Page 47 of Axle
I huffed out a laugh, not because her answer was funny, but because it was perfect.Shewas fucking perfect. For a second, all I could do was look at her. My heart thumped hard, and my every instinct screamed for me to admit how I felt. But like thevest, I wouldn’t give her the words until nothing was hanging over us, so she knew for sure that I meant them.
I tucked the vest back into the box, set it on the dresser, and fisted a hand in the hem of the shirt she was wearing to pull her to her toes.
“Fine,” I growled, mouth slanting over hers. “But you'd better be waiting for me when I get back. Naked and in our bed. Because I want you wearing my brand and nothing else the next time I’m buried deep inside you.”
Color climbed her throat as her eyes flared, and her fingers bit my shoulders. “Just keep that picture in your head so it brings you back to me.”
I kissed her once more—hard enough to burn something into both of us—then broke away before my control was lost. I strapped on my blade at my ankle and holstered my gun at my hip. Then I took one last look at her standing by the bed, afraid for me, but with faith braided tight behind her eyes.
“Waiting for me, angel,” I said, voice low.
“Be careful,” she whispered. “Then be fast.”
19
AXLE
Edge worked the table like a tailor with a very illegal sewing kit. Pistols laid out in two rows. Mags stacked in fours, and suppressors lined up. He tossed me an extra mag pouch without looking up.
“Hydraulics?” Kane asked.
“In the van,” Edge replied. “Spreader and a mini pump. Nitro, stop petting the C-4 and load the breach charges.”
“Don’t kink-shame,” Nitro said mildly, sliding a shaped charge into a padded sleeve. “Besides, these are fucking art.”
“You’ll get to sign it later.” I checked the red dot sight on my sidearm, then snapped it down. “Piston and Fury on the rear. Nitro driving the van. I lead front with Kane on my six. Edge, you hug the panic room once we’re inside.”
Edge’s smile was thin and pleased. He loved a locked door the way I loved a tuned engine. He liked a challenge before catching his prey.
“Jax,” I called without looking, “you’re our eyes.”
He nodded, fingers already moving. “I’ll kill the mains and the backup on your mark.”
Then we rolled into the dark, the sky still lit by the moon even as the rays of dawn were fast approaching. We were cold and focused, but ready to burn shit down. Nitro took the van with his toys. Kane, Edge, Piston, Fury, and I rode. A small, deadly crew.
We killed the lights two miles out and ran black. When the road broke, we split—the van to the tree line Jax had scouted on satellite, our bikes fanned low behind palmetto so the fence line screened us from any eyes.
A fence ringed the safe house—eight feet, topped in angled wire. Nitro handed Piston a hook and line. Piston went up like he’d been born on it, silent and fast, then eased it for the rest of us.
We dropped into the yard like wisps of dark smoke.
“On me,” I murmured.
Two men were puffing on cigarettes under the eaves on the east corner, guns slung wrong and fingers sloppy.What kind of private security were these motherfuckers?
Edge silently took the left while I went for the nearest one. He saw me too late. Mine got his gun halfway up, and I put him down with a suppressed double-tap that made less noise than a dropped wrench. Edge’s blade flashed once, and his man folded sideways.
Nitro flowed from the shadow of the van, set a small charge on the gate latch, practically breathed on it with a micro-det, and the gate sighed inward like it had never wanted to be closed. We were through and moving.
“Jax,” I clipped over comms, “lights out.”
“Copy,” he replied. “Killing mains…and backup. Three, two?—”
The low hum that had been threading under the night cut off. The security floods tried to flare and failed. The little LEDs at the eaves guttered like dying fireflies. Somewhere deep in the house,a generator whined, but Jax knocked it fully out with a pulse that made my teeth sting.
“EMP kiss delivered.” Jax’s voice was almost cheerful.
We entered the structure, already knowing the floor plan with precision. A wide hall, two thick doors on the left, one on the right. Edge’s hand slid across the nearest pane. “Steel core.” He smirked. “The kind of hinges you sell to scared men.”
