CHAPTER 11
MAYA
Axle presses in closer behind me, not releasing my new best friend—tequila. It’s not as strong as I’d like, but that’s what happens when you spend years drinking with guys like my father and his friends.
“You have secrets you’re about to share,” he says against my ear, pressing even closer from behind me. “And you don’t have to fuck someone for protection. No one is going to touch you like that. But you could die if you’re dragging us into shit without our knowledge. Understand?”
I swallow the lump in my throat, the steady burn of alcohol losing its edge too quickly. I spin around, which causes my forehead to bump the bottom of his chin before I look up.
He doesn’t back away, so I stand my ground as well.
“You can threaten me all you want, but when I tell you who I am, you’ll know just how stupid it would be to actually kill me.”
He steps even closer, and I shudder against him again when I feel the heat of his body touching so much of mine. His hand coils around my hip, tugging me even closer until my chest is smashed against his hard body.
He stares down, while I stare up.
“Thought you didn’t like being touched,” I bite out.
His lips twitch. “Sarah really did tell you a lot, didn’t she?”
“More than you know. She included the fact that you get violent when someone touches you. But she didn’t tell me how you got your scars, or if that’s why you don’t like being touched.”
I keep my hands at my side, careful not to touch him as I let him drive this encounter. I’m not stupid enough to think my small arsenal of badassery could compete with the man before me. A man close to 6’3 or 6’4.
He’s not big and wide, but he’s solid and strong. He’s right in the middle of bulky and lanky—in the best possible way. But it also means he’s strong and fast instead of big and slow, or fast but weak.
The haunted, light blue eyes tell me he’s ready to back any threats he ever makes, and that he’d enjoy doing it.
The most lethal combination that can exist has me pressed against him.
“She doesn’t know where I got the scars. Only Drex does, and Drex doesn’t talk.”
“And the touching thing is related to them? Why are you touching me if you hate it so much?”
He smirks as he continues to stare down at me.
“I don’t hate being touched. I just hate being touched when I don’t want to be.”
He releases me and backs away so fast that I almost fall forward. I didn’t even realize I was leaning against him until he stopped being so close.
I blow out the breath that has been trapped for a few seconds and he cocks his head as Dash—who is no longer No Name—calls for us.
I look over, seeing Drex disappear into the room Dash is beside. A girl is pressed against Drex, and she gives me a timid, uncertain smile when I catch her staring.
“Go,” Axle says, gesturing with his head.
I push off from the bar, and I skate past a lot of curious eyes that have been watching me since I came down here. I continue to pretend not to notice them. Show fear, and predators attack much faster.
Lesson one in surviving in the wild.
As I slide into the room, I notice that Cold Eyes—also known as Rush—is already in there. Beside him is an older bald guy. Drex is at the end, and the girl is in his lap.
She studies me, that timid smile still on her lips, almost as though she’s worried for me. As much as I don’t want to tell them who I am, Sarah told me this was coming.
It pisses me off that she asked so much from me, but she’s done so much for me that I owe her. And since I know who she is and what she’s likely doing out there right now, I decide to give her this.
Because what she’s doing is searching for Phillip Jenkins—the man I want dead more than anyone else. That’s why Sarah took me in.
We’re fighting the same war.
The war against her father.
The door shuts as Axle walks in, and he leans against it. Jude is sitting close to Drex, his finger running over his lips as he studies me with a death glare.
I’m on the other end of the table with no one near me, so I take my time looking them over one by one.
“You need to talk,” Drex says. “Tell us who you are and why you asked for our protection six months ago.”
Never mind; I decide Sarah has asked too much. It’s too risky to tell them the truth.
“Lathan is crazy,” I say with a shrug. “He’ll come after me.”
“You have enough money to buy legit security if you’re not doing anything shady enough for the legit guys to turn you in,” Jude bites out. “Tell us the truth.”
Apparently they’ve gotten smarter over the past six months.
“Lathan is crazy, but he’s still my brother. Legit guys would turn him in to the cops, and Lathan owns a lot of them, so he’d come after me twice as hard. Legit guys aren’t prepared for criminals.”
Heh. I almost convinced myself with that story. I’m an awesome liar.
Drex flicks a gaze toward Axle, and the girl in Drex’s lap winces before looking away. Before my mind can send off warning bells, Axle has me out of the chair, and my breath leaves as he tosses me onto the table. My back is smashed flat, and he grabs my wrists, pinning my arms above my head as he glares down at me.
He steps in between my legs as my heart pounds heavily in my chest, and my eyes stay locked on his.
“The truth, Maya. No lies,” he says quietly.
I’m not such an awesome liar, after all.
He hasn’t hurt me yet, but the threat is clear. He will hurt me if he has to.
His earlier warning about me being untouchable in one way didn’t extend to life and death.
I don’t need to be forced. I’m wise enough to know when the game is over. And it’s definitely over. I’m not probing to see if he’s bluffing.
“Blackbird,” I say on a long breath.
Everyone in here grows silent for a few moments. Axle looks confused as he releases my hands and steps back. I sit up quickly, my back to the rest of the room as I perch on the edge of the table. The only person I can see is Axle, so I stare directly at him.
“My family is Blackbird.”
Axle’s jaw grinds, and he takes a seat in my vacant chair. I slide off the table in front of him, and I take the chair next to his, casting a wary glance at him, wondering if he’s just going to toss me back up there.
When he doesn’t make a move, I look around at the rest of the table, who are all studying me intently. Except the girl. She looks adorably clueless.
“What is Blackbird?” the girl finally asks.
“One of the biggest bookie legends in all of New York,” Drex answers, looking at me like I’m a lying piece of dog doo on his shoe.
“Let’s say we believe this,” Jude says bitterly as he leans up. “What’d you do to your family? Because we already know what AJ did to hers.”
“I didn’t do anything to my family. I’m still on good terms with them,” I explain.
They all exchange glances of disbelief.
“I came to Halo because Phillip Jenkins is setting up shop and bringing girls across the border for his sex trafficking ring. And I’m making his life hell by stealing his girls and sending them to safe houses until they can be taken back to their countries-slash-families.”
Deadly silence falls on the room. My eyes drift to Axle to see him relaxed in his seat, but his eyes burn through me.
I turn my attention back as Jude laughs bitterly. “Of course you are. Makes sense why AJ sent her here. She wants to drag us into her family’s drama by handing us another girl who wants Phillip dead.”
“Actually,” I say, lifting a hand, “Sarah gave me explicit orders not to drag you guys into this mess at all. As of six months ago, my brother thought I was here to locate him, convince him to come home, and try to clear his name—which isn’t the case. Phillip is unaware of the plan I have in place. Lathan now thinks I’m back in New York. Sarah aided in that. If Phillip learns of the plans I have and about my place in Halo, I have to leave and take the trouble with me. Because if harm comes to this club because of me, Sarah will become AJ and my worst enemy. Lots of bodily harm threats went along with that speech.”
My eyes stay fixed on Jude, but he looks away, his jaw tensing.
“You knew Sarah?” Drex asks, drawing my attention. “Before six months ago? Or are we to believe this all happened by chance?”
“I knew of AJ,” I say, shifting my gaze to him. “But I’d never met her. We all knew she was Phillip’s ghost of a daughter and favorite assassin. Until he betrayed her and she betrayed him in return. Before then, if you saw her and knew who she was, it was because you were her next hit.”
I lean forward, rapping my fingers on the table, knowing this breaks all the rules to tell them everything.
“Imagine my surprise when I found her in the unlikeliest of places on a night that I almost died. The devil herself became my ally. I’m her only tie to the Four Families.”
Drex studies me like he’s searching for a lie, and his arm tightens on the girl in his lap. I’m not completely sure who she is, but I assume it’s Eve. Sarah didn’t have time to tell me much on the way to the warehouse, but I’ve heard her mention Drex’s girl before.
I just don’t know if that is his only girl or not.
“Four Families,” Drex repeats, then curses.
“What?” the girl asks, confused.
“The Four Families are what used to be the Five Families,” I go on. “There are Families all throughout that run underground things. Arms dealers. Drug lords. Gambling rings. You name it. They own the major ports. Have them on payroll so they can import and export at will. The only thing they don’t allow is sex trafficking.”
“Which is what Jenkins is doing,” Axle says from beside me, his voice settling over me like a calming force.
I nod without looking at him.
“Phillip wanted to bring that into our city. My parents argued against it, because they had a daughter themselves. Most of the Families do. Believe it or not, we’re not all monsters. We’re mostly regular people with skewed morals. You want to gamble but don’t have the money to pay it back? Then that’s your own fault, and your body parts get broken or come up missing. You want to snort your way into an early grave? Someone has to make money off the blow, and it’s your choice to be a fool. But sex trafficking? Not our cup of tea.”
“You keep saying it like you’re still part of the Families,” Axle says from beside me, and my lips twitch as I turn to face him.
“I am. Hence the reason I said you could threaten me all you want, but killing me would be a terrible idea.”
No expression is on his face, but his eyes are intense as they take me in. I return my attention to everyone else.
“This is bad. We can’t get mixed up in all this when we have enough issues of our own,” Dash tells Drex, running a hand through his hair.
“Herrin being our biggest issue at the moment,” Rush adds.
“As I said, I don’t want you mixed up in it. You demanded answers; you’re getting them. None of this has anything to do with you. I just need a place to lie low and conduct this experiment. And you guys can supposedly conceal anything. I need you to make concealed compartments for girls in the vehicles of my choice. It’d save me a lot of time to take them across the Mexican border and get to the ports where we own people. Since it’s in Mexican Cartel territory, I need it to be extra savvy and discreet.”
The girl slides off Drex’s lap, moving in behind him as he leans over the table, his fingers clasping together.
“Why the cars?” he asks.
“Because you need money, and I need a better solution to hiding these girls,” I say with a smile.
“But no way we get dragged into this war?” he asks, unconvinced.
“It’s no different than you selling to drug dealers who are at war with other drug dealers.” I shrug one shoulder. “No one will know I’m here. And if Phillip catches wind of my plan, I’ll leave. It’s that simple.”
He still doesn’t look convinced as to why they should even bother.
“AJ wouldn’t risk us, yet she sends this shit right into our club,” Jude says with an eye roll. “It’s too risky. We can’t be fighting battles outside of our own.”
This time, I lean back in my chair, a cold smile on my lips. Drex is still staring at me.
“There’s a reason she wanted us to know, isn’t there?” Drex, the only perceptive one, asks. “Why do you want him dead?”
“Because two and a half years ago, when we were still the Five Families, Phillip ordered a hit against the heads of the other four Families who were meeting in secret. He was the fifth, but he couldn’t be there because of prison, and his proxy never showed up. The same night, there was a bomb. All the other heads of the Families were killed.”
An audible breath leaves almost everyone at the table, as though they’re piecing together what I’m saying.
“Phillip expected to be able to take over the ports and run his sex trafficking business without interference, but the Four Families had kids—like me—who have been groomed since birth to take over the businesses. Growing up where anything you do could end up in a death sentence as a consequence makes you a little different from your average person. I’m the sanest one of them all, if that tells you anything.”
They all exchange a look, and I smirk.
“Phillip is only alive now because he linked up with the Mexican Cartel. They protected him in prison. They now protect him here in Halo, hiding him as he uses this for a base of operations,” I go on.
They all exchange another look, and I know what they’re figuring out. Jude is about to storm out of this room if I’m reading him right.
“So she didn’t come here to hide from her father. That was yet another lie. She came to find him and kill him,” Jude says quietly.
He stands so fast that the chair flips over, and he stalks out of the room just as I predicted. I cut my gaze to Drex, since he’s running this club.
“The Four Families are all funding my plan to get rid of Phillip,” I tell him, going on like Jude didn’t just slam the door on his way to get far away from this conversation. “His guys came here even before Phillip managed to get out of prison. We have an inside person feeding us information about the container drops. If I hit enough locations and steal enough girls, the money he’s getting from the Cartels will eventually become more cost and less profit. They’ll cut him out and take away his protection if his problems cost them too much money. It’s a slow game, but if it’s effective, the heads of the Families will be patient.”
Drex looks to Axle, and they have a silent conversation. Axle leans up, his arm brushing mine. I don’t pull it away, and he doesn’t move.
“That’s why Sarah wanted us to know. That’s why she wanted you here,” Axle says gruffly.
I nod slowly, assuming he’s put it all together.
“Like I said, the new heads of the Families are all a little crazy. I’m Sarah’s one link to them; her one link to know what’s coming before it comes. Because if my slow plan fails, the psycho kids will blow Halo all to pieces to kill Phillip, and the war with the Mexican Cartel will be inevitable.”
“And it won’t matter if we get dragged into the mess,” Drex goes on, his jaw tensing. “Because we’ll just be collateral damage along the way.”
“Which is why she wants me here. You’ll be granted special concessions for aiding our endeavor—living and all that. The Families will go through me before they make any decisions, because they hope my plan succeeds. They’re crazy, but even they want to avoid a war with the Mexican Cartel.”
I can feel Axle’s gaze on me, but I don’t turn around and risk getting caught in his freaky eye lock that seems to render me stupid. Drex curses before running a hand through his hair.
“Sarah is actually helping us by sending you here,” Axle finally says.
I face him more fully, and I nod. “Yeah. Because if I say run, you’ll survive the hell that will rain down on this place. The Families haven’t been this poised on the trigger since the eighties. The last time the young ones of that generation took over.”
“What about your brother?” Axle asks. “What part does he play in all this?”
I had wondered what business they had with my brother that night. Now I know. He planned to use their special abilities the same way I’m about to. They just didn’t know it was for girls instead of drugs.
“My brother will be the one Phillip thinks is feeding the Four Families information,” I explain, my eyes locked on his pale ones.
“Why?” he asks, but then I see it the moment he figures it out without me saying it.
“Because my brother is the traitor who set the bomb for Phillip, and now he’s working for him.”
Something suspiciously close to pity crosses his eyes, but I just look away. I remember not wanting to believe my brother capable of it. Then he held a gun on me and demanded to know what the Families were saying about him. You get more answers from someone when you listen to their questions.
And all the questions he asked gave me my answers.
My brother was the traitor. Is a traitor.
I, of course, played dumb and acted like I simply wanted to bring him home, get him help to get off drugs and stuff, and wanted to clear his name from any nasty rumors that said he played a part in something so atrocious.
“My father learned early on that Lathan couldn’t ever be the head of the Family,” I go on, quieter this time as I look down at my hands. “He acts before he thinks. So I was chosen instead. And Lathan never let that go.”
I stand up, because I’m done talking, even though I’m sure they’re just getting started and waiting for me to leave so they can dissect the shit storm they’ve unwittingly stepped into.
I skate to the door before turning around.
“We were all conditioned differently to deal with what we’d one day face. It’s not sunshine and rainbows for a Family child. It’s also not terrible. My parents loved me, and I never questioned that.”
I pause a beat, noting the curious expressions on their faces.
“I grew up with all the kids of the Four Families. But we were the Five Families before Jenkins turned on us. And never did I meet the notorious AJ. He never brought her around. Never groomed her to take over. Her conditioning, if the rumors are true, was the worst kind imaginable. It’s amazing she has enough heart to give a damn about you or anyone. But I’ve seen it. She does care. The only person she’d ever trusted before this club betrayed her. My parents would have never betrayed me. I can’t imagine what that’s like. So cut her some slack, because she may be the only person in the world who cares enough about you to risk it all to save you.”
With that off my chest, I pull open the door, and skate past a bunch of really mean looking bikers. They’re a little put off by my skates, because I’m the crazy chick who has the balls to float like a butterfly up in here.
I head straight for the tequila again, spotting Jude already at the bar and downing shot after shot himself.
“I need clothes from my apartment. Shoes would be great too,” I tell him.
He glances back at the closed doors, then his hard eyes level me with a brutal stare.
“When I decide to be a fetch-it-bitch, I’ll grab them for you.”
I smile, and he mutters something about me being psycho before looking away.
“Seriously. I could use a lift, and they’ll be a while.”
He cuts his gaze toward me again, and he rolls his eyes before pushing away from the bar. He starts to say something, but a heavy hand comes down on my hip, tugging me back.
When my body reacts with little zings shooting through me, I know exactly whose hand it is.
“Don’t make this a problem,” Axle says.
I open my mouth to speak, but Jude is apparently the one he’s talking to, because he answers before I can.
“Keep her out of my face. I think this club has enough friends of AJ’s.”
“Sarah,” I quickly interject, watching as Jude’s scowl forms.
“Her name has never been Sarah. Never will be Sarah. She’s Alexius Jenkins. AJ. Not Sarah. Sarah was just a lie. She was a lie.” His words are dripping with venom as he snatches a bottle of whiskey from the bar and walks away.
Axle spins me around, his gaze leveling me like he’s about to chew my ass out.
“Stop goading him. He’s not himself right now, and he’s got a nasty habit of being unpredictable when he’s pissed,” he cautions.
“He’s being a baby,” I say with a shrug.
Axle studies me for a moment before taking a seat in a stool, releasing me completely in the process. I try not to feel disappointed that he’s not touching me anymore.
He gestures around at all the guys who are loitering in the massive, open space. Couches and TVs are set up, along with a huge dining table. It’s like a home-away-from home sort of setup.
“No one here came to be here because they had a perfect life with normal issues. You end up in this place because you have nowhere else you fit in. Nowhere else that lets you kill the demons. Nowhere else where people don’t give a shit if you beat a guy to death for pissing you off. These guys don’t play nice, and they won’t care who you are if you piss them off enough. We all have triggers, including Jude. Sarah tripped that trigger for him.”
My eyes connect with his again.
“And what about you?” I ask, cocking my head. “What’re your triggers? If I piss you off, are you going to beat me to death?”
His lips twitch, but it’s a brief reaction. I silently make it my mission to make Axle smile. I don’t think he knows how.
“If that were the case, you’d already be dead.”
I do smile, and I can tell he makes a concentrated effort not to let my smile infect him when he looks away and grabs my bottle of tequila, pouring two shots. I let it slide that he didn’t answer me on the triggers.
“You know my biggest secret, and I don’t even know your last name.”
He pauses, the shot glass almost touching his lips as he looks over the rim at me. He tosses the shot back in one quick motion, and he swallows before putting the empty glass down.
“Axle isn’t the name I was born with. The name I was given was burned with the rest of my past. It’s just Axle.”
I bite down on my lip, my eyes flicking over his face, taking in the scars and the beauty. If he didn’t have scars to flaw him, he’d be so devastatingly gorgeous that he’d make me sick. It’s the scars that make him irresistible.
“That’s all I get?” I ask, looking back into his eyes.
Music starts playing loudly, and I look over as a group of girls—possibly strippers, given the tassels—come strutting in. The guys cheer as the girls saunter over to them, already getting to the lap-dance portion of the evening.
Idly, I wonder if Axle is going to take a turn. Then realize I might cut a bitch if that happens.
Probably not a good idea for me to hang around too long. I’m too crazy to be social.
My eyes swing back to Axle, waiting expectantly for him to answer the question. He’s an unreadable book before me, all the pages blank, and the cover only hints to a story I want to dive into.
“For tonight, that’s all you get,” he says, looking away.
My lips curl in a grin as I skate a little closer, and his hand shoots up, steadying me when I wobble. I really want out of these skates, but I don’t like walking around in my socks on this dirty floor.
“But you might tell me more tomorrow?” I ask.
His gaze flicks to my lips, and for a really exciting second, I think he’s going to kiss me. But he simply shifts his gaze back to mine.
“You’re a confusing girl.”
That has me smiling all the more. “Did you just call me normal?”
One side of his mouth tugs up in a reluctant grin, and a small bit of triumph swells inside me.
“You’re staying in my room,” he says as he pours another shot, watching me as he takes it down in one quick toss.
I arch an eyebrow. “Now that you know I’m the head of a Family, you want me to stay in your room.”
Something dangerously close to amusement sparks in his eyes, but he banishes it, just like he does all the good stuff. Life like this doesn’t offer too many good things. Gotta find pleasure in the small moments.
“I don’t see how you’re running a bookie operation in New York all the way from Halo. Makes that a loophole in your story,” he says, a hint of suspicion in his tone.
This time, I’m the one who is amused. But I don’t want to make him feel stupid. Because he’s not. He just doesn’t understand the way a syndicate works, as opposed to the club he’s in where they handle everything themselves.
“I’ll never run the day-to-day bookie operation. Smitty handles that—”
“Smitty?” he asks, his eyebrows going up.
“My father’s right-hand man, and the man who has saved my life more times than I can count. He’s a really rich man because of my family, and his daughters are my goddaughters. His son is like the adopted brother I always wanted, and he’s part of the business, though it’s a little on the lower end from Smitty. Smitty runs the operation. I only handle the head-of-the-Family obligations. I don’t go around busting kneecaps all day, or keep a ledger on who owes us what. I decide things like how to find, destroy, and kill Phillip Jenkins without starting a war.”
He leans back, eyeing my attire like it somehow makes me less threatening. I only grin broader. Finally, he mutters something under his breath.
He stands, and I skate along behind him as he starts walking toward the stairs.
“Axle! You going to introduce us to your little friend or what? She’s been here all day, and ain’t no one told me her name,” some big guy calls out, his beard touching his chest as he strokes it.
I’m not fond of that leering look he has.
“Her name is Off Limits,” Axle says with a smirk, and the guy waggles his eyebrows at me.
“No ink, my man. No ink.”
“Drex is the only one vain enough to put his name on a girl’s body,” Axle says, shooting a look toward Drex, who simply flips him off as he sits down and pulls his girl into his lap.
Does she not ever get to sit in a chair when he’s around?
Axle pauses at the stairwell, and I become a little curious about how to go up the stairs in skates. He eyes them like he’s thinking the same thing.
“We’ll go to your place tomorrow for you to pack a bag.”
“What do I sleep in tonight? You okay with me sleeping naked?” I grin, and a few whistles follow that totally lewd remark that I apparently said way too loud.
Axle glances over my head at someone, then gives an eye roll to me before he bends. Without warning, I’m suddenly over his shoulder, my breath heaving out of me as my hands land on his back.
Catcalls and whistles erupt with a few cheers of encouragement. Axle carries me much too easily up the stairs as my head bobs with each step. I don’t even look down below after I see the first guy miming a thrusting motion.
Axle’s arm is clamped around the bend of my knees, keeping me secured in place as he opens his door and steps through. When he kicks the door shut, I lock it, since I’m sort of eye level with the handle.
He bends again, and I feel all the blood drain quickly, giving me a head rush when he drops me back to my feet.
“A little warning next time, Cave Man,” I grumble.
“Take off your skates, but sleep in your clothes. I can only handle so much for one night,” he tells me without turning around.
That’s not the answer I wanted.
The room is like a hotel room with concrete floors. A bathroom is in the back, and a large, messy bed with black sheets and a black comforter takes up the bulk of the bedroom.
A small dresser rests off to the side, letting me know my clothing will not have too much room. No closet.
“Do you have a house?” I ask him as I sit down on the bed to start taking my skates off. “Or an apartment?”
“Yeah,” is his one word response, before he adds, “house.”
“Think I’ll ever see it?” I ask, trying to start a conversation as I manage to wrangle off one skate.
He quirks an eyebrow as he glances over at me.
“You going back to New York once all this is finished with Jenkins?” he asks me randomly.
Frowning, I finish with the other skate and crawl up the bed, not missing the way his eyes drop to my ass. My shirt still has blood on it from the dead guy I fell on, so I tug it off, despite his earlier objection.
He’s looking at me with narrowed eyes when I drop it to the floor, and I smirk at him. “I’m not wearing someone else’s blood to bed. And I’ll eventually go back.” I try not to react to the small pang I feel in my chest. “Even though there’s no one left for me there. Hence the reason I’m here instead of anyone else.”
His gaze drops to where I’m starting to remove my bra, and he tenses as he turns around and jerks open a drawer. Without facing me again, he tosses a shirt to the bed, and I grin as I pick it up, tugging it on as I toss my bra away.
Then I slip out of the shorts I’m wearing, and peel off my ridiculously long socks. All the while, his back stays turned as he types something into his phone.
“They sent you without any protection? Sounds like they think you’re expendable,” he tells me.
“I am expendable,” I say on a breath. “As I stated, I’m not needed to run the business. My name will pass on to Smitty if it needs to, even though he’s terrified of that happening. The head of a Family is always a target, and unlike me, his identity isn’t so secretive. But unless he’s a head, he’s not a target. No one kills the right hand man for fear of the unknown head raining down hell.”
I shift under the covers, wondering if he’s ever going to face me. In all the chaos, I almost forgot that someone is supposed to text me tonight and tell me about the latest shipment of girls and if we succeeded in running interference.
My phone is on the floor. Poor thing spent all day in my bra.
I decide to stay on topic with Axle after I pick it up and see the text that tells me success was mine.
“But if I came down with an entourage, Phillip would have gotten wind of it really early on. Our plan would be shot to hell, and a war would have already started. Phillip hasn’t been physically in Halo too long, but his guys have been stationed here since after the bomb. It took us a while to infiltrate them and get eyes near the prize. Once we had someone firmly in place, I came down to be more aggressive with the plan.”
He finishes typing something into his phone, and he spins around, leaning back to study me.
“You hate Sarah too?” I ask him curiously.
He shakes his head. “She shouldn’t have lied to Jude, but I don’t have beef with her. I’m the one she calls when she wants to keep tabs on the club. But I never give her detailed information—only broad spectrum things.”
He crosses his arms over his chest as he leans against the dresser.
“Do the other guys know that?”
He shakes his head slowly. “You wanted a secret, so show me what you do with that one.”
He pushes away from the dresser, and I suck in a breath when he tugs his shirt over his head. Hard lines of muscle greet me. Several mostly-subtle scars line his chest and abs, but when he turns around to put his back to me, the scars stop being subtle and scream suffering.
Large, angry red and white scars are bubbled across his back in long swipes.
He was mercilessly whipped.
He was repeatedly cut.
He was brutally tortured.
I’m not good at guessing the dates of scars, but I can tell they’re old and were never properly treated when they were fresh wounds. His one arm of sleeved tattoos goes across his shoulder and a full shoulder plate on his back completes the sleeve.
I watch as he shoves his jeans to the floor, and bite down on my lip to keep from whimpering when I’m once again on the verge of being a woman. But then I see worse scars there.
The scars on his legs look like a lot of burn marks…as though he was caught in a fire—or set on fire once. The burn marks go up to his thigh on his left side, but on his right, they stop at his knee.
Violent scars mar the flesh there, and no hair is able to grow over the various red and pale patches of poorly healed tissue.
He glances over his shoulder to find me staring, and I look up, locking eyes on his. His lips twitch.
“Not so desperate to fuck me anymore, are you?” he drawls lazily, but the hard look in his eyes says he’s anything but amused.
“Actually, I sort of want you more.”
His expression goes blank, giving nothing away. Pale blue eyes study me intently for a moment longer before my eyes drop to his boxers and my mouth twists in a very eager grin.
He’s totally turned on, if that erection of his says anything. The tip of his cock is sticking up above his boxers just enough to have me pressing my thighs together.
When I lick my lips, he clears his throat and jerks the covers back. The bed dips when he presses a knee to it and climbs in.
Just as I scoot over to be closer to him, two hands grab my shoulders, and I’m shoved back forcefully. I blink, looking to see Axle is glaring at me.
“What?” I ask, wondering why he’s keeping his body on the bed instead of coming down on top of me while he holds my shoulders. “You need an engraved invitation or something? ‘Maya’s hungry, talented vagina cordially invites your big penis to come stay the night.’ How’s that work for you?”
I can’t be less subtle than I’ve been.
His eyebrows go up, and a ghost of a smile toys with the edges of his lips as he shakes his head. “Stay on your side of the bed.”
He releases me, and I huff in frustration when he turns his back to me and shuts off the lamp beside the bed, submerging us into darkness.
I’m sure there’s no way I can go to sleep, but that lasts for about five seconds before I close my eyes and get lost in some of the best sleep I’ve had in years.