CHAPTER 3 RETURN TO THE UNDERGROUND
1548 Words
The rain had stopped, but the sky remained bruised and heavy, as if the dawn itself hesitated to rise over a city ruled by shadows. Jaxon moved quickly through back streets and narrow alleys, Lena close behind him. Every step filled him with a mix of urgency and guilthe shouldn’t have dragged her into this, yet he couldn’t leave her undefended, not after what happened in the clinic.
Her shoes splashed in water as she hurried to keep up. “Where are we going?”
Jaxon didn’t look back. He couldn’t. If he saw the fear or trust in her eyes, it might break whatever cold resolve he needed right now.
“To someone who owes me a favor,” he said.
“Someone you trust?”
He hesitated.
“…Someone who fears me less than Viktor.”
They turned a corner into an industrial district long abandoned by the city but claimed by the underworld. Rusted warehouses leaned like tired giants. Broken windows reflected sharp silver fragments of daylight. This was where forgotten things sat to rot.
Lena kept close, hugging her jacket tightly around her.
“You lived here?” she asked softly.
“I survived here,” Jaxon corrected.
He stopped in front of a corrugated metal building with a faded sign that once read Harrington Freight. To most, it looked emptyjust another dead building in a dead street. But Jaxon knew better. He knocked three times in a specific rhythm against the side door.
Silence.
Then a shutter clicked open, revealing a pair of suspicious eyes.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” a gruff voice muttered.
“Too stubborn,” Jaxon replied flatly.
The door creaked open.
A short, wiry man with a scarred face stood there. His name was Milo, a former Syndicate weapons tech who’d broken ties shortly after Jaxon escaped. Rumor said Viktor kept a bullet ready just for him.
Milo’s gaze flicked to Lena. “You didn’t say you were bringing company.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Jaxon countered.
Milo snorted, stepping aside. “Fine. Get in quick. You’re probably being tailed.”
Lena slipped inside first. Jaxon followed and shut the door behind him, locking all three bolts automatically. Milo’s hideout was dim, cluttered with weapon parts, old monitors, maps, and papers scattered across every surface. The air smelled like metal and old coffee.
Milo leaned back against a desk and crossed his arms. “You look like hell.”
“Feels worse,” Jaxon muttered.
“And you brought your doctor,” Milo teased.
Lena flushed. “I’m not”
“She saved my life,” Jaxon said sharply.
Milo’s eyebrows rose. “Oh. She’s important.”
His tone shiftednot mocking now, but serious. “Then Viktor knows.”
Lena swallowed. “Know what?”
Jaxon’s voice dropped lower. “That you matter to me.”
Silence thickened the room.
Milo broke it with a sigh. “Damn, Jaxon. You never learn.”
“Can you help us or not?” Jaxon demanded.
“Depends. What do you need?”
Jaxon pointed to the monitors. “I need eyes on the city. I need to know how long before Viktor moves. And I need to know if he’s sending more men.”
Milo’s fingers flew across the keyboard. Screens lit up with live feeds from street cameras, hacked traffic surveillance, old Syndicate networks Milo kept half-alive.
Lena watched everything with a mix of curiosity and worry. “How did you get all this?”
“I’m good at not dying,” Milo said simply. “And even better at knowing what Viktor’s men don’t want me to know.”
One feed flickered to lifeshowing two black SUVs parked outside the Rivers Free Health Center.
Lena gasped, hand flying to her mouth. “Oh my God…”
Jaxon’s jaw clenched. He studied the angle of the men, their patterns, their weapons.
“They came for you,” he said softly.
Lena’s voice trembled. “I had patients scheduled this morning…”
“They won’t hurt anyone else,” Jaxon vowed.
Milo glanced over. “You sure? Viktor isn’t picky.”
Jaxon didn’t blink. “I saidthey won’t.”
Milo didn’t argue.
After a moment, Lena stepped closer to Jaxon. “This is because you refused to kill someone in the ring, right?”
Jaxon didn’t respond immediately. His knuckles tightened. Memories surgedthe cage, the roaring crowd, the fear in the young kid’s eyes. A boy forced into violence for Viktor’s entertainment.
“I couldn’t do it,” he said finally. “The kid didn’t belong there. No one does.”
“And Viktor punished you for having a conscience,” Lena whispered.
“He punished me for making him look weak,” Jaxon corrected.
Milo clicked through more feeds. “You walking out was the biggest insult Viktor ever got. He built you, trained you, owned you. In his mind, you were his prize fighter.”
Jaxon’s voice went cold. “I was never his.”
The monitors beeped. Milo zoomed into an image
a third SUV pulling up behind the clinic.
“That’s not just a retrieval team,” Milo muttered. “That’s Viktor’s first lieutenant.”
Jaxon stiffened.
Kellan Dray.
A brutal, vicious enforcer. A man Jaxon had once fought besideand once nearly killed.
Lena whispered, “Does this mean Viktor’s coming for us now?”
“No,” Milo said. “It means Viktor’s laying the trap.”
Jaxon exhaled slowly. “He wants me to come to him. He’s making it obvious, so I have no choice.”
Milo gave him a look, one Jaxon didn’t like. “And you’re planning to walk into it.”
Jaxon didn’t deny it.
Lena stepped forward, voice breaking. “No. Jaxon, you can’t go back there. They’ll kill you. Or worsethey’ll turn you into what you escaped from.”
Jaxon turned to her.
Her fear hit him harder than any punch.
He spoke softly. “I’m not going back to fight for them.”
“Then why go at all?”
“Because Viktor won’t stop. Not until he’s taken everything from me. And I won’t let you be part of his revenge.”
Lena took a shaky breath. “So your plan is to surrender?”
“No,” Jaxon said.
“To finish what I should have finished years ago.”
Milo raised an eyebrow. “Meaning?”
“I end Viktor.”
His tone was flat.
Dead serious.
Terrifyingly calm.
Lena shook her head. “You can’t just kill a crime lord.”
Jaxon met her eyes. “I’m not killing a crime lord. I’m stopping a monster.”
Milo whistled low. “Well, if you want to walk into his den, you’ll need gear. A lot of it. And backup.”
“I don’t need backup.”
“You do,” Lena said firmly.
Jaxon stared at her, surprised by her determination.
She stepped closer. “You said I matter to you. So you don’t get to walk into danger alone. If you go, I go.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Absolutely yes.”
Milo snorted. “She’s got more spine than half the fighters you trained with.”
Jaxon rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Lena”
She grabbed his hand, her voice trembling but strong. “Let me help you. I’m not a fighter, but I’m not helpless. You saved me twice. Let me stand with you.”
Jaxon struggled for words.
He had spent his entire life protecting, fighting, bleeding so others wouldn’t be hurt. He didn’t know how to let someone stand beside him.
Especially not someone who made him feel… human.
Milo interrupted gently, “Jax, she’s safer with you than anywhere else. Viktor’s already marked her. You leave her hereshe’s dead by morning.”
Jaxon closed his eyes.
He knew Milo was right.
When he opened them again, his voice was quiet. “You stay close. You listen to everything I say. And if things go wrong”
“We run together,” she said. “Not away from each other.”
His throat tightened.
“…together,” he echoed.
Milo clapped his hands once. “Alright then. We’ll prepare a plan. But first…”
He pulled a tarp off a metal container.
Inside were weaponsknives, batons, a few pistols, tactical gearthings Jaxon hadn’t touched since he swore he’d never fight again unless it meant something.
Milo nodded toward them. “Suit up.”
Jaxon stared at the weapons like ghosts from his past.
He reached out slowly
and closed his hand around the grip of a tactical blade.
A familiar weight.
A familiar darkness.
A familiar purpose.
Lena watched him, eyes soft but unafraid. “Does picking that up mean you’re going back to who you were?”
Jaxon turned to her.
“No,” he said softly.
“I’m becoming who I need to be… to protect you.”
She didn’t speak, but something warm flickered in her eyes. Something that tightened Jaxon’s chest in a way no fight ever had.
Milo’s voice cut through the moment. “You two can romance later. Viktor’s preparing for war now.”
Jaxon strapped the knife to his belt.
“So am I.”
- Writer
