Saving Axe Read online

  That was irony for you.

  I didn't notice her until she stepped out from behind the beam on the front porch.

  June.

  Holy shit.

  All grown up, but I’d know her anywhere. She was prettier now than she’d been in high school, and I suddenly felt like I was right back there, seventeen again, nervous and fumbling.

  What the fuck is she doing here?

  I had never expected to see her again, not after all this time. Sure, early on I kept tabs on her, thought I might run into her on a base somewhere, but I gave up on that fantasy a long time ago. The thought of her seeing who I was now, who I had become, left my cheeks burning with shame. It was humiliating.

  It took all the strength I had to pry my eyes away from her and look at my father. “Dad,” I said.

  His face was scarlet as he walked up to me, drew his hand back, and slapped me hard across the face.

  Shit.

  So he was still pissed off at me. I'd been expecting that. Hell, if June hadn't been standing right there, he'd have probably slugged me. And I'd have deserved it, after everything I'd put him through.

  “I told you, you don’t come back here. You don’t bring this shit here.”

  I could feel June’s eyes burning into me, without even looking at her. “Dad, I -”

  My voice broke.

  There was so much I needed to say, but my pride wouldn't allow it.

  Then the door to the minivan opened and MacKenzie, April and Crunch’s little girl, came running out, wrapping herself around my leg. “Uncle Axe! Uncle Axe! Are you okay? Why did he hit you?” She started bawling, and I picked her up, patting her back.

  “It’s okay, Mac,” I said. “He was just joking. You know Uncle Axe is too tough for anything to hurt him.”

  “No?” she asked.

  “Not at all,” I said, brushing my thumb against her cheek, wet with tears. “Do you know who this guy right here is? This is your Uncle Axe’s old man.”

  My father glared at me, then turned to MacKenzie, his voice now soft. “I didn’t know you were watching, little lady. I certainly didn’t mean to scare you.”

  MacKenzie’s mother, April, scooped her up in her arms, hushing her as she went to stand near Crunch. My father turned toward me, his voice low. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me there was a kid with you?”

  “You didn’t give me a chance, Pop.”

  “What the hell is going on? What kind of trouble are you in?”

  “I need a chance to explain, but this isn’t the time. It’s not what you think.”

  Well, it was probably almost exactly what he thought. I knew he thought I was in some kind of trouble connected to the MC, and he would be right.

  “You better hope it’s not what I think. Because if it is -”

  “It’s not.” I clenched my jaw. He’d help me. Even if my father disagreed with everything I had done, even if he hated the person I had become, he was still my father and he would help me.

  “Well, come on in, then.” My father gestured to Crunch and his family, his voice falsely bright. I knew he would make nice with Crunch’s family here, especially with MacKenzie being with us. It had always killed him and my mom, the fact that they didn't have any grandkids. “I was just having a cup of coffee on the porch here with my new neighbor, June. Are you all hungry?”

  “Yes!” the little girl shouted, running up the stairs. “And I have to pee!” April and Crunch closely trailed her, and my father followed behind.

  “Hi, lady!” Mac waved as she passed June. “Is there a potty in here?”

  "Hush, Mac," April whispered as she walked through the door.

  June smiled at MacKenzie, and then looked up at me. “Cade.”

  Cade.

  I hadn't been called Cade in years.

  "Hi, Junebug.” I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Sure, it was something like twenty years later, but it was just like being a teenager again.

  “No one’s called me Junebug in forever,” she said. When she stepped forward, kissing me on the cheek, her lips smooth against my skin, I felt an immediate jolt. It was that familiar electricity between us that had always existed.

  She pulled back and I grabbed her arms, the instinct to hold her taking over me. I didn't want to let her go. Gazing into her eyes was like taking a twenty-year journey back in time. For a split second, I saw it in her eyes - that look.

  It was the same look she used to give me when we were teenagers.

  That same way she had looked at me before her sister died.

  I had the nearly irresistible urge to pull her into me and cover her mouth with mine. But then I felt her pull back, and the moment passed.

  I let her go.

  “You look different,” she said.

  Different.

  You look like shit would probably have been more accurate. Could she see the darkness that surrounded me now? Sometimes I felt like it oozed from my pores, seeped out, stinking up everything I got near.

  “You haven’t changed a bit,” I said. No, that wasn’t true at all. Her face no longer held the same innocence it did back then, and I knew there was pain behind her eyes. But she wore that pain beautifully, etched into the lines on her face.

  June laughed, the sound light, and I instantly ached to hear it more. “I hope that’s not true.” She was silent for a minute. Then, “You’re a biker now."

  "Yeah." Why did I feel ashamed admitting that to her?

  "Axe, huh?" She pointed at the name on my leather cut. "One percent."

  I could feel my face get warm. I didn't want to explain why I was called Axe. Or what one percent meant. Not to her. She was too good for that shit.

  I changed the subject. “I heard you’re in the Navy.”

  “I was," she said, leaning back on the porch railing. "But I'm here now. I got out."

  “You’re back in town?” I asked. “For good?”

  I was suddenly interested in her answer. Why the hell did I care? This wasn't a fucking social visit, and neither of us were the same people we were when we were kids.

  "Yeah," she said, tucking her hair behind her ear and biting on her lip. I couldn't stop looking at her mouth, at the nervous gesture, the thing she would do when she wanted me, back when we were sixteen and couldn't keep our hands off each other. I don't even think she ever knew she was doing it.

  I wondered if she knew what she was doing to me now, if she knew I wanted to rip her clothes off and take her right here in the driveway.

  "Yeah," she said. "I'm back. I bought Mrs. Crawford's old place."

  Oh, hell.

  "Next door?” I asked. Of course she was moving in next door to my father. I told myself it didn't matter. I wouldn't be here long enough to matter.

  “Cade," my father said, his voice firm. He stood at the door, as if he were consciously trying to interrupt us. “Get inside.”

  I had a flash of irritation at him, at being spoken to like I was a child, at the way he'd just broken the moment between June and I. But part of me was relieved. I didn't need to be talking to her like that. I didn't need her to be looking at me like that, as if not a day had passed since I'd last seen her.

  "It was good to see you, June," I said, as I turned to walk inside. I could feel my father's gaze, steady on me as I passed him, my boots heavy on the wooden porch.

  "Be careful there, June," I heard him say. "Cade's been gone a long time. Things are different now."

  I couldn't hear what she said.

  Sitting in the guest bedroom in my father's house, I closed my eyes and rested my head against the wall. It was late, but I rarely slept much anymore anyway, not since the Marine Corps, and tonight would be no exception. There was too much to occupy my brain, trying to process all the shit that was going on with the club. I knew when I was being set up, and this shit with the club stank to high heaven. I no longer trusted the Club President. Or many other people, for that matter.

  Which is why I was here now.

&nb