Chapter 4 - The Safehouse
Two hours later, Jax pulled into a secluded logging cabin deep in the Oregon wilderness. This was an off-the-grid safehouse known only to the high-ranking members of the Iron Wolves.
He gently unstrapped Lily, carrying her inside. The cabin was dusty but secure. He set her down on a worn flannel couch and immediately brought her a blanket and a bottle of water from the emergency rations.
Lily wrapped the blanket around herself, looking at him with immense, soulful eyes. "Are you Jax?"
Jax froze, a bottle of rubbing alcohol in his hand as he tended to a minor graze on his forearm. "How do you know my name, little one?"
"Mom talks about you every night," Lily said, her voice small but clear. "She told me you were the bravest man in the world. She said if the bad men ever found us, I had to find the wolf. She gave me this."
Lily reached into the pocket of her oversized yellow T-shirt and pulled out a worn, silver locket. Jax’s hand shook as he took it. He pressed the clasp. Inside was a photograph of him and Rose from a lifetime ago, laughing at a summer rally, their faces bright and unburdened by the violence that would follow.
"She kept it," Jax whispered, a rare tear slipping down his rugged, scarred cheek.
"The young man... Leo... he locked her in a basement," Lily explained, her bottom lip quivering. "We were running for three days. Mom pushed me through a small window in the bathroom and told me to run to the truck stop. She said she’d distract him. But he caught up to me at the diner."
Jax knelt before her, his massive hands gently taking hers. "Lily, I promise you, on my life, and on the honor of the patch on my back: I am going to get your mother back. No one is ever going to hurt either of you again."
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The door to the cabin suddenly burst open. Jax drew his weapon in a flash, shielding Lily, but relaxed when he saw Grizz and Hawk step through, looking bruised but alive.
"The diner's locked down by local cops, but we managed to slip away," Grizz said, wiping soot from his forehead. "Jax, we traced the registration on those SUVs. They belong to a shadow corporation called 'Vance Holdings'. Julian Vance didn't just survive eight years ago; he built an underground criminal empire before he died, and now his son is running it."
