33. Jaxcen

Chapter thirty-three

Jaxcen

T remors ripple through my body so violently that I fear the bomb will go off on its own. Never in a million years would I have thought I’d wake up from being knocked unconscious to have an explosive attached to me.

“Fuck. Jax.”

There’s so much pain in Devon’s voice as he takes in the situation, his eyes assessing everything as he moves a few steps closer.

“Mmmooo.” I cry against the tape covering my lips, and even to my own ears, I can hear that my ‘no’ came out as a very muffled mo, but Devon understands.

Stepping closer, ignoring my plea, he quickly tears the tape off my lips, and a sob escapes me.

“There was a man. He knew my name.” I blubber through my tears. “I thought it must have been the guy that wanted you dead, but he had Melissa down here too. He took her.”

“Fuck,” he hisses, pulling his phone out, and a few seconds later, he’s talking to someone. Finn, maybe. “Jaxcen is in the cellar tied to a fucking chair with a bomb strapped to her. She said a man was here and he took Melissa. Clear the area now. Evacuate the whole fucking town.”

Oh my god. This is really happening. I’m going to die. I’m going to be blown up into tiny pieces. There’s no way I will survive this.

Hot tears stream down my face as I try to come to terms with my reality.

There’s a timer on the front of the bomb. I’m too scared to look at it. I’m too scared to move, let alone see how many minutes or seconds I have left to live.

Holy crap. This is really it.

“Jax. Try to stay calm,” Devon says as he rushes back to turn all the lights on before returning to me and lowering to one knee before me, reaching out and cupping one side of my face. “It’ll be alright.”

“Stop,” I sob, “D-don’t kneel down. Y-you need to l-leave.”

“There’s no fucking way I’m leaving you, little mouse.” He declares so factually that I fear he’s actually lost his mind.

“Y-you can’t s-stay. P-please g-go.”

“No.” He ignores me, releasing my face before taking a closer look at the bomb strapped to me using the flashlight on his phone.

“P-please Dev. It’s okay.”

His fierce gaze shoots to mine. “It’s not fucking okay. Stop asking me to leave you.”

“You can’t d-die, Devon. This t-town, these p-people need y-you. I’m okay t-to d-die. I know it s-seems weird but in t-the last few days since m-meeting you, I’ve lived more t-than I ever thought p-possible.” My words stutter out around my sobs, and when he goes to speak, I cut him off. “I don’t w-want him to hurt M-Melissa. He was s-saying some pretty c-crude things t-to her.”

“Don’t worry about Melissa. My men are handling that. And I’m here handling this.”

Heavy feet coming down the stairs draw our attention to see Finn, his eyes wide as he takes in the scene.

“Fuck.”

His words are a whisper, but I hear them.

Yep. I’m fucked. This is it. My last moments are right here right now.

“Call Warrick.” Devon barks over his shoulder, and I see Finn’s frown as he stares at Devon’s back.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Get him on the fucking phone!” Devon yells this time and Finn rushes to take out his phone where he calls someone.

“Just keep as still as you can, little mouse. This will all be over soon.”

I mean, he’s not wrong. It will be. My life will be over.

I’ll miss him, which is weird right? We only just met days ago, yet I feel like he knows me better than anyone else.

Finn talks quietly on the phone, before tapping Devon’s shoulder with it and passing it to him.

“Warrick,” Devon rasps holding the phone out in front of him, having hit speaker.

“You must really want something if you’re calling me.” The other voice on the phone says with amusement in his tone, but Devon doesn’t waste time with pleasantries.

“Tell me how to disable a bomb.”

“Daaaamn,” Warrick chuckles. “A bomb hey? And why the fuck should I help you?”

Devon’s cheeks flare red with anger, but he grits his teeth and responds to who must be his brother. I’m pretty sure he said his brother’s name is Warrick.

“You wanna see your kid again right?” Devon snaps and his brother snaps back.

“What do you think!”

“Then fucking help me, damn it. If this thing goes off, it could hurt him, too.”

I frown at Devon’s words. Warrick has a son, and he’s here?

“Come on, man, it’s just ticked past three fucking minutes,” Devon pleas.

Wait what?

Less than three minutes?

I have less than three minutes to live?

“Oh my god,” I whimper and Warrick sighs.

“Fine. Put me on video so I can see what we’re working with.”

Devon quickly transfers to video call, and a moment later, he holds the phone up in front of the bomb, while his eyes fasten on me.

‘It’ll be okay,’ he mouths, and more tears well in my eyes.

“It’s actually not too complicated,” Warrick chimes in again, “or, it is complicated but is made to look easy to fool you.”

Another sob tries to escape, but I seal my lips shut, not letting this fear control me.

I’m going to die and take Devon and Finn with me. The thought of killing them too is more terrifying to me than my own death.

“Let’s pretend it is easy.” Devon snarls into the phone, his eyes not wavering from mine.

“Cut the blue wire,” Warrick says simply, and Devon’s brows shoot up.

“That’s it?”

“We’ll find out I guess,” the voice says through the phone, and Devon looks like he wants to reach into the phone and strangle his brother.

“Take this.” He holds up his phone, and Finn steps forward, taking the phone and replacing it with some electrical wire cutters.

“You need to leave,” I whisper to Finn, but he shakes his head.

“I’m right where I need to be, Miss Summers.”

“Jax,” Devon’s pained tone draws my attention back to him, and for a moment, he looks lost for words, until he speaks and it’s clear he is. “I… You… We…” he shakes his head, momentarily looking at the floor between us.

He’s clearly struggling with something, and I’m about to tell him not to worry about anything because I’m pretty damn sure three minutes must be nearly up.

“Fuck, little mouse. What I’m trying to say is… Thank you for waking me up, too.”

I frown, confused by his words. By how I woke him up, when he was the one to wake me up. “H-how did I w-wake y-you up? ”

“Fuck, baby,” he grits out. “You woke me up in every way imaginable.”

It’s then that he positions the cutters on the blue wire.

“Give us one last kiss then, love.” His tone is so cocky, just like that first night at St Catherine’s only days ago, and knowing this is my last moment on earth, I do just that, pressing my lips to his in a searing kiss as I wait for our world to explode.