Broken Soul (Jackson Family 3)

jaxon

I heardthe sirens too late. I heard everything too goddamn late.

Being killed wasn’t going to rip me away from my wife, but getting locked up was certainly fucking about to.

“Get the fuck out of here!” I shouted at my men. “Get word out,” I barked to the man I’d named second-in-command as my men began to disperse. Cops were crawling the area, shouting Spanish.

A knee got jabbed into my back as my arms got yanked behind me. I hit the ground with a hard thud, blood welling in my mouth when my chin bounced off a rock.

“Keep your fucking mouth shut!” the man shouted to me in heavily-accented English. I gritted my teeth, keeping silent from that moment forward. I knew anything I said could be used against me, and like hell was I allowing that to happen.

I’d spend the rest of my life behind prison bars in a foreign country before I ever did anything to rat out my family.

I was yanked to my feet and shoved into the back of a police cruiser. I kept my eyes forward, still listening to everything the officers were saying. I knew some of them thought I couldn’t understand them, and I took in their words.

And, of course, I heard one of them talking to the leader I was supposed to be eliminating.

This whole country seemed to be under that fucker’s payroll, and he was sneaky as fuck if he had been working on building this up all this time. He was smarter than anyone was giving him credit for.

He’d known we were here the entire fucking time, and he’d just been waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

I got one phone call when I got to the station, and I used it to call James. As badly as I wanted to call Inessa, I knew I needed to talk to James more. He was the only person capable of getting me out of this shit.

He was silent when he picked up, just as I knew he would remain as I spoke.

“Got arrested,” I quietly told him. I named where I was being detained. “Need an attorney if you can get me one. Tell Inessa I love her, and that I’m fucking sorry.”

I hung up the phone after that, not needing to say another word, and allowed the officer to lead me to my holding cell.

* * *

INESSA

James cleared his throat from the entrance to the library. I looked up, surprised that he had come here. I normally didn’t see him unless Emmaline was somewhere around me.

“We need to talk,” he quietly said as he stepped into the room.

I set my book down. I’d taken up reading after Jaxon had been gone a couple of weeks. I needed something to fill my time and the thoughts in my head, and reading did both.

“About?” I asked, a bad feeling settling into the pit of my stomach. Jaxon had been gone for a month now. It had been an entire month since I’d heard his voice or seen his face.

I missed him like crazy.

And I knew this discussion would have everything to do with my husband. There was no other reason James would seek me out instead of having one of his soldiers bring me to his office.

“Jaxon has been arrested,” James informed me. I sucked in a sharp breath of air, tears springing to my eyes. “He’s being hit with a dozen murder charges.” My tears ran down my cheeks, and my hands shook. I couldn’t believe this was happening. “He called me a few hours ago, but I waited to hear from the attorney before I spoke to you so I could give you facts.” I nodded, wishing I could curl up in bed. “He asked me to tell you he loves you and that’s he’s sorry.”

I sobbed, my face dropping into my hands. My shoulders shook as I gave into the ache in my chest. I’d been holding it in for the past month, trying to be strong. Because I’d had faith—so much fucking faith—that Jaxon would come back home to me.

But how did you remain strong when you knew your husband may never return home to you? How was I meant to remain strong when I knew I would never feel his arms around me again?

He’d given his freedom up for this life, for the Jackson family, just as he’d vowed to always do.

And he’d left me with this agonizing pain. He’d left me alone.

“I’m working on getting him transferred to a facility in the states where I have greater control,” James informed me, closer now. I looked up to find him crouched in front of me. “From there, I’ll work on getting him out and making the charges disappear, but the most I’ll probably be able to do is lessen his sentence.”

My tears wouldn’t stop. The ache in my chest wouldn’t disappear. I hurt so bad. Everything inside of me hurt.

I wanted to hate James for this. I wanted to hate him so much, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I wasn’t that kind of person.

“I want to see him,” I cried. “Please, James, get me to see him,” I pleaded.

James nodded and pulled me into a hug, surprising me. But God, I needed a hug so bad. He held me as I fell apart, loud cries leaving my trembling lips. “I’ll do what I can, Inessa. That, I can promise you.”