Page 31 of Axle
“Share,” I said, the word rougher than it needed to be.
Her giggle settled warm in my chest. “You hijacked my fork.”
“Semantics.” I fed her another bite because I could.
My phone buzzed on the counter, and I dragged my eyes away from Ashlynn just long enough to check it.
Jax
Got a ping. Elias’s last IP traces to a decommissioned Helix dark site. A server farm outside Crossbend. Supposedly shut down. Dirt lot, dead grid, cameras that don’t exist on paper, the whole pretty lie. Caught heartbeat pings on an internal test feed that shouldn’t be active. Leek might be squatting there—off-grid enough to hide, close enough to listen and see if the devil blinks.
My eyes cut to Kane’s. I jerked my chin toward the doorway leading to the short hall by my office.
“Be right back, angel,” I murmured to Ashlynn, letting my hand pass along the back of her neck in a touch that said laterwithout saying anything at all. Her lashes dipped like she felt it. She always felt it.
She gave me a quick look, curious but not suspicious, and turned back to her conversation with Savannah.
I stepped into the hallway, with Kane close behind. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, all coiled attention. He’d sent a text to Edge, so we waited a minute until he slipped out of the common room.
“Well?” Kane urged.
“Jax traced Elias’s last digital footprint,” I explained, my voice low. “Decommissioned server farm, fifteen miles out. Helix property once, but not anymore. He thinks Leek’s holed up there. Close enough to keep eyes on them, off their grid so they can’t sniff him.”
“Patterns?” Edge asked.
“Six-minute increments at certain hours, just like the babysits we saw in the logs. Same signature drift. Jax said it smells like him.”
Edge’s mouth curved in a slow, dangerous way. “We’ll put a team on it tonight. Eyes first. See if he peeks his head out. Once we’ve confirmed, then we go in quiet and bring him out breathing.”
Kane’s expression didn’t change as he watched me steadily, but the air sharpened around him.
“We verify,” he confirmed, his voice brooking no argument. “Don’t spook. If he’s our key, don’t want to smash the lock.”
“We get him, we get answers,” Edge added.
“Fine,” I agreed through clenched teeth. “But when you’re ready to pull him, I’ll lead it.”
Kane gave me a short nod. “Done.” Then he tipped his chin back toward the kitchen. “Go keep your woman from convincing Nitro he’s a chef. His head gets any bigger, and his hats won’t fit.”
I rolled my eyes as we slid back into the kitchen like everything was normal. And on the surface, nothing had changed: Nitro plated something green to make Savannah happy, Kane smirked at the attempt, and Ashlynn—my woman, whether she realized the permanence of it yet or not—was still on that stool, still wearing my vest, and still making the room better because she was in it.
Nitro said something under his breath, probably dry and cutting in that way of his. Ashlynn laughed, and laid her hand on his forearm, quick and innocent, the kind of touch people used when they liked someone without thinking about why.
Nitro’s eyes snapped to mine so fast his neck should’ve popped. His gaze flickered from her hand to my face in a single, surgical pass, calculating whether he needed to apologize, duck, or leave the state.
Run, asshole. Run far.
He jerked his arm back like her fingers burned and forced a grin. “Gotta keep standards high or Prez will dock my nonexistent pay.”
She laughed again. It wasn’t flirtatious—nothing about her was—but it landed on me like sandpaper anyway. The stupid, primitive part of my brain saidminein a voice that wasn’t a thought so much as a roar in my blood.
He lifted both hands in mock surrender, then quickly grabbed a towel and busied himself at the sink with a pan that didn’t need attention.
Ashlynn blinked, confused by the sudden space he’d opened, then turned toward me and saw the heat I wasn’t bothering to hide. Pink licked up her throat before she looked away too quickly to be casual.
I was past my limit. Past the calm nod and the slow burn and the reminders to myself that this was ridiculous. Absurd or not, I was beyond rational thinking.
In seconds, I crossed the space, slid an arm around her waist, and lifted her off the stool in one clean pull. She squeaked, hands flying to my shoulders.
