Page 107 of Axton

Axton

I couldn’t understand why Belle wasn’t taking my calls. Everything felt wrong and all I wanted to do was get home to my bride.

I walked with Sniper as he was unloaded from the medical helicopter. Jennings and Bolton escorted Magnus back, and Granger and I stayed with Sniper. I did get clearance to bring him home, but I still had to face the Originals and plead my case for him. I could never repay him for the sacrifice he was willing to make for me.

He was still out from all the pain meds, and I stayed long enough to make sure he was settled and not experiencing any setbacks from the trip.

After he was settled, I checked on Magnus and he was still asleep as well. Steph was going to stay with Sniper and Heidi with Magnus so we could have our debriefing. Creed was leaving his family for the meeting, so I knew he meant business. He was supposed to stay planted with his family and let us run Creed’s Lake, but he obviously couldn’t help himself. He was already waiting for us, and everyone arrived, even Irons who was in a wheelchair pushed by Granger. Wrenly went home to make it comfortable for Irons to recover.

Drakos shut the door behind him then took a seat. Creed took a long look at all of us, then shook his head. “I thought I lost you guys.”

“We lost enough. Are the families informed, and services being planned?” I asked Baros.

“Yes, but no services planned yet. Green will be going home to his parents in Minnesota, Walton’s wife and kids are taking him home to Alabama, and Reese didn’t have family, so I have PastorJohn working on it. His last wishes were to be cremated and scattered at his old tree house on the property where he grew up but that won’t be happening. The new owners refused to allow it. We are thinking the lake will be the next best choice. I’ve had John working with Sams since they were the closest.” Baros answered.

“Steph contacted our insurance and she’s helping the families.” Creed sighed. “This should never have happened. It’s not about the Ashford case, this is about our government contracts. They used Jeremiah Brown to lure us up north. That tells me our enemies are tied in with a good number of MC’s in this country, especially the ones to our west. We are going to have to create more precautions. I’m suggesting a task force to take on MS-13, The 18thStreet Gang, and every other terrorist organization in the U.S. that’s a threat to us. I want someone to lead it, some investigators, undercover operatives, and I want to work with government agencies on this one.”

“We’re already low on operatives.” I reminded him.

Creed looked at me. “We will start looking harder, make more room for them and even build them their own offices. We’re running out of space down here and I want them to work independently. This means we may need to recruit another Original and create some sort of middle management. We’re starting to settle down, have kids and we need to be able to take fucking paternity leave or a damn vacation every now and again. Maybe by next week each of you bring me a file of someone you think would make a good Original, then we will buckle down and create this new management system and also focus on recruitment. We haven’t looked into recruitment since we hired Carlton and Stone.”

“Stone would actually be a good choice to run this new task force.” I said.

Everyone in the room agreed.

“We didn’t create Creed’s Lake so we could have less of a life. It’s time to promote some hard-working individuals that deserve it.” Bolton said.

“Ever consider hiring a business consultant?” Baros asked.

Creed sat back in his chair. “We could explore that for sure, it’s not a bad idea.”

We moved on from business then to the debriefing. We gave our firsthand accounts and discussed where everything went wrong and what we needed to improve.

“I want to make Sniper an offer to join Creed’s Lake.” I announced. We had that conversation, and Creed was open to it. We took a vote, and it was approved with the condition of a psychological evaluation and our usual hiring process. He had enough experience not to prospect but we needed him to take time to heal. He could still work with SWAT just like Irons and Wrenly.

When the meeting was over, Creed asked me to stay.

“What’s up?” I asked but I was feeling anxious to get to Belle.

“Something happened while you were gone. Patrick called me late at night and got me out of bed to get to the club. Have you spoken with Belle since you left?”

I tilted my head. “Wait, was she at the club?”

“Have you talked with your wife, Axton?” He ignored my question.

“No, she hasn’t answered her phone.” Holy shit I was nervous.

He sighed. “Patrick called me that night because Belle was upset, and Kayla took her to the club. They were drunk off their asses when Patrick arrived. Belle was saying you cheated on another woman with her. A woman named Faye, and she knows about your excursions. It seems your texts with this woman were explicit and read like a book. She believes you were in a relationship with this other woman for a decade, and you haven’t told her about Belle.”

“Holy shit, God dammit!” That was the last thing Belle needed.

“Is it true?”

“No, it’s not true, well yes but…fuck.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Faye is a friend, not a girlfriend. I’ll admit, we are very close friends, and we do have sex, but she’s how I get into those couple retreats. I met her over ten years ago, and it is not that kind of relationship. She sees other people and so do I, but several months ago we had a few problems. Her father was putting pressure on her to marry someone she doesn’t want to marry. She tried to…I guess manipulate me into more than what we had so she could get married and keep me on the side. It didn’t work, she broke down and told me during the terrorist attack lockdown last year. I told her no, and I'd still take our trips up until she got married. I would also keep it up if we had her new husband’s blessing.”

“How did all this start with you? Those trips, this woman, all of it?” He asked.

“Her name is Faye Sullivan.”

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