The Death of a King

Chapter 15

Afternoon - 2:16 - Luke King
My thoughts are focused on one thing and one thing only. Getting to John. They can go after me. They can try to kill me. They can do whatever to me. But do not go after those I love. That I won't sit and watch. I'll come for you all. You haven't seen what I can do Mark. I'll face any storm and any pain to stop you. I won't go down without a fight. I promise that.
"LUKE! Can you hear me? We have to go now."
"We're going after them. Now."
"How Luke? How? There's no lead. We don't know where they went. Can we please go inside the car."
I nod, I can see that she's shivering. Even I'm starting to get cold. We walk back to the car, making sure I grab the note. Closing the doors we sit while the snow continues to hit the windows.
"Okay, now let's try to think straight Luke. How are we going to do this. Does the note say anything else."
"No it doesn't have anything else-" I flip the note over and there's an address. "Wait..yes there's a place...an address."
"Good that's a start. Do you know the place?"
"No, it might be some random warehouse."
"Are we going now?"
"We are."
"Well I guess I won't be able to change your mind. Let's go."
The tires screech against the ice. We make our way towards the city, where the storm is worse than ever. It might have looked like it was dying down from home but the city still had a raging blizzard.
"Jax can you please put the address into the GPS."
I hand her the note and she taps the on screen board. The GPS pops the destination.
"It's all day across the city. It'll take hours to go through This storm to get there Luke."
"I don't care, I'm getting him back. You don't understand how much this means to me."
"I do Luke, he's your friend. You care about him. But this? Maybe it's too far."
"No you don't get it. John wasn't just a friend, he helped me with depression. He was there when I was at my lowest. My only real friend. Its my job to return the favor."
"I didn't know..I'm sorry"
The next few minutes are silent, I can feel the tension between us. She's in a minefield and she's trying not to step in any mines. I don't blame her. I'm not someone that does the whole small talk. My entire life has been business or depression. Even when I was around John or anyone else. I was always the standoffish person in the so called friend group. John didn't seem to mind, he knew my story. He still tried to include me in activities.
"Listen...Jax...I know I'm good at this talking thing. I wasn't taught how to socialize. I was taught how to run a business and be in power. Making friends was difficult."
"You don't have to apologize, I can't even imagine what you've been through. I only know from what I've researched."
"Wait. You've researched me?" she tries to hide her face but I can tell that she's blushing.
"Uh...Yeah. I had a research paper in my class about major events in Chicago, and well you were my topic."
"So was it research or were you some stalker kind of deal?"
"No no, nothing like that. I just researched your major deals and your company works with Chicago's energy and software companies. How you bought out most of the competition and gave all their workers a better pay and social security. You helped a lot of families with that deal."
"That's because my father didn't care about the people, he cared about money. I didn't mind taking a cut in all the richest. Helping out the city I love was more than enough for me. Much good that does me, I can't help myself."
"Hey, you did the best thing this city has ever seen in a long time. You can't do everything alone. You need people to have your back. If it makes you feel better, I got a 97 on my paper."
"Only a 97? I blame you're writing on that one."
"Ooooh okay, that's real funny."
We hit the highway and It's a straight away through the city for a little while. I assume it's save to drive a little faster so we can make some time up. I don't need another wreck on my hands or I'll never hear the end of it from Ashter. We're about thirty minutes to the place and all I can think about is what's waiting for us. Will Mark be there? Does he need what he wants so badly he'll stop at nothing to get it? Can I stop him? So many things can happen and I'm not sure what to do. If I was alone I could go through this no problem because my life doesn't mean much, but I have Jax with me and I can't have her getting hurt. Maybe it's the fact that she's easy to talk to, or she's kind. But I didn't want her to get caught up in this but she's a fighter. She's shown she can handle herself and that gives me some relief. 5:08 We're almost there.
"Luke, you know they're expecting us right?"
"Yup."
"It's most likely a trap."
"Yup."
"We could possibly die."
"Yup."
"Just making sure you knew, what's the plan?"
Truth is, I didn't know. I was blind in this whole ordeal. We both were. But I can only drive right now and focus on getting there with out crashing. There's not much we can do. We don't have much in the form of protection, that being the gun in the bag. Besides that we have no way of doing anything to get John from them.
"Luke did you hear me?"
"Uh...yeah​ I have a plan."
"Good, can you tell me?"
"Yeah​ sure. Can you get that bag for me in the back?"
She reaches back and grabs the bag and starts to look in it.
"Wait no don't do that-"
"What the hell is this?" she finds the gun. "Why did you bring a gun to your simple rescue mission for John."
"It was just incase, but now I'm really glad I brought with me."
"True but still, you told me there was only food, clothes, pain pills and a heating pad in here. You lied to me."
"I didn't lie, I simply avoided some of the truth. We're going to need that more than ever right now so put it back in there and don't touch it. I'd rather not get shot again."
"Okay okay.."
She places everything back into the bag and keeps it in her lap. We're five minutes away from our certain death but at least the drive is almost done. It's been hours and my legs are starting to go numb. The heating in this car still isn't enough to fully protect us from the cold. Jax keeps hogging up the heaters and rubbing her hands over and over. I can't exactly do that so my fingers are a slight shade of blue. Nonetheless, I fight through. We come up to some docks and warehouses. I see four SUV's and a hummer. That must be Marks vehicle. I see one light on through the doors of the place, but can't see anyone.
"Okay we're here. Now what? Do you have some magical way to get inside undetected?
"Nope. I was thinking about just going in and saying 'Hey I'm here please kill me' because that sounds fun."
"Oh shut up Luke. I don't need you dying on me again." She actually looks scared for me. Luckily, I actually had an idea. It's bold and stupid, but it's all I had.
"Okay here's the plan..."