23. Dax
23
DAX
“Fuck!”
I get to my feet. I can’t stand just sitting here and listening to it any longer. I need to get out there. I need to pull her out of this mess. And I need to do it now.
“Dax!” Callum yells, but I can barely hear him through the ringing in my ears. I round on him, my heart slamming against my ribs, and shake my head.
“No, don’t tell me not to do anything,” I warn him. “I need to get out there. I need to pull her out of that mess. The shit he’s saying to her, it’s?—”
“It’s not enough,” Chuck intones from the other side of the room. The three of us are at one of our hideouts in the forest, which we usually use for hunting—but right now we’re listening in to the feed coming from Charli’s microphone, and it’s fucking destroying me to hear the way that man is talking to her.
“I don’t care,” I snap back as I reach for my knife. “I’m not going to let him stand there and hit her and talk to her like she’s some kind of?—”
“Dax, sit your ass down!” Chuck barks at me. “We’re not done yet. Not until we have everything we need.”
My entire body is wracked with tension, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this. Sitting here, unable to step in, unable to help, unable to do a goddamn thing but listen to the abuse he’s pouring down on her head…it’s pushing me to that point of no return, the point where all sensible thought vanishes from my mind and I’m left with nothing but anger and desperation and the need to do something, anything to make it right.
My eyes are pinned to the door. I know we’re just a few hundred yards from where she’s being held—at least, if the tracker is anything to go by. It doesn’t seem like these fuckers thought to check for anything that might guide us to right where they’re keeping her, but then, that doesn’t mean that they’re not going to notice when the time comes.
And if they clock that we’re onto them, we’re in serious fucking trouble. I hate this feeling, being so out of control, and knowing that the best thing I can do is keep my distance. I need to get to her. I need to get her out of there. I need to?—
I sink down to a crouch, lifting my hands up to my head and trying to control my breathing. It’s stuttering out of me in gasps, and the panic is rising so fast I can’t control it. I can almost smell the blood and smoke in the air from the day my unit was attacked—like I’m back there, in the moment, though I know that’s impossible.
“Dax—”
I feel a hand on my shoulder and spring to my feet to shrug it off. I can’t fucking stand it when people touch me when I’m in this state—like blades against my skin, the tearing heat of the bullet that entered my hip.
“Don’t fucking touch me!”
Callum holds his hands up, letting me know that he didn’t mean to freak me out.
“Hey, hey, I’m sorry,” he tells me. “But you need to calm down. We need to wait until we’ve got something solid, and then we can move in. Okay?”
I grit my teeth. I don’t know how much longer I can take this. I feel like my heart is going to beat right out of my chest if I don’t get her out of there sooner rather than later. Hearing the abuse he’s piling onto her, it feels like a twisted game. How much can I take before I kill that motherfucker and make him pay for this?
But I know that’s not what we agreed on. The plan we made doesn’t end in murder. It ends with us taking him down and smearing his name—that’s what Charli wants.
And I know it’s the right call. His father would come after us with the fury of a thousand suns if we took out his son, and it would turn him and his family into martyrs. That’s the last thing we want. No, we need to make them pay, need to expose them for the fuckers they are—but that hinges on letting him think that he has Charli right where he wants her, and that there’s going to be no blowback for the way he’s treating her right now.
“I can’t listen,” I snap, heading outside. “Just tell me when we’re ready to go…”
I close the door behind me. Inside, I can hear the vague outline of the words coming through the radio attached to her microphone. I might not be able to make out exactly what’s being said, but I can hear the tone—the way he talks to her, like she’s so far below him. Even that sets my teeth on edge. I can’t wait to bring this guy down to the level he thinks she’s at. He’s already been humiliated by her leaving him at the altar, and now we’re going to smear the rest of his reputation for good.
I stare into the trees around me, trying to get lost in the motion of the branches in the wind. Absently, I rest my hand on my knife again, feeling the leather of the handle beneath my fingertips. Soon, I’ll be able to make use of this damn thing. No killing, sure, but that doesn’t mean I can’t find other ways to make that bastard pay for what he’s done to her…
I don’t know how Chuck and Callum can sit there and not want to kick his fucking head in. I don’t know how they can hold themselves back from taking him out, knowing what he’s done to her, knowing that he hasn’t changed a bit. Knowing that, even now, he’s willing to tear chunks out of Charli just to make himself feel better.
But then, I remind myself—it’s because they care about her. And they’re giving her what she wants in all of this. That man, that bastard who’s on the other end of that microphone, he took everything from her, took her control, took her power, took her ability to advocate for herself, all of it. And she wants it back. That’s why she’s agreed to work with us on all of this, because she trusts that we’re not going to do the same to her.
And I need to prove to her that I can let her take the reins, even if it kills me. Even if I wish, more than anything in the world, that I could change it.
Finally, the door behind me flies open. I spin around, and Chuck and Callum are standing there, grim expressions on their faces.
“He gave us what we need,” Chuck tells me. “He admitted to the physical abuse. That’s everything.”
“We can move in?” I demand, pulling out my knife, the blade flashing its serrated teeth in the cold air.
Callum nods. “We’re going to get her out,” he tells me. “Let’s go. I’m not going to leave her with that bastard for a second longer than she needs to be.”
And with that, the three of us take off into the woods—ready to rain down hell on James and anyone who’s got the bad judgment to be on his side.