“Jenessa is my mate.” Axel leveled a challenging gaze at Greg who instantly took a step back and lowered his head.
“Congrats, man. Good to meet you, Jenessa.”
“Likewise.” Jenessa nodded at Greg.
“Thanks.” Axel and Greg hadn’t known each other long. O’Malley had hired him to help manage the bar since he had a lot of experience, whereas Axel had none. They worked well together, although there was an undercurrent of tension between them. Greg was younger, more confident, and free of a checkered past. The guy thought he had something to prove.
He doesn’t, Axel’s cougar said as he sharpened his claws.
No, he does not, but he hasn’t realized that yet. Axel liked the guy. Most of the time.
“I’ll get started out the back.” Axel thumbed toward the corridor leading away from the bar. “I want O’Malley to know he can leave us in charge anytime.”
“Sure, there are a couple of crates of empty bottles and some barrels that need stacking.” The two men were back on a professional level now that Greg understood Jenessa was completely out of his reach.
O’Malley stood for some rivalry between the men, but they were both fully aware if Greg made a move on Axel’s mate, he’d be out of the door in an instant.
“Okay?” Axel asked Jenessa, who seemed lost in her own world.
“Sure.” She smiled at Greg and nodded as she walked past.
“Do you want me to grab you a drink?” Greg offered.
“No, I’m fine, thanks.” Jenessa followed Axel out of the bar, past the kitchen, where the staff was working hard to keep up with the remaining food orders, and out into the back area where the empty bottles and barrels were stored ready for collection.
“I have to clear these away and sweep up.” Axel indicated the barrels.
“You don’t like Greg too much.” Jenessa grabbed the broom from just inside the door and began sweeping the rear parking lot.
“I like him. In a professional capacity.” Axel lifted a barrel and placed it on top of another. “But we’re like night and day.”
“He’s about the same age as Tyler.” Jenessa didn’t look up as she made a pile of debris to one side of the rear parking lot. “I often wonder what made Tyler quit his job. I always thought he would make something of himself.”
“I don’t know that Greg is going to make something of himself.” A familiar twang of jealousy hit Axel. Maybe that was why he didn’t get along with Greg. The guy was young and ambitious and would probably end up running the bar for O’Malley eventually. While Axel would never get further than being a bartender.
“He’s conscientious.” Jenessa glanced up at Axel. “But we’re not here to talk about Greg, are we?”
“No, we’re not.” Axel finished stacking the barrels and turned his attention to the crates of empty bottles. “The bar has been busy.”
“And we’re not here to talk about empty bottles.” When he looked up, Jenessa was smiling at him. “Unless that’s what you want to talk about.”
“No, I want to hear all the details you have on Tyler and these gangs he got mixed up in.”
“Perhaps I should have accepted that drink after all.” Jenessa leaned on the broom for a moment. “I suppose we need to start at the beginning.”
“It’s usually the best place to start.” Axel sorted the different bottles ready for collection.
“Tyler was a good kid. Did his homework, never got into trouble. Never showed any interest in being in a gang.”
“What happened to change that?” Axel asked as he fetched a dustpan and brush.
“That is the question we’ve been asking ourselves. Neither of us can tell what triggered it. He just got caught up in the lifestyle, I guess. Perhaps he wanted to be like my dad.”
“And it resulted in a downward spiral.” Axel had certainly seen it enough times.
“He’s never stolen anything in his life. It’s like someone flipped a switch.” She gripped the broom handle so tightly the whites of her knuckles showed. “It’s as if he’s punishing himself for something.” She lifted her head and looked at Axel. “Or punishing us.”
“Why? Why punish any of you?” It made little sense to Axel, but then, in his own experience, people often didn’t make sense. They were all driven by their own dreams and their own demons.
Many times he’d given up trying to make sense of other people’s actions since he could not stand in their shoes and see the situation from their perspective simply because he had not walked a mile in their shoes. He didn’t have their life experiences or know their hopes and dreams.
The only person he truly knew was himself.
His cougar licked his paws thoughtfully. Do we know ourselves? Our true selves?
We know enough. We know that we made mistakes and we got out.
And now we are going to get back in. His cougar thrashed his tail on the floor. Let’s just hope we find our way back out again.
Jenessa will make sure we do. She will be our guiding light. Axel had no intention of becoming the man he once was.
“I don’t know why he’d want to punish us. Perhaps over my mom?” She shook her head and went back to sweeping. “It’s just weird. One day Tyler was doing okay and the next he was in trouble. Doesn’t that usually happen when a kid hits puberty and pushes boundaries?”
“It does. Maybe Tyler was a late developer.” Axel arched an eyebrow as she frowned at him. “What? It’s surprising what goes on in a young man’s mind. If he wasn’t a shifter, I’d say he fell for the wrong woman and got himself into trouble to cover the pain.”
“Men throw their lives away over a woman?” Jenessa asked in surprise.
“And women throw their lives away over men. Probably more often than you think. Love does crazy things to a person.” Axel scooped up the dirt and debris and carried it over to a large dumpster and threw it away.
“But Tyler is a shifter. So that rules out the whole falling in love thing. No femme fatale led him off the straight and narrow road.” She tilted her head to one side. “If only he’d met his mate, we might not be in this situation.”
“Agreed. A shifter with a mate wants to do all they can to protect them. They certainly wouldn’t do anything that would jeopardize their relationships. Or their lives…” He stalled and his mouth clamped shut.
“I don’t need a lesson on shifters.” She carried the brush back to the doorway and placed it inside. As she turned to face him, she folded her arms across her body.
“You know my life would not be worth living if anything happened to you.” He would shrivel up and die, even though they barely knew each other, the connection between them was a part of him. If it was torn away, it would leave his heart cleaved in two. Life would be next to impossible.
“But this isn’t you putting me in danger. If anything, I am putting you in danger. I’m the one asking you to do this. I am the one who came to you for help. I am the one with the dumbass brother who stole from people he knew would come after him.” The color rose in her cheeks and she paused for breath. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay.” He went to her and placed his hand on her shoulder, while he gripped the dustpan and brush in the other. “This is something we’ll do together, and it will turn out okay.”
“Then we’d better get finished up here. There’s a lot more for me to tell you and I want to be on the road early tomorrow. We need to leave as soon as possible.”
Axel looked up at the sky. “O’Malley should be on his way by now. He’s due to arrive back here just before dawn.” He turned his face to hers. “I’m going to need to talk to him before we leave. I hope he’s okay with me shooting off as soon as his feet touch the ground. I really don’t want to lose my job.”
He’d gotten lucky working for O’Malley. He knew that. He might not get so lucky again and he had a family to feed. His brow creased, he was jumping ahead of himself. He had a mate to feed. And perhaps children, one day.
And we have a mother
to feed, his cougar reminded him.
Mom. He also needed to ask Kelos and O’Malley if they would help his mom. His unease grew. He didn’t want his mom to relapse while he was away. It had taken him weeks to get her back to good health, but he knew they were living on a knife-edge and one slip and she could fall ill again.
“I’ll talk to O’Malley if you want. He owes me a couple of favors.”
“He does?” Axel asked.
“Yeah.” She punched Axel lightly on the shoulder and then took the items from his hand and turned her back on her mate. “Why do you think I came here to ask for his help?”
“Because you were friends.” They already established that O’Malley and Jenessa had never been more than friends, but she’d never explained their connection.
“And friends help each other out. Then friends repay that debt.” She gave a short laugh. “Honestly, if all O’Malley has to do to repay the debt is to keep your job open for you, he will have gotten off very lightly.”
“Now I’m intrigued.” Axel followed her back inside.
“It’s not very exciting and it’s kind of something I promised not to talk about.” She slotted the dustpan and brush in the small cleaning cupboard and closed the door. “And being raised by shifters means I never break my promise.”
“Good to hear.”
“But if O’Malley doesn’t keep your job for you, I can always find some work for you.” She put her hands on her hips. “I could be your boss.”
“Really?” Axel’s masculine pride might be on the line here.
“Yes, really. Unlike the men in my family, I have built myself a career and a nice stable business that I can run virtually.” She pointed at him and opened her eyes wide in mock shock. “And there it is, a man who is not so happy that his mate has more money than him.”
“No, that is not true.” Was it? Axel had always seen himself as the provider, yet he’d failed miserably at providing any kind of promise of stability. Even though he loved working at O’Malley’s bar, there was no real future in it. O’Malley would never promote him to the position of manager when there were people like Greg, young, enthusiastic, and experienced, just waiting until it was their time to take the next step up the promotional ladder.
You could always go back to school, his cougar told him.
And do what? One of Axel’s problems was that he’d never really known what he wanted to do so he’d never really committed to doing anything outside of being a member of a motorcycle gang. Sure, while he was there, he’d helped people. He’d learned to fix bikes and even though some of the gang’s activities were illegal, they were more than happy to help and support those in need.
As long as their needs didn’t clash with the illegal activities. His cougar had never really approved of the gang. He’d been relieved when they left to start a new life and even more relieved when they returned to Cougar Ridge to care for their mom.
But you do approve of us going back? Axel asked.
For our mate, we must do what it takes. His cougar’s tail swished angrily. We must go and rescue Jenessa’s brother because he is part of our family now.
You think he needs rescuing? Axel asked. He stole from another motorcycle gang. He must be crazy.
Or the thing he stole was important to him. His cougar said no more as he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
Chapter Eight – Jenessa
“Let’s backtrack a little.” Axel was working his way back along the corridor of the pub, cleaning and tidying the place as he went.
“Okay.” Jenessa had told Axel all that she knew but if he wanted to hear it all again, she would tell him. The devil was always in the detail. She knew that from her business and there might be something in the details of Tyler’s actions that might jump out at Axel as odd. Something she had missed but a man who had been part of that lifestyle would see as odd or out of place.
At least that was her hope as she began at the beginning once more.
“Tyler was a good kid who never got into trouble...”
Axel held up his hand. “Let’s go forward and focus on the events from when he joined a motorcycle gang.”
“Okay.” Jenessa took a breath, a faint throb at her temples warned her a headache was on its way. The day had been long and stressful, and she was ready for bed. However, this was important, and she needed to be focused and share everything she could with Axel. “He never said anything to me or my dad, but we think he was hanging around with a gang for a while before we found out for sure.”
“Why do you say that?”
“When he came home, he was different. In a subtle way. He’d always been respectful to my dad and suddenly he would answer back or just say comments that were...rude.” Her temper flared as she recalled how he’d called their dad a failure then left the house. Her father had looked heartbroken, thinking Tyler blamed him for their mother’s death but Jenessa didn’t know if that was the failure he’d been accused of.
“And not long after that you found out for sure he was mixed up with a gang?”
“Yes, it was a couple of months later.” She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Going over all these details, sharing them with someone else, a stranger, was hard. It was as if she were betraying her family by sharing the inner workings of their relationships.
“I know it’s hard to talk about your family. Your father has instilled a sense of loyalty, I’m sure.” Axel understood her perfectly, he had a unique insight into her family that O’Malley never would have. She was glad he was here, glad he was the one who would be by her side as they tracked Tyler down.
For the first time since she’d set off on this journey, she was confident her brother would be found.
“It’s hard. It feels as if I’m betraying Tyler.” She rubbed her hand across her eyes as her temples throbbed more persistently.
“You are trying to make things right. You are trying to save him. And your family. There is nothing you need to be sorry for. You’re doing your best.” His words were comforting, and she wanted to hug him, and maybe even kiss him, for understanding her so perfectly.
“Tyler started to hang out late and then sometimes not come home at all. The arguments between Tyler and my dad escalated.” She paused and closed her eyes before she added, “I think Tyler was trying to push our dad away. It was as if he wanted my dad to hate him.”
“Okay.” Axel finished sweeping through the corridor and then returned all the cleaning equipment to the storage cupboard. “Let’s go back outside.”
He glanced over his shoulder as he led her back into the tidy storage area. Other shifters might be able to hear their conversation, even over the low hum of voices coming from the bar and she was grateful for his caution.
“After a couple of months, we barely saw Tyler. My dad had a couple of old friends who kept him in the loop as much as possible, but it was as if Tyler had disowned us.” She chewed the inside of her cheek. “I’m ashamed to say I was relieved when he dropped out of our lives. There were no more arguments with my dad. They had taken their toll on his health. His blood pressure got dangerously high before...”
Axel placed his hand on her shoulder. “That’s nothing to be ashamed of. You want to protect your dad. That’s natural.”
She nodded, her jaw tight as she swallowed down a wave of tears. This was no time to cry, no time to fall apart. If Axel was going to find Tyler, he needed all this information. “Everything seemed to settle down. My dad’s old buddies said Tyler was doing okay. So it was a shock when everything exploded, and Tyler stole from this rival gang.”
“And you have no idea what he stole?”
“No, only that it belonged to Hogg, one of the leaders of the rival gang. It sparked a whole heap of trouble, the gangs were on the verge of war. Then it seemed as if they all just turned on Tyler.” Her bottom lip trembled as her eyes met Axel’s. “They came to our house. Threatened me and my dad. We had no clue as to where Tyler was or what had possessed him to ste
al from a gang.”
“How did your dad take it?”
“Terribly. Tyler must have known the repercussions for us. He must have known we were the first place the gangs would look for information. Only the quick action of one of my dad’s old friends who convinced them we were estranged and had been for months stopped them from tearing the place apart. And worse...” Tears trickled down her cheeks. “What was Tyler thinking?”
“Or not thinking.” Axel rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “And Tyler is a shifter. I just want to be sure.”
“Yeah, he’s a bear shifter. The gang he joined were all shifters.” She swallowed hard.
“Okay.” He closed the distance between them and slipped his arm around her shoulders. “We can find Tyler and set this all right, I’m certain.”
“Thank you.” She hugged him back, needing the warmth from his body to comfort her and chase away the images in her head of what would happen if one of the gangs found Tyler first.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to find Tyler and resolve this for you and your dad.” He squeezed her once and then let her go. “Come on, I’ll finish up here, and then we can go back to my mom’s. Unless you want to go on ahead?”
“Do you mind?” She pressed her fingers to her temples. “I have a headache coming on.”
“No, go on, my mom will show you to the guest room.” He gave a faint smile. “That’s what she calls the spare room, even though we never have guests.”
Jenessa nodded, glad that he hadn’t expected her to share his bed even though they were mates. She wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.
“Thanks.” She took a breath, stealing herself for the walk back through the noisy bar.
“We can go out through the back gate. I’ll walk you to the front of the bar. Or do you want me to walk you all the way home?” He gave a goofy grin. “I don’t want to insult your independence, but I also don’t want to appear overbearing. So I’m going to ask.”
“I can make it back to your house on my own. I know the way and aside from the chance of getting mowed down by a bear or leaped on by a cougar, I should be okay.”
Axel Summer Shifters Season 2 Page 5
