Tag: mystery

Jax landed with a crash, the body of Mackenzie’s rapist landing on top of him and whooshing the air from his lungs.

Sarisa stood in the doorway and from the look on her face she obviously thought that her bullet had taken both of them out.

Had he not pivoted at the last second it probably would have.

Instead the bullet had sliced straight through the other man, piercing his heart, and from the amount of blood soaking through his clothes and the complete and unnatural stillness, the other man was dead.

“You were really getting on my nerves, Raymond, step-brother or not, you had to go. Sorry, Jax, I didn’t mean to take you out too, but I can’t think of a more romantic ending to our love story than to go out like Romeo and Juliet.”

Sarisa stood in the doorway and Jax forced himself to play dead. As soon as her back was turned he would take her out.

“Before Jax and I can get our happy ending, you need to go,” Sarisa said as she tossed the gun on the bed and rounded it, walking over to Mackenzie.

Quietly as he could he rolled Raymond’s body off him, and stood, creeping to the bed he scooped up the gun. As he walked around the bed he saw that Mackenzie fought with everything she had as Sarisa tried to wrap her hands around her neck.

Anger burned brightly inside him. How had he ever thought he was in love with Sarisa? Mackenzie was everything he had ever wanted in a woman and there was no way he was losing her.

“Its over, Sarisa,” he said as he aimed the gun at her head.

Pain.

She was floating on a bed of pain.

Something cool blotted at her face, and gentle fingers stroked her cheek.

“Honey, can you hear me?”

The voice was worried and she didn’t want anyone to worry about her, so she tried very hard to open her eyes and reassure them.

“Honey, I could really do with some help right about now.”

Jax.

It was Jax’s voice.

Since she didn’t want to disappoint him she managed to force her eyes open. “I’m awake,” she croaked weakly.

“Do you remember what happened?” Jax asked, his worried eyes watching her like he was afraid she might leave him again at a moment’s notice.

“Sarisa was here, and the man who raped me, they shot me.”

“They knocked me out and put us both in your bedroom. I raided your bathroom when I was getting a wet cloth and something to used to wrap your wound, and I found two pairs of scissors. I know you’re weak and hurting but I’m going to give you one, you get a chance you don’t hesitate to take it.”

He pressed the scissors into her hand and she managed to curl her fingers around it. She wasn’t sure she’d have the strength to use it but she would do her best, she wasn’t going to leave Jax to handle this alone.

“I’m going to put you in the bathroom, the best thing we have going for us right now is that they think I’m tied up. I heard sirens earlier, the cops are here but they’re barricaded themselves in here. Once you’re safely tucked away I’ll wait and make my move as soon as they come back in here.”

“”Kay,” she whispered.

“You just hold on, okay?”

“I’ll try.”

“You’ll do better than try,” he reprimanded firmly. Then he smoothed a hand over her hair, leaned down and kissed her. “You have too much to live for, so you fight okay, you don’t give up.”

Mackenzie could read the promise of their future in Jax’s eyes and it was enough to strengthen her. “I won’t give up,” she promised.

He bent down to gingerly lift her from the bed when they heard a door opening behind them.

Jax moved at lightning speed. He set her on the floor on the other side of the bed, and then he was gone.

She could hear him collide with another body, the sounds of a scuffle, grunts and groans, and then the sound of a gun going off.

Something fell to the floor with a thud.

A shadow fell over her as someone rounded the bed.

Mackenzie clutched the scissors Jax had given her and waited to see if it was Jax or one of their attackers who was coming towards her.

As he came round there was an eerie silence all around the apartment.

Jax bolted upright, unsurprised to find that his wrists were bound behind his back. He had a raging headache but no memory of how he lost consciousness.

There was only one thing on his mind.

Mackenzie.

She’d been shot, he remembered that much, her shriek of agony was something he would never forget.

The gunshot would rouse neighbours, who would no doubt call the 911, but he had a feeling that Sarisa and whoever the man with her was would more likely to hole up in here with him and Mackenzie as hostages than they would open the door to the cops when they arrived.

Scanning the room he saw they were in what he assumed was Mckenzie’s bedroom. He was sitting in an armchair by the window and Mackenzie was lying on the bed. Her eyes were closed, blood soaked her leg and the quilt beneath it

Panic flooded him, washing away his pain.

Had she already bled out?

Her skin was as white as snow, but he could just make out her chest rising and falling.

She was still alive.

Holding his wrists apart as far as he could he lifted his arms above his head, then brought them down hard against his bent knees. He repeated that twice more and the plastic zip ties

As soon as he was free Jax ran to the bed. His fingertips touched her neck, finding a pulse that was weak and thready. Her skin was cold and clammy, her breathing quick and shallow. Jax had enough first aid training to know that she was already in hypovolemic shock.

He had to get her out of here, she needed a hospital and she needed one now.

There was no she was going to be able to help him get them out of here. It was all on him. He had to keep Mackenzie alive and he had to find a way to get through two armed assailants.

Jax prayed he was up to this monumental task.

The bang of the gun seemed too loud.

Although Mackenzie knew it happened in a split second, it seemed like her eyes tracked the bullet’s journey as it left the gun, flew through the air towards her, then plowed into her leg.

She might be a psychiatrist and not a “real” doctor but she didn’t need to be to know that the bullet had just shattered her femur.

Everything around her tunnelled into a vortex of pain.

She couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, she thought she collapsed, she thought she screamed in pain, she thought that Jax called out to her, she thought crazy Sarisa was laughing, but she wasn’t sure.

All she was sure of was the agony in her leg.

There were voices floating somewhere above her. For a moment she was confused when she was sure there were three instead of two but then she faded further and couldn’t be sure.

Black dots danced in front of her and she longed to latch onto them and let them drag her away, anywhere was better than the excruciating pain that poked relentlessly at her.

Jax.

Was he okay?

Did he get the knife?

Had he subdued Sarisa?

The questions spun in her head making her dizzy.

Someone was coming towards her, she prayed it was Jax, the blurry figure stopped and stood above her. Then it leaned down and a breath of air brushed her face.

“Can’t wait for round two,” a harsh voice whispered.

Her ability to focus came rushing back and when her vision cleared she knew the face above her belonged to the man who had raped her. He was here. In her apartment.

Panic flared inside her and it was too much for her overburdened mind to deal with. The next second she was crashing into unconsciousness.

Jax had no idea how he was going to get them out of this alive.

What to do, what to do?

He had known that Sarisa was unstable, it was one of the reasons things hadn’t worked out between them. That and the fact that she had cheated on him. Given that was the final straw he had no idea why she was now standing here in Mackenzie’s apartment with a gun trained on him screaming about how he replaced her with Kenzie.

“Sarisa, lets sit down and talk,” he said, hands held up, palms out, in as unthreatening manner as possible.

“No,” she shrieked. “Talking time is over. I begged you not to leave me and you threw me away like garbage. You said you loved me, you said you wanted to marry me. We were soulmates and you turned your back on me”

Jax half listened as Sarisa rambled, his gaze scanning the room looking for a weapon. His gun was on the counter in the kitchen, but the couch, the kitchen table and an armed Sarisa stood in-between him and it. The hallway that led to the bedrooms was closer and he wondered if he could cover Mackenzie enough to get her there before Sarisa shot him.

If it weren’t for Mackenzie he’d just rush the woman, take the gunshot and tackle her. Unless she got him in the head or directly in the heart then he would still be able to disarm her.

“Jax, the fireplace mantle,” Mackenzie whispered behind him, her hands pressed against his lower back. “I was scared after what happened to Tayla and I heard a sound the other night, I had a knife and I left it on the mantle when I went to the hospital yesterday.”

A knife.

Perfect.

Now all he needed was a distraction so he could get to it.

“I’ll keep her distracted,” Mackenzie said.

Before he could stop her, yank her back and keep her safely tucked away behind him, his crazy girl who had already been through hell once in the last forty-right hours stepped sideways.

“Lady, you are crazy if you think that Jax loves you,” Mackenzie put her hands on her hips and glared at Sarisa. “He’s mine, and he loves me.”

Shock flowed through him at her words. Not just that she was baiting an armed and insane woman, but when she said that he loved her it didn’t frighten him it felt … right.

“You can’t use your evil magic to steal my man,” Sarisa screamed, swinging the gun in Mackenzie’s direction. “When I shoot you your powers will flow out of you.”