Page 20 of Ignite
Waiting for Axe to show up was torture. I poured another Scotch as I tried to take the edge off while I played the waiting game.What the hell was taking them so long? Surely, they’ve accessed the hospital footage and the street cams by now.I tried to calm myself by making myself comfortable on the couch. I was just about to turn on the TV when the phone in the suite buzzed. My time alone with Kenzi had come to an end. I downed the rest of my Scotch before walking to the phone on the small desk near the sliding glass door.
I inhaled a lung full of air before answering the call. “Hello,” I said anxiously.
“Mr. Stevenson. I’m sorry to call so late, but a Mr. Riley and a Mr. McBride are here to see you,” the hotel clerk said politely.
I knew Axe very well and had only heard about Levi McBride. I scratched my head for a moment, wondering what Axe was doing with Levi. As far as I knew, Levi had been arrested. This was getting more interesting by the minute. The clerk mentioned nothing about Davian Cross being with them, so I took a chance and said, “You can send them up.”
~
It didn’t surprise me that I got a fist in the face when I opened the door. Axe was pissed and stormed into the suite. “Where the fuck is she? Where is Kenzi?”
I wasn’t sure how I did it, but I managed to shake off the blow and pin Axe to the wall before he got in another punch. I held him against the wall with my forearm tightly pressed to his neck while I looked him in the eye. “You need to settle down so I can explain. Do you honestly think I would allow you to come up if I didn’t want you to see Kenzi?”
My words must have soaked in because he forfeited his resistance and dropped his arms to his side. “I’ll listen to you, but if I think you’re lying at any point, I’ll make sure you never speak again.”
“Fair enough,” I said as I looked over at the man standing in the doorway and holding the door open. “Who is this? The front desk clerk said you were with McBride.”
“West McBride, meet River Stevenson,” Axe said as he looked toward the bedroom and then at me. “If you hurt Kenzi in any way, I’ll kill you.”
“Kenzi is fine. She might wake up with a little headache, but that is better than what could have happened to her.” I moved my arm and stepped back. “We need to talk.”
“Damn straight we do.” Axe hissed as he pushed past me.
The way he moved away from me, I thought for sure he was going to Kenzi, but instead, he stood just outside the bedroom door and looked in. Turning my way, he gave me a deadly look. “Did you undress her?”
I was guilty, but not in the way he was thinking. Moving toward him, I took hold of the bedroom doorknob and pulled the door closed. “I know what you’re thinking, but it's not like that. I wasn’t sure how long it would take you to find me. I thought she would rest more comfortably in a nightgown than in her clothes.”
Axe stood by the bedroom door, his hands balled up in a fist, ready to explode with anger. If I had been in his shoes and Kenzi was my girlfriend, and he had taken her, I would have felt the same way. In my heart, I knew Kenzi would never be mine. I lost that privilege when I lied to her about Van and Niles being my brothers.
Placing my hand on his shoulder, like we were best buds, I held out my hand, pointing it towards the living area. “Shall we talk?”
Axe was adamant about not moving, but when he finally moved away from the door, I was glad this moment didn’t take another turn. He could have beaten the living shit out of me, or at least tried, and then taken off with Kenzi. Thankfully, he had enough common sense to hear me out.
I didn’t want to press my luck with him, so my best bet was to take a seat across from him—out of reach. But, before I did that, I looked at Axe and West. “I could use a drink. How about you two?”
In unison, Axe and West held up their hands and said, “I’m good.”
Picking my glass up off the glass table, I poured myself three fingers of Scotch before taking a seat. I downed most of it before I explained why I had taken Kenzi. “Thank you for hearing me out,” I began. In my experience, showing appreciation tended to lighten the resentment toward a person, namely me. “I became aware that my brothers, Van and Niles, had a warrant for their arrest. It pains me that I didn’t learn about their plan to hurt Margot Horton until it was too late. Margot was only a diversion to get Kenzi to come back to Atlanta.”
“And you know this how?” Axe interrupted.
“I know this because I wasn’t about to make another mistake with her. Ever since Kenzi learned about them being my brothers, her life has been in danger. I made you aware of this when I reached out to you. The day I saw you at the restaurant, I knew exactly what you had planned. I could see the microphone planted under the table a mile away. I think Van and Niles learned about it as well. That is why they could disappear before the police got to them.”
I watched Axe’s reaction as I spoke. He was dealing with a lot of emotions. His head fell to his hands like he knew what I was saying was the truth, and he might have been the cause of putting Kenzi in danger. Keeping his head lowered, he asked, “Why didn’t you tell me this before you drugged Kenzi and kidnapped her?” His head popped up, and his riddled eyes met mine. “I could have made sure she was safe.”
There it was. The question I dreaded answering. In my heart, kidnapping Kenzi was done to save her life, but it was much more than that. Deep inside, I had hoped she would see how much she missed me and want me back when she woke. The lie I had been keeping from her would no longer separate us.
I broke our connection and downed the rest of my drink. I placed the empty glass on the table and looked toward the bedroom door. “I couldn’t chance that you wouldn’t get to her in time. I couldn’t let anything happen to her.” The truth was, I wanted to be the one to save her. I wanted to be the first eyes she met when she woke up.
“Bullshit.” Axe rose to his feet and moved toward the bedroom door. “You kidnapped her for your own personal gain. You wanted Kenzi back in your bed.”
I wanted to stop him, but West was up on his feet, holding me back before I could. So many emotions were going off inside me. I wanted to fight him off, but it was no use. In the end, it didn’t matter because a loud crash sounded inside the suite before Axe could get to the bedroom. I looked toward the suite door only to find Van standing in the doorway with a large man towering behind him.
Van reached inside his jacket and pulled out a Glock. “Where is she?” he asked, his eyes wandering around the room, scanning every inch.
“You are going to have to kill me first before I’ll let you anywhere near her,” I pushed West away and stood straight and tall in front of my brother. We were face to face and at any moment, he could have pulled the trigger and shot me. But instead, he stood still. It was like a standoff. The only difference was he had a gun, and I didn’t.
“Don’t be stupid, bro. Is a woman really worth more than your life?”
