Race the Storm

Chapter 7

Jax was trained to not panic. He kept his hands on the wheel as he forced the little Ford Focus up past 100 MPH, only glancing into the mirrors to check on who was following them. One SUV had peeled out of the parking lot to come after them, but a couple shots to the front wheels had put them out of commission.

The damage he had dealt to the SUVs and the field agents would slow them down, maybe enough for him and Willa to switch cars one more time. This was just the group they kept at the Estate, where they thought everything was on lockdown. It was surprising that only Booker had been there, but maybe she was the only PsyOps they kept at the Estate.

Exhaustion flooded through him now that adrenaline was receding, but the aching wound across his arm kept him alert. A bullet had grazed his upper arm, leaving a deep but clean gash. He was decidedly ignoring it. Malachi, his team's medic, would've have been giving him the evil eye for at least not attempting to do more to stop the bleeding. There hadn't been much time between leaving the garage and now to handle the situation.

He also hadn't had any time to check on Willa, besides taking the time to rip off the Estate-issued band he'd found on wrist. Explained how they'd found them so fast–damnit. Should've looked for that earlier.

Willa was unconscious, pressed against the passenger window with her long red hair in her face, limp and unresponsive. He had made sure she was breathing, but besides that...at least they wouldn't have shot at her. It was mildly surprising that they had taken shots at him, but he guessed that they had decided he was no longer field-worthy and would probably be more useful dissected than the way he was now. Not all that shocking, he guessed, looking back at it.

He needed to find somewhere to switch cars. Sedona or Flagstaff would be a good place to steal a vehicle, but he had gone west, not north. They were already far away from either city, and now he'd need to find somewhere smaller. Probably not another gas station. Maybe he should just go straight to Bisbee...

At least he could bet on them not having contacted the police. The government and military would be enough to deal with, but he doubted the police would chase him down as long as he didn't give them a reason to. Which meant he'd have to slow down.

Easing up on the gas, he looked over at Willa. How long would it take for the tranquilizer to wear off? They couldn't have given her anything too strong, it wouldn't be good for her or the baby.

As the car reached a speed right over the limit, he reached over and pressed a couple fingers to her neck. Her pulse was strong and steady. Most likely she was fine. She was valuable to them, after all. He had seen the dollar sign amount of how much all of this was costing in the stolen files.

His best friend and teammate Wes was the one who had found out about the Estate. Their resident nerd and literal technopath had been scanning encrypted files for an upcoming mission and discovered the hidden information about the project. Creating powered kids using DNA taken from powered PsyOps, like his own team. Since the only confirmed donor match that Wes could find in the files he had had been Jax, he had gone to him first instead of talking to the team as a whole. And Jax hadn't taken it well.

Normally levelheaded and less than impulsive, he was known for making good decisions. But this time...they had already taken Jax's freedom, his choices, and his future. And now they were messing with a child who was actually his kid, and then there was the matter of the woman who had no idea this was going on. Who thought she was doing something nice for a family who wanted to have a child.

The thought of what they'd done caused him to floor the gas for a moment, and he had to force himself to let up on the gas pedal. He'd seen one of the recordings of her video conferences with the supposed parents. When he'd recognized the parents, realized they were Estate employees--that's when he'd known for sure how much of a sham this all was.