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My heart rate increases, pounding furiously as I also prepare to be tugged in a rush.
Footsteps sound nearby, then stop. “What the— Shit!”
We explode into action at the same time that Axle does. Only, he’s running toward the two men while Phil and I get to the Jag.
“Get in the back!” Phil orders as he slides into the driver’s seat.
I crawl over to the passenger side and am barely in when he steps on the gas pedal. Tires squeal over the painted concrete and it’s all I can do to hold on.
Through the windshield, I see Axle moving in a way I’ve never imagined he could. That frail twig of a man is fighting one of the goons with nothing but a knife and his fists. The other one is already lying on the floor, his hand on his bleeding throat.
The car screeches to a halt just as Axle twists away from the man’s attack, and before the other can recover, he twists back, jamming the knife into his temple. The guard falls onto his now-dead comrade, a blank stare on his face.
Without bothering to remove the blade, Axle hops into the vehicle and we skid away. We burst through the half-open garage door just as several armed men appear. Shots ring in the distance as they chase after us.
“Get down!” Phil turns the wheel hard and the Jag fishtails, but he regains control almost instantly.
I stay down long after the shots stop, my limbs too shaky from the high of almost being killed. When I do finally sit up, I scan our surroundings constantly, afraid we’re being followed.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“A safe house,” Axle responds.
From the glove compartment, he grabs a pistol and checks the magazine. Suddenly, he doesn’t look so frail and skinny. Suddenly, I see why he was selected to be by Rowan’s side.
Frowning at my own error of judging a book by its cover, I watch with fascination as he reins in whatever demon he had to unleash. There’s a slight tremor in his jaw and a twitch in his eye. His hands, bony though they may be, are strong and precise. I know that now.
“You killed all those men in the garage,” I state.
He pauses, the magazine he’s just checked for bullets halfway in. “I don’t kill. I don’t do that anymore.”
“You didn’t kill, buddy,” Phil tells him. “You’re a protector. You protected us.”
“I should have protected Rowan. But I didn’t know what they were planning. Declan didn’t tell me!” He spins my way, the gun pointed at me.
I plaster myself to the seat, my hands up. “What are you doing?!”
“I should have protected him fromyou!” he shouts. “But I had orders.”
“What orders?”
“To keep you safe, no matter what. Even if it cost him his life.” Axle’s face scrunches up and he pounds the gun to his forehead. “I didn’t want to let them drag him away. Now he’s dead. I failed.”
“I don’t understand.” I shake my head, trying to wrap my mind around what he’s telling me.
Phil peers at me through the rearview mirror. “The day you arrived, Rowan made us swear. If anyone ever attacked, your life came first.”
Rowan told them my life came first? “But he doesn’t love me. He left me.”
“You stupid woman.” Axle glares at me, his eyes narrowed and full of resentment. “Are you so blind?”
“He left me!” I retort. “What was I supposed to do? Turn the other cheek?”
“You were supposed to see him! Seehim. I told him you wouldn’t. You’re all the same, self-centered brats. I told him you’d be too concerned with your own feelings to bother asking him why. But he insisted on waiting until you were ready, or you wouldn’t believe that he didn’t leave you. That Bryan discovered his plans and demanded your head or his own. Rowan refused to give the location where you were marrying, refused to hand you over. And he was beaten to within an inch of his life for it. The only thing that kept him alive was his McKenzie blood.
“After that, he was made to swear his allegiance, or they’d come find you.Youkept him a prisoner here for five years. And you just handed him over when he would have happily given himself up if it meant your happiness. If you can’t see that,youare the one who never lovedhim.”
Done with his long-winded rant and seemingly much calmer, he turns back to peer out at the road ahead.
