I looked out of the window as the car sped along the highway. Jax sat next to me in the back seat while Jacob was our driver for the evening. My stomach churned as I thought about what we were about to do. It was unthinkable, but every instinct in my body told me I was right.
I felt Jax shifting in his seat beside me. He had looked at me like I’d grown an extra head when I’d told him my suspicions. He’d told me I was loco, especially when I’d told him that it was just me and him who were going to end this. I didn’t trust anyone else with the information. I couldn’t afford for anyone else to know, it could cost Alana her life if I did. And possibly Lucia too.
I trusted Jacob too. He had been my driver since I was a little kid. But he was little more than a chauffeur these days. He hadn’t been in the thick of the action for over a decade. Besides, I needed him outside for Alana and Lucia, ready to drive them to safety in case Jax and I didn’t make it.
‘I appreciate you doing this with me, amigo,’ I said to Jax.
He turned to me and grinned. ‘Where else would I be but by your side, amigo? Until the end. Remember?’ He held out his fist and I touched it with mine.
‘Until the end.’
Half an hour later, the car rolled to a stop a few hundred yards from the house where I prayed Alana and Lucia were being held. Jacob had switched off the headlights a quarter of a mile up the road so they wouldn’t see us coming.
Jax and slipped out of the car, sticking close to the tree line for cover as we made our way towards the building. ‘Remember the plan?’ I whispered.
He nodded. ‘Kill anyone who moves who isn’t a Montoya,’ he said with a flash of his eyebrows as he took one of his guns from his holster and connected the silencer to the end.
I looked towards the house. There were two men patrolling the perimeter. Jogging closer to them, we each took one out with a clean shot to the neck.
I indicated my head to the back of the house and Jax nodded his understanding as he edged past me. If I was going into this house, then I’d walk in like I always did. Through the front door.
Walking to the front porch, I looked inside and couldn’t see anyone. I took a breath to calm my racing heart. Maybe I was wrong about this? But, if I was, then where the hell were Alana and Lucia?
I pulled open the screen door and as I knew it would, it creaked, alerting the guard who was in the hallway to my presence. He ran to the door, but he didn’t even have a chance to draw his weapon before I shot him between the eyes. I looked down at his body. He had worked for my family for twenty years.
Traitor.
I walked further into the house, the floor creaking softly under my feet. Another man walked out of the kitchen. He looked up at me and blinked as I shot him in the face.
I heard the sound of two more muffled gunshots near the back of the house before Jax walked into the hallway to meet me. He simply nodded at me and I pointed towards the basement. Something about this felt far too easy.
