Chapter 8 - The Room Below
Jax set the boy down on a stainless steel prep table.
"What do you mean inside the walls?" Jax demanded, breathing heavily.
"This diner was built over the old coal mines," Martha said hurriedly, pulling a trapdoor ring from under a pile of sacks.
"There are tunnels under here that run three miles out of town."
Jax stared at her with deep betrayal and confusion.
"Why do you have a trapdoor to coal mines under a diner, Martha?" Jax asked.
"Because this isn't just a diner, Jax," Martha said, pulling the heavy wooden trapdoor open.
Cold, damp air surged up from the pitch-black hole.
"It was a drop house for your father's syndicate," she confessed.
"My father?" Jax asked, his mind spinning.
"The man who built the motorcycle club," Martha said.
"And he left something in these tunnels before he was executed."
A heavy thud slammed against the metal kitchen door behind them.
Someone was using a battering ram outside.
"Get down!" Jax ordered, pushing Martha and the boy toward the dark ladder.
Before Jax could step down, he looked at the folded paper in his hand.
May you like
The wet paper was unfurling on its own.
Underneath the drawing of the snail, hidden writing began to appear in blue chemical ink.
