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“Axel, need a talk,” Slick said, and Axel’s head jerked up.
“My room,” Axel replied, and Slick noted the big man’s usual boom was missing. Axel limped his way down to the elevator, which would allow him to reach his office, and Slick joined him there.
As soon as the door shut, Axel heavily took his seat and stared at Slick.
“Out with it,” Axel demanded.
“I don’t have an issue. But you do, brother,” Slick stated. He almost winced as Axel’s face blanked.
“Why ya wasting my time?” Axel snarled as he went to get to his feet.
“Sit down, or I’ll pull Drake in,” Slick ordered.
Axel’s eyebrows disappeared under his bushy hair.
“What the fuck did you say?” Axel boomed, and Slick relaxed a little at hearing that fire in Axel’s voice.
“You’re blaming yourself for Goldberg’s death.”
“The boy died because he came to help me.” Axel didn’t meet Slick’s eyes.
“Goldberg was killed because there’s a fuckin’ egomaniac on the loose who’s nuts and power hungry. Fury has no claim to Rage. He chose to side with Bulldog and his gang of assholes. That wasn’t on me, you, or anyone else apart from him and his greed and bad choices,” Slick pointed out.
“It was my sorry ass Goldberg was coming to save,” Axel boomed, anger crossing his face.
“And he died doing so, on the job, and as a freaking hero. Think we all wouldn’t want him to walk through those doors today? Of course we do, but nobody knew it was an ambush. Unless you did?” Slick poked.
“No, I didn’t!” Axel thundered.
“Would you have stopped them coming if you’d known?”
“You’re making me mad,” Axel warned.
“Would you have told the cops answering the call to not come and given your own life?” Slick pressed.
“Yes, God damn it!”
“If offered the choice, what would Goldberg have said?”
“He would have sacrificed me to stay with his son,” Axel boomed.
“No. He’d still have answered the phone because that’s who he was. If he didn’t want to risk death, he wouldn’t have been a cop. Goldberg picked a noble profession. He chose to protect and serve, and he died doing just that. We’ll get our revenge on Fury, and the Fangs will pay. They’ll bleed hard and heavy. The Fangs have taken over The Lion Kings, and they are continuing to fall. They’re losing.”
“It doesn’t make me feel no better,” Axel muttered.
“And it won’t. Do you think I don’t relive what happened to Kayleigh every single day? That what she went through doesn’t torture me?”
Axel’s head snapped up. “You’ve never said.”
“No, because it’s my guilt. Something that always lingers in my thoughts. Since we discovered the truth about Kayleigh, I wonder every damn day if I missed a sign, a look, anything that could have tipped me off to what Misty, Thunder, and the others did. None of us would be without Artemis, but she wasn’t who Kayleigh was supposed to become. Ace shouldn’t be the killer heis, and I blame myself. I should’ve spotted a warning sign. But I didn’t.”
“Slick, you can’t be blaming yourself for what happened. Any one of us should have foreseen Bulldog targeting the women. We didn’t.”
“And you can’t hold yourself accountable for not realising those officers walked into an ambush. We have done what we can. Dan Norton is back on the force, although a desk job, but he’s still a cop. Phoe swung that. We’ve all, and I mean allies too, chipped in to ensure Goldberg’s son never goes without, and his parents won’t have financial worries raising him. And the cops will keep his father’s memory alive by telling stories about what a hero the guy was. We’ve done everything we could to make sure that Goldberg’s family will come through this,” Slick said.
“Minus having the man around,” Axel retorted.
“Yeah. But he’ll live on in our memories. Goldberg will be forever praised and recognised as a hero. Every time Goldberg put on his badge, he knew there was a slight chance he wouldn’t return home. And he still did the job. Are we to blame for that?”
