Stolen Identity: Mute Heiress - Chapter 329

Chapter 329: Danger
Chad jerked when Jax dived across the seat. The wheel shook hard. The car swerved left, then right. Tires screamed against the road merely missing other vehicles whose drivers blared their horns angrily.

“Jax! What the hell—!” Chad shouted, grabbing the wheel tightly.

Jax fought him. His hand clamped over Chad’s wrist, trying to twist the steering. His other hand still held the gun.

“STOP THE CAR!” Jax yelled.

“No!” Chad barked back. “I’m going to take care of all this mess! Once Mari goes to the cartel everything ends! They’re at the house already.”

“If anything happens to her, I swear—” Jax growled. His voice cracked with fury and fear for Mari.

The car swerved again. A loud horn blasted from a truck they almost hit.

Chad cursed. “You’ll kill us!”

“If that’s what it will take, then so be it!” Jax shouted.

He tried to pull the wheel again. Chad yanked it back. The car jolted over a bump; both brothers slammed against the seats.

Jax’s gun scraped against Chad’s shoulder, pressing hard. “STOP, CHAD!”

Chad gritted his teeth. Sweat rolled down his temple. “You’re blinded! You can’t think straight because of her!”

“Because I love her!” Jax roared. “If you let her get hurt, I’ll never forgive you and you can consider this family broken!”

Chad let out a broken, frustrated sound. “Don’t you care what happens to us? Will you rather save her and let the rest of us die like dad?”

“You want to survive by sacrificing her like a fucking coward?” Jax whispered. His voice was low, but his hands trembled with rage.

Chad didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.

Jax breathed hard. His chest rose and fell like he was running. His eyes darkened, angry and scared at the same time.

“This isn’t you,” Jax said. His voice dropped low. “Chad, look at me. This isn’t you.”

The only reason Jax had not taken over the car was because no matter how angry he was, he didn’t want to hurt Chad. But he was becoming increasingly tempted to do so with each passing second as his patience wore thin.

Chad’s jaw trembled for one small second, but he pushed the feeling down.

Seeing that Chad was bent on not listening, Jax slammed his elbow into Chad’s arm suddenly.

Chad yelled. The wheel jerked and the car skidded sideways. Wind roared in through the cracked window.

“STOP THE CAR OR I SWEAR—” Jax began again.

Then Chad made the mistake. He let go of the wheel for half a second to shove Jax away.

That half second was all it took for the car to veer off the road.

Jax grabbed the wheel, and Chad grabbed it too. Their fists knocked together as the wheel spun fast.

The car fishtailed. Chad stomped the brake and the tires screeched. The whole vehicle shook like it would tear apart and the world tilted as a cloud of dust rose around them.

Finally, the car slammed to a stop at the edge of a ditch. Both brothers sat frozen, chests heaving, arms shaking, and their breaths ragged.

The engine ticked softly as it cooled.

For a moment, neither spoke nor moved. Jax was the first to move. He rested his head back on the seat and exhaled slowly like he was trying to calm a monster inside him.

Chad stared straight ahead, eyes blank.

Then Jax turned his head slightly. “Get out,” he said softly. But the order sounded more dangerous than a shout.

Chad swallowed. “Jax—”

“Get. Out.” Jax repeated more slowly. “You know me, Chad. You know better than to provoke me any more than you’ve already done. The only reason you’re still unhurt is because you’re my twin brother. Don’t tempt me by spitting one more word. Get out, and get lost. And you better hope I meet Mari unhurt when I get home.”

Chad closed his eyes tightly, then opened the door and stepped out.

Jax took out his phone and dialed Mari’s line as he got out of the car, hoping she’d receive his call so he would tell her where to go stay hidden. When it rang but Mari didn’t receive the call, he clenched his jaw.

As he walked around the car and got to where Chad stood, he shoved him backward against the side of the car.

“I swear, I’m going to kill you with my bare hands if one single hair on her head gets ruffled,” Jax yelled so loud the birds in the trees scattered.

“It’s all your fault. You never should have agreed to keep her. We could die because of her,” Chad shot back, his breath uneven.

Jax’s jaw clenched. “Who did you tell about her? Where are they taking her?” He asked, knowing that he needed to get a clear idea of what was happening to know how to rescue her. He couldn’t just charge home to an empty house.

“I’m not telling you anything. I know you’re mad now, but when you calm down you’ll see we did the right thing…”

“We?! Venita and Diva are involved in this too, aren’t they? Do you think the cartel will leave you alone just because you give her up. Don’t you realize you’ve just endangered all our lives? Giving them Mari won’t fix anything, you should know that you stupid fool!” Jax snapped, slapping Chad angrily.

Chad flinched, raising a hand to his face. He was too ashamed to feel the sting of the slap. He knew that Jax was right but fear had been eating at him ever since he was confronted by members of the legion cartel, and he had allowed Venita get into his head.

His voice softened a little. “I just wanted to keep us safe, Jax.”

Jax let go of him slowly. His hands dropped to his sides. He looked at his brother long and hard, so long it felt like hours.

“That was my call to make, not yours. If anything happens to Maribel, you’ll need to find a way to keep you and your crew safe from me, not the cartel.” He threatened.

Chad looked away, breathing hard.

“I’m going to give you only one chance right now. Get into the car with me and tell me what I need to know to keep Mari safe, or walk away from here and forget we are brothers.”

Jax got into the car, and Chad’s throat tightened. He only hesitated for a second before going around the car to get into the passenger seat beside Jax.

Jax started the car and that was when his phone rang. His heart thudded hard once when Mari’s name lit up the screen.

He answered at once. “Baby?” he said, voice breathy, shaken. “Are you okay?” His voice cracked. “Talk to me.”

“Jax…” she whispered and for a moment Jax thought he’d faint from the overwhelming flood of relief that rushed over him.

“Oh, my god! Mari,” he whispered, his voice choked with emotion.

“They’re in the house. The girl Chad brought home last night… I think she is one of them. I’m hiding in your studio, don’t worry about me and focus on Venita.”

Jax gritted his teeth. “I’m coming home right now. Don’t hang up,” he said as he reversed the car back on the road.

Her voice was small. “I’m okay. Just a little scared. But I can fight, remember? Don’t worry. I’ll be okay. I’m even holding your bat.”

A burst of pride moved through him even in the panic. “You’re doing perfect. Just stay safe and calm for me until I get there. Remember the spot in the painting room? Where we laid the blanket?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Check behind your pictures hanging on the wall. The picture of you on the first day I saw you, remember? There’s a panel behind it. It leads to an underground compartment of the house. Go in there and stay there until I come get you,” Jax said, keeping his eyes on the road.

Immediately, Mari did as he said.

Chad’s mouth fell open. “What? What is that?” Chad asked, frowning. “A panel? What underground? Jax, what the hell are you talking about?”

Jax didn’t answer him. He only kept listening to Mari’s scared but steady breathing.

“I found the panel,” she said, breathless.

Jax exhaled shakily and closed his eyes for one second. “Good. Push the panel. It’ll open. Go inside and command Amanda to turn on the lights. Amanda is my voice assistant.”

Chad turned to Jax slowly. “Voice assistant?”

Mari sucked in a breath when she saw the beautiful space that was designed almost like the main house and there was a monitor in the living room, showing all that was going on in the main house. “Oh my God, I can see them…”

Jax ignored Chad. “Tell me what you see, baby.”

Mari stepped closer to the screen, and her voice came through the line in a mix of awe and trembling relief that she was safe from the men she could see on the screen.

“I can see about six of them. The girl with Chad, and five huge men. They’re in different parts of the house,” she whispered, her voice shaking with fear. “One is trying to get into your bedroom.”

“And outside? What are the security guys doing?”

“They’re dead. She shot them. I heard the gunshot and went to check and that was when I heard her telling someone on the phone that they could come in because she had taken care of the guys outside.” Mari gasped when the man at Jax’s bedroom door shot at the door several times and opened it. “Jax, he’s in your bedroom. I think he knows about the studio,” she shrieked when she saw him going in the direction of the hidden studio door.