“Got a fuckin’ text an’ know you couldn’t be so fuckin’ stupid as to try to handle this shit yourself.”

“Who texted you?” Bella had a fifty-fifty chance of being right. And she couldn’t imagine Axel had D’s cell number. It wasn’t like they were best buds.

Had to be fucking Magnum.

Bella sat in her car at the curb, staring up at the run-down house. She winced when Diesel boomed in her ear, “Don’t fuckin’ matter who texted me! Where the fuck you at?”

She pursed her lips. She could lie and say she was home, but that would be too easy for someone to check.

“I... uh...”

“Better not be in Knights territory. Tellin’ you now, gonna cause problems between the clubs that we don’t need, Bella. Bad enough you got Magnum taken into custody.”

“He was arrested?”

“No, the pig let ‘em go with a fine.”

Bella let out a breath of relief. “He didn’t have to drive me back.”

“Yeah he did. ‘Cause now you’re back out where you probably shouldn’t be. You better not be in Baldwin.”

“I’m not in Baldwin.” Which was true. Whitehall was not Baldwin. She peered out of the windshield at the Warrior’s stash house again. “D, I gotta go.” And then she hung up before he could bitch at her anymore.

Oh yes, he would be pissed that she did that. The proof was him calling her right back. She ignored her ringing phone and decided to leave it on the passenger seat as she got out of the car.

Looking around, she noticed nobody was outside on the block, no one was parked in the driveway. The street remained eerily quiet. She hurried up to the house and went around back, sticking close to the overgrown bushes that surrounded the former dwelling. But because of those bushes, she couldn’t peek in the damn windows. At the back of the house was an equally run-down porch and she carefully made her way up to the back door.

The screen was missing from the outer door and it hung crookedly off its rusty hinges. It squeaked loudly as she opened it, making her wince. So much for being stealth. She peered through the door’s filthy glass pane into what used to be a kitchen. The appliances were all missing, the linoleum floor destroyed, and the counter tops coated with a layer of dust so thick that it had to be at least a half inch deep.

Trying the knob for shits and giggles, she was surprised to find it unlocked. After opening the door, she listened carefully.

Nothing.

She practically tip-toed through the kitchen and down the hallway, peeking into doorways to see if she spotted the toys.

Nothing.

Fuck!

At the front of the house a stairway led to the second floor. Though they looked like they’d seen better days, she’d gone this far, and wasn’t turning back now. She took one tentative step, then another, putting her weight carefully on each stair-step. They moaned and creaked but held her weight as she climbed to the upper level.

Peeking into the first doorway she came to, she gasped.

The room was packed full of the stolen toys. The toys she’d collected, the toys the PD had collected, and more. She didn’t know whether to be pissed even more at the Warriors or elated she found them.

“Fuckers,” she muttered.

She checked the other two bedrooms and only found one partially filled with more of the stuff they took from the storage unit.

However, there were so many toys that there was no way she could carry everything herself and, if she could, they wouldn’t all fit into her car. She cursed.

She would need to return with more people and more vehicles or get someone with a truck.

Axel had a truck.

But she doubted that he would do a little breaking and entering even in an abandoned house. Not to mention, there was a little issue called trespassing.

Hawk had a truck, too, but then she might as well tell D what she was doing, because Hawk would not let her come back here with his truck. She’d have to think of a good excuse why she needed it.

Crash! Crash might have a vehicle at the shop that she could borrow. He might keep his mouth shut or not ask any questions why she had to borrow it.

Yeah. She was going to hit up Crash and maybe drag Diamond back with her since she now worked in the office at the body shop.

After grabbing as many toys as she could carry, she hurried down the steps and back out the kitchen door.

She rushed around the side of the house and back out front only to stop dead.

Fuck!

There was no way!

No fucking way!

She groaned loudly, no longer having a reason to rush back to her Challenger.

Parked behind her was a truck. And leaning against that silver Dodge truck with his arms crossed over his chest and shaking his head was Axel.

Though, the man was no longer in uniform.

How the fuck did he know where she was?

Again with fucking Magnum! Had to be.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he asked, or more like shouted at her.

She frowned and ignored his outburst, walking with fake calmness to the back of her vehicle. “Reach into my pocket? My keys are in there. Pop the trunk for me, will ya?”

Axel pushed away from his truck, his lips drawn thin, his eyes narrowed. “Are you asking me to assist you with B and E, as well as theft? A fucking burglary, Bella!”

“No it’s not.” With a sigh, she put the toys on the ground, since he apparently wasn’t going to help her, and grabbed her keys to unlock the trunk. She opened it and loaded the few toys she had nabbed.

“I beg to differ,” Axel growled.

“So arrest me,” she said, slamming shut the trunk lid. She swung around to face him, hands on her hips.

“Not my jurisdiction, but it would just take a call to the local PD for that to happen. That what you want?”

“No. What I want is to take back what was stolen. From me, from you, from us. Jesus fuck! From the kids who are supposed to have a nice Christmas!”

“Bella—”

She swung a hand toward his pickup. “You have your vehicle here. That’s what I need. A truck to haul it all back to Shadow Valley, Axel. There’s a room and a half full of toys up there. I need help getting them before one of those asswipes comes back. You in?”

His blue eyes widened, and he looked at her with incredulity, scrubbing a hand over his military-short hair. “No, I’m not fucking in! I can’t just go in there and steal the shit back! I’ll need to notify Whitehall PD and they’ll need to get a judge to sign a warrant to enter the premises.” He glanced up at the house in thought. “Unless they can get permission from the property owner.” He shook his head. “But who knows where that person is from the looks of it.”

“We can’t wait for that. They’ll sell this shit soon. Or they might move it. We can’t risk it.”

“Bella, it’s fucking toys! It’s all replaceable. You put yourself in harm’s way by coming here, by entering that house, by being anywhere the Warriors are or hang out.”

“I don’t think they hang out there. I think it’s just a stash house.”

He groaned as he scrubbed his palms over his face in frustration. “A stash house,” came muffled from behind his hands.

“Axel...”

He dropped his hands. “Get in your car. I’m following you home.”

“Axel—”

“Bella, get in your car now.”

She pinned her lips flat as she stared at him. He was not going to help her. And now he’d tell Whitehall PD, and they’d go in and take all the toys. And they probably wouldn’t even get an arrest out of it.

“And if I don’t?”

His jaw tightened and his blue eyes darkened as he stared at her for a long moment. Then he reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out something shiny and silver and very metallic.

Handcuffs swung from his index finger.

“You just said this isn’t your jurisdiction!” Bella exclaimed, her heart thumping wildly.

“If I cuff you it won’t be in an official capacity.”

She smirked as his words sunk in. “So you’re going to cuff me and have sex with me?”

His mouth opened and then shut closed. He stared at the toe of his boot and shook his head, dropping the cuffs by his side. She could have sworn she heard him mutter, “Fuck me.”

Then he lifted his head, looked her straight in the eye and said, “No. I’m going to cuff you, shove you into my truck and take you directly home.”

She lifted a finger. “Just to be clear, you’re going to kidnap me like you accused Magnum of doing.”

His expression became dark and stormy. “Unlike Magnum, I have your best interests at heart.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Right.” She tilted her head and studied him. “Tell you what. I’ll get into my car and head back to your apartment with you if you use those cuffs on me in an unofficial capacity.”

His body went completely solid and his lips parted with a rush of breath. His eyes quickly turned from angry and frustrated to heated. She could even see his Adam’s apple bob from where she stood. A smile crept over her face.

“What’s the catch?”

She shrugged. “Help me load the toys into your truck.”

He scowled. “No. I’m not going to break the law just to have sex with you.”

She shot him a fake pout. “Even with the cuffs? And the promise you can do whatever you want?”

“I... uh...” He shook his head as if to clear it. “No! Damn it. No.”

Suddenly, he was there. Toe to toe with her. His hands cupping her face and tilting it up. He lowered his head until his lips were just barely above hers. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her lips and she was tempted to stand on her tip-toes to close the slight gap between them. Her nipples beaded under her sweatshirt as a thrill shot through her.

She couldn’t deny the pull he had on her.

“Go home, Bella. Get in your car and go home. Leave this shit to law enforcement.”

“Axel,” she whispered, holding his gaze. He was so close but yet so far away.

“Yeah?” he asked softly.

“Take me home,” she murmured, fisting the front of his jacket in her hand. “I’ll still let you cuff me an unofficial capacity and let you have your way with me.”

After a long pause, he stepped back, nodding. “I’ll follow you.”

Her pussy clenched hard and her breathing shallowed as she broke away from him and climbed back into her car. Before she pulled away, she picked her phone off the passenger seat and glanced at it.

Three missed calls. All from Diesel.

She pulled up her texts and read the furious ones he sent that were all misspelled because he was probably so pissed that he was fat-fingering them. She ignored them and typed in...

Get Magnum 2 grab stuff out of house b4 Whitehall PD gets warrant.

She hit Send. Turning the key in the ignition, she took a last look in her rearview mirror at Axel sitting in his Dodge truck waiting for her to pull away and she smiled.