Axle

by Trent Jordan

  Sure enough, when the smoke and fire came into view, we could see it was Brewskis that had fallen.

  And almost immediately, the gunfire erupted.

  The construction nearby provided us a place to take cover, but the cover was nothing like what we had in Afghanistan. It was poorly, not even halfway done, and I could already hear the cries of my friends in the Black Reapers taking wounds or being killed.

  “Get down!” Butch yelled as he pulled out a machine gun and laid waste to several Fallen Saints across from him.

  I could scarcely believe what I was seeing. Butch wasn’t just laying out fire—he was stepping in front of some of the wounded Reapers to provide cover. Maybe he’s not the spy.

  Inspired, I did the same. I stood up, laid down as much fire as I could, and then took cover immediately after. I didn’t know how many Saints I killed, but I did know that this type of battle was unlike anything I had ever experienced outside of war. This isn’t outside of war. This is fucking war.

  We traded bullets. Casualties mounted on both sides. I nearly got hit, a bullet whizzing so close to my head I could hear the bullet fly by. Butch took a shot to the shoulder, and Patriot took one in the thigh, but still, we kept on shooting. Red Raven, in the back, used a sniper rifle to take out Saints wherever he could, physically unable to fight as he once had.

  But as time went by, as we failed to gain ground, as the Saints lobbed grenades and started to move forward, I began to realize that they weren’t fucking around or content with holding position. They really had come to end us once and for all. They had come to do whatever it took to kill us all.

  “Lane!” I shouted. “It would be real nice to have some backup help right now.”

  Lane looked at me and dropped his head.

  “It would.”

  That means it’s not coming.

  “Then we’d better damn well clean up this mess before they show up, so we have bragging rights,” I said.

  I refused to believe any other possibility. Until I was no longer conscious and my soul had left my body, until everyone around me had perished, until the Fallen Saints could truly declare that they had wiped us all out, I would not accept any other outcome. I had seen too much shit in war and in life to ever believe that things could ever be dead.

  I stood up to fire, and a bullet struck me just inches from my heart. I fell.

  “I got the boyfriend!” one of the Saints yelled. “Oh, shit! Parker, I’m gonna kill him and his girl, one right after the other!”

  Rose...

  When she came to mind, the feeling that came was immediate.

  Love.

  I loved her.

  Through all the fighting, through all the madness, through all the arguments we’d had, no one had ever made me feel like she did. No one could comfort me and make my soul at ease like she could.

  If that wasn’t love, I didn’t know what was.

  “Fuck you!” I roared at the top of my lungs, turning back over my cover.

  The bulletproof armor had saved my life. There’d be an ugly bruise on my chest, but a bruise was a sign of the living. It was a gift I could not waste.

  With time slowed down, I had a clean shot right at the man who had yelled. I pulled the trigger. He dropped dead.

  I turned the gun to his friend. He, too, dropped dead.

  I turned the gun.

  But this time, there was a Saint about to fire on me. I couldn’t get my gun over in time.

  And then the Saint dropped dead.

  “The fuck?”

  And then I heard chaos on the other side. Screams from the Fallen Saints echoed across everything. The gunfire stopped coming at us, but it kept going to them. I knelt down and stared, stunned at what I saw.

  A new MC had shown up and was attacking the Fallen Saints. The Saints had fallen into complete madness. They eventually retreated, but not before I noticed that one of them had the body of Lucius slumped over their bike.

  And just like that, the battle ended.

  “Fuck yeah!” Butch roared, and everyone else raised their gun in triumph, yelling at the retreating Saints.

  And then I saw Lane, his eyes watering and his lips quivering, stepping across the street toward where the Saints had been moments before, and where the new MC stood. And then I saw someone else on the other side dismount their bike and remove their helmet.

  And even though I had been the one to suggest that they make amends, I still couldn’t believe my eyes.

  Cole Carter...

  The two shook hands and exchanged some words. I couldn’t hear what was said, but I knew that the exchange was friendly. I just had to hope that this peace, this reunion of sorts, was permanent and not just a quick fix.

  Just like I knew I had to go and make a permanent fix with someone else. I had to stop making temporary half-measures.

  I had to solve something once and for all.

  Rose

  I could hear the gunfire from my apartment.

  Whatever was happening was going to change this town for a long, long time. I knew Springsville wasn’t the safest place in Southern California, but I always figured the violence remained relatively contained. Not anymore.

  Fortunately, the gunfire didn’t seem like it actually lasted that long. Maybe three, five minutes at the most. I was sure to those in the middle of the fight, it must have lasted an eternity, but as an outsider... hell, five minutes was probably a stretch.

  But it only takes one bullet to end LeCharles’ life.

  I tried not to think about that, instead choosing to cuddle and hold Shiloh as he curled up as close as he could to me, but there wasn’t really much I could do but hold out hope and wait. If you make it through this, come to me. We’ll make things right. And we won’t let things dissolve as they had before.

  The silencing of the gunfire only told me that the violence wasn’t continuing. It wasn’t enough to tell me that LeCharles was safe. For several minutes, I paced around my apartment, trying to pass time, trying to hope and pray that this was the end—the end of the danger for LeCharles, the end of the nonsense.

  And then, about half an hour later, a knock came at my door that freaked me out so much I actually screamed. The door busted open, and LeCharles stood there.

  “Jesus, are you okay?”

  “Oh my God, LeCharles,” I said.

  And then I did something seemingly ridiculous. I just started laughing.

  Because, really, after all that, after thinking someone was coming to attack me, after thinking LeCharles was dead, what else could I do but laugh?

  “You okay?” I said, noticing a bulge around the right side of his chest.

  “Just a bandage. I’m fine.”

  “That’s a bit large for a bandage, don’t you think?”

  He chuckled, shut the door behind him, and took my hand. He walked me over to the couch, sat me down, and smiled.

  “You know, the previous twenty-four hours, I’ve thought a lot about what you said to me yesterday evening,” he said. “I thought about how you pulled me out of one of my darkest spots. I thought about how you said going through the same experience made you strong. And you know what? I think it made me strong by making me forgiving.”

  He chuckled.

  “God, put that down for something I thought I’d never say. I just mean, I thought I was being strong by being aggressive in pushing you away. I was so cruel to you because I didn’t want anything to do with you. But in truth, I was just scared about getting hurt again by you. But I recognize now I had to let it go. I had to let things go, not just with you, but with others. Obviously, we can’t let the behavior repeat itself. I’m sorry for everything I did. And I forgive you for the things you did.”

  I smiled and squeezed his hand back. I moved in and hugged him tightly, listening to his still-rapidly beating heart. He might have gone through a lot of hell the last couple hours, but I could hear his heart rate go higher as I squeezed him tighter. It was as if being with me made him mo
re excited.

  “I forgive you too,” I said. “I’m sorry I let my temper get the best of me when we had that fight. But I’m glad you ran into me at Bottle Revolution.”

  LeCharles laughed.

  “So you’re keeping that job, huh? Isaac didn’t care that you left work early yesterday to see me?”

  “Funny thing, that,” I said. “He didn’t say a word about it.”

  “Not one?”

  I shook my head.

  “And he messaged me earlier, in fact, to say the place looked pristine. So either he’s had a lot of really crappy employees before me, he doesn’t care, or... I don’t know, maybe he knows that sometimes it’s needed? I’m not sure. I’m just happy I was able to help you.”

  LeCharles nodded and again pulled me in for a hug.

  “There’s something else I need to say,” he said. “Something that I’m a little scared to say, but I feel like it has to be said.”

  “Sure, what’s up?”

  He sighed, looking as nervous as I’d ever seen him, and I didn’t see him nervous that often.

  “When I was out in the battle, the two assholes that said they were going to take you taunted me about that,” he said. Just recalling them left me sick. But I let LeCharles continue. “Right before I went after them, I thought about you. And I realized... I love you. It may not be the typical kind of love that some partners have for each other. Our relationship, if you want to call it that, our dynamic, is certainly anything but typical. But that love pushed me through this wound. It pushed me to save you. And because of that, those two are gone. You don’t have to worry about them any more.”

  The truth was, I felt the same way. I very much felt the same way. But I didn’t want to show it with words.

  I gently put my hands on his face, not wanting to touch any body part that may have been wounded, and pulled him in for a kiss.

  And as soon as he reciprocated the kiss, I knew we weren’t going to stop ourselves like we had last time. We were going to give everything of ourselves to the other. That was how I was going to show LeCharles that I loved him.

  At first, we just remained passionately in each other’s smooch, unwilling to do anything to alter our position. It was like we had found just the right spot to unlock maximum connection, and we both knew that moving would eliminate that.

  But at some point, the physical desire to be with the other became far too much to ignore, and soon, we were collapsing onto the couch, LeCharles pushing himself into my hips, causing me to moan every time he pressed in deeply.

  “Oh, fuck,” I breathlessly moaned as he kissed my neck. “I need you, LeCharles. I need all of you.”

  LeCharles at first just proceeded slowly as he had that night a couple of weeks back, taking his time working his way through my body, running his hands under my clothes and over my sensitive skin. As he rubbed my breasts underneath my bra and squeezed, his mouth moving to my belly button, I was sure that he was just going to continue until he got to my sex.

  But instead, he surprised me by sitting up, wrapping his hands around my lower back, and lifting me up off the couch and to the bedroom.

  “Woah!” I screamed in delightful surprise.

  Not only did I not expect it, I had nothing to compare it to. LeCharles had never done anything like that before.

  After a brief duck to make sure I didn’t bang my head on the door entrance, we collapsed onto the bed. LeCharles briefly left me so Shiloh couldn’t interrupt, and this time, when his hands curled into my jeans and underwear, I did not resist. Nor did LeCharles hesitate.

  And just like that, I was exposed. I was his to have. It was exactly where I wanted to be.

  By now, LeCharles had the good sense to know all of the foreplay had finished. There was nothing more to build up. We’d been doing that for about a month now, with some moments more vigorous than others. He pressed his mouth right onto my sex, kissed, and then pressed his tongue onto my clit.

  “Oh, Jesus, LeCharles... ”

  I could scarcely believe what he was doing to me. My heavens, I hadn’t felt this way since... since…

  Since the last time we dated.

  It was true.

  I’d had other partners in that span, but none had connected with me like LeCharles did. There was just something about him that had made him the one. I’d denied it for almost a decade, believing I would grow out of it and find peace and happiness somewhere else.

  It was a good thing life gave second chances. Because now, I was not ever going to try and ask for a third. This was meant to be, and this was going to be forever.

  That sentimental feeling—I would call it sappy, but it felt so real and so sincere—only furthered the speed at which he pushed me closer and closer to climax. I ran my hands over his head, squeezing my nails in as my legs squeezed around him. LeCharles stopped for nothing. He didn’t even come up for breath once. I swore I had never seen or felt a man so determined in oral than right now.

  And then, within the span of just seconds, far quicker than it normally happened, I went from realizing I was at the point of no return to actually climaxing.

  Holy fuck!

  My mind just went blank as all of my body rushed and pulsed with the warm waves of orgasm. I was not Rose so much as I was just one with LeCharles in this epic feeling of climax. Fuck, fuck... I had no further words for it. I didn’t even think I wanted to form words for it. It felt like forming words... Oh, God.

  Finally, I pushed him back, laughing at the ecstasy of the lingering feeling. A full body massage for an hour couldn’t compare to what I was feeling right now.

  “Jesus,” I said. “Where did you get so good?”

  LeCharles chuckled sheepishly as if he worried the question was a trap. It wasn’t. It was just said in awe.

  “I just... I just wanted to pay you back,” he said. “For giving this a shot.”

  Oh, I couldn’t believe him—and I meant that in the best way possible.

  I pulled him forward into a kiss and helped remove his jeans. I reached down with my hands and felt his rock-solid cock, just waiting to come inside of me.

  “I don’t have—”

  “Don’t,” I said. “You’re the one I want. Whatever happens, happens.”

  It was my way of saying I wanted him inside of me. I wanted him with me forever. And I wanted him by my side for whatever happened.

  “You sure?” he said.

  Yes, I was a little caught up in the moment. Yes, I was driven a little bit by physical lust.

  But, yes, yes.

  “Come on,” I said, kissing him. “Make me come again.”

  “Well, in that case.”

  We both laughed, my laugh cutting off into something of a half-moan as LeCharles entered me and filled me. His thrusts started slow and in control as he kissed my lips furiously and passionately. Whenever my lips weren’t on his, I was gasping for air at how he could seem to fill me, quite literally getting balls deep. I couldn’t exactly say I’d forgotten his size and girth, but there was only so much one could remember of a feeling.

  So, in some ways, yeah, it was like having it all over again.

  I had meant my line about making me come again as a lighthearted joke, but actually, LeCharles did just that before we even changed to another position. There was just something about how he was angled on me and how he filled me that left my hips clenching, and my body quivering as another orgasm rolled right over me. Fuck, was he good.

  “What do you want?” I said as I came down from the orgasm.

  “What do you mean?” he said, slowing down. “I want you.”

  I shook my head.

  “I mean what do you want to come with,” I said. “You’ve gotten me twice. Least I can do is make you come once.”

  “I suppose that’s a fair trade, huh?”

  He pulled out and rolled me over.

  “Stick your ass up. I’ll do it like this.”

  I did as commanded. And then, with a grip strength I
had forgotten, LeCharles grabbed my hips, put himself inside, and pounded away.

  Of course, the pleasure of his dick in me was immense, but the part that was most pleasurable was just how forcefully he took control. It almost felt like when he was on top, he was being almost a little cautious, as if afraid that if he went too hard, he might do something I didn’t like. But whether empowered by the position or by the second orgasm, he grabbed me and went at me like he controlled everything about me.

  I fucking loved it. This was the LeCharles I wanted in bed. Maybe not outside of bed, but here? Oh, fuck, yes please!

  “Oh, shit,” LeCharles said in an urgent tone.

  I could feel him swelling in me. I reached back and tried to fondle him, urging him on.

  “Come for me, baby,” I said in as sexy a voice as I could manage. “Fuck, yes, LeCharles. Come in me, baby. Come.”

  “Ohhh, fuck.”

  His thrusts became more staggered and more forceful like he was trying to make every one the one that made him come.

  “Fill me, baby,” I said. “Give me everything.”

  “Fuck!”

  And then, with a cry, he came. He came with a lot more force and cum than I could believe, and his orgasm lasted several seconds as his cock swelled and expelled inside of me. Oh, fuck, that was so hot. It was so hot to know I could still make LeCharles come like that.

  Finally, he finished. His hands were sweaty, his body was shaking, and his breathing was heavy. I flipped my hair and looked back with a sense of pride at him, and he just chuckled.

  “I... oh, my, oh... ”

  “Lost for words?” I said teasingly.

  He could only sheepishly nod. He pulled out and collapsed forward. I quickly went into the bathroom, cleaned up, and cuddled up next to him, with him in the same spot as when I’d gone into the bathroom.

  “So do this again in half an hour?” I said.

  LeCharles laughed.

  “Of course, gotta make up for lost time.”

  I didn’t want to be “that girl,” but I felt compelled to make a point.