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Axle
After taking care of the clean-up at both the abandoned farmhouse and the cabin, Axle and the Howlers returned to the compound. He took a moment to check in on Rex and Doc, where he found them both asleep. Rex looked a lot better than he had on the floor of Doc’s foyer. His color had returned and most of the blood had been cleaned off. Even the deep wrinkles of pain and worry that had been on his forehead were smoothed out.
Knowing Doc would take good care of Rex, Axle eased out of the room as quietly as possible and let them be.
He made his way to the clubhouse, where he found Crush, Nails, and Pike waiting for him in his office. As soon as he stepped in the room, Crush made her stance known, and Axle couldn’t say he was surprised.
“Dead. I want the bitch dead, and I want to be the one to take her life. Iwillbe the one to take it,” she growled, greenish-gold light flashing from her eyes.
Axle rounded his desk and sat down in his chair with a sigh, before he looked over at her and met her pissed off gaze. “I understand why.”
“Good. Then there’s no reason to argue.”
He glanced over at Pike and Nails, who were standing behind Crush’s chair. Both of them looked as if they agreed with Crush.Shit.He had his work cut out for him.
“She’s responsible fora lotof harm to our family,” Pike said carefully, and crossed his arms over his chest.
Axle sighed again. “I know. I get it.” The problem was he was going to have to fight her on it. He just prayed to the gods she would see his point of view before the discussion got too heated. “I need you to hear me out, first.”
Crush shrugged. “Say what you want to say, but I doubt my stance will change. I have arightto avenge my sister.”
Axle was about to out his club brother, and he was sorry for that, but he didn’t see any other way. “Lucifer’s home club caused much worse and did horrible things to members of our family.”
She scoffed. “He was a prospect.”
She wasn’t wrong. Lucifer was a member when they raided the clubhouse of the Indiana chapter of the Hell’s Dogs MC, but barely. He had been patched in earlier that same day. The members of the Howlers and the Claws that had gone down there had killed the rest of the remaining members, except for Lucifer. Crush had insisted he remain alive, and she basically kidnapped him. She saved his life and brought him back with her because he was her mate. There was a discussion about whether or not to take him out as well, with Crush allowing the clubs to vote, but in the end, the majority of members couldn’t justify killing a member’s mate without giving them a chance to prove themselves.
The situation was much like what they were dealing with when it came to Messer.
“Yes, he was, but he was a part of the club who committedhorrendousacts against our family. You left that vote up to us because you knew you couldn’t be impartial. If he wasn’t your mate, we would have ended him that first day without an ounce of regret. We saved his life foryou.”
She huffed out a breath. “What does my mate have to do with anything? He’s proven his worth. He saved Sugar, and he fought beside the clubs in the war. You’ve given him a prospect cut, for fuck’s sake. What does his past have to do with the fucking hunter?”
Axle met her gaze head on and calmly stated, “She’s Trick’s mate.”
The room drained of sound, even the clock on the wall didn’t tick as the second hand went around.
After several long, silent moments, Pike threw his hands up and bit out, “Well, shit.”
And just to push his point home, Axle told her, “I know you have to put your club first and will need to bring it to the table. I have to bring it to mine, and I will, but I can already tell you what my brothers will say.”
Pike uttered, “We won’t kill his mate.”
“And if my sisters demand her head?” Crush slowly rose to her feet. “Then what?”
Axle did the same. “Then our partnership is about to face its biggest test… because wewilldefend our brother.” He watched as a million different emotions filtered across her face before she sighed. He took that moment to soften his tone and say, “You, of all people, should understand how Trick feels.”
“We’ll see how the clubs vote,” she ground out, but Axle could see the empathy in her eyes.
Crush
The rage was still coursing through her as she stomped across the street and around the strip mall, but it was tempered a bit by doubt and empathy. As she headed for the door at the bottom of the stairwell that led to her apartment and the Tiger’s Claw MC church room, she saw Lucifer jogging toward her from the other end.
“Need a minute?” Nails asked her as they stopped at the door.
Crush gave a nod. “Call all the girls together. Emergency church. No exceptions.”
“You got it, Boss Lady,” Nails replied and walked back the way they came, pulling her phone from her pocket.
