gasping in surprise, and Corey looks at me with a grin that turns to sheer horror in a blink of the eye.
