Shattered (LOST #3)(29)

Jax stared at the man’s bent head. Eddie Guthrie wasn’t moving at all.

Brent unlocked the cell. Jax took his time stalking inside. When he was clear of the door, Brent slammed it shut behind him. That clang seemed to echo through the cell.

And, finally, Eddie lifted his head. His eye were bleary, confused, as he stared up at Jax.

Brent’s footsteps shuffled away.

“Hello, there, Eddie,” Jax murmured. “We need to talk.”

He advanced. Eddie hunched back against the wall.

“I know you . . .” Eddie whispered. “You . . . you were the one with Sarah Jacobs last night.”

“Yes, I’m with Sarah.” He offered the boy a cold smile. “And I don’t like it when people try to hurt my Sarah.”

Eddie glanced at Jax, then at the cell’s door. Fear and panic fought on his face. In a flash, the guy had lunged off that cot and toward the bars. His fingers curled tightly around them as he screamed, “Guard!”

Jax crossed his arms over his chest as he studied the younger man. Fool. “No one is going to come back here for a while. It’s just you and me.” Until Jax was done with his little talk.

Eddie threw a fast glance over his shoulder. “Guard!” he screamed again.

Some people just didn’t listen well. Jax sighed. “There are two ways this can go down . . .”

Eddie spun around. Lunged at him.

Jax just sidestepped and the guy hit the wall.

“You can answer my questions and save yourself some energy.” And pain. Because the guy had hit the wall pretty hard. “Or you could piss me off.” He flexed his hands. Then there will be pain.

Eddie rose and his gaze darted to Jax’s hands.

“I can help you,” Jax told him. That part was true. He could help or he could hurt. “Trust me, buddy, you want my help. You don’t want me as an enemy.” The kid should consider himself lucky, especially after the way he’d gone after Sarah. Jax didn’t normally make this offer to many people.

His gaze swept over the younger man. Eddie’s body was quivering. His eyes were bloodshot, and he kept licking his lips. Drugs. Jax shook his head. “Your sister is missing and you are so strung out that you don’t even realize what the hell is happening here!”

Eddie shook his head. “Not missing! That’s a lie!”

“I’ve told plenty of lies.” Jax kept his body relaxed and ready to attack. “And I’ll tell plenty more. But this is the truth. Someone took Molly. She’s tied up, and he’s keeping her hidden someplace. The man’s got a knife. He’s already sliced into her once.”

All of the color bled from Eddie’s face, but he stubbornly cried out. “Lie! You’re lying!” He sidled around the cell. “That asshole Detective West is lying! Molly is fine! You’re all trying to trick me!”

“Molly was taken after her shift at Voodoo Night.”

Eddie gaze dropped. “I walk her home,” he whispered. He started to rock a bit, back and forth.

“You usually walk her home, don’t you?”

Eddie flinched.

“But last night, you didn’t. Last night, you attacked Sarah.” That won’t be forgotten or forgiven any time soon. But he’d plan for the man’s punishment, later. Right then, Jax needed information.

Eddie’s hands spread behind him, clutching the bars there. “She deserves to die! She’s as sick as he is! Evil! She—”

“I think you’d better stop talking about Sarah.” He closed in on the guy. He didn’t reach out to him, not yet. He didn’t touch the guy at all. “Before you say something that pushes me too far.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m someone you want on your side right now. I’m someone you want helping you find your sister.”

Eddie lifted his shaking hands to cover his face. “Can’t . . . think straight . . .” He slammed the palms of his hands into his eyes, again and again.

Jax tilted his head to the side as he studied the guy. “How long you been using?”

Eddie stiffened. “Just . . . a few times last night. Only then! To help . . .”

“To help you get up the courage to kill a woman?”

Eddie lurched toward the toilet. He vomited. Once. Twice.

Jax shook his head. “Can’t live with what you’ve done?”

“My mother . . . needed justice . . . I—I had to do it! He—he said!” Eddie slumped on the floor and swiped his hand over his mouth. “He said . . .” Eddie whispered again.

“Who said?”

Eddie’s body shuddered.

The guy looked like he was pushing fast through withdrawal or . . . Jax’s gaze swept over Eddie in speculation. What if last night had been the first time the fellow drugged up? “You’re coming off a bad trip.”

Eddie gave a hard nod. “Want it . . . to stop . . .” He was still shuddering.

“Tell me who sent you after Sarah, and I’ll make it stop.”

Eddie’s eyes doubled in size. “Pr-Promise?”

“Yes.”

But then Eddie hesitated. “Sarah . . . evil . . .”

Jax’s jaw locked. That guy was going to push him too far soon. “The man who sent you after Sarah . . . he could be the man who has your sister. Don’t you want to save Molly?”