Axle's Brand (Death Chasers MC 3)

He has the audacity to look pissed. “There hasn’t been any word from anyone about girls getting—”

I sit straight up and interrupt him this time. “There won’t be talk about containers of slave girls getting stolen from the original thieves who stole them first,” I state flatly. “You guys are a lot of bells and whistles—muscle and fireworks. But my kind operate on a level that inspires stealth and pure silence. We own senators. We own governors. We own more than you could know, which affords us a certain amount of leniency. Even a war would go mostly undetected by anyone not caught in the crosshairs. It’s why I was shocked that Lathan found me so early on. It’s why I had to rush around for protection. It’s also why I couldn’t bring down any of my men to start working the jobs. The Families have a leak. One in a lot of power. One who told Lathan I was here.”

“Smitty,” he says immediately.

“It’s not Smitty,” I grind out.

“How can you be sure?” he fires back.

I look around. “You have rats too, right?” I ask rhetorically, since he just stated as much. He doesn’t bother answering that. “Is it Drex?”

His lips tighten, and I can see immediately I’ve pissed him off.

“That’s how I know. Smitty was my father’s friend like Drex is yours. Smitty refuses to take the business, though I’ve offered it to him multiple times. Because he wants me to honor my father’s wishes and continue on as the head, even though he still runs the business but doesn’t take the title—the title is everything. That’s why I know Smitty is not the leak. It’s too dangerous for him to be the head, anyway, and it’s his job if I’m dead. Besides, he knows I’m still here, and Lathan has guys tearing up New York in search of me because he thinks I ran home.”

I turn over, jerking the covers up over my shoulders as I stare at the wall.

“Everything we planned had to be changed, and if it hadn’t been for Sarah, I’d have been screwed and the entire plan would have gone to hell. A war would have been started. So I adapted. I adjusted. Something you do when lives depend on your actions,” I go on.

I blow out a frustrated breath, before continuing.

“Not that you guys understand that. You’re all brute power and no finesse. You can’t win a war with soldiers. You win a war with the right offensive plan. Otherwise, you just suffer a lot of casualties with no end in sight for when the bloodshed stops.”

I hear him moving through the room, and I close my eyes. “Don’t cross that pillow. It stays between us.”

“Your feelings got hurt and now you’re isolating yourself from us. That’s it? This temper tantrum is going to get you killed if you try to walk out of here and lie low without help,” he says with an edge of annoyance.

I keep my eyes shut.

“It’s not a temper tantrum. And your inability to trust is going to get you killed quicker than trusting too easily. I’ve told you everything. You’ve told me nothing.”

“I told you about the weak state of our club, and—”

“You’ve told me nothing I didn’t already know from Sarah. You explained it better, but you didn’t share anything new. Because you’re incapable of it. I just didn’t realize that until tonight.”

Because I’m a fool who thinks everyone is like me—ready to live while air is still in their lungs.

I feel him vibrating with fury because I’m using the same dismissive attitude he dealt me earlier. Then he snaps. “I just explained why I couldn’t look weak. You’re letting your fucking feelings—”

I jackknife into the seated position, my eyes flying open. “Weak? You think you’ll look weak? I get that, Axle; I really do. That argument is over. We’re onto the part where you still question my every move, and I can’t afford the time it takes to deal with something like that.”

“You can’t afford the time,” he says slowly, that edge still in his tone. “You fall into our laps with this ludicrous story, but everything you say shows how disorganized you are, while you claim to run an organized crime syndicate.”

Taking a deep breath, I clutch the comforter with both fists to keep from punching the arrogant idiot.

“I couldn’t grieve my parents the night I found out they died. None of us could. We all had to immediately step into our roles and pretend as though we were cold and callous to stop anyone from seeing how weak the loss had left us. We all had a part to play to stop chaos before it started. We couldn’t let Phillip win by giving in to our grief and losing our power. Don’t tell me about not looking weak. I get it all too well.”