by Eve R. Hart
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
A Quick Note
Prologue
CHAPTER ONE Axe
CHAPTER TWO Allison
CHAPTER THREE Allison
CHAPTER FOUR Axe
CHAPTER FIVE Allison
CHAPTER SIX Axe
CHAPTER SEVEN Allison
CHAPTER EIGHT Axe
CHAPTER NINE Axe
CHAPTER TEN Allison
CHAPTER ELEVEN Allison
CHAPTER TWELVE Axe
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Axe
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Axe
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Axe
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Allison
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Axe
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Axe
CHAPTER NINETEEN Allison
CHAPTER TWENTY Axe
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Axe
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Allison
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Axe
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Axe
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Allison
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Axe
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Allison
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Axe
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Allison
CHAPTER THIRTY Axe
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE Axe
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO Axe
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Allison
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR Axe
Epilogue
Axe
Bonus
Valentine's Day Story
Diesel
Chris
Ellie
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Find Her
Play List
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
A Quick Note
Prologue
CHAPTER ONE Axe
CHAPTER TWO Allison
CHAPTER THREE Allison
CHAPTER FOUR Axe
CHAPTER FIVE Allison
CHAPTER SIX Axe
CHAPTER SEVEN Allison
CHAPTER EIGHT Axe
CHAPTER NINE Axe
CHAPTER TEN Allison
CHAPTER ELEVEN Allison
CHAPTER TWELVE Axe
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Axe
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Axe
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Axe
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Allison
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Axe
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Axe
CHAPTER NINETEEN Allison
CHAPTER TWENTY Axe
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Axe
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Allison
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Axe
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Axe
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Allison
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Axe
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Allison
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Axe
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Allison
CHAPTER THIRTY Axe
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE Axe
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO Axe
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Allison
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR Axe
Epilogue
Axe
Bonus
Valentine's Day Story
Diesel
Chris
Ellie
Diesel
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Find Her
Play List
Other Works
AXE
A Steel Paragons MC Novel
By Eve R. Hart
Copyright © 2018 Eve R. Hart
All right reserved.
The scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without permission of publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. This book or any portion thereof my not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for brief quotations used in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writers imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is purely coincidental.
Warning: This book is intended for readers 18 years and older. This book contains violence, harsh language, and explicit sex scenes.
Cover image credit Shutterstock.com/VolodymyrTverdokhlib
To everyone that has been here for this journey.
To everyone that has given my books a chance.
To you, yes you, reading this right now.
Thank you for all your support.
I couldn’t have done it without you.
A Quick Note
While this may be read as a standalone, there are a few things that may ruin the end of Tank. If you have not read Tank yet and you have any interest in doing so, you may want to read that one before reading Axe.
Also, if you are interested in following the Savage storyline the order is:
Loch
Diesel
Tank
Axe
Thank you. I hope you enjoy— Eve.
Prologue
Axe
I woke with a jolt. The images stopped playing in my head but the feeling still lingered on. Every part of my body was twitchy and my heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest.
My eyes moved to the figure next to me in the bed. Jessica stirred as I took in a few more calming breaths. She rolled over, throwing her arm over my abdomen. I knew she was awake, but she stayed silent. She didn’t try to console me or ask what was wrong. She simply let me know that she was there. Her touch was only a reminder that this was reality, and that was exactly what I needed from her.
I closed my eyes as I tried to get my breathing under control. This was why we worked. She gave me ‘the normal,’ as we liked to call it. The thing that I thought I craved the most but never had. She didn’t try to make me open up—to talk about the fucked up things in my head, and I didn’t ask the same of her. We both had an understanding of how messed up the world could be and we both recognized that in each other.
Minutes passed, maybe hours, I had no clue. The darkness of the room and the stillness of the air surrounded me like a soft blanket. I liked the shadows and the silence. Maybe that was proof of how messed up I was.
I could tell by Jessica’s breathing that she was still awake. When she took in a deep breath of air, I knew what was to follow. And I wasn’t surprised in the least.
“This isn’t working,” she said bluntly.
I resisted the eye roll because it was the same song and dance we always went through. I’d heard that line too many times before, but that wasn’t to say that I disagreed with it.
“Okay,” I said, my tone emotionless as always.
I’d give it a week and we’d be right back to it.
It had been the same thing for years now, but we could never seem to make it work for very long before one of us called for a break. I would like to have said that I had no idea why, but the truth was, I did. I understood it so well that I should have known better than to try again. Yet, I’d go back every time and so did she.
“No, Axe, I mean it this time.” She paused and I could feel her eyes searching for mine through the pitch black darkness of the room. Even though I couldn’t see her, I could feel the hole she was burning through me with her gaze. She wanted me to take her seriously and I couldn’t help but feel like something bigger than the usual break-up words were coming. “I’m done.”
And that stopped me. Left me frozen for a long moment. Those two words were something she’d never said before.
Feeling it was at the end
too, I nodded. I knew she could feel the movement against her head even if she couldn’t see it. And while I should have felt some kind of concern, some kind of gaping hole in my chest, I didn’t feel much of anything. This was the final nail. The end of the road. And I was alright with that.
I knew this wasn’t some kind of game she was trying to play and she didn’t want me to make any attempt to get her to change her mind. She was only being honest and I couldn’t blame her. That was the part that did gut me a little. If only I could have been honest at the right times, then maybe it could have worked. Or maybe we would have ended up pulling each other further into the darkness.
I could feel her body expand as she took in a deep breath and after a long moment, she rolled out of the bed. As she gathered her clothes in silence, I kept my eyes trained on the ceiling. She moved about in the darkened room like she knew where everything was. Hell, she probably did. She had spent enough time in here, I wouldn’t doubt she knew the layout like the back of her hand. And it wasn’t like the room was all that big anyway.
She left without another word, the light from the hall spilling in as she opened the door. Her steps were unhurried as she walked out. She wasn’t rushing from the room upset. She wasn’t angry or regretful about what had just happened. She made her exit just as if it were any other time that she’d left. She didn’t even turn her head for one last, lingering look back before she closed the door behind her.
I lay there a long time, my steady breaths the only sound in the room. Half of me didn’t really believe it was the end, and not in a hopeful way. It was just that we had done this so many times before. But her words rang out over and over again.
I’m done.
And then I gave into the truth of the whole thing. We were done—with something that had truly never started to begin with.
CHAPTER ONE
Axe
My father was a drunk piece of shit. My mother was a weak bitch. It wasn’t bad enough that she stayed there long enough to meet her end, but she also brought a kid into that ugly world. I hated both of them, but at least my mother did her best to shield me and show me some kind of love.
For the circumstances, she did the best she could, I guess. When she was home, which wasn’t a lot considering she was the only one in the house working, she talked to me and made sure I was fed.
I remembered when I was little, after my father had passed out, she would come in and sing me to sleep, doing her best to chase away all the monsters that called out from inside the walls.
But those monsters were always there, it didn’t matter what time of day, and when her lyrical words stopped, they came back roaring with a vengeance. She couldn’t stop them, or so I wanted to believe.
As I grew, I began to realize that she could have, only she was too weak to even try. I should have been the one, but then again, I was just a boy. I didn’t know the first thing about defending myself or my mother. Some days, I wished that I could have saved her. But others, I was thankful that she was gone.
That night set off a chain of events that changed my life—and hers. If I were being honest, I would say it was a blessing in the end. I got a new life and she got to be free, in a way. I wouldn’t say that the images and sounds of that night didn’t haunt me to this day. In fact, I relived them more than I was able to escape them, and I had a feeling that I would never truly be free of them.
We all make choices. My father made his that night. My mother made hers. Yet, somehow, I was the one left to suffer.
Chop.
I did my best to chase the monsters away with every swing.
Some days were better than others. Today was one of those days that I knew I’d be swinging until my arms gave out.
“What the fuck is yer problem, boy?”
The overplayed memories rushed in, clouding my brain like a sandstorm.
Chop.
The sound of the wood splintering did nothing to soothe the anger in my veins.
“Yer momma’s not here to protect you, you little shit!”
His terrifying tone rang in my ears just as loud as it had been that night. It was as if I were right back there in that dirty, dilapidated house
Chop. Chop.
My breaths rushed out of my body with each swing.
“Get yer worthless ass out here! Don’t make me come find you, boy!”
Odd as it was, I could see myself in the memory. A scared six-year-old boy in a dirty shirt. Snot dripped from my nose and I wiped it away with a bony hand that wouldn’t stop shaking. My body was so frail it hurt just to stand up, but it was worse sitting down. My stomach was in a constant state of caving in on itself and I prayed to a god I knew nothing about to not let it release a hungry growl at that moment.
Chop.
His footsteps hit hard on the old wood floor and by the sounds of the creaking boards, I could tell exactly how close he was. I knew how many seconds I had left until the closet door flung wide open. My hiding never did any good, but every time I still tried my hardest to be quiet.
“You can’t hide from me. You get out here and take yer punishment like a man.”
His staggered breathing told me he was right on the other side. The door flew open and my frail body was jerked out with such force that I heard my shoulder pop. The pain shot throughout my body but I bit my tongue to keep my cries at bay. I cowered, doing my best to prepare for the punishment I didn’t even deserve.
Chop. Chop. Chop.
“Axe!”
My head jerked towards the back of the compound building. Everyone knew not to bother me when I was out here. I pushed the rage down as I yanked the ax out of the tree and made my way to Loch. I had no doubt that if he was out there then it must have been something important.
Sweat dripped from my brow and as the wind blew I realized that the temperature had dropped a few degrees.
How long have I been out here?
“Yeah?” I asked with a chin jerk when I got within a few feet of him.
“It’s Tank. We need to ride, now.” His tone told me that he didn’t know all the details but we needed to get moving with urgency. “I called Diesel. He’ll be here in ten.”
“I’ll be ready,” I said moving past him and heading for my room.
I grabbed clothes from my dresser, not even caring what they were, and shoved them into my bag. Not even five minutes later, I was ready to go.
Everyone here was a brother to me, but Tank was above most. Next to Cal, the president, he was the one I trusted the most. He was the one that had been there for me when I needed a friend.
Don’t get me wrong, the men of the Steel Paragons MC were all good men. They never looked down on me for where I came from, what I had to deal with growing up, or what happened the night that led me to this place. They also did their best to never talk about it. Which, I was fucking grateful for. I was sure some of them had questions as to why I’d left my old man alive, but they never voiced them. Not even Cal. However, I had a feeling Cal knew exactly why I’d made that decision.
In my mind, that piece of shit deserved to rot in his own hell before he left to meet his maker. And I made sure he spent that time decaying in his own shit completely alone.
I took in a deep breath. I could admit that I was worried about my big friend. I understood his need to take off. He had a heavy weight on his shoulders. My hope was that he would take the time he needed to heal, to move on, and then he’d come back. But a few weeks ago when Loch and I had made the trip up to the cabin, I had my doubts that he would ever recover.
I felt helpless. I wanted nothing more than to be there for him but he was determined to push everyone away. I knew it would only do more harm than good if I planted my ass there and told him I was staying. So, I left, feeling wrecked by the man I forced myself to turn away from. The hopeless, broken man. All I could do was put my faith in something higher and pray that he made it out the other side alive.
Once Diesel showed up, Loch pulled us into church where Cal
and Bocca were waiting.
“Got a call from Brass. Tank showed up there not even an hour ago. He’s wounded and out of it. Brass don’t know what happened,” Cal said. “Axe, I need you to take point on this one. They have a woman there, came in with Tank and Brass said somethin’ is off.”
I nodded, not liking the feeling that shot up my spine.
I had no problem hurting someone if need be. But a woman…that was something we never did. By the strange tone in Cal’s voice, he wasn’t exactly on board with my normal ways of doing things, too.
“Tread lightly. We need information out of her. All Brass said was that she ain’t talkin’.” Cal said, his eyes narrowing at me as if he was trying to communicate something to me.
“Got it,” I said in my usual flat tone. Though, I was hesitant about the whole thing. I guessed the only thing I could do was wait until I got there and saw the situation for myself.
“Keep me updated,” Cal said turning his attention to Loch.
With a chin lift, Loch turned and left the room. The rest of us followed out.
Three hours later, we were pulling through the gates of the Gray Fort compound. I needed to know Tank was alright. I had no idea what the fuck I was about to walk into.
A woman. Shit! I didn’t have the first clue on how to handle that.
One, I wasn’t sure what I had that would help me going into this situation. I wasn’t some sweet talker like Bocca. I wasn’t overly terrifying like Diesel. And I didn’t have age on my side like Loch. To some, I was still wet behind the ears. That didn’t mean I couldn’t handle my shit though.
Two, I never thought I’d see the day that a woman was on the wrong end of things. We didn’t typically come up against women who held power in a sinister way.
And three, if she had anything to do with Tank getting hurt, I couldn’t guarantee that I wouldn’t go over the edge. I had a hard enough time keeping myself in check on a normal day, never mind when someone I cared about like a fucking brother was involved.
“You good?” Diesel asked as he dismounted his bike and unstrapped his helmet.
