Page 106 of That Girl is Trouble

He’s quiet for a beat, and then he says, “When I tell you to do something. Or not to do something—”

“I know,” I snap.

“No. I don’t think you do. I don’t order you around to be an asshole. I do it because I want to keep you safe.”

I cross my arms. “And what are you keeping me safe from right now? You?”

Snorting, he lays off the bag and then grabs the towel draped over a nearby bench to wipe the sweat from his face. “I’m not afraid I’ll hurt you. I told you to go to bed because I don’t want to look at your face. I don’t want to see the mark. I don’t want to hear the details. Because if you tell me when I’m like this, I’m gonna get right back into the truck, drive out there, and fucking kill him. And I can’t do that. Not yet.”

Tossing the towel back onto the bench, he closes the distance between us. The smell of sweat and man and body wash drifts into my personal space as he gets closer. I take in his chest, his body. It’s distracting, all flexed and shiny like that. But Axe pulls up my chin, drawing my eyes up to his.

“What the fuck were you thinking? Do you have any idea…” His words trail off, and he scrubs his hand over his face, letting out a long breath. “You know what I think? I think that you don’t care what kind of shit you get yourself into. I think you’re happy to walk in front of a moving truck with a big fucking danger sign flashing front and centre because you know that no matter what you do, I’ll be there to pull you out of it. I’ll always be there to protect you.”

I shake my head. “It’s not like that.”

“Then what’s it like? Explain it.”

Tears burn behind my eyes, and I pull away. I need to put space between us, but Axe grabs my arm so I can’t run. “I—I don’t know. Okay? I just… I thought I could handle it. I didn’t think… I didn’t—”

No matter how hard I try, my mouth can’t string the sentences together. Axe is right, isn’t he? Since that first night he pulled me from my old bedroom, shirt torn, face bruised and blood covered, there’s been an unspoken promise between us. He’ll protect me. He’ll keep me safe. He’ll make sure that whatever shit I get myself into, whatever trouble I find, I’ll come out the other side in one piece.

It’s that feeling I’ve been clinging to. I’m so terrified of losing it that I was willing to put a bullet in a man’s head to protect it, to protect him.

So yeah, maybe somewhere deep down I knew that tonight, no matter what happened, he’d find a way to show up. And he did.

“You’re right,” I say finally. “I like it. Knowing I can depend on you to be there. It’s… stupid, but sometimes it makes me feel…”

“Invincible?”

I bite my bottom lip. “I get so damn scared sometimes, you know? I let that quiet creep in, and all I feel is empty. And weak. With you, it’s all gone. With you, I’m… fearless.”

Shaking his head, he says, “You were fearless long before any of us met you, Kat.” He traces his thumb over my bottom lip, capturing me in this hard, dark gaze, the look sending tingles racing through me and eliciting a desperation to touch him I don’t want to fight. “It’s good to be scared. I want you scared. Fear reminds us we’re still alive. My whole life, I haven’t been scared of anything, and it made me fucking reckless. So reckless that I got thrown into a cage. And that’s the thing that fucking haunts me every damn night. It’s what makes me hesitate. It’s what makes me stop and think and hold my fists back so I don’t keep swinging until there’s nothing left. And tonight, that thing that holds me back completely disappeared because of you. Because you were in trouble, and that’s all that mattered. I didn’t stop and think. I didn’t hesitate.”

He grabs my hand and presses it to his heart. The thrash of his pulse thrums hard against my palm.

“Feel that? It’s what you do. Every fucking time I’m around you. You make my fucking heart beat so goddamn fast, sometimes I can’t breathe. But if something happens to you, I swear it’ll fucking stop. You got it right. I will always be there to pull you out, to protect you. But I need you to think about that, what it means, what you’ll be sentencing me to if shit goes south.” He swallows thickly, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I would have crushed Rossi’s skull with my fists tonight if I hadn’t been pulled off him. I will kill for you, Kat. Don’t ever doubt that. But I’d rather not have to, so please, babe, just…” He lets out an exasperated sigh. “Will you just fucking do what I say sometimes?”

I laugh, but it comes out as a sob. I can’t stop the tears when they start to fall. His face softens in that way it does sometimes, and he drags his thumbs over my cheeks, wiping them away, flinching when I flinch as he touches my throbbing cheek.

“Where else?” he asks, scanning me for more bumps and bruises. When I don’t answer, he lays light kisses on my cheek, over my tears, and down to my lips. “Where else did he hurt you, Kat?” he asks again.

I point to my scalp, where it’s painful to touch, and he kisses there too.

“He’ll die for this. I promise.”

“You know him.”

“First time I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him in person,” he says dryly. “But yeah, I know him.”

“How?”

“It’s complicated.”

“I’m smarter than I look.”

Axe sighs and releases me. He grabs a water bottle from the bench and chugs half of it, then wipes his mouth and says, “Vic Rossi has been at the other end of every shitstorm that’s hit the club for the last two years. He’s responsible for supply issues, heat with the feds. He’s the reason Graves almost lost his life summer before last. The man who put out a hit on your sister. And—” He puts the water bottle to his lips, taking a long, slow sip, his eyes on me, like he’s stalling for some reason.

It dawns on me then. “Jesse,” I say through clenched teeth, a hot jolt of anger heating my blood. My next words come out as a yell. “And you didn’t think to mention that? Why the fuck is he still alive?”

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