“You’ll do that, all right. You know why?”
“You’re kind of hurting me right now, Axe. But fine, tell me why.”
“Because my house, my rules. Understand?”
Her lips trembled as recognition hit that he was not fucking around right now. Excellent. It meant he could relay precise instructions to her, and she would not give him any resistance.
“You’re going to get into that shower and turn on the water.” He showed her the small bag in his hand. “Do not lock the bathroom door. Take off every piece of clothes you have on, and put on these clothes when you get in there. After that, you’re going to stay inside the bathroom and wait for me. Do you understand? And not another word.”
She nodded and began to do exactly what he said. Once the shower was on, Axe stepped inside. She was already naked. He placed a finger to his mouth so she would not speak, and pointed at the bag again. It had a simple t-shirt and boxer-styled shorts with a drawstring in the waist. Instead of letting her go into the shower, he made her put it on, and threw his phone into the shower stall, submerging it in water. They headed to the back door of the room and exited, leaving every item he and Angel had packed at her place, as well as her purse from the library. Even that piece of shit minivan was staying behind for the rest of this little trip.
One of the Beartooth Brotherhood trucks was out back, exactly where they had left it for precisely these types of emergencies. With a hand on her shoulder, he led her to the passenger side and helped her in. Getting into the driver seat, he started the truck and drove off, taking a gravel side road as opposed to getting back on the main road.
“You can speak now,” he informed a terrified Angel. “Sorry I had to get a little firm back there.”
“That was not a little firm, by the way!”
“You’re being dramatic.”
“Uh. No. You left everything I own back there!”
“It was for your own safety.”
She snapped on her seatbelt and folded her arms over her breasts. “You realize I’m not even wearing a bra or panties, right? And turn off the damned A/C. Will you at least tell me what happened back there?”
“My President’s phone was bugged. Your clothes were too, and probably something in your backpack or purse. We were being followed, so I did what I had to. We needed to ditch the fuckers. Got it?”
She glanced over at him, glowering. “Thank God I brought flip flops.”
Axe screeched the truck to a halt and tugged those slippers off her feet, throwing them out his driver side window. “Sorry. Can’t risk it,” he told her, starting the car again.
“How do you know your stuff isn’t bugged?” she asked.
“I just know.”
They weren’t half a mile up the street when bullets started flying past the truck. Angel flinched and ducked low in the seat.
“What the hell is happening?” she shrieked.
Axe lowered his head close to the steering wheel and checked his side mirror. Two dark Camaros and six choppers followed. He had been expecting them to close in long before this, so this surprise attack was more of a snag, and less than surprising. The panthers were sure to have set up a little hiccup.
“Get down, hold onto the dash, and stay down!” he shouted, yanking the wheel in the opposite direction to avoid getting shot directly on their gas tank.
The next one went wide. There was only that whizzing sound. Axe zig-zagged to stay ahead of them. This road had no exits for at least a few miles, so they needed to hang tight and outlast the fuckers.
“I thought we left the bike behind and took that minivan to get them off our ass! Now we have a truck?” Angel cried out from her position, lowering to the floor between the seat and the console.
“I’m kind of a hard son of a bitch to miss when you’ve got people looking. And we’re still getting them off our ass, so keep it down and let me focus!”
Angel gasped as he threw his foot into the brake and abruptly turned the truck, driving off the road and down a two-foot drop of a natural arroyo. Three choppers and one Camaro jumped the gap, but the other vehicles playing target practice with his ass weren’t careful enough. They dove right in. No way did those front axles survive that ditch.
Four down, four to go.
Still, the chances of getting past four pursuers were slim, particularly since he hadn’t had the chance to reach the supply of weapons behind his driver seat.
“Their aim sucks,” Angel said out of the blue.
“You’re complaining?”
“No. I’m just saying. Maybe they’re so used to fighting with paws that they skipped out on solid time on the shooting range.”
“And how would you know that?”
She rolled her eyes. “Please. You think I can’t shoot with the best of them?”
“Good. That’ll come in handy,” Axe informed her as he floored it through the desert brush, ignoring the bullet that just shattered the side mirror.
A three-meter wide arroyo with at least a fifteen-foot drop came into view alongside the path they were on.
“Time to make our exit,” he informed her. “Let’s see if this piece of American engineering can fly, or at least hold up against the sudden drop. This will be a little bumpy.”
“So I guess you want me to fasten my seatbelt?”
“No. Stay down.”
Swerving the car, Axe sped up as fast as the truck would go, kicking up a ton more dust as he drove it over the embankment. His head whacked on the ceiling when the vehicle crashed down on the other side and swerved, almost making a full three hundred and sixty-degree skid before it stopped.
Angel lifted her head slightly, checking the back window once he righted the truck. “Uh, the Camaro and two of the bikes stopped before the jump,” she said. “Wait. It looks like one of the bikes just doubled back to try again. He may have a good chance of making it over.”
“Jesus. Can we not catch a goddamned break?”
“Wait,” Angel said. “He’s down. I don’t see him coming back up. Woot! He bit the dust!”
“Nice.”
Angel slid back into the seat and redid her seatbelt. She fiddled with the radio knobs, searching for a clear station, and stopped on a classic country western station. “This will have to do. I see you don’t have XM radio.”
“If we did, the gunfire would have probably gotten it good.”
“Hmmm. So where are we going now?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“You can’t shut me out forever, you know,” she told him, swatting his hand away when he tried to change the music to something more rock-friendly. “We’ll get there soon enough, and I’ll know.”
“True.”
“Wait a minute. What about my mother?” Angel asked in a panic.
“What about her?”
“I need to call her.”
“Not now.”
“What if she’s in danger?” she persisted.
“Your phone call can put her in danger. Just relax. I’ll make sure no one gets to her. Make yourself comfortable over there. We’ll be driving for a while.”
Glaring at him like he was the enemy, she huffed out a long exhale and rested her head on the seat back. “I am so not sleeping with you, ever again.”
“Suit yourself, Angel.”
Sex was the last thing on his mind at the moment, although the image of actually sleeping beside her made his chest tighten. He may have fucked a shit ton of women, but he sure as fuck didn’t sleep with them. Yet where they were heading, that was sure to happen eventually.
Except, for the next little while, it would be on his terms, and it was Angel who’d have to grin and bear it.
16
Axe
Axe gripped his burner phone in one hand. He stared at the thing with his arms outstretched as if he expected it to go off like a bomb and blow him all to hell. And he had good reason to. The person he had to call next was sure to give him hell. He hated the idea of speaking with her, bu
t he had no choice. They were out of options. He couldn’t involve the club anymore without potentially getting the bears and the panthers back into an all-out war, and he couldn’t use a Beartooth Brotherhood MC approved safe house because the panthers would see right through the plan.
There was only one other option, and to take that route meant he had to make the call now, before Angel woke up inside the pickup truck and started looking for him. Apprehension came over him. Christ, how was he even going to spin this so it didn’t look bad? There was no goddamn way he could pull it off. He ran both hands through his hair and exhaled, which did nothing to get rid of a nagging headache drilling a hole through his skull.
He unfolded the sheet of paper, staring down at Nancy’s name. Time to nut up or shut up. Keying in her number, he only hesitated for one more moment with his finger hovering over the little green phone symbol. So what if they hadn’t seen each other in years? Who cared that the last time they’d talked was a few Christmases ago? That was better than nothing. Never mind that he only ended up speaking to her because he had gotten obliterated on Jaeger and impulsively answered her annual holiday phone call, which he usually just let go straight to voicemail. The fact that he was calling her now was probably progress in her eyes, even if his motivations were a little fucked up. Okay, very fucked up.
With a grimace, Axe pressed the little green button and shoved the phone to his ear.
“Hello?” Nancy answered.
Jesus Christ, did she have to pick up so damn fast? His sister was so prompt for everything—everything except for acknowledging she was a shifter—it was no wonder she couldn’t even let the phone ring twice. A stab of nerves made him choke up. Maybe he could just hang up now and forget all about it. Even if she had caller ID, she wouldn’t know it was him on this burner phone.
“Hello?” Nancy repeated. “Is anyone there?”
Axe looked around nervously. He still had an out because she had no idea it was him. Her tone was neutral, not something she accomplished too much when it came to him. Leaning on the wall beside the restroom of the Chevron gas station, he went for it.
“Nancy.” He cleared his throat, rubbing his free hand along the leg of his jeans. “It’s me.”
“Oh. You. Of course, it’s you, Alexander,” she declared, her voice hollow and cold.
Not as if he should have expected anything different. Axe’s lips thinned, and he scanned the parking lot for any signs of danger. He was pretty sure he had not been followed since they did the mad dash from the motel, but he couldn’t be too careful.
“Alexander,” Nancy called him by his entire first name again. She was always a control freak that way. “Are you still there? What do you need? You’re in trouble, aren’t you?”
“How would you know?” he asked, checking the truck around the front of the building. Still no sign of Angel’s head either. She was probably catching up on her sleep after a chaotic fourteen or so hours of fighting off panthers, witnessing shifters, leaving everything behind, and driving all night. “It’s been a long time for you to assume that when I’ve barely opened my mouth.”
“Alexander Edward Voltaire, I can put two and two together. I may be your little sister, but I am not simple.”
“It’s Axe, Nance. It’s been Axe since I turned fifteen. Cut it out with the Alexander crap, will you?”
The silence between them was uncomfortable as always, and neither did any extra gabbing to change it.
She let out an impatient whoosh of breath. “Look, after our falling out, there can only be two reasons you would call. One, to apologize and make amends. Two, you’re shit out of luck and I’m the only help you can get. I don’t hear any contrition, so it has to be option two. Am I right? What’s the deal? Did the club turn on you, or did you make a mistake there’s no coming back from this time?”
“Yes and no,” Axe bit out, barely able to hold his temper, hating it when she was right. “It’s complicated. The simplest way to put it is I’m on an unplanned security job, and I can’t help feeling it’s connected to what happened…back then. I know it doesn’t make sense at all, but at the moment, I can’t use a Beartooth safe house. No one except Vincent knows where you live. Coming to you seemed like a no-brainer.”
“What security job? And how could anything now be connected to back then?”
Nancy was nothing if predictable, even after all these years. He figured those few high points would be the details she picked up from their conversation. For a second, he leaned his head on the wall, trying to get a grip on his patience because he needed her to let him and Angel stay at her house. Just then, the truck door popped open and Angel jumped out the passenger door. She looked both ways—twice—then she started sprinting across the gas station parking area as if someone was after her. Or maybe she thought he had left her there. Either way, he couldn’t keep his grin in check. Subtle, very subtle.
“Didn’t Vincent tell you? The MC has gone legit. I’ll fill you in, but the point is I have someone I need to keep under wraps. I need her to stay with you. Some fuckers are closing in on all sides, so it would be great if we could speed up this phone chat, and just skip over the judgment and the walk down memory lane bullshit until I see you in person. Is that cool?”
“You haven’t changed one bit.”
“I haven’t, but I sure hope you have, Nance,” he said, calling her by her pet name. “I’m not holding out any hope, though. We’re a stubborn lot. So, can I come by or are you leaving me out in the cold?”
He could practically feel his baby sister seethe over the phone. His fingers idly tapped on the wall as he waited, watching Angel run around in a frenzy, dressed in just his t-shirt and shorts. The idea that she had no panties or bra underneath had him hard as a rock. His sister then grumbled about something, which instantly killed his boner.
“Yes or no is pretty damn simple,” he said, waiting for an answer.
There was a whole lot of nothing on the other end of his cell. He took it away from his ear to make sure the seconds and minutes were still counting up, and that the call hadn’t dropped, or that she hadn’t hung up.
“How far away are you?” Nancy asked.
Nice. She was actually considering saying yes, which gave Axe a whole new headache on top of the current one. He tensed up from the possibility that she might agree to this fucked up last minute plan.
“I can’t have you coming at midnight,” she added. “You’ll wake up the kids.”
His stomach did a flip of guilt at the thought of his niece, Annalee, and nephew, Asher. He had seen them all of maybe twice in their lives. That was pathetic on his part, inexcusable and completely his fault.
He cleared his throat. “I’m, uh, five minutes out.”
“Awww hell,” she whined. “You’re right in my damned back yard, huh? Why’d you even bother calling first? Anyway, you know what? Fine. Come. You’re the one who stayed away all this time, so I’m not going to give you another excuse to bail.”
“So that’s a yes, I’m guessing?” He said to provoke her.
“Yes, but on one condition.”
“What, Nance?” He was already mentally exhausted. How much worse could it get?
“While you’re here, we’re going to sit down and have a talk. I mean really talk. Deal?”
“I was expecting that. I’m game, but only if you’ll listen, instead of insisting there’s only one right way. If you’re good with parking the pigheadedness, then you have a deal. We can talk, but I won’t promise more than that.”
“I’m pigheaded?” she screeched. “If I’m stubborn, then you’re a goddamned bull in a china shop. One who runs away from his own kin and never looks back to see the trail of crap you broke.”
“Good. Are you done?”
“Jeez. Fair enough. I’ll see you soon, Alexander.”
The line went dead.
Axe was impressed. That actually went a lot better than he expected.
Now, it was time to move on to handling
the panic-stricken, barefoot blonde woman running around haphazardly as though she was trying to avoid a sharpshooter from making her a target.
“Hey,” he called out to her. “What did I say about staying put?”
Angel ran up to him, breathing like she’d run a marathon. She gave him a painless punch on the upper arm. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going somewhere?”
“Relax,” he told her, shoving the phone back in his pocket. “Get back in the car. I’ll buy you some breakfast.”
She rolled her eyes and pointed down to her feet. “And shoes, please. Maybe a toothbrush, too?”
He pointed at the car so she’d start heading back, and added, “It’s a Chevron station, not a Walmart.”
“I noticed, dickhead,” she grumbled and left.
Axe got the food, coffees and a bag of whatever travel supplies he could find inside, returned to the truck. “Here, I got you some things. Don’t go whining about the shitty coffee.”
Angel started rifling through the pastry bag. “Thanks. So who were you talking to?”
He started the car. “You’ll see soon enough.”
Judging by Angel’s reaction, that answer was not the right one. She took a sip of her coffee and used her free hand to demonstrate her threat or plan to pour it all in his lap. He flinched just a little, and she grinned.
“I’m tired of you treating me this way, Axe,” she said, taking a bite of the donut from the brown bag.
Reversing the truck, he rolled out of the lot and waited to merge into traffic. “It’s for your own good.”
She arched her eyebrow and licked frosting off her top lip. “You think so? Keep it up and I’ll make sure you’ll pay for it in your sleep.”
“Fuck, that sounds hot,” he teased. “Whatever happened to I’m so not sleeping with you ever again, Axe?” he asked, adding the highest pitched female sounding voice he could mimic her.
She scrunched up her nose and narrowed her eyes at him. If looks could kill, he’d be six feet under.
“Whatever.”
“If it makes you feel better, I was taking care of arrangements for the next stop on our road trip.”
Bruised MC Bear (Beartooth Brotherhood MC Book 3) Page 10
