AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You look like you’re gonna fuckin’ bust at any time, man. I know that feeling.” Axle’s openness was surprising, even if I had no fucking clue what he was talking about.
“I’m just fine.”
He laughed. “You sound like a woman who just wants someone to give her a hug or something.”
I bit back a snide comment, knowing that it wasn’t above my brother to deck me right in the face. “Nah, just a lot going on in my head.”
“Yeah? Like the battle between good and evil or some shit?”
I hesitated, thinking about the way I wanted Hallie to look at me, and the past that felt like it was affecting my present more than ever these days. “Uh, I don’t know.”
“If she won’t accept this lifestyle, she ain’t worth it, Gunner.”
“It’s not that. She’s been more than accepting—she hasn’t even asked the hard questions about what I did all those years ago, not yet, anyway. I just know that when she does, it’s going to scare her even more than it did before. I can tell she doesn’t want me around her kid and shit.”
Axle chuckled. “I mean, most women don’t want us around their kids. I don’t see that as a surprise.”
“Coming from the man who’s probably fathered more than he can count on two hands.”
“Shut the fuck up. I know how to wrap my dick.”
“So, what’s the point of this conversation again?” I ignored the remark, eyeing Hannah’s black SUV as it pulled into the parking lot. Even through the windshield, I could tell she wasnothappy.
Wonder what that’s about.
“I just want to tell you to get your head back in the game. I can see you’re all over the fuckin’ place, and everyone else might think it’s funny, but I don’t. Women are a fucking distraction, and you’re letting the past and pussy cloud your vision. I can see it.”
“Well, who knew you were a therapist.” My gaze stayed focused on Hannah climbing out of the SUV, shooting me a look just before Viper appeared from the garage.
“I’m not kidding.” Axle’s threatening tone brought me right back to the conversation, the heat from his glare burning a hole in the side of my head. “You fucking get lost in your mind, and you’ll be making a mistake that none of us can recover from. When you get emotional, you fuck up. That’s why you were caught killing the son of a bitch that abused your dad.”
The mention made my blood boil. “I don’t need a lecture from you on the mistakes I made in my past. I don’t make fuckingmessesanymore.”
Axle only laughed at the anger in my voice. “No, but you also haven’t been all wrapped around some woman, either. Your weakness is showing.”
Something about the comment hit a nerve, and for a moment, I wanted to argue with him. However, the more I hesitated, the more I realized theremightbe some validity to that. Hallie had always brought out my emotional side—no one else ever had.
“That’s what I thought.” Axle puffed out a cloud of smoke. “Get your brain and heart separated before it gets one of us killed—or her. You know there’s a target on any woman’s back that’s associated with us. The last thing you want to do is put your little high school sweetheart in harm’s way… Especially when she doesn’t even wanna be associated with this life.”
I wanted to punch him right in the fucking face, but I held off. “Plenty of the guys have women. Bear’s got Ginger, Will has Linley, and Viper has Hannah. None of them are weak for it.”
“But they all nearly fucking got killed in the process.”
Shit. Valid point.
My lip twitched as my eyes drifted back to Hannah, who was still speaking to her husband, her expression growing grimmer by the second. “I get what you’re saying.”
“I don’t want to see you fuck up the way they all did. I get they all recovered—if you could even say that, but Gunner, you’re already on the radar of every fucking fed out there for what happened when you got a little pissed off. One fuck up, and you’re headed to maximum security.”
“You act like you even know what prison is like,” I snorted, suddenly fed up with the lecture. “You might be a sadistic fuck, but you’ve never spent a day inside.”
He raised his eyebrows at me, a sick grin spreading across his face. “You havenoidea about me.” With a chuckle, he put his cigarette out on the railing, burning a little black hole in the wood. He tossed it into the metal trash can, shot me a wink, and went back inside.
So fucking weird.
I shook my head and headed down the steps toward Hannah and Viper. While they might be a married couple, Hannah and I had developed somewhat of a close friendship—mostly because I had to fucking babysit her when she first came to town.
“Hey,” she greeted me with a sad smile.
