by Kasey Krane
“Then what was it?” I sapped. “I would really like to know because I never actually understood it.”
She rolled her eyes and looked away.
“I’m not going to get into this. Discussing our relationship is not why I’m here.”
And yet, that was what it all boiled down to. Our past.
“You need to speak to your brother about this, if you really want to help him,” I growled.
“I have spoken to him.”
“And what has he said?”
“That you keep provoking him. Keep pushing him over the edge. He doesn’t want to fight you, but you don’t want to let up. Is this about me, Drax? Is this about us? Are you trying to get to him because in reality, you want to get to me?”
She stared at me with those big blue eyes and for a moment, I was melting in them before I realized I needed to address that question.
Enough was enough. I wanted Mary-Beth to see her brother for who he really was.
4
Mary-Beth
This had to be about me, right? It was the only possible explanation I had for Drax saying all these ridiculous things. He was refusing to even meet me halfway, stubbornly refusing to admit that he had an equal part to play in this feud.
And to top it all off, he was actually suggesting that Crash would hurt me.
The only reason I snuck in here and had been trying to keep a low profile while I talked to Drax was because I knew Crash would argue with me about it. In the middle of this war between them, I didn’t want Crash to think I was picking sides.
But not once had I actually considered him hurting me.
That was what Drax was suggesting and I couldn’t believe it.
No matter what all his faults were back when we were together, I never considered him to be a liar. So why was he lying now?
Drax operated on a set of his own moral principles. Things had always been black or white to him. He was not the kind of man who would be able to live with himself after telling a lie. It would keep him up at night.
Or at least that was what I thought of him. Clearly, I was wrong.
Did he really think he could say whatever he wanted about my brother and I would just buy it?
Did he think I was still weak at the knees for him?
Was he trying to play me?
“No. MB. This is not about you. I let go of any grudges I had a long time ago,” he replied. His dark eyes were threateningly focused on me, but I wasn’t afraid of him.
“Then what is this about? Why won’t you just stop lying to me and yourself? Why can’t you just give Crash a break?”
He loomed tall over me. Big and strong.
He looked even more muscular now than he did a year ago. I remembered each and every tattoo that adorned his torso. Did he have new ones? I was dying to know. But I couldn’t ask him. That would be inappropriate…I shook my head to get those thoughts out of my brain.
“I’m not fucking lying to you,” he continued, and I shook my head.
“Okay, this was a complete waste of my time and a big mistake. I never should have bothered to come here,” I said and made to leave. As I brushed past him, he caught me by my wrist and yanked me back.
“Yes. It was a mistake for you to come here. But don’t worry, it won’t be a waste of your time. I’m going to make sure you fully understand who your brother is before you leave my premises tonight.”
I gulped as we stared at each other. Suddenly, my throat was very dry. What did he mean?
“I have to go back home. It’s getting late. Thank you for your hospitality,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“You can go home, sure, but go home with the knowledge that your brother is in the habit of branding people.” He let go of my wrist quickly. I could still feel the spot where his skin touched mine. It felt like it was burning.
“Branding people?” I nearly chuckled with that.
“I’m pretty sure one of my prospects he branded doesn’t feel like smiling at that,” he growled. He’d seen the corners of my lips twitch.
“You’re making this up,” I said, and he reached for me. He grabbed me before I even knew what he was going to do.
“Drax! Let me go!” I cried and banged my fists on his back. But he had thrown me over his shoulder. The way he used to love carrying me around this place before. “Drax!”
But he was deaf to my squeals. He marched out of the room and now he was carrying me down the hallway toward the bar area.
“You’re not going anywhere until you see this,” he growled.
He kicked the bar doors open with his feet and we walked through. From my upside-down position on his shoulder, I could see people looking at us. He was making a fool of me.
Most of the faces I recognized, but some were new. But because I was on Drax’s shoulder, they all kept silent. Nobody so much as even sniggered as we walked past.
“You. Lift up your shirt. Now.” I heard him bark out a command to someone. Then he was plonking me down on the ground. We were at the bar counter. Sophie was standing behind it, looking very pale. Maybe she had an idea of what I was feeling and felt sorry for me.
The guy Drax was addressing was staring at us in shock, one can of beer in hand.
“You deaf or what? Lift up your fuckin’ shirt!” Drax growled through gritted teeth. What was going on? This made no sense. But then the guy did what he was told. From what I could tell, he was just one of the ‘trainees’. Prospects, as they were known.
He lifted up his shirt and I saw the branded mark clearly on his chest. It was the Silver Knights logo and it had burned through the guy’s skin. It looked ugly and painful. How long had it taken him to recover? Had he got the medical help he needed? Did it hurt now? I was full of questions, but I couldn’t ask any of them.
If it wasn’t Crash who branded this guy or at least ordered the branding, who could it possibly be? It had to be Crash, right? But my brother would never do something like this…
“Where do you think you’re going?” I heard Drax’s wild voice behind me. I had stormed out of the front of the Fifth Gear bar and was now headed to my car. It was parked out at the back where I hoped it was inconspicuous. Drax followed me out.
“I think I’ve seen enough. I need some time to clear my head,” I said, without turning to look at him.
“You’re not going anywhere till you’ve heard and seen everything there is to know,” he growled. He ran past me and blocked my path. I stood staring up at him. I could feel my cheeks burning…with anger? Embarrassment? Betrayal?
I still didn’t know who or what to believe. Crash made it seem like the whole fight was Drax’s fault. I truly believed he was acting this way because he was on some kind of payback mission against me. But now that I’d seen that poor guy with the big bruised brand on his chest, I didn’t know what to think.
“Please let me go. You can’t keep me here forever!”
He shook his head slowly. “You still don’t believe me.”
“I don’t know what to believe, okay? I need some time to think about all this.”
“What the fuck is there to think about, MB? You saw the guy with your own eyes. Why would anyone other than Crash order an attack like that on one of our guys?”
I gulped. My brain was whizzing. I was trying to come up with excuses. I wanted to defend my brother, but I was running out of excuses for him.
“I don’t know the whole picture. I haven’t heard Crash’s side of the story.”
“So, you’re suggesting that I branded one of his guys? And he did this in retaliation?” Drax raged. His eyes were bloodshot and wild.
“I haven’t suggested anything. I just said I need to get the full picture.”
He stepped up to me. Grabbed my arm. I could feel his strong fingers digging into my flesh and I tried to pull my arm away from him.
“Tell me the truth, MB. Do you really truly believe I would order a branding like that on somebody for no reason? Do you think I would do something l
ike that?” He searched my eyes as he spoke. I gulped.
The simple answer was no, I didn’t believe Drax was capable of that. But it’s not like I actually knew him anymore. One year could make a huge difference in a person’s life. Maybe he was a completely different man now?
He narrowed his eyes. It was like he could read my mind. I felt like he knew exactly what I was thinking. He let go of my arm with a jerk.
“Then maybe you should talk to Flash. Ask him what your brother was about to do to his girl.”
Flash had a girl? That was just as surprising as what Drax was insinuating about my brother. My brows furrowed and Drax clenched his jaws.
“They were about to brand her too. Just to send a message to us. If Flash hadn’t got there in time, she would be branded and seriously injured and who knows what else.”
I didn’t want to believe any of this. This was crazy.
“In fact, if you want to go around talking to the guys, you should speak to Bolt too. The Silver Knights flipped Bolt’s girl’s brother, Chip. He used to be one of our prospects. They lured him in, bribed him, threatened him and got him to sell one of our shipments to them. Then your brother got pissed off when we took it back.”
My nostrils flared. I was standing there listening to everything Drax had to say about my brother, soaking in all the information. None of it seemed right. Crash wouldn’t do any of that. Sure, he always kept me out of his ‘work life’, but he wasn’t that kinda guy, was he? He couldn’t be the villain in this story.
“You still don’t believe me, do you?” Drax continued.
I rubbed my temples with my fingers. Running them around in circles on the sides of my head. I could feel a headache coming on.
“I need to speak to Crash, I guess.”
“You think he’s just going to tell you the truth? You think he’s going to fess up his lies?” Drax growled.
“I think he will.”
“I think he won’t. But what you should do is ask him if we branded any of his guys. If we did anything to his Club members without provocation. If he says we did, then he’s making up shit.”
“I have to at least give him a chance to explain himself.”
Drax rubbed a hand over his face.
“Why did you come here if you weren’t willing to listen to my side of the story? Why are you here if you don’t care about what I have to say? You said you wanted proof, right? Of what your brother has done. Well, I’ve shown you the proof. You’ve seen what he did to that guy.”
All I could do was remain silent and watch him speak. Maybe he knew my trust in my brother was on shaky grounds now. Maybe he could see my loyalty was wavering.
“In fact, if you get on my bike right now, I can take you somewhere else I have evidence.”
I glared at him. Did he seriously expect me to get on a bike with him after all this?
“MB you know I can throw you over my shoulder and put you on that bike if I have to. It’s your choice.”
I tried to hide the way my hands were shaking right now. How nervous I was about everything. Especially riding on a bike with him. Just the two of us. That would be too close to experiencing what it was like when we were together. I didn’t know if I could even do it.
“Okay, let’s go,” I squeaked after giving it a moment’s thought.
The truth was, I couldn’t wait to be sitting behind Drax on his roaring bike. I’d spent the past year fantasizing about it.
On his bike, our bodies were pressed together as we rode. I had no choice but to hold onto him as tightly as I could. I was desperate to know what he was thinking right now.
My arms were wound around his muscular torso. I could feel the shape and edges of his abs underneath his jacket. I missed this body. I missed waking up to his stiffness beside me in bed. Feeling his hot breath fall on my face as we slept together at night.
I knew this body well.
While he rode, looking firmly ahead at the road while we swerved and swayed at breakneck speed, I stared at the back of his head. I wasn’t afraid of Drax. I would never be afraid of him. No matter how much we argued and how hard we fought, I was sure he would never hurt me or put me in danger.
That was what I thought about Crash too. But maybe I didn’t know him as well after all. Maybe I never should have trusted him.
I breathed in Drax’s scent. I closed my eyes to try and capture it in my nostrils. Whisky. Cigarettes. Cologne. Olives?
I knew how much he loved to snack on olives.
I gulped because my heart hurt a little.
I was afraid of this happening.
There was a very specific reason I’d kept away from Drax for the past year. I didn’t want to purposely put myself in a position where I could get hurt again.
Maybe I should have stayed away this time too. Maybe I should have just let Crash deal with his own problems. Why was I even interfering?
It was because I didn’t want to see either of them hurt. Especially hurting each other. But I should have known they would just do whatever the heck they wanted to do. They weren’t going to take my advice!
We had been silent for too long. Drax rode us through the city till we were nearing the retail park where the store was, the one from which they sold the security goods and machines. The store was Iron Thunder’s legitimate business front. They used this establishment to launder the money they made illegally. I had no idea why Drax would bring me here.
He pulled his bike up to a stop in front of the store. It was empty but I could see there was construction work going on there in the day. He got off, then helped me off.
“Why are we here?” I asked him and he ran a hand through his ruffled hair.
“Because I want you to see the kind of damage your brother has done,” he replied.
Drax was leading the way around the store. It looked nothing like how I remembered it when I used to frequent it before.
Back when we were together, I would sometimes hang out here with Drax when he was manning the station. It was fun dealing with customers together, competing with each other to make a sale, sneaking into the storeroom at the back for a quickie. I blushed when I thought about those moments now.
The place was wrecked.
All the storage fittings were torn apart and plundered. There was no merchandize on the shelves. The glass surfaces had all been purposely shattered. There was obviously a lot of damage done.
Whoever did this was on a mission of complete destruction. If this was indeed Crash’s doing, he wanted to send a clear message.
Drax turned to me and threw open his arms.
“We have to start from scratch. Build this place back up so we can go back to business as usual.”
“Why…why would Crash do this? I don’t understand,” I said.
Drax was staring at me intently.
“Because I took my shipment back from him. He doesn’t like losing, that is why.”
I shook my head. This wasn’t adding up. Crash hadn’t mentioned any of this to me. He said nothing about damaging the store. About the branding. About revenge. All he told me was that Drax was on a mission to destroy the Silver Knights and that he’d lost his mind. That he was behaving like a raving lunatic.
“What did he tell you?” Drax asked.
It was uncanny how he always knew what was on my mind. I felt goosebumps on my skin.
I shook my head. “Nothing. None of this. I don’t know…he didn’t go into any detail.”
“Because he has no fucking explanation, MB. Do you see it now?” he growled. Even though there was rage dripping from Drax’s voice still, he was calmer now than he was back at the bar.
“I need to think about all this,” I replied.
A grin was forming on Drax’s face. He looked so handsome when he grinned like that. I imagined being on top of him. Riding him. He always grinned at me when I bounced on top of him, his cock deep inside me.
“You think you can actually put an end to all this? Somehow change your bro
ther’s mind?” he asked.
I looked away from him.
“And you think I would be an idiot for even trying.”
“I think you don’t know your brother at all, MB. Or at least not anymore. You don’t know the man he has now become.”
I didn’t want to know the man my brother had evidently become. I didn’t even want to believe what Drax was saying about him. But my faith in my brother was wavering. I had a feeling about this. Would Drax really go to all this trouble to prove me wrong? To make me think Crash started this war? To perpetuate some lie?
I wanted to tell Drax I suddenly felt very helpless.
If I was wrong about Crash all along, then what else was I wrong about? How off was my judgement in other things?
He was looking at me intently, maybe expecting me to admit my mistake. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell him what he wanted to hear. It stung me to be openly disloyal to my brother. After all, did I owe any loyalty to Drax? We weren’t together anymore. Maybe he didn’t even think about me these days.
My phone rang in my jeans out of the blue, startling me out of those thoughts. It was so silent and dark inside the store otherwise, and the screen shone bright when I pulled my phone out.
It was Crash calling and I looked up guiltily at Drax. He couldn’t have seen the screen and I didn’t want him to know who it was.
“I have to take this,” I said and quickly strode out of the store. It was cool outside, and the night breeze blew my hair. I answered the phone in a hush.
“Hi.”
“Sis, where are you?” Crash asked.
I looked over my shoulder to make sure Drax was still out of earshot. He was moving some wooden planks around in the store. Not only would Drax be annoyed if he knew I was speaking to my brother; Crash would lose his shit if he knew where I was right now.
“Umm. Out. You know. With a friend. What’s up, Danny?” I tried to sound as casual as I possibly could. When I spoke to my brother in person, he was always Danny to me. Crash was his adopted name and even though I knew it was the name he preferred; I couldn’t actually call him that. Not when I’d grown up calling him Danny.
