CHAPTER 9
MAYA
Obviously I stick to Axle’s side, even as he casts warning glares over at me. I mean, no; he’s not the sweetest looking of the bunch. He’s the meanest in appearance.
The scars alone are a foreboding tale of a hardened fighter and survivor.
But since he pushed the gun away from the back of my head, it appears he wants me to die the least out of this bunch. And then there’s that whole sexy thing he has going for him. Obviously that is clouding my judgment a little.
As they listen to the recorded proof of the plan to ambush them—which I’ve never heard before this moment—I take the time to study Axle. I also put all the damn phones in a bag that Cold Eyes thrusts in front of me.
But my attention mostly stays on the man I’ve been curious about since the day I set eyes on him.
He has dark hair that was made to be permanently windblown—and hot. And he’s tall. Really tall. Even in my skates that give me a lot of extra height, my forehead barely comes to his chin. His stubble is intentional and lines his jaw, only interrupted by the scars that deny the hair the right to grow, and possibly why he doesn’t grow a full beard.
One scar cuts across his lips in a diagonal, and another jagged one stands out too. It’s clear that none of these had proper stitches, because they would have healed so much better and less obvious if they had.
I want to reach up and trace the marks across his lips, curious how they feel. But he’s like a wolf. They look pretty, but they’ll bite your hand off even if you think they’re tame. And Sarah informed me Axle is a total bear when he gets touched.
As the recording ends, the cold-eyed one looks over at me. Well, not me. He’s tall too, so his level gaze is over my head as he looks to Axle or Drex. Jude’s jaw tics like he’s furious about something.
“If we’d known what we were walking into, we could have survived,” Jude says angrily.
“But we wouldn’t have known, because our sources helped Herrin set us up,” the cold-eyed one growls. “Which means they would have at least killed one or two of us by catching us unaware if they hadn’t already been dead.”
Drex eyes me for a second, and I shift a little closer to Axle, careful not to brush up against him since Sarah gave me the “no touchy touchy” advice.
Which is totally a shame.
“She can’t just kill a bunch of guys in our territory, even if she is saying she killed them for us,” Jude snaps. “She has a war at her back. How do we know she’s not dragging us into it with shit like this?”
He gestures around to the carnage called bodies.
Man, for a model, he sure does sound scary when he’s pissed. And he looks half crazed right now too. All because Sarah lied? Little over the top if you ask me.
Then again, I’m wearing rainbow shoestrings in my skates around a bunch of seasoned killers. So what do I know?
“Sarah saved our lives,” Drex repeats, his eyes still on me. “We owe her. So let’s hear the girl out.”
With Drex studying me like a science experiment, it’s making me uneasy. In fact, I notice everyone’s gaze has shifted to me.
That’s not intimidating at all.
It’s like I was asked a question, but I don’t remember hearing it.
The first thing to come to my mind is what shoots out of my mouth. “Sarah’s like a cat,” I tell them.
“A cat?” the cold-eyed one asks, his tone devoid of any emotion to tell me if he’s amused or confused. Or just wants me dead.
Tough crowd.
“A cat,” I repeat. “She disappears for days at a time, but always comes back. She doesn’t react well when backed into a corner. As pointed out to me by Model Boy six months ago, she really does have sharp claws—metaphorically speaking. And she gifts you dead rodents as a show of affection.”
Just to be clear, I point to a few corpses.
To make things worse, I add, “And she’s always clean.”
No one says anything as I awkwardly stand still in my skates—total badass achievement. “Cat,” I repeat quietly for no reason at all as I pick at an imaginary piece of lint on the hem of my shirt.
Shutting up now. I promise.
“Model Boy? Six months ago?” Drex asks, causing my eyes to move back to him.
I toss a thumb in Jude’s direction. “Model Boy.”
Jude glares at me like he might just slice my throat. That has me shuffling even closer to Axle; so close I can feel the static forming between us.
Drex’s gaze flicks to Axle, who has his arms crossed over his chest, then down to me.
“She’s the girl Jude and I brought in six months ago after finding out a potential client was a junkie.” Axle’s sex-rumble of a voice has my body doing really inappropriate things at the worst of times.
“That’s her?” Jude asks, eyebrows creasing. Then his eyes go flat. “AJ took her home that night. She said the girl was quiet all the way home. Just one more lie.”
“She prefers Sarah, unless she’s in kill mode,” I point out, earning a few silencing glares. Right. Shutting up again.
“So she took her in like a stray?” Cold Eyes asks.
I almost speak, but then remember they don’t like it when I speak, and clap my lips shut again. I’m totally not telling them who I am.
“So she’s coming with us?” The other guy asks. The guy who found me in the back before Jude stuck a gun to my head. I almost forgot about him, since he’s been quiet until now.
Drex rubs the stubble on his own chin before asking, “What job was AJ—”
“Sarah,” I interrupt on autopilot, then cringe when his eyes narrow.
Don’t make the big, bad biker mad, Maya. Not smart.
“What job was she talking about?” he goes on.
“Think we could discuss that somewhere else?” I gesture to the bodies nearest to us. “I’m not the brains of this operation, but I’d say it’s only a matter of time before these guys are supposed to check in and report how many of you they managed to kill. When that doesn’t happen, more people with big guns will come in and start shooting holes in us. And our awesome assassin just walked out.”
Drex shoots a look to No Name when No Name chuckles and tries to smother the sound. He shrugs. “She has a point.”
The guy on the ground near my feet groans, scaring the shit out of me because…zombies. Zombies are totally real and the government hides it, you know.
I almost lose my feet out from under me, but two strong hands clamp down on my arms, steadying me. It’s like a live wire shoots through body from the simple contact, and I try to fight the weird reaction.
Axle releases me when he’s sure I’m not about to tackle the floor with my face, and he steps away, his hands fisting and opening a few times as his jaw grinds. Apparently touching people also pisses him off. But his touch is still lingering even though his hands are far away from me now.
Drex rolls his eyes and looks over to No Name. Would it be the end of the world if they made introductions?
“Grab the live one and toss him in the back of the SUV,” he tells Cold Eyes, and No Name goes over to help him.
“Can I ask your names? Pretty sure No Name and Cold Eyes won’t work for too long,” I say to the guys as they scoop up the guy on the ground.
I’ll be watching to see if anyone has zombie bites later. That’s one bug I won’t catch.
No Name smirks at me. “Who’s Cold Eyes?”
I point to the other guy, and Cold Eyes glares at me, only proving my point, while No Name laughs quietly to himself.
“Get on the back of a bike before I change my mind about taking you with us,” Drex says, not helping me out with the name thing. He starts to walk away before turning back and adding, “But not my bike.”
He glances around at the warehouse for a brief moment.
“Light it up,” he says pointedly at Jude.
“I’m good with the SUV,” I say as I skate behind Axle, who is putting his finger on his gun’s trigger like he’s ready for someone to jump out at him.
Don’t spook the big, bad, sexy biker.
“Bike,” Drex says again, his tone growing annoyed.
Alrighty then. Obviously I don’t tell them I’m not a fan of motorcycles, because…well, motorcycle club and all that. I’d hate to offend the trigger-happy boys.
I continue following Axle across the eerily quiet parking lot. As soon as he starts to get on his bike, I start untying my skates, knowing climbing on will be too hard any other way.
Obviously I hurry, since they may very well leave me here to get blown apart by whoever will be coming.
Cold Eyes is coming out of the warehouse, heading our way, when I finally get the skates off and Axle’s bike roars to life. I look at him, my skates in my hand, and he mutters something that doesn’t look favorable to me before gesturing for me to get on.
He snatches my skates out of my hand, and I climb on, careful to not touch him. But how do I…
“Can I put my arms around you so I don’t fall off?” I ask him.
He cuts his gaze over his shoulder at me but turns back around without saying anything. As he starts rolling away, my arms snap around his waist, my reflexes making the decision easier.
His muscles jump and bunch under my hands with the contact, and I spread my legs wider, pressing my front firmly against his back and screw my eyes shut when he suddenly takes off.
My hands tighten on the hard waist I’m clinging to, but I finally peer over his shoulder, seeing we’re going a different way than what Sarah and I did. I assume that’s to avoid any possible problems that could involve running into the second team of guys who might want them dead.
It takes longer to get to Halo, but I slowly start to relax, my hands getting lazy in their grip on Axle as they drift a little lower. I’m tempted to run my hands all over his body while he’s busy driving. But obviously I don’t want to die.
Sarah told me a lot about him and this new job I’m giving them on my way over here. She filled me in on her plan that involved keeping me safe and getting their financial situation under control.
All for the guy who doesn’t appreciate it—Jude.
Her one warning was that if I fucked her guy, she’d slit my throat. Not that I needed that warning. I’m not interested, and even if I was, I’m not an idiot.
Then she told me all about Axle. Well, all I needed to know, anyway.
Axle’s body stays tense. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m touching him or if he’s on high alert, but he’s rigid all the way back to the massive building they call home. They all pull into a large garage or hangar—not sure of the technical term here.
The space is massive and has tons of bikes already in it. The second Axle is parked, he reaches for my hands and quickly tugs them loose, dropping them fast as he stands and dumps my skates to the ground. He doesn’t bother turning around as he walks toward Drex.
“We’ll find you a room in a few. All are occupied at the moment, so we need to shuffle some things around,” Drex tells me, but I’m busy chasing Axle through the doorway after picking up my skates.
Unlike the last time I was here, there’s not a wild party going on with people screwing in the corners. Numerous guys with beards or scruff are staring at me like I’m some beast that has four heads as I hurry through the space in my socked feet with my skates in my hand.
“Who’s the derby chick?” someone asks, but I don’t hear the answer, because now I’m following Axle up a set of stairs.
I look back in time to see Drex taking a seat with the guys, his face serious as he says something, but I return my attention back to Axle as he steps into a room. I charge in with him, and he steps back, eyebrows up, as I shut the door behind me.
“I want to stay in here with you. Not in a room alone,” I say in a rush, my heart pounding heavily.
The last time I was here, I was naïve to their barbaric ways with women. Now I’m not.
His expression goes from confused to annoyed within seconds. “Out. And no. Fuck no, you can’t stay in here.”
“I am staying in here, and you’re really going to like me. I can do some totally awesome things with my hips when I’m on top, and—”
Something loud sounds from below, like a gunshot, and I try not to react. I’m so far out of my depth. It’d be easier in my town, on my turf, but…not so much when you’re not family with the bad guys.
Damn it, Sarah. What have you gotten me into?
Axle’s eyes narrow on me.
“I’m not fucking you. Are you seriously whoring yourself out for a room?” he asks incredulously.
Feeling a little brave, I step toward him, my neck craning back so I can look up into his eyes. His expression almost turns angry, but I figure that’s just his default look.
“I’m not whoring myself out for a room. You’re the only one here I’d touch, and I want to be in here with you. And it could be fun—”
A squeal leaves my lips when he shoves me against the wall suddenly and slams his fists on either side of my head as he leans down to get into my face, caging me in. I hold my breath, my body tingling in silent warning to remain still as those hard eyes lock on mine.
“You think this is a fucking game?” he asks in a quiet but lethal tone. “Privileged girls get bored and want to be bad for a little while, but this isn’t the route for that road.”
I don’t speak, because I sure as hell don’t plan to tell him who I am now.
“You think you can fuck the guy with scars because he’s the easiest, most desperate one? You think that’s your in? Roll up in your ridiculous outfit and roller skates like it’s all a fun time? This isn’t a fucking game. And you’re taunting the wrong guy,” he growls. “You’re fucking with the wrong club.”
That thin line that has been holding me back suddenly frays and snaps with those words. My hands fall to my sides as my eyes narrow on him.
“I know it’s not a game, asshole,” I bite out.
His gaze doesn’t shift, and his body doesn’t stop caging mine in.
“Just because I don’t have scars all over my body doesn’t mean I haven’t survived hell too. And for the record, I wasn’t singling you out as the weak link because of your scars. I thought those scars meant you were a survivor—the strongest link. Honestly, I’m into you. Or at least I was.”
He pushes back and crosses his arms over his chest, still studying me. I straighten my shoulders, my shallow breaths growing a little stronger.
“I know this isn’t a game, and I’m so sorry that I don’t skulk around and brood like all of you. Even though I’m only twenty-four, I’d bet anything I’ve lived this life much longer than any of you, with the exception of maybe Drex. Sarah told me you’d never let anyone touch me if I didn’t want to be touched. And since you’re the only one I wanted to touch, it made perfect sense to be with you and have some fun in the meantime. But fuck you and your dick ways.”