Page 43 of Axle
Elias hesitated, and I understood why. Some men mistook their cage for control.
I stepped closer, let him read my face for whatever he was hunting.
“She’s alive,” I reminded him, because sometimes the sentence you repeated was the only one that mattered. “You did your part. Now let us do ours.”
His gaze cut to the lanyard, back to me, then over my shoulder toward the stairwell like he could see all the way to my clubhouse and the woman sleeping in my bed in my shirt with her hand tucked under her cheek and my kid nestled in her belly.
“Okay.” The word was barely audible, but we heard it.
Edge jerked a thumb at a canvas duffel under the milk crate. “That yours?”
Elias nodded and picked it up.
“Slow,” I instructed Nitro, “and off-grid. You take the phosphate plant road. If you see a tail by the county line, double back, put him in the maintenance yard at The Pit for an hour, and let the dust settle.”
He nodded.
Back up the stairs, the night met us with a wash of warm air and the smell of pine sap and old dust. The moon had shifted. Nitro got Elias on his bike and slotted in behind him in case he slid. Elias held on with a grip that made me think of a drowning man who’d just reached the lifeboat.
Nitro saluted with two fingers before he kicked his bike to life with a soft thud. Elias looked small between the big machine and the even bigger biker as they slipped down the dirt lane, then bled into the dark.
Kane straddled his hog and looked at me. “You good?”
“Fine.”
It wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t the whole truth. When I got home, I’d put my palm on Ashlynn’s belly and know I wastouching something I couldn’t fix with a wrench if someone broke it. And because of that, I wanted the world quieter than it had ever been. I wanted Bellatrix Creed dismantled until nothing was left. I wanted to take The Ledger and light it in a field and watch it burn so the world wasn’t torched by it.
17
ASHLYNN
Isurfaced from sleep at the dip of the mattress, twisting to look up at Mason as he slid under the covers beside me. He pulled my back against his chest and settled his arm over my waist, the weight solid and familiar. He didn’t say anything right away, only molded his body to mine like we’d been sleeping together for years instead of weeks.
“You’re back,” I murmured into the dark. My voice was still thick with sleep, but my brain was already wide awake, chasing answers to questions I hadn’t asked yet.
“Yeah.”
I rested my hand on top of his forearm, noticing how tight his muscles felt. “What happened?”
“Jax is on it.” His low voice almost blended with the steady thump of his heartbeat against my ear. “Go back to sleep, angel.”
It wasn’t an answer. Not really.
The part of me that hated being left out wanted to press, to roll over and catch his eyes and make him give me more. But the warmth of his hand on my stomach and the way his thumb dragged idly against my skin through the fabric of my borrowed shirt made it harder to keep my grip on that stubborn edge.
Figuring it could wait until morning, I let out a slow breath as my eyelids pulled shut again. Mason’s presence anchored me, the faint weight of him at my back enough to pull me under. I always slept better when he was here—as though I knew deep down inside that the darkness couldn’t touch me with him standing guard.
The last thing I was aware of before drifting off again was his fingers flexing against my stomach, a protective little squeeze that followed me straight into my dreams.
I was grateful for the sleep when I woke up the following morning because I was back on the bathroom floor before the sun was even up, knees digging into the cold tile again while my stomach twisted and heaved for the second morning in a row.
Mason was right beside me, as though he’d expected it. Ready to gather my hair and stroke my back, he kept me anchored while the worst of it passed.
When I finally sagged forward, breathing hard, he eased me upright against his chest and reached for the glass on the counter.
“Rinse,” he murmured, holding it to my lips.
I swished, spat, and croaked, “I think your kid’s trying to kill me before it’s even born.”
