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Twenty-One Days

CHAPTER 1

DAY 1: Shopping Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

Jax needed a cigarette bad. He'd been trying to quit and he'd made it eight days without a smoke, but today his willpower was wavering. He was feeling twitchy, but it had been a tough day in the MC.

He decided he would buy a pack and only have one cigarette or maybe two, but three tops every day until the pack was gone. This was the last pack he was ever going to buy. This time was the last time unlike the last last time.

He was a few miles outside Charming in a scruffy area of the county that was a testament to California's failing government and high taxes. Small businesses opened and closed regularly. In the last few years, no one had even tried to start a business. Building after building stood empty and dilapidated.

There was a small market on the corner that sold cigarettes, liquor and a few basic groceries. It was the only business in a mile. He parked his bike behind a towering oleander bush and headed inside.

He was looking in the refrigerated section for a drink when he heard several people enter the store and then the unmistakable sound of automatic weapons fire. He dove behind a shelf of canned vegetables, reached into his cut and took out his gun flipping the safety off.

There was a shotgun blast followed by a burst of automatic weapons fire and the sound of two bodies hitting the ground.

Jax scanned the market looking for the gunmen and a way out. He saw one of the shooters dressed in black. He took the shot hitting the man in the head and dropping him to the ground.

To the left he heard a scuffle and a muffled scream. This wasn't good. There could be a hostage. No sound of a body hitting the floor, so that was good.

He tried to recall the sounds of the people coming into the market to figure out how many gunmen there were left alive. He'd killed one and two bodies hit the floor, one gunman and the clerk with the shotgun he guessed. There was at least one more gunman.

"Come out or I'll kill her," a man's voice called.

Jax moved silently around another aisle packed with toilet paper and paper towels. He'd found the man that was speaking. The man was standing at the front of the store behind the store's cigarettes. The woman turned and he caught a glimpse of her face. Tara. The man's Glock was pressed against her head right above the ear.

"Come out and lay your gun down and I'll let her live. I'm going to count to five. One. Two. . ."

Jax squeezed off a single round. Tara screamed.