The first thing Axel did after retrieving his truck at the motel was to drive to San. Markle and rent an apartment. If he was going to get out from under Eduardo, he needed a bolt hole.

Then he went back to his first apartment to assess the situation and decide what he owned that he could do without. As he packed his clothes he thought about his plan. Should he take on Eduardo or the cops first? He decided he’d better see the police chief first.

He carried his boxes and a couple of suitcases to his car. Rog, who was stationed outside the basement door, asked if he was going on a trip. “No,” Axel said, faking nonchalance he didn’t feel, “just getting rid of some stuff.”

Rog saluted and said “Carry on.”

On his way back in, Rog stopped him.

“Remember that girl you used as a driver that time?” Rog asked.

Axel nodded.

“She was standing on the sidewalk across the street from the lobby earlier today. I was going to ask what she wanted but she disappeared.”

Axel thought Rog had probably taken so long to work up the energy to walk across the street that Julia just got tired of waiting and went away.

“Don’t bother with her,” he said. “She’s not worth your time.”

Rog saluted again and Axel went up for one last sweep through his apartment. He left the most of his belongings behind, if it could be replaced it was worth it for him to look like he was still living there.

He drove to his Van Markle apartment and unloaded the car. It was important for it to look like he dropped his “trash,” while he was here. He showered and changed, thinking it would be nice to have furniture, so he paid the apartment manager to let delivery men in. Then he drove into town and stopped at a family-run store he shopped at before. He made their sales quota for the month paying for furniture as well as delivery and set up. The next time he walked into his apartment it should look like home, right down to the plates on the table.

That done, he slid back into his car, cranked the air conditioner and drove back to his hometown. He went straight to the Police Department, walked to the reception window and gave his name. Then he asked to see the chief.

Axel got a lot of satisfaction out of how quickly everyone started moving when he said his name. He was big stuff and he was about to give them even bigger stuff.

It was a near thing. Axel could tell the chief was itching to get to him, but Axel waylaid him with the offer of a bigger fish. In fact, the biggest fish in this Podunk town.

“You’ve got to let me go in first and bring Eduardo down. If I don’t assert my dominance, those ass holes will be dogging me for the rest of my life. That’s a deal breaker.”

In the end the chief agreed. They set a date a few days away to give all the parties involved time to get ready.

Next, Axel went to see a man he had been avoiding for a very long time, asked for forgiveness and got his job back. It helped when you had family on the board of trustees.

The worst of it over, he went back to the new apartment – still no furniture, not that he was surprised – and changed back into his gang clothes. Then he drove back to the old apartment and walked in like he owned the place, his senses on high alert in case there was a snitch in the police.

He laid low for several days, until the time came for action. On the day he was calling “Operation Free Axel,” he took the elevator to the top floor. As he stepped into the vestibule, he incapacitated the two guards by snapping the fingers on their trigger hands and knocking them unconscious.

He opened the door to Eduardo’s apartment and took a minute to assess the situation. There was a goon out on the roof, his back to the glass doors and Eduardo was on the couch with a different blonde than last time. Axel wondered what Eduardo’s wife thought about the revolving blondes. Axel stepped into the living room.

“Better send her to the back,” Axel said indicating the blonde, “I’ve got news.”

Eduardo jerked his head in surprised and sent the girl away.

“What’s up?” He asked.

Axel stepped forward and grabbed Eduardo’s dominant hand, breaking his fingers. Then he twisted that arm up behind Eduardo’s back and held there with the lightest of pressures on the broken digits.

“Push the panic button,” Axel said.

“Are you crazy, the boys will kill you.” Eduardo’s voice was two registers higher than normal.

“Only if they kill you first. Push the button.” Axel applied the tiniest pressure to Eduardo’s broken fingers and Eduardo quickly reached under the table and pushed the button.

The building erupted in the noise of men in heavy boots running up the stairs. As the first man burst into the room, he stopped frozen at the sight of Axel with a gun to Eduardo’s head. As more and more men arrived they pushed into the room; the front line of men being pushed closer and closer. It would’ve been humorous if Axel hadn’t known that this was freedom or death. If he got it wrong, he wouldn’t live to walk out of this room.

When the noise in the stairwells stopped, Axel performed a mental count and calculated that everyone was here. He spoke.

“Does everyone see this?” He asked in a voice so low they had to strain to hear him. Axel indicated the gun that he held to their bosses head.

The men nodded.

“Does anyone dispute that I’m now the Lord of this house?” Again his voice was low.

There was a mass headshaking this time.

“Good. I want you to know that as is my right, I am disbanding this community. Should I see any of your faces ever again, I will shoot you on sight and without question.”

Again they nodded. At that moment, the entire Police Department plus at least two more from the surrounding areas, burst in through the stairwells, the roof, the windows and even the elevator shaft.

It was fall before Axel went looking for Julie, even though he knew she was nearby. He had completed his transformation, including having the worst of his tattoos removed. But not all of them, a man had to have some autonomy. He spotted Julie walking from class, freshman seminar he guessed and fell into step beside her.

Julie looked at him and smiled her polite smile, the one she reserved for strangers. He had to choke back laughter when she did a double take and stood stock still on the path.

“Axel?” She looked both pleased and frightened.

“Professor Kehoe to you.” He said sternly.

“What? Professor?” She looked around and sat on a nearby bench. “Are you really professor here?” She asked.

“Adjunct professor of criminal studies, law enforcement and prison culture,” he said. “For a start.”

“I didn’t know you were qualified,” she said, still somewhat dazed.

“Back before I fell in with the wrong crowd,” Axel said. “I’m not as uncultured as you might think.”

“I never thought you were uncultured,” she said. “You are a very cultured criminal.”

“Cultured ex- criminal,” he said pointedly.

“Really? Ex- criminal?”

“Yes.” And he held out his hand to her. “Why don’t you come back to my place and I’ll show you just how reformed I am.”

He pulled her to her feet and she threw her arms around him. When they broke apart, he walked her the three blocks to his apartment. There was so much heat between them, they could barely get through the door. He pushed her up against the wall and kissed her with all the gentleness of a werewolf at the full moon. She pushed him away.

“I tried to find you,” she said. “I wanted to tell you that I loved you, but I couldn’t live a life of crime.” She sounded sad and Axel couldn’t bear it.

“There will be none of that,” he said. He pulled her through the living room and into his bedroom, which was dominated by a king-sized bed. She got the better of him, twirled him around and pushed him backwards onto the bed, climbing on top of him. She sat on his stomach grinning down at him.

“None of what?” She asked.

“None of any of it,” he said. “No crime, no sadness, no lowlifes, no prison.”

“Good,” she said. “I won’t tolerate any of that. In fact, I think I must punish you for the crimes of the past.” She bent down and kissed him full on the lips.

Axel reached up to pull her flat against him, but she batted his hands way.

“You are forgetting this is your punishment,” she said. “Lay still.”

She unbuttoned his shirt, pushing it aside to run her fingertips over the hair on his chest. She felt him harden against her ass and liked the feeling of power over him. She licked his nipples until he writhed and bucked against her, his breath ragged.

“Stay,” she said, standing above him to shimmy out of her silk panties. He groaned as she danced overtop him until she took pity and leaned down to slide down his zipper. The movement brought her vagina inches from his face and she gasped as he slid his tongue between her labia. He sucked her clit and it was her turn to moan and writhe. The she slid his erection into her mouth and the tables were turned yet again.

She left off torturing him to sit up and say, “Enough of this,” and she turned and lowered the warmth of her vagina over his penis. She rocked her pelvis over him, moaning and gasping until he could take it no longer and bucked into her until they came together.

Julie slid down next to Axel; resting her head on his chest and he pulled her close.

“Why did you decide to give up your life of crime?” she asked. “It had to be more lucrative than teaching community college students.”

“I had my reasons,” he said softly.

She smacked him on the shoulder.

“Yes, and I’m asking what they are,” she said.

“Babe,” he said. “It was because I knew you wouldn’t have me unless I went straight. So I had to.”

“Too right,” she said crossly, smacking him sharply on the chest. “Don’t you forget it.”

But Axel could see her face in the reflection of the dresser mirror. Julie was smiling, she was his forever.