Chapter Twenty-Five

Axel

I slept peacefully that night knowing that Savannah was back with me. When I woke up that morning, I chuckled when the bed was empty. It wasn’t often that Savannah was awake before me. I wondered if she was making a cup of coffee to have in bed with me. I lay there for a while, waiting, but didn’t hear anything. I climbed out of bed and made my way outside. I saw that Bobby’s door was open, and when I peered in, I saw that he wasn’t in bed either. I went to the kitchen, expecting to see both of them there, but my blood ran cold when the only thing I saw was a letter waiting for me. I knew right away that the letter wasn’t going to be Savannah telling me she’d gone out for milk and bread. This letter was going to be something I wished I had never read. I sat down and opened it up with trembling hands.

My immediate thought was to go straight to the XMC clubhouse and get her out of there. She didn’t say where she was going, but it was obvious to me that she’d gone back. She’d done it because she was scared of Duke, and if I went there now, I knew I’d find her there. I stood up to leave and then sat back down again. I couldn’t just barge in there. If anything, all I was going to do was make things worse. Instead, I made my way to Pop’s house. I had to talk to someone. I stuffed the letter into the pocket of my jeans and drove to his house.

Pop was naturally surprised to find me there so early. He frowned when he saw the look on my face.

“What’s wrong? Where’s Bobby?” he asked.

I pulled the letter out and handed it to him, and the two of us went to sit in the living room. I watched while he read the letter. When he was done, he handed it back to me and shook his head.

“I’m so sorry, Axel,” he said.

“Yeah, me too. I can’t believe she did this to me. I can’t believe she did this to herself and to Bobby either. She crept out while I was sleeping. Can you believe it? She didn’t even have the nerve to tell me this all to my face. She wrote it all down for me to discover when I woke up. I didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye to either of them.”

“Would you have let them go if she did tell you to your face?” he asked.

“Hell no. I would never have let them go.”

“Well, that’s why she did it this way.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“No,” he said. “It doesn’t. But Duke obviously has a big hold on her. She’s probably seen what sort of lengths he will go to when he wants something bad enough. He burned down your shop, Axel. You know how badly he wants her back and what he’ll do to get her. You can’t blame her for leaving. She’s doing what she thinks is best for you all. You and Bobby. She probably did this to protect you.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said. “I understand why she did it. Of course, I do. I wish she wouldn’t though. I mean, it’s not going to solve anything. It’s just going to tell Duke that he has control. That’s exactly what we shouldn’t be doing. It’s about time that someone stands up to the guy. What is this showing Bobby? It’s not good that we’re showing him the bullies can win.”

“I agree with you, Axel. I just don’t know what you can do about it right now.”

“I’m going to go in and get her. If he thinks he can burn down my shop and take away the two people that have suddenly become the most important people in my life, then he’s got a thing coming for him. You’ll see, I am going to get her out of there.”

“Axel, hang on. Don’t do this.”

“Really? You want me to just sit back and let this happen? So you’re okay with me just losing Savannah and Bobby? I thought you loved them.”

“Of course I do. I want nothing more than for you to get them back. But if there’s one thing that you have that Duke doesn’t, it’s brains. Everything he does is on impulse. If you want to get her back, then you have to be smart about it. I don’t know what you can do just yet, but don’t just go crashing into the house to get her out. You know as well as I do that you’re only setting yourself up for more trouble. Don’t make things worse for yourself—or for them.”

I sighed. Pop was right. I hated to admit it, but he was. If I went in there now, I was only going to make Duke angry. I had to be smart about this. I nodded.

“Okay. You’re right. But I just wish I knew what to do.”

“Give it a bit of time. Remember, Duke is probably expecting you to go right there and get her. Don’t do that. Give them time. She lived there for six years. She knows what she’s doing. Let everything settle down and then make your move.”

I thanked Pop and made my way out. I wanted to stay with him for the day just to have a familiar face around me, but I had to talk to the insurance people about the fire. I had an appointment that morning, and I was very curious about what they had to say. Thankfully, I had a very good insurance, and they assured me that I was covered.

“Really?” I said. I had no idea. I’d just gone for the insurance that was suggested to me, and I was yet to really use it. Back then, I had no idea what I was doing so when I’d asked around, I had taken the first thing that came my way without really knowing what I had gone for. I’d almost canceled it about a year ago, and I was thankful now that I hadn’t.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get your money back, and you can rebuild your shop to the way it was before all of this happened.”

That was at least one good thing. Duke might have tried to ruin my career for me, but he hadn’t won. I was going build an even better shop than before, and I was going to make sure that he couldn’t come near it. Savannah was still there, so it wasn’t much of a victory, but it was still something. You won’t win this one, Duke.

Afterwards, I went to see Spike to let him know what was going on. If I didn’t keep myself busy, then I knew I would end up going to the house to find Savannah. I needed someone to tell me that what I was doing was the right thing. He let me in and grabbed me a beer even though it was way too early to be drinking. When I mentioned it, he just shrugged.

“I figured you could use one, and to be honest, so could I. Tell me you have good news at least,” he said. He was obviously very worried about his job. I felt bad that he had to go through all of this.

He threw me a beer and the two of us took a seat on his little balcony. We’d sat there many times before and they’d been such carefree times. I had no idea then that my life would change so drastically. If only we had known how easy our lives had been then. But it was one of those things that you only realized in hindsight.

“I have good news, and I have bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

“Good, please. I could definitely use some good news.”

“The good news is that the insurance is going to pay out, and I’ll be able to rebuild the shop. I’m going to make it even better than before, and don’t worry, I’ll pay you for the time that you have off now. It’s not your fault that this happened. In fact, if it wasn’t for you, it might have been a whole lot worse. I had always wanted to extend the shop so I’ll use this as an opportunity to do so. Hopefully, we can get started on it soon.”

“Okay, that is good news. Because I tell you what, Axel, some of the clients are not too happy about losing their bikes to the fire. We had three bikes when the fire went up. I had to call all of them, and as you can imagine, they weren’t all that pleased with the news.”

I sighed. “Are you serious? I mean, I know they can’t be happy about it, but it’s not exactly like this was our fault. The last thing I need is angry customers. I’ll get them new bikes.”

“Yeah, people only think about themselves. I’m sure they understand, but I guess those bikes mean a lot to them. Don’t worry; I’ve tried to placate them. They’ll still come to us for business after this. I doubt they’ll expect a second fire. And, they’ll be happy with the new bikes. So, dare I ask, what is the bad news then?”

I sighed. “The bad news is that Savannah took Bobby and went back to Duke.”

“What?” Spike said and almost spat out his beer. “Are you serious? Why the hell would she do that? That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. That guy is only like the worst human being on earth.”

“Yeah, I know. I hate that guy so much. It was a huge shock to me. She wrote me a note,” I said and handed it to him.

Spike read the note and sighed. “I guess I see why she did it. I don’t think it was the best move, to be honest, but I do see why she thought she had to do that. Fuck, this is horrible. What a thing to wake up to. And you had no idea they had left?”

“No idea. She snuck off when I was asleep.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“I have no idea. But I’m going to do something, that’s for sure. There’s no chance in hell that I’m going to just sit back and do nothing. I’ll get her back, Spike.”

“Good. If you need any help, let me know. I’m pretty pissed off at the guy myself.”

“Thanks, Spike. I might take you up on that offer.”

“Want another beer?” he asked.

I sighed and shook my head. “Wish I could. Sadly, I have a meeting planned with some of the sponsors today. I totally forgot to cancel, and now it’s too late. This is the last thing that I feel like doing right now. Do me a favor though, if you hear anything, please let me know. I’ve also asked Pop to do the same. I hate that I have to go and do these stupid meetings knowing that Savannah and Bobby are with Duke. But maybe it’s a good thing. There’s nothing I can do just yet, and I need to keep myself occupied. But if you hear anything, please tell me.”

“I’ll do that. Sorry about all of this, Axel. It’s been a weird few months.”

“Tell me about it.”

Weird, wonderful, awful, incredible, scary. So many things had happened lately that had turned my life upside down. Becoming a father had changed me, and I knew I would do anything to protect my little boy.

I miss you, Bobby. I’m coming for you.