It killed me to leave her. Hell, I hated leaving them both. But E.Z. had called three times over the last two days. I couldn’t put the club off this way any longer. Leaving Gran’s farm and Maya behind, I rode back to the clubhouse alone. After I parked, I sat frozen on the back of my bike. Sure, I knew I had to talk to the guys and tell them ... something. I just didn’t have a fucking clue what that was.

The door swung open and Mama Bear came out. She seemed startled to see me. Her eyes narrowed and she drew in a breath as she came toward me.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” she said.

“Hey, Mama.” Still seated on my bike, I leaned over when she got near enough and I kissed her cheek. Mama touched my shoulder then stepped back.

“You all right, baby?” she asked. “We’ve been worried about you.”

“I’m good. Things got a little complicated is all.”

“Hmm. They tend to do that. Look, I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t think I want to. But let me give you a little piece of advice. Whatever’s coming down the pike, it’s got Bear stirred up like I haven’t seen him in a good long while. Is there something I need to know about? Something I should prepare for?”

She’d asked me this kind of thing before. Bear’d done time more than once during their relationship. It was Mama who kept the legit side of our businesses running when that happened.

“You worry too much,” I said, dismounting.

She smiled but stuck up her middle finger. “Yeah, that’s what Bear said too.”

“You should listen to him. He’s a wise man.”

Mama laughed. She slid her hands into her back pockets and shook her head. “And that’s what I was just about to say to you. He’s pissed, Axle. I don’t know about what, but he’s been in there wearing a hole in my carpet pacing back and forth. You never do yourself any favors avoiding him. You know that. Whatever’s going on, I need you to get straight with Bear. Okay? I’ve got enough to worry about. So do you.”

I put my hands up in surrender. “I’m here,” I said. “I’ll talk to him. And I mean it. We’ve got shit under control.”

Mama looked up at the sky. Rufus picked that moment to come charging out of the woods holding a squirrel between his teeth. Before Mama could give me any more shit, she ran off yelling at the dog.

“I owe you one, Roofie,” I said under my breath as I steeled myself and headed into the clubhouse.

“It’s about fucking time!” Bear stood in the middle of the front room. He smashed his hand into the back of one of the chairs at the bar. Toby and Moose sat beside it. They each grabbed their beers and moved off to the other end of the room. A few of the hangers-on were back there playing pool and Toby and Moose wisely figured now was a good time to join them.

Most of the rest of the guys were seated at the other tables. Bo and Benz downed the last of their beers and got up. Zig, Deacon, and Domino were back at the pool table. They straightened and headed over to the conference room. Kade, Shep, and Maddox stood closest to Bear. He jerked his chin at them and they followed the others. That left just E.Z. He stood with his back to the wall next to the conference room door, watching me. Finally, he pushed himself off the wall and went inside, leaving me alone with Bear. Shit. The way his eyes flashed, I figured shit was worse than I thought. I should have listened harder when Mama tried to warn me.

“Bear, I’m sorry I’ve been AWOL.”

Bear started pacing again. He ran a hand hard across his beard. “Your timing’s for shit, Axle.”

“What’s going on with Junior?”

Bear stopped in his tracks and turned to me. “That little shit. That little fucking shit. He’s been back twice. I told him if he darkens that threshold one more time I’m going to take my chances with Christine and put him out of his damn misery. He’s out of his goddamn mind, Axle. He’s got a lawyer. That’s the good news. The bad news is it’s pretty apparent they are trying to build a case against him on this Cory Kline bullshit. There are some hotshots in the department who wanna pin him for capital murder. You need me to spell out what that’s going to mean? Where are we on the witness?”

E.Z. came back out of the conference room. He glared at me and went to the bar. He leaned against it and poured himself a beer like he wanted to enjoy this shit with Bear and me from a front-row seat.

I chewed my bottom lip. There was no good way to answer Bear without a flat-out lie. I considered telling him the truth. Maya was alive. If I had my way, she was going to stay that way. If he gave me a little more time, I’d figure out a way to get her out of this jackpot.

“Anyone got eyes on her?” I asked. It wasn’t exactly a lie asking that.

Bear’s eyes widened and he turned his head. “That’s your fucking job, Axle. You mean to tell me you came back here without being able to tell me it was finished?”

“She hasn’t gone back to the cops,” I said. Bear read my tone as a question.

“Thank God for small blessings,” E.Z. said, sipping his beer. “She hasn’t shown up for work, either.”

“You wanna know who’s been out looking?” Bear said.

My heart sank as I read Bear’s expression. “Fucking Junior. You gotta be goddamned kidding me.”

“I wish I were,” Bear said. “I told you. Loose cannon doesn’t even begin to cover it. It’s like he wants to get his sorry ass locked up.”

“We need him to get gone,” I said. “You know that, right? The girl ain’t the problem. So this is Junior’s current jackpot. I’ll admit, it’s a big one. But we get him clear of this, there’s going to be something else down the pike. He’s a fucking time bomb. We all know it.”

Bear held on to the chair, squeezing the back hard enough I figured he’d crack the wood. Then he centered himself and trained his eyes back on me. Bear Bullock was the closest thing I’d ever had to a father. He had been the one who found me trying to hustle in a pool hall down on the docks when I was fifteen years old. I’d been two seconds from getting my ass kicked and thrown into the bay. Hell, it wasn’t much different than what had happened to Cory Kline.

To this day, I don’t know what the fuck Bear saw in me. I asked him about it only once. His answer stuck with me. He’d said, “Axle, I knew the look in your eyes. I knew you were ready to fucking die rather than let anyone get anything over on you. You were about to go to war with a grown man and he would have killed you. I figured that made you either the bravest son of a bitch I’d ever seen or the dumbest. I was betting on brave. So far you haven’t proven me wrong.”

“Axle,” he said now. “Do I gotta remind you that this has been put to a vote? You know I don’t like this shit any more than you do. It’s messy and it’s a temporary fix. But right now, we got no choice. The DiSalvos have us by the short hairs until I can figure out a better way to deal with Junior. Christine’s gotta see that kid is going to ruin all of us. I’m working on that, I swear to God. For now, we gotta swallow this medicine, no matter how rotten the taste. It’s for the good of the club.”

My guts twisted when he said it. Bear was a hardass. But I would never question his loyalty to me or any of the rest of us. It killed me that I was giving him a reason to question mine, except he didn’t even know it. But I had no choice. As I stood there in that clubhouse with Bear’s eyes locked with mine, I knew the next words out of my mouth would be a lie.

“I’ll take care of it,” I said. “I’ve got a lead on where this girl’s gone. She’s running scared. That’s the good news. Junior’s gotta see that. Whatever happened from the time she gave her statement to when she went to ground, maybe she wised up and realized getting involved wasn’t gonna be good for her health. As long as she’s in the wind, Junior’s safe. They aren’t gonna bring charges against him no matter how much the PAPD enjoys rattling his cage. Did you tell him all that?”

“Yeah,” Bear said, dropping his shoulders. “I told him that. He wants a body though, Axle.”

I felt heat rising in my core. Every protective instinct I had flared to life. A body. He wanted Maya’s body. A memory flashed of my hands near her throat that day on the beach. I’d been so close to giving him one. At least, I thought I had.

“And how’s he gonna explain to the cops that the one witness against him just turned up dead? He doesn’t see how that could put him at greater risk?”

“They aren’t gonna know she’s dead, Axle. Because you’re going to make sure nobody ever finds her.”

Every muscle in my body turned to stone. The light seemed to go out of Bear’s eyes as he approached me. He came within an inch of me and put his hands on my shoulders. “This matters, Axle. You know that. It matters a lot. Now, I don’t know what the hell’s going on with you, but I know it’s something. Don’t lie to me. I’ll know.”

“I’ll do my job,” I said, my voice flat and cold. “I’ll always do my fucking job.”

E.Z. moved off his stool. I don’t know if he sensed some threat from me, but he positioned himself at Bear’s side. The conference room door was still open and the scene with Bear caught the other guys’ attention. One by one, they filed out and moved into the main room. Shep took a position next to E.Z. Shep was Josie and Bear’s son. If I dared to lay hands on Bear, he’d be the first one to try and put me down.

“Axle,” Bear said. “I’m going to ask you straight up. Do you know where this girl is hiding?”

One heartbeat. Two. My pulse pounded in my temples, making my vision blur. I stayed stock still though, never letting my gaze drop from Bear’s. I knew at that moment Maya’s life hinged on my next words.

“No,” I lied, sealing my fate.

“Are you planning on going against my orders, son?” Bear asked.

Postures shifted in the room. I caught Deacon’s eyes. He looked like he was about to be sick. Chase put a hand on his arm as he tried to step forward. Every man in this room knew that right now, this was between Bear and me.

“No,” I answered as my guts twisted. I felt like I was standing over a great, dark chasm straddling the sides. I had to go one way or the other. Anything else would send me headfirst into the void.

“Do I need to remind you of those orders?” Bear asked.

“I got this, Bear,” I said.

The front door opened and Mama came in. She took in the scene, her eyes darting from Bear to me and back again. She crossed her arms in front of her and put her back to the wall.

“I’m going to anyway,” Bear said. “So there’s no confusion. This girl, Maya Ballard. She’s a problem. Every breath she takes is one she could use to fuck up Junior DiSalvo. He deserves it. I know it, we all know it. But there’s nothing we can do about it right now. I got the club to think about. I’ve always got the club to think about. So, I need you to do your duty, Axle. I need you to make it so this girl can’t hurt Junior. Ever.”

“We’re clear,” I said, tasting blood.

Bear patted the back of my head and finally let me go. Sweat trickled down my back. I stood mute and stock still. Bear turned to the rest of the crew.

“I know how shitty this is. Don’t think for one second that I don’t. We are at a crossroads. But I will not let anyone or anything jeopardize this club. No matter what. Nobody doubt that. Not ever. I swear to you. Every one of you. Junior will get what’s coming to him. But that day’s not today. We clear?”

Bear tapped his ring against the table. It was nothing short of a call for a second vote on Maya’s fate. Bear looked around the room. Man to man.

“Aye.” E.Z. spoke up first. Then he went down the row. Shep, Maddox, Zig, Chase, Domino, Kane, Bo. Each of them answered with a solid, “Aye.”

Bear looked at Deacon. He cast his eyes down, then looked up at me. He swallowed, then turned to Bear. “Aye.”

Benz was next. He flared his nostrils; the effort of the word seemed to burn within him. But he said it. “Aye.”

Bear and every other eye turned back to me. I had no choice. To save Maya, to save the club, I had to take the vow. I would burn in hell for it, but maybe, just maybe, I’d find the path to Maya’s salvation.

“Aye.”