Page 56 of Axe
“I say we wash our hands of this,” Crow spoke up again. “We’re barely keeping our head above water when it comes to Savage, and now…if we are going to take him down, we can’t take the chance on anything. You say you believe her, but I don’t. I don’t know the first thing about this chick. I don’t trust it, not one fuckin’ bit.”
I understood his anger but that didn’t mean I liked it. Stone and Crow were close and while Stone’s death shook us all it tore up Crow inside and out. I didn’t want to lose any more brothers, especially at the hands of Savage, but Allison wasn’t a threat. Sure, if he knew she was here and that we were helping her out, he wouldn’t hesitate to get her back and I had no doubt he would burn everyone that stood in his path. But I just couldn’t see them wanting to turn her away like that.
“At the same time…” Bocca breathed out, the stress of the last few days was starting to show on his face. “We are not the kind of men who leave a woman and a child defenseless.” His normally bright blue eyes seemed dull and tired.
My eyes cut to Diesel’s. The death stare he was shooting at me made me stiffen. He was pissed and maybe I couldn’t blame him. I only wondered if he was going to snap and lose his shit.
“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if we didn’t at least try to help out somehow,” Tank said. As my gaze managed to pull away from Diesel's to look at him, I could see a trace of humor in Tank’s eyes.
Tank was calling me out without really calling me out. The big fuck had all the reason to hate this situation and want to tear her apart just to get to Savage, yet he wasn’t. With his simple, yet substantial, words he was letting me know that he was standing by my side. I gave him the smallest nod of appreciation and his lips twitched in response.
Sometimes it was nice that the hulking jackass knew me so well. Times like this for example, when I clearly had shit going on in my head and was about ready to jump out of my seat and say my peace, but couldn’t actually do that. He was there, reading my every thought and helping me out like a brother should. I fucking loved that man!
“No,” Diesel said, his voice low and controlled. I found myself holding my breath as he spoke. “Is one life worth all the shit we’ve had to go through?” His eyes cut over to Tank’s as if he was trying to make a point.
I couldn’t blame him, he didn’t know the truth. No one did. Not even Cal. When Tank had informed me that his son was still alive, I told him I’d keep his secret knowing it was what was best. I assumed Grass was in a safe place and it needed to stay that way. And while Tank’s little boy Grass was alive, it didn’t mean that Tank could make up for all that time he’d missed out on with the boy. Or the fact that his life had been completely turned upside down for a few months.
“Or the lives we could be risking if we did help her out?” Seven added. His voice held an edge to it that I hadn’t heard before and the strange thing was, his face looked almost regretful when he spoke. He was on the fence about it even if his defenses were up.
“She made her bed…” Crow said giving his head a hard shake.
I waited, hoping that Cal would take control of the situation. I knew he wanted to hear what the brothers had to say but, shit, this was getting out of hand.
“Now wait,” Cal said, his face a mask of stone, giving absolutely nothing away of how he felt about the situation. “What if I told you that she didn’t have no choice in the matter? Huh? She’s been his slave for the past seven years, and that’s puttin’ it lightly.”
“We could use her as bait,” Crow spoke up. “Tell him we have found her, set up a meet, put a tracker on her. She could help lead us to his compound. Then we could finally take the fucker out.”
“The fuck you will!” I fucking roared as I shot up out of my seat. The room went dead silent, and I was pretty sure they all had stopped breathing as their eyes grew wide in my direction.
“Alright. Enough,” Cal said in a stern voice. “Fuckin’ settle down.”
The room remained silent as everyone shot daggers at each other with their eyes. It didn’t go unnoticed to me that most of those daggers were aimed in my direction.
We were dividing. This wasn’t good. This was what Savaged had wanted us to do all along and the thing was, it wasn’t him that was making it play out this way. It was over a scared and abused woman who happened to, for lack of a better word, belong to the Devil himself.
“We’re takin’ vote here tonight,” Cal said taking command of the room again. “Tomorrow, I got the other chapters ridin’ in. I only think it’s right to include them in this, also think they need to know. This is what I can come up with. This is what I got, we cut the girl and boy loose and act like we’ve never seen ‘em, or we keep them safe. If it comes to war, then we fight. It’s been a long time comin’ anyway. But absolutely no harm will come to them by our hands, you get me?”
He paused and though the room was tense, everyone nodded to let him know that they understood his order.
“Now,” Cal continued on. “Let’s vote. For giving them our protection.”
Cal’s eyes turned to Crow.
“Ney,” Crow said and his eyes looked down at the table.
“Aye,” Tank said next, his gaze hard set on mine. I gave him an appreciative nod.
Bocca hesitated for a long minute. The room was as still as his face, his eyes unfocused as he stared at the insignia in the middle of the table.
“Ney,” he said after taking in a deep breath.
I clenched my jaw trying my best to hold back my shock. I thought for sure he would have been all for saving the girl. I couldn’t deny that I felt the panic shoot through my heart.
“Now let me explain myself,” he went on and since it was his right to defend his vote, so the room stayed silent. “I don’t think it’s right to leave her out there all alone. I think that she needs protection and I think she should have it. But I don’t think it should be the club. We have enough resources and know enough people to find someone to hand her over to. Hell, it might be better if she was away from all of this shit anyway.”
Alright, fine. He had a good point and an idea to back it up. I respected that and maybe was a little less mad. I got where he was coming from and if my feelings weren’t so askew when it came to Allison, I might have voted that way too.
“Ney,” Diesel said his eyes cut over to me. “I can’t fucking believe you. You brought her here to the fucking club. You let her walk right in. You let her around Jessica like it was any other day. Around my damn woman and my kid. Don’t you think that Ellie’s been through enough? And you didn’t even give me a goddamn heads up about that shit. What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
