JAX

“I thought we took care of this Darby shit?” I asked Clay.

We were all around the table because Op and Sack saw a deal going down at a construction site. Clay shrugged and snuffed out his cigar.

“Guess not. Looks like we’ll have to take it straight to Darby.” He said.

We nodded in agreement and stood up to leave. Clay stopped me and shut the doors.

“I uh heard what your old lady did last night at the party.” He said with a small smirk.

I rolled my eyes and sighed in annoyance. Clay chuckled and patted me on the shoulder.

“Be proud son. Not every old lady would break some slut’s nose. Unless it’s your mom of course.” He said.

I couldn’t help but smile a little and we walked out of the room. We met Op and Sack at the construction site and set up a plan to trap the dealer. It took a while but we finally got him to roll and took off to get Darby. We threatened him that if he dealt out of Charming again, we would kill him and then we torched the mobile home he was cooking out of. Just as the sun was going down my phone started ringing. I sighed and pulled it out of my pocket.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Jax, you need to get home now.” My mom said.

Her voice was shaking and I could tell something was wrong. My heart stopped.

“What happened?” I asked.

“It’s McKayla.” She said.

I didn’t even think. I fired my bike up and tore off out of there. I must have been going at least 80 miles per hour. All I could think about was McKayla. What could’ve happened to her? Did she leave? Is she hurt? Is she…dead? No. No! She wasn’t dead. She couldn’t be dead. When I pulled up to my house, I almost just let the bike fall to the ground. Opie was right behind me and took the handle bars to set it upright. I ran up to the porch and saw that the door had been kicked in.

“Shit.” I said.

Gemma was sitting at the kitchen table, holding Abel.

“Jax, she’s gone.” She said.

Abel was fussing and squirming around. I couldn’t breathe. I doubled over and gripped the chair in front of me. Opie and Tig came in and started searching the house.

“Hey, we got blood in the bedroom.” Opie called to me.

I forced myself to walk down the hall and into the room. The door had been kicked in as well and it looked like the room was ransacked. On the floor by the bed was a quarter sized blood stain. I let out a shaky breath and sank to my knees. Tig put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed.

“It’ll be alright man. We’ll find her.” He said softly.

I couldn’t say anything. McKayla was gone. Somebody took her from our home and hurt her.

“Can you think of anyone who’d want to hurt her, Jax?” Opie asked me from the doorway.

Alright Jax, pull it together. McKayla needs you right now. I shut my eyes and tried to think. It couldn’t have been someone from Cara Cara. If they wanted to hurt her, they wouldn’t have taken her.

“Jax? You with us brother?” Opie said. His voice sounded distant to me.

I opened my eyes and a thought it me like a ton of bricks. Her ex-boyfriend.

“Where’s Juice.” I asked.

Tig looked at me strangely for a second, then stood up.

“He’s outside looking for a trail, why?” He asked.

I pulled myself up and stumbled through the house. Juice was in the back yard, studying a muddy spot in front of the bedroom window.

“Hey, I need you.” I said hurriedly.

He nodded and stood up.

“Sure man, what can I do?” He asked.

I took a deep breath and took a piece of paper from my pocket.

“I need you to track this guy down. He’s McKayla’s old boyfriend and he used to do horrible things to her.” I told him.

Juice took the paper from my hands and then looked up at me.

“Do you think he might have took her?” He asked me.

I sighed and shrugged.

“I don’t know Juice but it’s a start.” I said.

He nodded and pulled me in for a hug.

“We’ll get her back, Jax.” He said.

I just nodded and Juice took off in the house to find Derek. I somehow managed to drag myself back to the house and found Gemma feeding Abel. He was still fussing so I picked him up and held him. Usually that stopped him, but this time he kept on wailing. He missed McKayla.

“Jackson, are you okay?” Mom asked me quietly.

How could I answer that? McKayla, the only person that I really loved had be kidnapped and hurt and I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again. How am I supposed to be okay? I just shook my head and held Abel close to me.

“She was so mad at me, mom. She was ready to leave. Maybe if I wouldn’t have gone last night, maybe I could’ve prevented this.” I choked out.

Gemma shook her head and stood up from the table. She took the baby from me and put him in the highchair then put her hands on my face.

“You listen to me Jackson. This is not your fault. There is nothing you could’ve done to change this. What you need to focus on right now is getting her home. She needs you Jax. You have to bring her back.”

Tears fell down my cheeks and she pulled me close to her. I knew she was right and I needed to do everything in my power to bring McKayla home. A few minutes later, Juice came running in the kitchen.

“Jax, I think I got something.” He said.

I pulled away from Gemma and followed him to the bedroom. He sat down on the bed and showed me the laptop.

“Okay so I dug into this guy’s credit card records and found out he transferred money to an unknown source about two months ago. Two days ago he bought a plane ticket from Michigan to here but that’s where the trail ends.” He said.

My knees felt weak. So the bastard really was here and he was smart. He knew enough to start paying with cash once he got into town. There has to be a way I can find this man.

“I’m sorry man.” Juice said, snapping me from my thoughts.

I just nodded and put my hand on his shoulder.

“Thanks Juice. You did good.” I told him.

He nodded and shut the laptop down.

“What did this guy do to her?” He asked me as we stood to leave the room.

I sighed and closed my eyes and clenched my fists.

“He hurt her, Juice. Badly.”

I could feel his eyes on me, so I opened mine. Pity and sadness was written on his face.

“We’re gonna get the son of a bitch.” He said.

What surprised me was he didn’t say it with pity. He said it with certainty. And for the first time, I believed him. He had a solid lead that he was here and I could find him. Suddenly I had a thought. There was someone who could help me find Derek.

“Unser.” I mumbled.

Juice raised his eyebrow and I went outside.

“Jax, where are you going?” Gemma asked me.

I got on my bike and threw on my helmet.

“I’m going to talk to Unser. Maybe he can help us track this guy down.” I said.

She sighed and crossed her arms. I didn’t wait for her to say anything else. I started the bike and sped to the police station. To my luck, Unser was sitting at his desk when I blew into the place.

“Jesus, what the hell do you want?” He asked me.

He looked me over and stood up.

“You alright, Jax?” He asked.

I shook my head and shut his office door.

“Listen, McKayla was kidnapped.” I said quietly.

Unser’s mouth fell open. He shook his head and sank back into his chair.

“Holy shit. What happened?” He asked me.

I sighed and sat down across from him.

“I don’t know. I wasn’t there. My house was broken into and she’s gone.” I said.

I could hear the unsteadiness in my voice. I cleared my throat and tried to keep it together.

“Do you know who took her?” He asked me.

I met his eyes and nodded once. He took a deep breath and leaned forward.

“What do you need?” He asked in a hushed voice.

I leaned forward as well and rested my elbows on the desk.

“I need you run this name through your computers. Derek Williams.” I said.

He typed the name in a database and waited for results.

“Who is this guy, Jax?” He asked.

I sighed deeply and sat back. Just thinking about this guy made my blood boil. I couldn’t wait until I had him to myself. I have plans for him.

“It’s her ex-boyfriend. He was a monster to her and she ran away. I know it’s him Unser. Who else would want to hurt her?” I said.

He just shook his head and watched the monitor.

“Look Jax, it’s gonna be a while before I get any hits. Why don’t you go and get some sleep and I’ll call you if I get anything.” He said to me.

Sleep, yeah right. Last night I had to sleep on a bench because I wanted to be close to McKayla. What the hell was I supposed to do tonight? I just shook my head and pulled myself out of the chair.

“We’re gonna find her, Jax. I’ll put out a missing persons report on her and an APB out on this guy. But it’s dark and who knows where they are now. We’ll do better in the morning.” He said.

All I could do was nod. I walked out the door and stumbled down to my bike. If only I would’ve been there. I promised her he was never going to hurt her again. Now look what happened. She could be dead for all I know. Just as I buckled my helmet, Unser came running out of the station. I raised my eyebrow and waited for him to reach me.

“I got a hit! He was seen checking into a motel earlier today.” He said rapidly.

It took a minute to process what he just said. Derek was checked into a motel. In town. Today. Holy shit.

“Where? Unser, where!” I shouted at him.

He looked down at the piece of paper he had in his hands and then up at me.

“The Lydia. That shit hole Darby used to deal out of.” He said.

Good. This was good. I knew where he was. Even if McKayla wasn’t with him, at least I could get the son of a bitch.

“Thanks Unser.” I said as I started my bike.

Unser put his hand on my arm and shook his head.

“Now wait a minute Jax. You should let us go and bring him in.” He said.

I looked at him with a hard stare and shook my head slowly. No way. This was personally. I was getting the bastard and I was going to make him pay for everything he ever did to McKayla. Unser just sighed and through his hands up in defeat. Without another word I raced back to my house to gather the guys for the take down.