Saving Axe (Motorcycle Club Romance, Cowboy, Military) (Inferno Motorcycle Club) (31 page)

Mad Dog looked at me, then spit on the floor.

I smiled.  I would have no remorse when I did what I was going to do.

"Do you have any last words?" I asked.

"
See you in hell," he said.

I unsheathed my knife.  The blade I'd saved for Mad Dog
.  Then I stepped in front of him.  "I'll see you there," I agreed.  "But not today."

I stabbed him, right above the stomach, and pulled out the knife, slick with blood.  I handed it to Crunch, lik
e it was a goddamned ceremony.

Passin
g the torch.

Crunch
did the same.

Then Blaze s
tabbed him.

And then one by one, the brothers followed suit
, even after Mad Dog was on the floor, each of them plunging the knife into the man who had betrayed the club, who had betrayed us.  It wasn't something I expected or planned, and I just stood there, not even looking at Mad Dog, but watching them, this parade of men willing to be a part of this, not just stand by and watch while we killed him.

And in that moment, I didn'
t feel blank.

I felt faith.

In the most warped of possible ways, I felt hope.

June

"
Are you ready?" I asked, smoothing my skirt.  The thought of standing there, at April's grave, made me want to cry.

"Yeah
."  Cade pulled on his leather cut.

"Poor MacKenzie," I said.

"You can sympathize with her," Cade said.

"Of course," I said.  "Losing your parents isn't easy.  But at her age?  I can't even imagine it.  I was older.  At least I could understand what was happening, you know?  Talk about it.  She can't even understand it."

"Do you think she'll end up being okay?" he asked

"
Eventually," I said.  "It'll be a long road.  Do you know what Crunch is going to do?"

"
He'll hold up.  I think he's going to go back to Puerto Rico with MacKenzie and grandma, at least for a while.  Says he needs a break from the club.  I don't know if he'll come back."

"MacKenzie will be
okay though," I said.  "She will."  I don't know if I was trying to convince him or myself.

I was amazed by how many
people had turned out, regular people and bikers, even from some other clubs who'd heard what had happened.  April was a beloved member of the club family.

During the service, I gripped Cade's hand, my fingers digging into his palm to keep composed.  Crunch
stood still, holding MacKenzie, who buried her face in his neck, overwhelmed by all of the people.  It wasn't until Crunch watched MacKenzie toss a rose onto her mother's coffin after it was lowered into the ground that he broke down, sobbing.

At that point, there wasn't a dry eye there,
not among all those bikers.

Axe

“You sure you don’t want to stay, man?”
 Blaze asked.  I looked over at June, where she stood talking to Dani after the service.  June tucked her hair behind her ear, bit her lip.  The circles under her eyes revealed the toll that all of this had taken on her.

Hell, I knew the toll all of th
is shit had taken on me.

I didn’t want to stay.
 Yeah, Blaze and I had once been close.  Of all the Inferno MC members, I trusted him more than anyone.  Crunch and I hadn’t been tight when we fled to Colorado, but now after all this, I considered him a friend.

Our friendship had been forged in blood.

But with all of that, I couldn’t stay.

It wo
uld destroy me, and I knew it.

Blaze knew it.

It didn’t matter what happened in the club.  Benicio might be a good man, but it didn’t matter if we worked for him.  Hell, even if we went legit, it wouldn't matter.

I couldn’t go back to it.

Killing my father’s and April’s murderers was righteous act.  But if I stayed, I would have to do it again.  It was inevitable.

And if something happened to June, I didn’t want to imagine what
I would do, the depths I would descend to protect her.

“No,” I said.
 “We can’t stay.  It’s over.  I can’t be part of it anymore.”

Blaze nodded.
 “I didn’t expect it.”  He was silent for a while.  “Crunch is going back to Puerto Rico, taking MacKenzie.”

“It’s not the best life for her.”

Blaze shook his head.  “Dani understands that, more than anyone.”

Dani would,
I thought,
growing up in a crime family, her own mother murdered when she was only fourteen.

I looked up as Dani and June joined
us.

“It was a nice ceremony,” Dani said, sliding her arm around Blaze.

“It was,” I agreed.

Silence fell over the group as we stood there
.  After so much had happened, there was nothing left to say.

Crunch joined us, holding MacKenzie in his arms.  The rims of his eyes were red, and his skin was ashen, his cheeks sunken.  It had only been a few days, but he loo
ked hollow, a shell of a man.

He looked broken.

I think all of us looked that way.

"Hi Uncle Axe," MacKenzie said shyly, not moving her head from he
r place on her dad's shoulder.

"Hey MacKenzie," I said
.

"We're going to visit my grandma's house," she said.  "My mommy isn't going with us.
  Daddy said she needs to rest for a while."

I swallowed hard, and looked at June, who was clearly blinking back tea
rs.

"No, baby," Crunch said.  His voice cracked, and I thought he was going to break right there.  "Mommy's not going with us."

"Hey, Mac," June said, her voice falsely bright.  "Can I see your stuffed animal?"

"It's a jaguar," MacKenzie said, smiling.  "Put me down, daddy."  She ran over to June, and I heard June and Dani
begin to pepper her with questions.

Crunch spoke to me, his voice low.  "We're going to take off for a while."

"Yeah, that's what I heard," I said.  "June and I are going back to Colorado."  I nearly said,
you're welcome anytime,
but stopped myself.  I was sure he never wanted to set foot in the state again, after what had happened there.  I was the opposite- it was the only place I wanted to be.  I needed to lay my father to rest.

I neede
d to lay my own demons to rest.

SALVATION

West Bend, Colorado

Three Years Later

June

"Be careful, swinging him up in the air like that!" I called from the front porch, watching Cade lift little Stan up in the air and hearing him squeal with delight.  "He's only eighteen months- you can't go too high!"

Cade carried
little Stan back to the porch, and set him down.  He toddled around, mostly stable but not entirely, still giggling.  Bailey followed him, always loyal, but mostly looking for abandoned snacks.  Cade wrapped his arms around me, around my belly.

"I don't remember you being this anxious the last time you were pregnant," he said.

I leaned my head back against him.  "We didn't have a toddler for you to throw around last time."

"No, we didn't," he said.  "How's the momma-to-be feeling?"

"Tired," I said.  "But happy."

Looking out across the property, to my old house, the one we'd turned into a bed and breakfast, I thought, Stan would have liked this, knowing that Cade had come back here, that we were raising our kids in the home where he'd raised Cade.
  Keeping the old ranch alive.

"What are you thinking?" Cade asked, his voice low.

"Nothing," I said.  "Just that your dad would have liked all of this."

"He'd have loved
little Stan," Cade said.

I nodded.  "He'd be so proud of you, too, with the bike shop and everything."  The bed and breakfast had done so well, with the influx of ski tourists the past two winters, that we'd been able to open a custom bike shop in town, and Cade had gotten to start doing what he loved.  It didn't pay much, but
it was good for him.

"Do you ever regret not going back to California?" I asked him.  "Regret not being a part of the club anymore?"  Guys were bringing their bikes to him from hours away, and Cade was getting a reputation for doing good custom paint jobs, but I sometimes wondered if hanging around those guys just made him wish he was back with the MC.

"No," he said.  "I'm pretty barn sour now."

"What?" I asked, turning toward him, my protruding belly in the way.  I leaned over to pick
up Stan, and he patted his hand on Cade's face, intrigued by his stubble.  "What do you mean?"

"You and
that little man right there are my home," he said.  "I feel the way horses get, when they're barn sour and they don't want to leave the barn.  I don't want to leave you guys.  I know where I belong."

Axe

Everything was quiet, with my wife and child both napping.

My wife and child.

That's something I never thought I'd say.

I stood outside, watching the clouds roll by, turning my cell
phone over and over in my hand, thinking about the phone call I'd just gotten from Crunch.

He wasn't Crunch anymore.

He'd moved to Vegas with MacKenzie, had this gig where he did some kind of hacking shit for casinos.  I couldn't remember how he'd explained it, something about security or some shit.  He had come out of retirement, was starting to associate with the club chapter out in Vegas.  The shit that happened out in LA had gotten him a new road name.

Hammer.

I guess brutally killing three assholes, smashing one man to pieces with a sledgehammer, warranted a name change.

After April's funeral
, he'd gone back to Puerto Rico, left MacKenzie with her grandmother for a bit.  Which was probably for the best, because he'd pretty much gone off the deep end, a total fucking tailspin.

I could understand the feeling.

Last year he'd pulled himself up, gotten his shit together.  Now he had this good job and MacKenzie back living with him.

Then I get this voicemail
today.

He'd gotten involved with a girl. 
Someone important to him,
he said.

And now she was missing.

Back inside the house, I poked my head through the bedroom doorway, careful not to wake June.  She was sleeping peacefully, and I wanted to keep her blissfully unaware for as long as possible.  I slipped into bed beside her, cradled her stomach, and breathed her in.  She murmured something in her sleep, snuggled in close to me.  I knew that I'd have to call Hammer, face whatever grotesque reality he was going through.

But right now, I wanted to soak in a few more minutes of peace.

For now, everything was right in my world.

THE END