Axle's Brand (Death Chasers MC Series #3)

by C. M. Owens

  Maya says nothing as she takes another damn shot. Holy shit. How much has she had? And how is she still standing? In roller skates, for fuck’s sake.

  My hand snakes around the bottle, halting her from pouring more. She stares at my hand with a scowl, but refuses to turn around.

  “Set up the room and grab the others,” I tell Dash without taking my eyes off Maya.

  He walks away without a word, and I press in closer behind her, feeling her shudder. I assume that’s from fear, but with her, it’s hard to be certain. I can’t even remember the last time a girl wanted me—really wanted me. If ever. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t the only option remaining.

  I also wonder if Maya’s reasons are only because she thinks I’ll keep her safe.

  Fuck me. This is not an issue I need to have right now.

  CHAPTER 11

  MAYA

  Axle presses in closer behind me, not releasing my new best friend—tequila. It’s not as strong as I’d like, but that’s what happens when you spend years drinking with guys like my father and his friends.

  “You have secrets you’re about to share,” he says against my ear, pressing even closer from behind me. “And you don’t have to fuck someone for protection. No one is going to touch you like that. But you could die if you’re dragging us into shit without our knowledge. Understand?”

  I swallow the lump in my throat, the steady burn of alcohol losing its edge too quickly. I spin around, which causes my forehead to bump the bottom of his chin before I look up.

  He doesn’t back away, so I stand my ground as well.

  “You can threaten me all you want, but when I tell you who I am, you’ll know just how stupid it would be to actually kill me.”

  He steps even closer, and I shudder against him again when I feel the heat of his body touching so much of mine. His hand coils around my hip, tugging me even closer until my chest is smashed against his hard body.

  He stares down, while I stare up.

  “Thought you didn’t like being touched,” I bite out.

  His lips twitch. “Sarah really did tell you a lot, didn’t she?”

  “More than you know. She included the fact that you get violent when someone touches you. But she didn’t tell me how you got your scars, or if that’s why you don’t like being touched.”

  I keep my hands at my side, careful not to touch him as I let him drive this encounter. I’m not stupid enough to think my small arsenal of badassery could compete with the man before me. A man close to 6’3 or 6’4.

  He’s not big and wide, but he’s solid and strong. He’s right in the middle of bulky and lanky—in the best possible way. But it also means he’s strong and fast instead of big and slow, or fast but weak.

  The haunted, light blue eyes tell me he’s ready to back any threats he ever makes, and that he’d enjoy doing it.

  The most lethal combination that can exist has me pressed against him.

  “She doesn’t know where I got the scars. Only Drex does, and Drex doesn’t talk.”

  “And the touching thing is related to them? Why are you touching me if you hate it so much?”

  He smirks as he continues to stare down at me.

  “I don’t hate being touched. I just hate being touched when I don’t want to be.”

  He releases me and backs away so fast that I almost fall forward. I didn’t even realize I was leaning against him until he stopped being so close.

  I blow out the breath that has been trapped for a few seconds and he cocks his head as Dash—who is no longer No Name—calls for us.

  I look over, seeing Drex disappear into the room Dash is beside. A girl is pressed against Drex, and she gives me a timid, uncertain smile when I catch her staring.

  “Go,” Axle says, gesturing with his head.

  I push off from the bar, and I skate past a lot of curious eyes that have been watching me since I came down here. I continue to pretend not to notice them. Show fear, and predators attack much faster.

  Lesson one in surviving in the wild.

  As I slide into the room, I notice that Cold Eyes—also known as Rush—is already in there. Beside him is an older bald guy. Drex is at the end, and the girl is in his lap.

  She studies me, that timid smile still on her lips, almost as though she’s worried for me. As much as I don’t want to tell them who I am, Sarah told me this was coming.

  It pisses me off that she asked so much from me, but she’s done so much for me that I owe her. And since I know who she is and what she’s likely doing out there right now, I decide to give her this.

  Because what she’s doing is searching for Phillip Jenkins—the man I want dead more than anyone else. That’s why Sarah took me in.

  We’re fighting the same war.

  The war against her father.

  The door shuts as Axle walks in, and he leans against it. Jude is sitting close to Drex, his finger running over his lips as he studies me with a death glare.

  I’m on the other end of the table with no one near me, so I take my time looking them over one by one.

  “You need to talk,” Drex says. “Tell us who you are and why you asked for our protection six months ago.”

  Never mind; I decide Sarah has asked too much. It’s too risky to tell them the truth.

  “Lathan is crazy,” I say with a shrug. “He’ll come after me.”

  “You have enough money to buy legit security if you’re not doing anything shady enough for the legit guys to turn you in,” Jude bites out. “Tell us the truth.”

  Apparently they’ve gotten smarter over the past six months.

  “Lathan is crazy, but he’s still my brother. Legit guys would turn him in to the cops, and Lathan owns a lot of them, so he’d come after me twice as hard. Legit guys aren’t prepared for criminals.”

  Heh. I almost convinced myself with that story. I’m an awesome liar.

  Drex flicks a gaze toward Axle, and the girl in Drex’s lap winces before looking away. Before my mind can send off warning bells, Axle has me out of the chair, and my breath leaves as he tosses me onto the table. My back is smashed flat, and he grabs my wrists, pinning my arms above my head as he glares down at me.

  He steps in between my legs as my heart pounds heavily in my chest, and my eyes stay locked on his.

  “The truth, Maya. No lies,” he says quietly.

  I’m not such an awesome liar, after all.

  He hasn’t hurt me yet, but the threat is clear. He will hurt me if he has to.

  His earlier warning about me being untouchable in one way didn’t extend to life and death.

  I don’t need to be forced. I’m wise enough to know when the game is over. And it’s definitely over. I’m not probing to see if he’s bluffing.

  “Blackbird,” I say on a long breath.

  Everyone in here grows silent for a few moments. Axle looks confused as he releases my hands and steps back. I sit up quickly, my back to the rest of the room as I perch on the edge of the table. The only person I can see is Axle, so I stare directly at him.

  “My family is Blackbird.”

  Axle’s jaw grinds, and he takes a seat in my vacant chair. I slide off the table in front of him, and I take the chair next to his, casting a wary glance at him, wondering if he’s just going to toss me back up there.

  When he doesn’t make a move, I look around at the rest of the table, who are all studying me intently. Except the girl. She looks adorably clueless.

  “What is Blackbird?” the girl finally asks.

  “One of the biggest bookie legends in all of New York,” Drex answers, looking at me like I’m a lying piece of dog doo on his shoe.

  “Let’s say we believe this,” Jude says bitterly as he leans up. “What’d you do to your family? Because we already know what AJ did to hers.”

  “I didn’t do anything to my family. I’m still on good terms with them,” I explain.

  They all exchange glances of disbelief.

  “I cam
e to Halo because Phillip Jenkins is setting up shop and bringing girls across the border for his sex trafficking ring. And I’m making his life hell by stealing his girls and sending them to safe houses until they can be taken back to their countries-slash-families.”

  Deadly silence falls on the room. My eyes drift to Axle to see him relaxed in his seat, but his eyes burn through me.

  I turn my attention back as Jude laughs bitterly. “Of course you are. Makes sense why AJ sent her here. She wants to drag us into her family’s drama by handing us another girl who wants Phillip dead.”

  “Actually,” I say, lifting a hand, “Sarah gave me explicit orders not to drag you guys into this mess at all. As of six months ago, my brother thought I was here to locate him, convince him to come home, and try to clear his name—which isn’t the case. Phillip is unaware of the plan I have in place. Lathan now thinks I’m back in New York. Sarah aided in that. If Phillip learns of the plans I have and about my place in Halo, I have to leave and take the trouble with me. Because if harm comes to this club because of me, Sarah will become AJ and my worst enemy. Lots of bodily harm threats went along with that speech.”

  My eyes stay fixed on Jude, but he looks away, his jaw tensing.

  “You knew Sarah?” Drex asks, drawing my attention. “Before six months ago? Or are we to believe this all happened by chance?”

  “I knew of AJ,” I say, shifting my gaze to him. “But I’d never met her. We all knew she was Phillip’s ghost of a daughter and favorite assassin. Until he betrayed her and she betrayed him in return. Before then, if you saw her and knew who she was, it was because you were her next hit.”

  I lean forward, rapping my fingers on the table, knowing this breaks all the rules to tell them everything.

  “Imagine my surprise when I found her in the unlikeliest of places on a night that I almost died. The devil herself became my ally. I’m her only tie to the Four Families.”

  Drex studies me like he’s searching for a lie, and his arm tightens on the girl in his lap. I’m not completely sure who she is, but I assume it’s Eve. Sarah didn’t have time to tell me much on the way to the warehouse, but I’ve heard her mention Drex’s girl before.

  I just don’t know if that is his only girl or not.

  “Four Families,” Drex repeats, then curses.

  “What?” the girl asks, confused.

  “The Four Families are what used to be the Five Families,” I go on. “There are Families all throughout that run underground things. Arms dealers. Drug lords. Gambling rings. You name it. They own the major ports. Have them on payroll so they can import and export at will. The only thing they don’t allow is sex trafficking.”

  “Which is what Jenkins is doing,” Axle says from beside me, his voice settling over me like a calming force.

  I nod without looking at him.

  “Phillip wanted to bring that into our city. My parents argued against it, because they had a daughter themselves. Most of the Families do. Believe it or not, we’re not all monsters. We’re mostly regular people with skewed morals. You want to gamble but don’t have the money to pay it back? Then that’s your own fault, and your body parts get broken or come up missing. You want to snort your way into an early grave? Someone has to make money off the blow, and it’s your choice to be a fool. But sex trafficking? Not our cup of tea.”

  “You keep saying it like you’re still part of the Families,” Axle says from beside me, and my lips twitch as I turn to face him.

  “I am. Hence the reason I said you could threaten me all you want, but killing me would be a terrible idea.”

  No expression is on his face, but his eyes are intense as they take me in. I return my attention to everyone else.

  “This is bad. We can’t get mixed up in all this when we have enough issues of our own,” Dash tells Drex, running a hand through his hair.

  “Herrin being our biggest issue at the moment,” Rush adds.

  “As I said, I don’t want you mixed up in it. You demanded answers; you’re getting them. None of this has anything to do with you. I just need a place to lie low and conduct this experiment. And you guys can supposedly conceal anything. I need you to make concealed compartments for girls in the vehicles of my choice. It’d save me a lot of time to take them across the Mexican border and get to the ports where we own people. Since it’s in Mexican Cartel territory, I need it to be extra savvy and discreet.”

  The girl slides off Drex’s lap, moving in behind him as he leans over the table, his fingers clasping together.

  “Why the cars?” he asks.

  “Because you need money, and I need a better solution to hiding these girls,” I say with a smile.

  “But no way we get dragged into this war?” he asks, unconvinced.

  “It’s no different than you selling to drug dealers who are at war with other drug dealers.” I shrug one shoulder. “No one will know I’m here. And if Phillip catches wind of my plan, I’ll leave. It’s that simple.”

  He still doesn’t look convinced as to why they should even bother.

  “AJ wouldn’t risk us, yet she sends this shit right into our club,” Jude says with an eye roll. “It’s too risky. We can’t be fighting battles outside of our own.”

  This time, I lean back in my chair, a cold smile on my lips. Drex is still staring at me.

  “There’s a reason she wanted us to know, isn’t there?” Drex, the only perceptive one, asks. “Why do you want him dead?”

  “Because two and a half years ago, when we were still the Five Families, Phillip ordered a hit against the heads of the other four Families who were meeting in secret. He was the fifth, but he couldn’t be there because of prison, and his proxy never showed up. The same night, there was a bomb. All the other heads of the Families were killed.”

  An audible breath leaves almost everyone at the table, as though they’re piecing together what I’m saying.

  “Phillip expected to be able to take over the ports and run his sex trafficking business without interference, but the Four Families had kids—like me—who have been groomed since birth to take over the businesses. Growing up where anything you do could end up in a death sentence as a consequence makes you a little different from your average person. I’m the sanest one of them all, if that tells you anything.”

  They all exchange a look, and I smirk.

  “Phillip is only alive now because he linked up with the Mexican Cartel. They protected him in prison. They now protect him here in Halo, hiding him as he uses this for a base of operations,” I go on.

  They all exchange another look, and I know what they’re figuring out. Jude is about to storm out of this room if I’m reading him right.

  “So she didn’t come here to hide from her father. That was yet another lie. She came to find him and kill him,” Jude says quietly.

  He stands so fast that the chair flips over, and he stalks out of the room just as I predicted. I cut my gaze to Drex, since he’s running this club.

  “The Four Families are all funding my plan to get rid of Phillip,” I tell him, going on like Jude didn’t just slam the door on his way to get far away from this conversation. “His guys came here even before Phillip managed to get out of prison. We have an inside person feeding us information about the container drops. If I hit enough locations and steal enough girls, the money he’s getting from the Cartels will eventually become more cost and less profit. They’ll cut him out and take away his protection if his problems cost them too much money. It’s a slow game, but if it’s effective, the heads of the Families will be patient.”

  Drex looks to Axle, and they have a silent conversation. Axle leans up, his arm brushing mine. I don’t pull it away, and he doesn’t move.

  “That’s why Sarah wanted us to know. That’s why she wanted you here,” Axle says gruffly.

  I nod slowly, assuming he’s put it all together.

  “Like I said, the new heads of the Families are all a little crazy. I’m Sarah’s one link to th
em; her one link to know what’s coming before it comes. Because if my slow plan fails, the psycho kids will blow Halo all to pieces to kill Phillip, and the war with the Mexican Cartel will be inevitable.”

  “And it won’t matter if we get dragged into the mess,” Drex goes on, his jaw tensing. “Because we’ll just be collateral damage along the way.”

  “Which is why she wants me here. You’ll be granted special concessions for aiding our endeavor—living and all that. The Families will go through me before they make any decisions, because they hope my plan succeeds. They’re crazy, but even they want to avoid a war with the Mexican Cartel.”

  I can feel Axle’s gaze on me, but I don’t turn around and risk getting caught in his freaky eye lock that seems to render me stupid. Drex curses before running a hand through his hair.

  “Sarah is actually helping us by sending you here,” Axle finally says.

  I face him more fully, and I nod. “Yeah. Because if I say run, you’ll survive the hell that will rain down on this place. The Families haven’t been this poised on the trigger since the eighties. The last time the young ones of that generation took over.”

  “What about your brother?” Axle asks. “What part does he play in all this?”

  I had wondered what business they had with my brother that night. Now I know. He planned to use their special abilities the same way I’m about to. They just didn’t know it was for girls instead of drugs.

  “My brother will be the one Phillip thinks is feeding the Four Families information,” I explain, my eyes locked on his pale ones.

  “Why?” he asks, but then I see it the moment he figures it out without me saying it.

  “Because my brother is the traitor who set the bomb for Phillip, and now he’s working for him.”

  Something suspiciously close to pity crosses his eyes, but I just look away. I remember not wanting to believe my brother capable of it. Then he held a gun on me and demanded to know what the Families were saying about him. You get more answers from someone when you listen to their questions.