Spinning round, I met the shocked eyes of the two men, and confidently asked, “Why are you following us?”

They stood stoic trying to stare me down. As Axel placed his hand on my arm to pull me back, their gazes focused on him. It broke me. The way they were staring at this man who was fast becoming my world, who’d had nothing but chaos and tragedy in his young life, well, it shattered my heart.

Wrenching my arm from Axel’s firm grip, I stepped forward only imagining how I must have looked with my hair in disarray and black mascara tracks dried on my cheeks. “Is it because of him?” I asked coolly pointing at Axel whose face expressed no emotion.

“Just doing our jobs, miss,” the larger of the two replied.

I laughed without humor and stepped forward again. “Well before you judge my boyfriend, know that this man has just saved the life of a pregnant woman who couldn’t wake up. He’s a good man. Has more talent in his little finger than you two could ever dream of. And just because he looks the way he does, you think it appropriate to stalk us while we are heading to hear if our friend is going to be okay?” I hissed and seethed as their faces remained impassive.

“La mia luce,” Axel said from behind me, his voice stern and low, “Vieni qua.” My heart raced faster and faster still as I stayed on the spot, glaring. Then Axel threaded his hand through mine, shocking me to all hell.

My gaze automatically went to our joined hands. I sucked in a breath at his public display of affection.

Axel had never held my hand. He never came near me when people were around... not like we were ever really around people anyhow, but this surprising action left me completely speechless.

Axel used his hold on my hand to pull me close to his chest and he pushed his free hand through my hair. Our dark gazes collided and he whispered, “We need to go upstairs to check on Molly. We need to meet Lexi and Austin. Don’t do this, just leave it alone.”

Water filled my eyes at how calm and accepting he was at the way people regarded him without even knowing him. I couldn’t bear it. He was worth so much more than people thought. Yes, he had the gang tattoos. He looked, to most people, sinister and dark, but he was so much more than the armor he wore. I wanted to scream from the rooftops that he was so so much more! He was creative, artistic… and even though he tried to portray himself otherwise, he was a good man who cared for his own.

He cared… somehow I had to make him realize it too. I had to crack open the high wall he had built around him.

Wanting to wrap my arms around his neck and hold him close, I resisted. “But they shouldn’t be allowed to take one look at you and judge you as a danger. They can’t do that! It’s not fair!”

Axel's eyes closed momentarily and he inhaled. “Ally,” he said as he breathed out slowly, “Fuck them. Let them follow us. They’re nothing to me… I’m used to it.”

As a tear fell over my cheek at this injustice, I let Axel lead me away, staring up at his expressionless face as his fingers tightly held mine.

He was so used to being looked down upon by anyone outside his gang, that he didn’t bat an eyelid when it happened, even when it was so uncalled for. At that moment I understood this closed off man just a little more.

He didn’t know how to be in this everyday world.

He was brought up in a no good trailer park on the wrong side of town. He was the eldest son to a drunken and abusive papa who hit him and his mother regularly. He joined the Heighters as a child because that’s all that was available to him at the time… but he was a child for fuck's sake! Conditioned to live their way... he’d made mistakes, big mistakes. I got that; still couldn’t wrap my head around most of it. But he’d served his time. He’d survived being a target, attacked in prison for abandoning his gang to save his brothers. His brothers who had no idea what he’d endured to make sure they could escape their shit lives and be free. And despite all that, this lost man life had been so unfair to, had found his calling and completely changed his life with the simple tools of a hammer and chisel.

He’d influenced so many lives already with his art… including mine. He couldn’t see it yet, but he’d completely changed my life in every conceivable way.

This man, clutching my hand like a vise to save me from getting in trouble in his defense, deserved people to give him a chance. I was enraged that he accepted so casually people’s blatant dismissive and hostile behavior toward him.

Grinding my feet to a stop, my emotions forfeiting my logic, I glanced behind and realized that the security guards were no longer trailing us. Axel had stopped too, his attention still forward focused but I could see his jaw working underneath his beard. I could see his neck muscles straining in anger.