Axel (Reapers MC Book 17)

by Elizabeth Knox

  “Shit, I’m so happy for you, man. You seem so at peace, more than you have been in a really long time. Natalie and the girls are right for you, that’s for damn sure.”

  Grim smiles widely and nods. “Yeah, they’ve made an irreplaceable impression on my life.”

  I told Grim I’d spend some time with him here today helping him and the girls pack up while Natalie and Ashley went out for a girls’ day. Both of those ladies deserve it for everything they do for the club. Ashley’s about ten times as involved as most of the ol’ ladies, but the Reapers are her family’s legacy. Meanwhile, Natalie doesn’t only work at a chiropractor clinic, but she’s paid to meal prep for everyone at the club. Sometimes we’re so busy that cooking isn’t exactly on our list of important things to do.

  We already took the girls out for ice cream and had enough time to watch a movie, now they’re off in their room packing away the few things they don’t play with constantly so Grim and I can load it up in the back of my truck and I can store it in one of the units we have at the club.

  Over the course of the day, I haven’t minded spending time with him or the girls at all. They give me a totally different outlook on kids because they’re not bratty at all. Noelle was a damn terror when she was a toddler and I remember the way I told all the brothers I wasn’t gonna ever have kids. I don’t know if I will, but it’s not ‘cause I think they’re bratty little fuckers. I just gotta find the right woman.

  “Weird,” Grim mutters under his breath.

  “What’s up?” I ask, lookin’ to my brother.

  “It’s a bit past eight and they’re not back. How long has it been since they went to the mall?” As he’s asking me, I’m trying to do the math. We got here a bit before eleven in the morning and started our day shortly thereafter.

  “Around eleven this morning, and don’t worry, man. They’re probably enjoying their first kid free time in ages. Don’t worry until you have to.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right. It’s getting late so let’s get the girls to bed,” Grim says, rising from the couch.

  “Bro, you gotta be kiddin’ me. It’s ten after eight. Why they goin’ to bed so damn early?”

  Grim turns to look back at me and shakes his head. “There’s this thing called school. I know you don’t remember much about it ‘cause your ass barely went, but unlike you, these girls have perfect attendance and when they’re in bed by eight-thirty they do a lot better. Even Sorcha has perfect attendance at daycare now.”

  “Alright, alright,” I mutter, following my brother’s orders as he tells me exactly what I need to do and how to keep the girls on track. Grim ends up helping Sorcha a bit more, but she’s not five yet so she requires a little more help than her older sisters. For the most part Aggie and Davina can do everything they need to on their own. Hell, they even brought the totes out with their toys and took the initiative to pack away some clothes they weren’t wearing now that it’s not too briskly cold out these days.

  Just as Grim’s shutting the door to the girls’ bedroom and tells them goodnight his phone rings back on the coffee table in the living area. Since he’s talking to one of the girls, I go over and see Ashley’s name coming across the screen so I answer it. “Hey Ash, it’s Axel. You two okay?”

  “No, I need to talk to Grim right now, like right this instant.” Her tone is panicked and rushed, so I walk over to where Grim is and hand him the phone.

  “Man, it’s Ashley. She sounds a bit upset,” I tell him, keepin’ it real with him. I’ve never been the type of dude who doesn’t shoot shit straight.

  He takes the phone, mouthing ‘thank you’, and speaks to Ashley, asking her what’s going on. I hear the words ‘bleeding’ and she apologizes to him over and over again, though I’m not sure why. I stand back and watch as his stance changes and he keeps nodding his head, then lowly asks her questions every chance he gets the opportunity.

  “Okay, I’ll be there as soon as possible. I’m leaving right now,” Grim says on the phone before he says ‘bye’ and then disconnects the call, sliding the cell into the back of his jeans. “Look, I gotta go. Natalie’s bleeding and something’s going on with the baby. I need you to stay here and watch the kids. You gonna be cool to do that?”

  I nod,. “Yeah, get goin’. I’ll be fine with the girls.”

  Taking my advice, Grim rushes out the front door, starts up his bike, and flies out of the trailer park to whichever hospital Ashley said Nat’s at. I make my way over to the couch and sit down, then scan up to the popcorn ceiling. “God, if you’re up there, please don’t let anything bad happen to this kid. It’ll break him and I don’t think he’ll survive losin’ two kids before he even met ‘em.”

  Chapter Two

  I’m tough. I’m ambitious. If that makes me a bitch, then okay

  ~ Madonna

  Rosa

  “This is the most exciting shoot I’ve had in a long time, honestly.” Octavia beams as I’m lying against a black backdrop on the studio floor, with different shades of red, white, and black roses surrounding my body. There are vines with thorns, knives, and guns as well, in addition to a few other props. “I’m so glad you came up with this concept, and God, I needed to shoot this.”

  Octavia’s careful to only include my lips and below, and sometimes she snags a different angle of my nose and below, but never has she taken a full facial shot of me. I have reasons for not showing my face and considering she prides herself in the Vixens having their photographs taken in an artistic manner, it’s always worked well in my favor.

  Octavia clicks the camera numerous times and the softboxes flash. I can’t wait to see how these look when she uploads them to her laptop, but before she can we need to get this entire set out. After giving me some instruction, she gives me two roses to put over my exposed breasts, then shuffles some of the thorns out of my way and tells me to roll on my side. I always hate poses like this because gravity pulls any sort of blubber downward, but no woman is perfect. We all have a little jiggly wiggly to hold onto, whether it’s our ass, muffin top, or love handles. For me, it’s love handles, but just like the name I’m learning to love them instead of hate them.

  I’ve always loved photoshoots and I’m all about body positivity, but the one thing that would completely crush everything is if my face was ever shown, especially to the wrong person. When my father was alive, he was a very hated man. Hell, even I hated him at times. But at the end of the day, I did love him because he genuinely tried to prepare me for this shitshow we call life. He wasn’t a good man, and he certainly wasn’t a perfect one, but he was my father. We have to deal with the cards we’re dealt, right?

  My thoughts drift to my father while doing the shoot and Octavia immediately stops. “I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours, but I think I have everything I need. You need me to help you get up, or do you got it?”

  “No way in hell am I gonna make a pregnant lady help me get up,” I immediately respond, waving her off. “Go upload the photos, I’ll be there in a minute after I get decent.” I place the flowers down on the ground next to me and carefully rise, sure not to step on any thorns, knives, or anything else that might hurt me. For this month I wanted to upload some content throughout that would document me as a ‘dangerous woman’. The song by Ariana Grande ended up inspiring me a bit, and Octavia and I have shot so much over the past few days. This way I can upload something every three days or so, and still have additional content in case I want to upload something else at a later time.

  I manage to get over to where we have some of my outfits hanging and slide on a silk robe I usually wear in between shooting sets, then walk over to the computer area and peer behind her. The color of the images always blows me away, especially when she’s in Lightroom and she’s doing her thing. I swear, without Octavia behind the lens I wouldn’t be anywhere. Right now, I have about five-hundred-thousand subscribers on the website who pay the company nine-ninety-five a month, and I get forty percent of that. N
eedless to say, I’m doing very well.

  I’m the Vixen with the highest subscriber amount and a couple of the girls have a hundred thousand, but for some reason the subscribers like my content more than their own. Maybe it’s the mystery of who I am, or the way my photos are taken . . . I’m not sure, but Bambi is the second highest with almost two hundred thousand. The rest of the girls range from fifteen thousand to a hundred thousand.

  We did just get a couple new girls, and while they only have a couple-hundred subscribers, it’s a culture shock going from not making any money to bringing in a thousand dollars a month easy. Octavia’s a godsend for some women and she knows how to make the photos marketable too.

  “How are things going now that Inc’s here?” I ask Octavia for the first time. We’re good friends, aside from our business relationship but I’m never too pushy or go digging for information. I hope she realizes I’m not trying to dig, that I’m just wondering how she’s doing with such big changes happening in her life.

  She smiles lightly, pausing from her work on the laptop and looks right at me. “It’s going great. I mean, not only is it amazing to have him here for Neo, but for Zane and I . . . this is the type of relationship we always wanted. You know? I’m just so thankful things worked out in the end.”

  I give her a soft smile and Octavia grows a bit quiet, though I’m not sure why, I won’t dig. If it’s not my business then it’s none of my concern. Plus, if Octavia wants to talk to me about it then one day she will. It makes no sense for me to try and push her into doing anything.

  “Natalie’s going to be in the hospital for a while,” Octavia says, clicking through photos and putting them into different folders on her laptop.

  “Oh, did they say how long?” Natalie’s been in the hospital for a few days now and I don’t have all the information, but one thing I do know is how it’s never good for a woman to be in the hospital when they’re pregnant.

  Octavia lightly frowns. “From what Zane said, Grim told him it could be until the baby’s born. They’re doing whatever they can to keep him inside until his lungs develop a bit more.”

  I furrow my brows, seriously concerned. “How does stuff like this happen? I don’t understand.”

  “Natalie was diagnosed with a placenta abruption, basically they’re doing everything in their power to keep the baby in and she’s under twenty-four-seven monitorization. I know Grim’s been at the hospital with her as much as possible, and Axel’s been watching the girls for them . . . but I can only imagine how damn scared they are,” Octavia murmurs, wetness forming in her own eyes.

  This is exactly what makes her a good friend. Octavia empathizes with everyone, no matter what the situation is. She tries to understand it from someone else’s point of view and wants to help people as much as possible. “When I was texting with Natalie, she told me she’s taking steroids to help get his lungs to develop faster and they’re watching his heartbeat very closely. It just sounds so damn terrifying. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, you know?”

  “Yeah, so, why don’t we do something fun and exciting for them then?” I suggest, already having thought of the perfect plan.

  Octavia’s eyes sparkle with mischief. “What’re you thinking?”

  “So, the baby shower’s supposed to be next weekend . . . right?” I question, already knowing the answer.

  Octavia nods once. “Yeah, why?”

  “I say we take the baby shower to her and let her know from her hospital room how important she is to us, and how much we love her.”

  “Gosh, she’ll freaking love that.” Octavia beams, smiling widely. “As soon as I’m done editing your photos, I’ll go tell Ashley and we can get together and plan something special. Obviously, we’ll have to change some of the plans we had prepared for next weekend, but we’ll make it work.”

  “Hell yeah, we will, and I think we should get some preemie diapers and clothes just in case she does give birth. It might help make her feel more prepared, and I’m sure they haven’t even thought of getting that stuff with everything going on. You know?”

  Chapter Three

  For those I love, I will do terrible things

  ~ Unknown

  Axel

  “First things first, how’s Natalie doing?” Zane questions Grim, who’s here for church. Zane normally texts us out of nowhere that we’ll be having church in a few minutes, insinuating for all of us to get our asses there as soon as possible. With Natalie being in the hospital he can’t really be doin’ that right now, not with Grim basically livin’ in the cramped chair in her hospital room. Meanwhile, I’ve been watchin’ the girls for them and I gotta give them some props. I don’t know how the hell they do it. The older two aren’t too bad, but fuck, Sorcha can either be a terror or a complete angel. Though, most time she’s a terror. Grim even told me not to bribe her but fuck if I won’t. He’s not the one here with her, so he doesn’t get to tell me how to get her to do what I want. I’m not a damn kid whisperer or whatever, so I make it work.

  My brother clears his throat, a sure sign he’ll get emotional if he talks about the situation too much. Natalie’s his entire damn world, so the thought of losin’ her or the baby is slowly crippling him day by day. I keep tellin’ him he doesn’t need to worry about shit though because Ruby and I will help as much as we can. Plus, the club is lending a helpin’ hand where they can too. Octavia and Ashley have been taking over doing all the meal prepping, and even some of the Vixens chip in where they can. Ashley will take Sorcha off my hands for a few hours a day so she can play with Noelle, and it really tires her out by the time I’ve got her and she has to get home and ready for bed.

  He isn’t alone, and I hope he realizes this shit. “She’s a strong woman, not actin’ like any of this is affecting her but I know better.”

  Zane nods his head in understanding, “I have no doubt she’ll pull through, that both of them will. Whatever you two need from us, you let me know, alright?”

  “Sure, Prez. Thank you,” Grim replies.

  Out of all the clubs I know about, I don’t think anyone has the same sort of unity we have. Sure, some clubs might have a brotherhood, but we’re a family.

  “No thanks needed. But, I’m gonna keep this shit short ‘cause I know we all got a fuck of a lot to do around here. Since Natalie’s in the hospital I’ve asked Ashley, Octavia, Rosa, and Shiloh to rotate cooking for the club. I don’t want anyone to be worried that the slack isn’t being picked up around here. We’ve got plenty of hands, so we’re going to lend a helpin’ one wherever we can, and speaking of that, my aunt Roxy said if Davina and Aggie want to come over to her house and have sleepovers with Jordyn and Nova they can. My sister already spoke up and said Noelle and Sorcha can have sleepovers for the next couple of days too. Everyone needs the break, brother, even you, and even if you don’t want to admit you need one.” Zane shifts his gaze from Grim right over to me.

  I sit up a little straighter. “All due respect, but watchin’ the girls isn’t an issue. They’re my brother’s kids since he and Natalie are together, so they’re my responsibility,” I speak up, looking to Zane and then back to Grim.

  Even from across the table I can tell Grim’s happy with what I’ve said. In all my life I’ve never been a fan of kids, but I’ve never minded his. Hell, I never minded the girls at all when Natalie started bringin’ them around. They’re respectful as hell and even though they get crazy and at times are a little too much, I care about those little shits. Just won’t admit that to either of their parents.

  “You’re right, they are, but you’re takin’ a break for a couple days and that isn’t a request. It’s been almost a week since Natalie’s been in the hospital. You’re allowed to have a couple days off too, so you are,” Zane declares, giving me the impression I shouldn’t be fighting him on this any longer.

  I just need to suck it up and accept it for what it is. “If you don’t mind me takin’ the floor, I want to let y’all know somethin’ before ou
r ladies surprise anyone too badly,” Blackjack mutters, chuckling from under his hand. He takes his hand away and smirks while Zane gives him a nod in approval. “Seems Rosa, Octavia, and Ashley are planning on takin’ the baby shower to Natalie in her hospital room. They wanna show her that she can still enjoy her pregnancy, even though she’s trapped in there. Now, I don’t know the protocols or anything about if she can have visitors, how many, or any of that . . . but I’m hopin’ by tellin’ you that we can work with her nurses to make this happen. We wanna make sure this shit is safe for her and the baby, you know?”

  “Damn, we’re fuckin’ lucky to have everyone here,” Grim states, lookin’ around the room. “Thank you, brothers. Seriously, thank you so fuckin’ much for doin’ all the shit you have been and are still gonna do. It really shows us how important we are to not only the club, but y’all too.”

  “Like Zane said, no thanks are needed,” Blackjack speaks up.

  Zane clears his throat and cuts in, “Before I let you get back to your lovely lady, we should get to business now, shall we?”

  A group of ‘ayes’ and ‘yeahs’ ring out from around the room.

  “As you all know Inc is now here as our regent from the Satan’s Raiders MC and we promised Breaker we’d send one of our own. Inc told me Breaker chose him and threw his ass up here, and while I’m not here complainin’ about it . . . I don’t run shit the way Breaker does. I propose we put this to a vote,” Zane tells the room, lookin’ around so he locks eyes with every person. “I was going to propose we nominate Axel and Hammer considerin’ they don’t have ol’ ladies . . . but everythin’ goin’ on with Natalie right now . . . I don’t feel right nominatin’ you, brother. Grim’s relyin’ on you a lot right now.” Zane looks from me and his gaze immediately shifts over to Hammer. “You’re the only full patch we have here man, and I don’t feel right sending a prospect down, not until they prove themselves to me.”