Magnum cocked a brow at her.
When she twisted in her seat, she saw exactly who was getting out of the cruiser.
“Oh fuck,” she whispered, making Magnum check the rearview mirror a little closer.
“Know him?”
Bella closed her eyes and sighed. Did she ever.
Axel approached the driver’s side door, and it was hard to miss his surprised face morphing into what she could only describe as dark and angry when he saw who was behind the wheel. He rapped his knuckle on the window and pointed his finger to the ground. “Roll it down,” he ordered.
“Fuckin’ pig,” Magnum muttered under his breath but hit the power window button. No one said a word until the whir of the window silenced.
Then Axel took a step back from the car and bent over to shoot Bella a look. And it wasn’t a good one. “Thought it was your car. There a reason why someone else is driving it?”
Magnum opened his mouth, but Bella quickly squeezed his thick, muscular arm. A move Axel caught if the sharp turndown of lips was any indication.
“Just giving Magnum a ride,” she kept her voice light and as innocent sounding as possible. Like she normally went on joy rides with members of other MC’s.
“Magnum.” Axel repeated.
“Gotta problem with my name, cop?”
Bella squeezed Magnum’s arm tighter.
Axel’s frown deepened. “Looks like he’s giving you a ride instead.”
“You know how these guys are about having a woman drive them.”
It was Axel’s turn to grunt his answer. Ignoring Magnum, he caught Bella’s gaze. “Are you okay?”
“Don’t she fuckin’ look okay?”
“Bella?” Axel asked, shifting in an attempt to look past Magnum’s bulk.
She sighed. “No, I’m not okay. He’s taking me to Diesel and I don’t want to go.”
Magnum’s arm tensed under her hand and she released him.
“So, he’s taking you somewhere against your will?”
Oh fuck.
“No, takin’ her back where she’ll get a lesson about stickin’ her nose where it don’t belong.”
Axel blinked and then tilted his head like a dog whose curiosity had been peaked. “And where was that?”
Magnum stared forward through the windshield and ignored him.
Axel straightened and stepped closer again. “Okay then. Need your license.”
Magnum twisted his neck to look at her. “See what happens when bitches meddle? Shit. Shit happens.”
“Are you going to give me your license or do I need to call for backup?”
Totally ignoring Axel’s question, Magnum asked her, “This your prez’s brother?”
“Yeah,” she muttered.
Magnum scratched his chin in thought but didn’t reach for his license.
“You have a license?” Axel asked him.
“Fuck! You were driving my car without a license?” Bella shouted then whacked him in the arm.
He grunted and frowned at her. “Got a license, just suspended.”
Axel held out his hand. “Let me see it.”
“Don’t got it on me.”
“Out of the car.”
Magnum cocked an eyebrow at Axel. “Want me to get out.”
“Yep. Step out.”
Axel stepped back a couple steps as Magnum opened her driver’s door and untangled himself from the seat. Once he was out, Bella could only see him from his ass down. She wondered if Axel was now wishing he called for backup.
Bella scrambled out of the passenger side to see Axel escorting Magnum back to his car.
“Are you arresting him?” she yelled.
“Just putting him in the back of my car while I run him for warrants,” Axel yelled back over his shoulder.
“Oh fuck,” Bella mumbled. D was going to kill her. If Magnum had warrants, Axel was going to arrest the Sergeant at Arms of their ally and she would be blamed for it.
She jogged after Axel. “Do you have to do that?”
Axel stopped Magnum at the front of his marked car. “Hands on the hood. Legs spread... Back farther. Just going to pat you down for weapons.”
Surprisingly, Magnum complied without argument. He probably knew the drill very well.
“Are you sure?” she asked Axel as he patted the bigger man down, checking his waistband for anything that could hurt him or illegal items.
“Bella, get back in your car.”
“But—”
“Bella,” he said in a bossy cop voice. “Get back in your car.” He opened the back door of his cruiser, placed a hand on Magnum’s head and guided the large man into his back seat.
“You have warrants?” she asked Magnum.
“Fuck no,” he grunted before Axel slammed the back door shut.
Oh, thank fuck.
“See? No warrants,” she said to Axel as he moved up to the driver’s side door of the cruiser. “You can let him go now.”
Instead of getting into his car, he locked the doors, grabbed her elbow and escorted her back to her Dodge.
“Are you crazy?” he asked a little too loudly, then dropped his voice low. “You’re driving around with... No. A Dark Knight is driving you around in your car. What the fuck, Bella?”
“It wasn’t my choice.”
“So, should I charge him with kidnapping?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Just let him out.”
He shook his head like he couldn’t believe she just asked him that. “I’m going to take him back to the station and one of his guys can pick him up there. Now you won’t have to go to Diesel.”
“You’re not going to arrest him?”
“As long as he doesn’t have warrants.”
“What about his license?”
“I’ll give him a citation for driving on a suspended license.”
Relief flowed through Bella.
Axel’s gaze bounced from his patrol car back to her. “Want to explain how this all came to be?”
“Not really.”
He cupped her cheek and tilted her face up to him. “Bella, I love you, but it’s this shit that I was talking about. Bet that guy has a record as long as my arm. And he was driving your car like it was stolen on a suspended license. Or so he says.”
Since she couldn’t argue with any of that she asked instead, “Got anything on the stolen toys?”
He blinked at the change in subject. “No, not yet.”
“Right.” If she waited for the PD to find them, they’d all be sold by then.
“Go home, Bella. Whatever trouble you were looking to get into, just don’t.”
“Who said I was looking to get into anything?”
His eyebrows shot up his forehead. “If ol’ Magnum there is taking you to Diesel to teach you a lesson about sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong... then...”
Yeah, that.
She lifted her palms up in surrender. “Fine. Going to go home.”
His blue eyes narrowed. “Right. Don’t make me swing by later to check.”
She turned away from him and got into her car, having to adjust the seat so she could reach the pedals again. “No need to check up on me,” she said before slamming the door closed.
She powered up her window and watched his chest heave in the side mirror. He was probably sighing in frustration. Then he shook his head and headed back to his cruiser.
She couldn’t resist watching his ass in the mirror as his long strides took him quickly back to his patrol car.
As soon as the traffic was clear, she pulled back out and headed toward home.
When she finally couldn’t see his police car in her rearview, she took a sharp right on the next side street and headed back to Whitehall.
Chapter Thirteen
“Got a fuckin’ text an’ know you couldn’t be so fuckin’ stupid as to try to handle this shit yourself.”
“Who texted you?” Bella had a fifty-fifty
chance of being right. And she couldn’t imagine Axel had D’s cell number. It wasn’t like they were best buds.
Had to be fucking Magnum.
Bella sat in her car at the curb, staring up at the run-down house. She winced when Diesel boomed in her ear, “Don’t fuckin’ matter who texted me! Where the fuck you at?”
She pursed her lips. She could lie and say she was home, but that would be too easy for someone to check.
“I... uh...”
“Better not be in Knights territory. Tellin’ you now, gonna cause problems between the clubs that we don’t need, Bella. Bad enough you got Magnum taken into custody.”
“He was arrested?”
“No, the pig let ‘em go with a fine.”
Bella let out a breath of relief. “He didn’t have to drive me back.”
“Yeah he did. ‘Cause now you’re back out where you probably shouldn’t be. You better not be in Baldwin.”
“I’m not in Baldwin.” Which was true. Whitehall was not Baldwin. She peered out of the windshield at the Warrior’s stash house again. “D, I gotta go.” And then she hung up before he could bitch at her anymore.
Oh yes, he would be pissed that she did that. The proof was him calling her right back. She ignored her ringing phone and decided to leave it on the passenger seat as she got out of the car.
Looking around, she noticed nobody was outside on the block, no one was parked in the driveway. The street remained eerily quiet. She hurried up to the house and went around back, sticking close to the overgrown bushes that surrounded the former dwelling. But because of those bushes, she couldn’t peek in the damn windows. At the back of the house was an equally run-down porch and she carefully made her way up to the back door.
The screen was missing from the outer door and it hung crookedly off its rusty hinges. It squeaked loudly as she opened it, making her wince. So much for being stealth. She peered through the door’s filthy glass pane into what used to be a kitchen. The appliances were all missing, the linoleum floor destroyed, and the counter tops coated with a layer of dust so thick that it had to be at least a half inch deep.
Trying the knob for shits and giggles, she was surprised to find it unlocked. After opening the door, she listened carefully.
Nothing.
She practically tip-toed through the kitchen and down the hallway, peeking into doorways to see if she spotted the toys.
Nothing.
Fuck!
At the front of the house a stairway led to the second floor. Though they looked like they’d seen better days, she’d gone this far, and wasn’t turning back now. She took one tentative step, then another, putting her weight carefully on each stair-step. They moaned and creaked but held her weight as she climbed to the upper level.
Peeking into the first doorway she came to, she gasped.
The room was packed full of the stolen toys. The toys she’d collected, the toys the PD had collected, and more. She didn’t know whether to be pissed even more at the Warriors or elated she found them.
“Fuckers,” she muttered.
She checked the other two bedrooms and only found one partially filled with more of the stuff they took from the storage unit.
However, there were so many toys that there was no way she could carry everything herself and, if she could, they wouldn’t all fit into her car. She cursed.
She would need to return with more people and more vehicles or get someone with a truck.
Axel had a truck.
But she doubted that he would do a little breaking and entering even in an abandoned house. Not to mention, there was a little issue called trespassing.
Hawk had a truck, too, but then she might as well tell D what she was doing, because Hawk would not let her come back here with his truck. She’d have to think of a good excuse why she needed it.
Crash! Crash might have a vehicle at the shop that she could borrow. He might keep his mouth shut or not ask any questions why she had to borrow it.
Yeah. She was going to hit up Crash and maybe drag Diamond back with her since she now worked in the office at the body shop.
After grabbing as many toys as she could carry, she hurried down the steps and back out the kitchen door.
She rushed around the side of the house and back out front only to stop dead.
Fuck!
There was no way!
No fucking way!
She groaned loudly, no longer having a reason to rush back to her Challenger.
Parked behind her was a truck. And leaning against that silver Dodge truck with his arms crossed over his chest and shaking his head was Axel.
Though, the man was no longer in uniform.
How the fuck did he know where she was?
Again with fucking Magnum! Had to be.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he asked, or more like shouted at her.
She frowned and ignored his outburst, walking with fake calmness to the back of her vehicle. “Reach into my pocket? My keys are in there. Pop the trunk for me, will ya?”
Axel pushed away from his truck, his lips drawn thin, his eyes narrowed. “Are you asking me to assist you with B and E, as well as theft? A fucking burglary, Bella!”
“No it’s not.” With a sigh, she put the toys on the ground, since he apparently wasn’t going to help her, and grabbed her keys to unlock the trunk. She opened it and loaded the few toys she had nabbed.
“I beg to differ,” Axel growled.
“So arrest me,” she said, slamming shut the trunk lid. She swung around to face him, hands on her hips.
“Not my jurisdiction, but it would just take a call to the local PD for that to happen. That what you want?”
“No. What I want is to take back what was stolen. From me, from you, from us. Jesus fuck! From the kids who are supposed to have a nice Christmas!”
“Bella—”
She swung a hand toward his pickup. “You have your vehicle here. That’s what I need. A truck to haul it all back to Shadow Valley, Axel. There’s a room and a half full of toys up there. I need help getting them before one of those asswipes comes back. You in?”
His blue eyes widened, and he looked at her with incredulity, scrubbing a hand over his military-short hair. “No, I’m not fucking in! I can’t just go in there and steal the shit back! I’ll need to notify Whitehall PD and they’ll need to get a judge to sign a warrant to enter the premises.” He glanced up at the house in thought. “Unless they can get permission from the property owner.” He shook his head. “But who knows where that person is from the looks of it.”
“We can’t wait for that. They’ll sell this shit soon. Or they might move it. We can’t risk it.”
“Bella, it’s fucking toys! It’s all replaceable. You put yourself in harm’s way by coming here, by entering that house, by being anywhere the Warriors are or hang out.”
“I don’t think they hang out there. I think it’s just a stash house.”
He groaned as he scrubbed his palms over his face in frustration. “A stash house,” came muffled from behind his hands.
“Axel...”
He dropped his hands. “Get in your car. I’m following you home.”
“Axel—”
“Bella, get in your car now.”
She pinned her lips flat as she stared at him. He was not going to help her. And now he’d tell Whitehall PD, and they’d go in and take all the toys. And they probably wouldn’t even get an arrest out of it.
“And if I don’t?”
His jaw tightened and his blue eyes darkened as he stared at her for a long moment. Then he reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out something shiny and silver and very metallic.
Handcuffs swung from his index finger.
“You just said this isn’t your jurisdiction!” Bella exclaimed, her heart thumping wildly.
“If I cuff you it won’t be in an official capacity.”
She smirked as his words sunk in. “So you’re going to cuff me and have
sex with me?”
His mouth opened and then shut closed. He stared at the toe of his boot and shook his head, dropping the cuffs by his side. She could have sworn she heard him mutter, “Fuck me.”
Then he lifted his head, looked her straight in the eye and said, “No. I’m going to cuff you, shove you into my truck and take you directly home.”
She lifted a finger. “Just to be clear, you’re going to kidnap me like you accused Magnum of doing.”
His expression became dark and stormy. “Unlike Magnum, I have your best interests at heart.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Right.” She tilted her head and studied him. “Tell you what. I’ll get into my car and head back to your apartment with you if you use those cuffs on me in an unofficial capacity.”
His body went completely solid and his lips parted with a rush of breath. His eyes quickly turned from angry and frustrated to heated. She could even see his Adam’s apple bob from where she stood. A smile crept over her face.
“What’s the catch?”
She shrugged. “Help me load the toys into your truck.”
He scowled. “No. I’m not going to break the law just to have sex with you.”
She shot him a fake pout. “Even with the cuffs? And the promise you can do whatever you want?”
“I... uh...” He shook his head as if to clear it. “No! Damn it. No.”
Suddenly, he was there. Toe to toe with her. His hands cupping her face and tilting it up. He lowered his head until his lips were just barely above hers. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her lips and she was tempted to stand on her tip-toes to close the slight gap between them. Her nipples beaded under her sweatshirt as a thrill shot through her.
She couldn’t deny the pull he had on her.
“Go home, Bella. Get in your car and go home. Leave this shit to law enforcement.”
“Axel,” she whispered, holding his gaze. He was so close but yet so far away.
“Yeah?” he asked softly.
“Take me home,” she murmured, fisting the front of his jacket in her hand. “I’ll still let you cuff me an unofficial capacity and let you have your way with me.”
After a long pause, he stepped back, nodding. “I’ll follow you.”
Her pussy clenched hard and her breathing shallowed as she broke away from him and climbed back into her car. Before she pulled away, she picked her phone off the passenger seat and glanced at it.
Down & Dirty: Books 4-6: Dirty Angels MC Box Set 2 Page 36
