Chapter 9 - The Swamp Ghost
The gunfire shredded the Bronco’s engine block. Metal screamed, white smoke engulfed the windshield, and the steering wheel ripped violently out of Jax’s grip. The truck veered off the muddy levee, rolling twice down a steep, weed-choked embankment before slamming upside down into three feet of murky swamp water.
Darkness flashed. Jax’s head struck the pillar, blood blinding his left eye.
""Lily!"" he roared through the fog of concussion.
""I’m here! I’m upside down!"" her voice was shrill, choked with muddy water.
Jax tore off his seatbelt, kicking the crumpled driver’s door with frantic, inhuman strength until the rusted hinges tore free. He scrambled into the submerged cab, unbuckling Lily and pulling her out into the cold, swampy water. She came up coughing, sputtering black muck, but her tiny fingers were still clamped around the silver locket and her battered bear.
Jax dragged her beneath the dense canopy of weeping willows and cypress knees, sheltering them from the downwash of the circling helicopter. The bird circled twice, unable to spot them through the thick peat smoke and swamp foliage, before banking south toward the main levee.
""Can you walk, baby?"" Jax asked, wiping blood from his eyes and inspecting her small limbs. She had bruises, but nothing was broken.
""Yes,"" she whispered, her lip quivering, cold to the bone.
""Ten more minutes. Follow me.""
Wading through waist-deep murky water, Jax guided Lily toward a hidden stilt house nestled deep within the cypress grove. Sitting on the porch, a weathered 12-gauge shotgun resting across his knees, was a man with long gray braids, scars lining his neck, and a prosthetic left arm made of matte steel.
His name was Silas—the former founder of the Iron Nomads, whom the current president had betrayed and left for dead ten years ago.
Silas raised the shotgun, leveling it directly at Jax's chest. ""You've got three seconds to explain why you brought the sky down on my swamp, Jax.""
Jax stepped forward, shielding Lily with his body. ""The club sold us out to Vance, Silas. Sarah is dead. And Vance is hunting my daughter.""
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Silas lowered the barrel an inch, his piercing gray eyes dropping to the little girl shivering behind Jax’s legs. Then, his gaze locked onto the silver locket clutched in her hand. Silas’s face went dead pale.
""My God, Jax,"" Silas whispered, his voice shaking. ""You don't even know who she is, do you?""
