Very slowly, the redhead nodded.

“You’re done in this town.” Jax’s voice was lethal. “Pack your bags and run. Because if you don’t . . .”

Fear flashed on Ron’s face.

Jax just smiled. “You know what will happen.” He straightened his shirt. Wiped dust off his pants. “This bar is mine. Everything you have is mine.” Then Jax looked at the redhead. “You want free of him, then you say it now. You aren’t the first one he’s hurt. Maybe he fed you some bull about you being special, but he’s lying. If you stay with him, he’ll just hurt you again.”

The redhead’s knuckles were white as she clung to Ron. “He . . . loves me.”

“No,” Sarah said, her voice soft and sad. “He doesn’t.”

The woman stared back down at her lover.

Sarah inched closer to Jax. His body was so tense. Fury was stamped on his face. And the way he was staring at Ron . . .

Jax looks as if he wants to kill the other man.

Ron grabbed a nearby table and heaved himself up. “C-Cops won’t hold me . . .”

Jax nodded. “Then you run.”

Ron’s eyes darted around the room, as if already seeking an escape.

“Run fast,” Jax said. “And run far.”

Sarah heard the sound of a police siren.

The redhead started to cry.

THEY WERE BACK at the police station. Only this time, Jax was being arrested.

“This is insane!” Sarah said for what had to be the tenth time. “Jax was defending me! You can’t lock him up!”

Detective West sighed. “Ma’am, we have procedures to follow. A witness accused Fontaine here of throwing the first punch, and with his history . . . that man isn’t going anyplace but to holding right now.”

She shook her head, frantic. “But I need him!”

And at her words, Jax’s head snapped up. He’d been standing about five feet away from her, talking with two uniformed cops. His face was grim, his eyes narrowed, but when he looked at her, a heat seemed to light his blue eyes.

Sarah sucked in a breath because that heat was scorching. “A woman is missing, and Jax knows this city. He can help us to find her!”

“Time is of the essence,” Wade said from beside Sarah. “We checked the woman’s house. She wasn’t there. None of her neighbors remembered seeing her, and she didn’t show up for classes today. That guy—he has her, and he’s hurting her, right now.”

Brent glanced over at Jax.

“My lawyer is already on the way,” Jax murmured. The guy didn’t seem to have a care in the world. It was like he wasn’t even standing there, cuffed, with cops all around him. “I’ll be out within the hour. But, Detective, by all means . . .” He inclined his head toward Brent. “Do lock me up until then.”

What? He wanted to be locked up?

“That guy is one crazy bastard,” Wade muttered.

Brent hesitated, but then he reached for Jax’s elbow. “Procedures,” he muttered. “Sorry.” And then he led Jax away.

“No!” Sarah cried out.

Jax glanced back at her. “Don’t worry, Sarah. I’ll be out before you know it.”

But Molly needed him. Sarah needed him.

And . . . she didn’t usually need anyone.

Then Jax was just . . . gone.

Sarah straightened her shoulders. Something was happening to her. Her control was splintering. It was this case. Eddie, Molly—the tie to her own past. She was remembering too much about her father and not focusing enough on this criminal. This man who’d abducted Molly. She needed to get into his head.

“We should talk to Eddie,” Wade said as he rubbed the back of his neck. His golden eyes glinted. “Gabe is already trying to get the guy to agree to a sit-down with us, but so far, the kid won’t say a word. His lawyer is stonewalling things. Maybe Gabe can use his influence with the captain here in order to make him talk.”

Sarah glanced over at the captain’s office. His door was shut. Gabe was in there with him. A real closed-door meeting. But with every moment that passed, the seriousness of the situation seemed to grow.

This was no prank. No ploy for attention. A woman had been abducted, and they needed to be searching the city for her.

“Dean is at the college campus, talking with Molly’s friends and following up leads there,” Wade said. “He’s got Emma with him. That woman refused to be benched and she’s riding shotgun with him. So if there’s any intel to find there, you can count on them.”

Yes, she could. “I need my phone back,” Sarah said.

Wade’s brows shot up.

“He contacted me before. He had my number. He’ll do it again.” Because it was a game to the perp. A game he wanted to play with her. “The cops should be done with the phone by now. I want it back.” Because when he called again, she’d be ready for him. She glanced up at Wade. “I know Gabe sent that picture back to our headquarters in Atlanta. Has the tech team found anything on it?” Because they had a guy on staff who was an absolute genius with his computers. He could enhance and enlarge photos, find the smallest specks of evidence in a picture that others had completely overlooked. Leo had a true gift at enhancements.

“No word from Leo yet.”

Everything was moving too slowly. She looked back over at the door that led to holding. Jax was gone. Ron was gone, too. Ron Tate. He’d been dragged off to interrogation.

The redhead was slumped in a nearby chair, crying.

She’s the one who said Jax threw the first punch. That woman’s claim was the reason Jax had just been locked up.

Sarah strode toward her.

“Uh, Sarah . . .” Wade began. He sounded nervous, unusual for him.

Sarah slapped her hands on the desk near the woman. The redhead jumped.

“You know Molly Guthrie,” Sarah said flatly.

The woman nodded.

“Sarah,” Wade hissed out her name.

“Someone took Molly. Tied her up, and sliced her with a knife.”

Fear filled the woman’s big, blue eyes. Ella Jane. That was the woman’s name. She’d heard Ron tell Ella Jane to wait for him.

No, Ella Jane, you need to get the hell away from him.

“Uh, Sarah, I don’t think you’re supposed to be talking with her. Witness tampering and all that,” Wade said softly.

She almost rolled her eyes. Sometimes, Wade was such a cop. A rule follower. She’d learned early on that it paid to break rules. “Ella Jane here is going to tell the truth.”

Ella Jane hunched back into her chair.

“Because she knows just how powerful Jax is in this city.” It was something Sarah was learning. The whispers about him were true. “She knows that he can get searches organized right now—searches that the cops would never be able to conduct.” Searches that would lead into the city’s underworld. “And we can find Molly, before it’s too late.”

The bruises on Ella Jane’s neck were darkening even more.

But Ella Jane wasn’t speaking.

“Ron buys you something afterwards, doesn’t he?” Sarah asked as her gaze slid to the pretty rings that sparkled on Ella Jane’s fingers. “He’s so sorry, and he wants to make it up to you.” Classic.

“I . . . it was just rough sex.” Ella Jane’s voice was a monotone. Her eyes appeared dead. “I wanted it.”

“No, you didn’t.” Sarah leaned toward her. “Was Ron with you last night? Or did he slip away so he could see if Molly liked a bit of rough sex, too?”

“What?” Horror flashed on Ella Jane’s face. “No! H-He was with me. The whole time! I know because . . . he wouldn’t let me leave his sight.” She swallowed and glanced down at the rings on her fingers. “Not even for a second.”

That’s because he wants to control you. Ron, oh, yes, she understood him. Far too well. Her father would understand him, too. Her father would have taken Ron and— Sarah slammed the door shut on that thought. “Ella Jane . . .”

Ella glanced up at her.

“Ron is going to leave town the minute Jax gets out of this police station.” She’d seen the fear in his eyes when the guy looked at Jax. “He’s going to run, and he won’t look back.”