Page 65 of Cruel Savior

"Me too," Izzy said, holding up her hand the moment she saw Axel about to object. "Don't even waste your breath. We all go or no one goes."

"Izzy, this is club business. You know the deal."

She shrugged. "Go ahead and pull that card. The second you drop us offsomewhere safe,”—she used air quotes to emphasize those two words—"we'll be out the door on our own mission."

I nodded. "She's right. If the club wants to go play footsies with the mafia without us, then we're going after Mazzeo without you. We already have the information that I need."

The truck got silent when I finally shut my mouth. I watched the muscle in Axel's jaw twitch repeatedly as he clenched the steering wheel so tight, I thought he might break something.

The seconds ticked by as the tension in the cab of the truck grew thicker. I understood his angerandhis fear, I had the same feelings for him over the idea of him walking into that other club's house no matter how much back up he took with him. They'd given us no time to prepare, and without a plan our odds were not great.

Finally, Axel turned to face both Izzy and me. "I swear to fucking Christ. If either of you ends up kidnapped or worse there is going to be hell to pay. And I don't just mean on their side. My punishment will be swift and extremely painful on all sides of the fucking table, is that clear?"

It took the will of everything I had in me, not to tell him where he could stick his punishment. If it wasn't for the very real fear I read in his eyes, I would have flayed him alive with my anger alone. I didn't know how we were going to get past it, but if he continued to pull that club business line on me I was going to go insane.

I simply nodded, because if I opened my mouth right now, it was a guarantee that he wouldn't like what I had to say. And for the sake of this mission, and its mile wide flaws, we all were going to need level heads before we got there.

He reached under his seat and pulled out a thick black vest, handing it over to me. "Put that on." He then turned to Izzy. "There's one for you under your seat as well. "Put it on and for the love of all that is holy please keep your mouth shut."

I saw the same fire in Izzy's eyes that I felt in my belly. She wasn't the kind of woman who wanted to sit on the sidelines either. But she wasn't stupid. We both knew this was not the hill we wanted to die on.

A moment later, Houston climbed back into the truck, eyed the bulletproof vest his fiancé had on and shook his head. "I told you." That's all he said before Axel pulled the truck back on the road and got back in line with the rest of the MC.

We were all probably headed for certain death, but there was a bit of poetic irony for me, in that we were all going to do it together. I might have had to fight for my position in this truck, but they'd actually cared enough to listen. Not happily of course, but it was a hell of a lot more than I expected.

They were a great team, but it seemed more than that to me now. They were more like a family...

My chest constricted at that thought. My family had abandoned me the moment trouble came knocking. I'd insisted on leaving and drawing the danger away from them because it was the right thing to do. This wasn't their fight. But they'd also let me go without a word.

Axel wanted to stand by my side, and he didn't even realize why it was so important.

Chapter Thirty-One

Axel

As we were usheredinto the clubhouse, my stomach tightened in an impossible knot. I understood Mandy's objections more than she knew. This whole situation stunk, and I couldn't think of a single reason to go through with it other than it might be the only way we get to the Mazzeo freak.

Since the governor had gone off half-cocked without talking strategy with anyone beforehand, and practically started a war with this mysterious corporation, I had a feeling the entire Seattle criminal underworld was about to explode. We were all on thin ice walking in here.

Of course, we had the building surrounded, but so did they. Tel had hacked into their security the minute we were close enough to pick up the signal. It had taken him about ten minutes, which was about nine minutes more than usual. So these jokers, whoever the hell they were, had bankandsmarts. Dealing with them directly would not be a walk in the park.

The building they used for their headquarters was old and looked like shit from the outside, with a crumbling brick facade and windows covered in what looked like years of dirt and grime, not to mention wrought iron bars in place on every single one. I mentally knocked those off as possible entry points. However, this part of Seattle was built on top of itself and there were networks of old tunnels running beneath everything. I'd bet everything I had that they had access to those and used them often.

I thought about texting Tel with that information, but didn't bother. He'd been looking up everything about the location when I'd left them. There was no doubt he already knew.

The inside, however, I'd keep track of that and he could record it as we went. My first impression was that it was nothing like the outside. Either the MC or someone else had dropped some cake getting the place newly remodeled. Everything looked state of the art, including the cameras in the corners.

"Nice place," I said, making sure I looked over everything as we were led through to the meet.One of the MC members, the sergeant at arms according to his vest, gave me a sharp look but no one said a word. They just kept moving and we followed.

"I see them," Tel said in my ear. He'd outfitted a club pin with a tiny camera that I wore on my vest and assured me that no one would ever guess what it actually was. But it allowed him to see everything I did and hear whatever he might need to. He'd be digging up answers as any questions, spoken or unspoken, popped up.

"Jesus Christ, these assholes have expensive taste. Clearly, working for the mafia is paying them well. You might be walking into more trouble than we'd planned on. Keep your guard up."

I ignored his stream of conscious thoughts for now and moved closer to JD's side. I didn't need the warning. The hairs were already standing up at the back of my neck. Thank God Mandy and Izzy had agreed to stay outside. It would have been way too suspicious if they'd come in and they likely would not have been allowed inside the meet room. Of course, I would have preferred if they were more than two blocks away. We'd spotted a lot of people on our way in, and probably more that we didn't. They could be as surrounded as us at the moment, and not even know it.

“Relax, Axel. She’s fine. I’ve dropped eyes in every direction. No one is getting near us without plenty of warning.”

Mother. Fucker. How did he know?

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