Chapter Two

Ellie

I had managed to find most of Axel’s tools amongst the rubble. I had piled it all in the place where his toolbox used to be on top of a tarp Jax had fetched from his car. Together, we sifted through everything, and after a couple hours, we were both grimy and smelled like smoke.

I wiped sweat from my forehead, and Jax chuckled.

“You look like Simba,” he said.

“What?”

“Never mind,” he shook his head and stooped to pull a deformed license plate from beneath what used to be a workbench. He shook ash and charred remains of something off it before tossing it over his shoulder with an irritated grunt. “Where’d Axel run off to? I thought he’d be insisting on being the only one to go through this mess.”

I put my back to Jax so he couldn’t see my face. I was a poor liar, but I wasn’t about to sell out Axel and Johnny. They had been clear that no one was to know what they were up to. “Not sure. But his name was on the title, so I imagine there are some things he has to see to.”

“Fuck,” Jax breathed, kicking his way through the junk. “What happens now? You worked here too. What are we going to do without a shop?”

I shrugged and turned back to him, sensing that the moment to lie had passed, and better yet, I’d gotten away with it. “I don’t know. Axel and Johnny will think of something. They’re reliable like that. Once the smoke clears, they’ll put their heads together and figure it out. They know how much we all need this place.” I especially needed this place, or I’d be evicted from my apartment. With no family around, I’d be forced to crash on a friend’s sofa until I could find a new place to live.

“You weren’t here when shit hit the fan, were you?”

I looked up at Jax. His eyebrows were drawn together in an expression of concern that I had seen on his face many times before. We had known each other for a long time, and we cared for one another the way a brother and sister might. He was the closest thing I had to family besides my pit bull, Cade, and I cherished him for it. “I wasn’t here. Don’t worry.”

“Good,” Jax said, the concern slipping away from the tightness in his jaw. “If you were, Ryder would have had to chain me up to stop me from going after those fuckers.”

“I don’t need you to protect me,” I said, planting my fists on my hips.

“Yeah, I know. You’re a tough chick,” Jax said with a small smile and deep chuckle. “I wouldn’t pick a fight with you. But this is different, Ellie. This is war. Those Black Hearts aren’t the kind of guys you want to get caught up with. You would get the hell out of here if they ever showed up, right?”

His question threw me off a bit. I’d been working at this shop for Axel for a while now, and I knew each and every MC member well. I respected them, and they respected me. I was probably as close as I would ever get to being one of them, which in my opinion, wasn’t quite close enough. I ached to be part of their club. I had brought it up with Axel and Johnny before, and both had shot me down before I finished asking the question. The MC was no place for a woman.

“I’m under no delusion that I could hold my own against a Black Heart,” I admitted. “I wouldn’t hang around if they showed up again, Jax. You don’t have to give it another second’s thought.”

Jax nodded more to himself than to me. “Happy to hear that.”

We continued going through the remnants of the shop for the next couple of hours until, eventually, my body ached and my eyelids grew heavy. Jax offered to drive me home, and I accepted, sliding into the passenger side of his Challenger. He drove much more carefully than I knew he would have if I wasn’t in the car. I hated that they all treated me like I was delicate. They thought I would break at the first hint of danger.

I liked going fast. I liked adventure.

Jax parked at the curb outside of my apartment and turned the engine off. He glanced over at me and smirked. “Make sure you shower before you get into bed.”

“Pardon me?”

“You’ll thank me later. You’re a mess.”

I scowled at him as I got out of the car and slammed the door behind me. He rolled down the window as I walked down the path to the front door of the apartment building. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ellie. You’re welcome by the way!”

I stopped and looked over my shoulder at him.

“For the ride!” He called, before turning the car on and peeling away in a scream of screeching tires and a toxic black plume of smoke.

I rolled my eyes and climbed the stairs to the front door. After buzzing myself in, I walked down the hall to the back of the building where my door was. I liked having a ground level unit. It made things like grocery shopping easier. I let myself in and was greeted by the chaotic sound of dog claws on the vinyl floors as Cade came barreling around the kitchen corner to greet me.

I dropped to my knees as he rushed around my legs. I cupped his dopey face in my hands and kissed his snout and then rubbed him behind the ears—his favorite.

“Aren’t you a good boy?” I cooed, kissing him on his wet nose again.

Cade’s tongue rolled out of his mouth in a happy response, and he licked the side of my face. I laughed, wiped his slobber away, and stood to make my way to the bathroom.

I saw what Jax had been talking about when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

I was a soot-covered mess. I understood what Jax had meant by the Simba comment he made back at the shop. I had smeared a straight black line across my forehead of ash. My white T-shirt was now gray, and my overalls were covered in splotches of dark, greasy, ashy stains. I groaned and wondered if they would all come out. I loved my overalls.

I had caught Axel checking me out each and every time I wore them.

I sighed and slipped out of them while Cade still trotted happily around my legs. When he finally settled down and sat in front of my bathtub, I gave him a longing look. “It must be so easy being a dog. You don’t have to worry about things like your place of work being burned to the ground by a group of criminals. Must be nice.”

I pulled my T-shirt off over my head and threw it out into the hallway. I wasn’t even going to try to save that lost cause. It was destined for the trash bin. Then, I filled the bathroom sink with hot, soapy water and plunged my overalls into it. I began furiously scrubbing.

It took almost twenty minutes, but I was able to get most of the stains out. Once I was satisfied I had done as much as I could, I threw them in with a load of laundry and then went to the patio doors to let Cade out. I shielded my mostly naked body by leaving the door half closed as Cade did his business.

When he came back inside, I hopped in the shower and scrubbed myself as vigorously as I had scrubbed my overalls.

Afterward, wearing a tank top and booty shorts and smelling like lavender and eucalyptus, I made myself a late-night snack of vanilla ice cream, chocolate drizzle, and crushed peanuts. It had been a long day, and I had earned myself a reward of some sort. I put food in Cade’s bowl as well but knew he wouldn’t touch it with the temptation of my human food so close by. He would probably eat once I had fallen asleep and he realized there would be no more tasty morsels coming his way.

I sat down on the couch, put my heels up on the coffee table, and placed the bowl of ice cream on a pillow on my lap to protect my bare legs from the cold. Cade hopped up on the sofa beside me and rested his chin on the corner of the pillow. His big blue eyes followed my spoon from the bowl to my mouth.

“This isn’t for dogs,” I said.

Cade’s ears drew back, and he stared up at me.

“I’m serious. There’s chocolate in here. I don’t know if it’s myth or fact, but this stuff isn’t good for you. I guess it’s not good for me, either. But I earned it, okay?”

Cade heaved a great sigh.

“Stop it. You’re making me feel bad.”

I gave into Cade’s longing stare after I had finished most of what was in the bowl. I left three spoonfuls in the bottom and placed the bowl on the floor. I told Cade to wait, and he did, eyes flicking from me to the bowl as he waited for my command.

He was a good boy. I had worked tirelessly to train him well. There was nothing worse than a poorly trained animal.

“Okay,” I said, and Cade leaped off the sofa to bury his snout in the bowl. The ice cream was gone in three licks, but he proceeded to lick the sides of the bowl for a steady two minutes. I knew he would have gone longer, so I took the bowl from him and filled it with soap and water. I left it in the sink to be dealt with another time and headed for my bedroom.

I turned on the lamp beside my bed and pulled the covers down. I climbed in, relishing in the feeling of the soft sheets against my bare legs. Cade hopped up on the end of the bed and curled himself into a ball at my feet.

I grabbed a book from my nightstand and began reading.

I put it back down when I realized I had read the same paragraph five times and hadn’t retained any of it. I was distracted.

Sighing and closing the book, I let it sit on my lap. Cade lifted his head from his paws and stared at me.

“I can’t stop thinking about him,” I told my companion.

Cade cocked his head to the side.

I smiled. “I know. It’s silly. He’s not interested in me in that way. But it’s so confusing. Sometimes, I catch him staring at me, and I swear he looks at me the same way I look at him. And then there are other days, like today, where he wants nothing to do with me. And he just walks away to do who knows what, and it never even occurs to him that if something were to happen to him I would …” I trailed off, unsure of what I would do if something ever happened to Axel. He wasn’t mine to worry about. He wasn’t mine at all.

If he belonged to anyone, it was Johnny.

“Forget it,” I said, tossing the book over to my nightstand and punching my pillow to fluff it. Or to get out some of my pent-up frustration. “You’re the only love I need in my life, Cade. You never let me down, do you, boy?”

Cade’s tail thumped happily on the bed as I turned off my lamp.

I patted the open space beside me, calling my furry friend to my side. He padded across the mattress to curl up beside me, and I wrapped my arms around him. He was warm and soft and familiar.

I knew sleep wouldn’t come easy. My thoughts were of Axel and Johnny and where they had gone. I knew it wasn’t good. I knew they were out seeking revenge for what had been done to the shop. I didn’t blame them. Part of me wanted to level the playing field and get even for what the Black Hearts had done to our shop.

But I was just a girl mechanic, and that was the only way any of the others would ever see me. I was someone for them to protect.

“I don’t need protecting,” I muttered against Cade’s neck as sleep began to approach.