Page 27 of Axle
Edge had his knife in his hand again, rolling it between his fingers, the lazy motion the opposite of his eyes. “We don’t shout first. We listen. We use the ledger like a radio, not a grenade.”
“Agreed,” Kane said.
“But someone is coming for her,” I argued. My voice was steady, so I didn’t spook Ashlynn with what I was really feeling inside. “The ones who lost their toy. Or the ones who want it before we hand it back to its builder.”
Jax nodded once. “I can pivot the sandbox into a honeypot. Salt some fake keys, lay a breadcrumb path that points down a hall with a camera. If they sniff us, we’ll sniff back.”
Edge flicked the knife shut. “While you’re playing chess, we put bodies on fences. Nitro can talk to our friend at the county comms center about spikes in off-books chatter. Rev can pull street ears. We’ll find the van’s driver and make him tell us what he knows.”
Kane pushed away from the wall, his eyes glinting like steel. “Do it.”
“Good,” I snarled. “Because once we figure out who swung at her, we swing back. Hard enough they forget they were born with teeth.”
I caught Ashlynn’s gaze again. She’d gone pale under all that sass, her eyes distant like she was already somewhere else, running scenarios in her head. I didn’t like any of the ones I imagined.
The vest shifted when she breathed. The collar brushed her neck, and it hit me again—my cut on her, my patch on that leather, my possessive instincts climbing up the walls like vines. Not because she needed a brand. Because the entire fucking world needed a warning label.
She was quiet for too long, and I knew what was coming before she opened her mouth.
“Mason…”
I knew that tone. I hated it.
“Don’t,” I warned.
“But—”
“No,” I said flatly.
“You don’t even know what I’m?—”
“You’re about to tell me to let you walk. Save it.”
Her shoulders pulled back, and there was a stubborn set to her jaw. The one I found so fascinating and so damn frustrating at the same time. “I’m serious, Mason. I don’t want to leave. But if I stay, they’ll bring this here. To you. To them.” She nodded toward my brothers. “You could all take the hit just for being in the blast radius. I won’t let that happen.”
The air in the office thinned. Kane didn’t move. Edge didn’t blink. Jax looked everywhere but at us.
“Angel—”
“I think you’re underestimating who’s on the other side of this,” she argued, turning to face me. The ring of gray around her pupils looked like stormwater cut by the sun. “These aren’t thugs who shake people down behind bars and threaten to smash kneecaps. They’re…clean. Professional. They have budgets and backup plans.”
“They bleed like anyone else,” I said with a shrug. “They just think they don’t.”
Kane straightened off the wall. The change in his posture made Edge’s knife disappear into his pocket without him looking at it.
Meeting adjourned.
“We move quiet,” Kane commanded. “Jax, keep pulling. Deviant, sit on his shoulder, slap his hand if he gets cute. Edge?—”
Edge nodded. “Already drafting a patrol schedule. I’ll ride the line with Rev.”
Kane’s gaze slid to me. He didn’t have to ask if I was good. He could see the answer. He gave me one short nod, then a softer one to Ashlynn. A sign of respect, not a blessing to her plan. Then he left as abruptly as he came. Edge followed, and Jax packed two of the laptops into the Faraday case and leftone open, muttering to Deviant about key ladders and checksum drift as he walked out the door.
Ashlynn stayed still for a moment after the door clicked and then stood so fast her chair legs squeaked. Her hands found each other and clasped, then unclasped, nervous energy searching for an outlet. Her eyes cut to me, and the fight was already on her tongue.
“I can disappear. Take the heat somewhere else.”
My blood was already boiling. Not just from the thought of her gone, but from the fact she actually thought she could walk away from me. That I would ever let her go.
