Page 92 of Knuckles & Knives
“Damn,” he says admiringly. “You really do know me.”
“Which is why I know it’s a terrible idea that’s going to get you killed.”
“Maybe.” Axel moves away from the window, his restless energy channeling into the kind of focused intensity that makes him so effective in combat. “But I’m the only one who can get in there undetected. Dom’s too big, Marcus would leave electronic traces, Kieran’s face is probably flagged in every Sterling database by now, and you?—”
“What about me?”
“You’re too important to risk on a reconnaissance mission.”
“That’s not your decision to make,” I remind him, using the same authority that broke their protective rebellion yesterday.
“Isn’t it?” Axel challenges, and there’s something different in his tone—not defiance, but a kind of desperate certainty. “Raven, I’ve been waiting my whole life for something worth dying for. Something that makes all the chaos and violence and emptiness make sense.”
“Axel—”
“You’re that something,” he continues, his voice carrying raw honesty that strips away his usual wild humor. “You and this family we’ve built together. So yeah, if there’s intelligence that could protect what we have, I’m going to get it. Even if it kills me.”
My heart aches. Axel, who’s never belonged anywhere, who’s lived his entire life as an outsider looking in, has found something worth ultimate sacrifice.
“There has to be another way,” I insist, though my strategic mind is already acknowledging the tactical reality. Of my four men, Axel is uniquely suited for infiltration work—small, fast, unpredictable, and possessed of an almost supernatural ability to avoid detection.
“There isn’t,” Marcus says quietly, his analytical assessment confirming what we all know. “The building’s security systems are military grade, designed to detect and neutralize traditional infiltration methods. Axel’s… unconventional approach… is our best option.”
“What about backup?” Dom demands, his protective instincts warring with tactical necessity.
“Backup defeats the purpose,” Axel replies. “I go in alone, fast and quiet. If I’m not back in six hours, assume I’m dead and plan accordingly.”
“Like hell,” I snap. “If you’re not back in six hours, we’re coming in after you.”
“Raven—”
“That’s not negotiable. You don’t get to sacrifice yourself for this family without the family having a say in it.”
Axel’s grin is softer now, touched with something that looks like wonder. “Family. Yeah, I like the sound of that.”
The preparation for his infiltration takes two hours—studying building schematics, identifying entry and exit routes, establishing communication protocols, and planning contingencies for every scenario Marcus can calculate.
But it’s the personal preparations that tear at my composure. Watching Axel strip down to lightweight tactical gear, seeing him check and recheck his weapons with the methodical precision of someone who doesn’t expect to return, feeling the weight of goodbye in every casual gesture.
“Hey,” I call as he approaches the door. “Axel.”
He turns, and in the early morning light, I see past his wild energy to the lonely man underneath—someone who’s spent his entire life drifting between conflicts, never finding a place to belong.
“Come back to me,” I say simply. “To us. Whatever you find in there, whatever intelligence you gather, it’s not worth losing you.”
“I’ll do my best,” he promises, but we both know that sometimes best isn’t enough in our world.
“That’s not what I said.” I move closer, close enough to see the amber flecks in his dark eyes. “I said come back. Not try to come back. Not hope to come back. Come back.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says softly, and for the first time since I’ve known him, Axel’s restless energy goes completely still.
Then he’s gone, disappearing into the pre-dawn darkness with the kind of fluid motion that earned him his ghost nickname.
The waiting begins immediately.
Dom paces with increasing agitation, his protective instincts frustrated by the inability to act. Kieran monitors police scanners and emergency frequencies, looking for any indication that Axel’s been discovered. Marcus tracks every electronic signal within a five-mile radius of my father’s building, searching for anomalies that might indicate trouble.
And I sit in the center of it all, trying not to think about what it would mean to lose Axel—not just tactically, but personally. The wild, chaotic energy that brought light to our dangerous world. The man who sees poetry in destruction and finds beauty in the spaces between order and chaos.
