So f**kin’ good that I’d found a girl who got me heart and soul…

But for some strange reason, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all about to go to shit.

It didn’t take me long to drop my newfound smile.

Chapter Twenty

Austin

Axel: In the parking lot. You’re needed NOW.

I glanced down at my cell as soon as I got out of the shower, and all the blood immediately drained out of my face. Axel had texted and left about sixteen missed calls while I’d been training.

One thought slammed my mind: Mamma.

“You good, boy?” Jimmy-Don asked as I stood frozen in the center of the locker room, glaring at my iPhone. His round face was one of worry, and I automatically nodded my head. I was just glad Rome wasn’t here to see this shit. He’d know with one look that something was up.

I threw on my jeans and shirt and began sprinting out of Bryant-Denny and straight into the parking lot. I spotted Axel’s truck within seconds, but obviously after he’d spotted me because he began hightailing it toward me, throwing open the passenger-side door.

“Get in!” he ordered just as I saw campus police head toward us in their car, the dean sitting front and center.

“Shit!”

I jumped in, Axel slamming his foot on the gas and, like a street racer, burned rubber to get the hell off campus and onto the highway toward Westside Heights.

Turning to my brother, my pulse raced when I saw the seriousness of his face. “What the f**k, Axe? Talk to me!”

Axel’s hands tightened on the wheel, and his teeth gritted together. “Better you see it with your own two eyes.”

Leaning forward, I noticed Axel’s cheek had been slit open, a f**kin’ shit job of stitching keeping the skin together. His left eye was black, the whites of his eyes completely red with burst capillaries, and his knuckles were raw from fighting.

My eyes widened at his state… What?

The motherfucking drive-by.

Flopping back in my seat, I almost choked on the rage clogging up my throat. Lifting my foot, I used that rage to kick the dash, Axel snapping his head to me in shock.

“What the f**k, kid?” Axel shouted, and I turned in my seat to face him.

“What the f**k? I’m pissed; that’s what! You, you stupid motherfucker went on the drive-by last night to the Kings, didn’t you? You couldn’t just leave it alone! Even after everything…” I sucked in a long breath, trying to calm, and said, “You promised me! Told me you would stay with Mamma and Lev so I didn’t have to come back. You were meant to protect them!”

Axel’s eyes narrowed and his foot pressed harder on the gas pedal, lurching us forward until we were almost flying down the highway.

“I did protect them! But while you were f**kin’ your bitch, I had to take care of some urgent business, as usual!”

“Drive-bys ain’t urgent business, Axe!”

“They are if you get word the King’s are preparing to come down to the Heights to finish what they started.”

A pain ripped through my chest and I stilled. “Christ!” I shouted and turned to my brother. “Ever thought of what Mamma will go through if you die before her? She should be peaceful in her last few months, not stressed to all hell.”

“Kid, it was urgent business. You think the Kings wouldn’t have targeted our trailer? They want me and Lev dead. This war has to be won for all our sakes. Without that turf, the Heighters lose coin. Without that coin, Mamma don’t get her meds—”

Axel smacked his hand against the wheel and roared, “Why do I have to keep explaining this shit? You know the score, and you’re good with it when you’re not being a self-righteous pu**y!”

“Fuck you!” I replied, my fists clenched. Axel caught the movement and laughed without humor.

“Keep that rage, kid. You’re gonna feel a whole lot more in about twenty minutes.”

Unable to speak through the red haze in front of my eyes, I didn’t even bother asking what the hell he meant. So, sitting back in my seat, I stared out the window and watched the rest of the world go by, really wishing I was someone else.

“Get in there, superstar,” Axel said the minute we pulled up in front of our trailer.

A bunch of the Heighters were outside, sitting around in chairs, guns in their hands, and I felt like spitting at the whole lot of them.

Getting out of the truck, it didn’t take me long to enter the old trailer, and I immediately froze at the door. Towels dripping with blood were piled up in the sink. The strong smell of rubbing alcohol almost made me gag, and I quickly headed for Mamma’s room.

As soon as I entered her bedroom, Mamma’s eyes set on mine, but her head didn’t move. Couldn’t move.

Fuck, she looked terrible.

I roved my searching gaze all over her body, but there was no blood that I could see. Rushing to her side, I lifted her weak hand and almost recoiled at how weak she was. It’d only been a night since I’d seen her last, but it looked like it could have been months.

Is this what Axel brought me here for? To say good-bye?

“Mamma, stai bene?” I asked softly, feeling almost sick with nerves.

Her brown eyes were overflowing with tears and her breath was shallow, wheezing like a f**kin’ whistle in her chest.

“Mamma, talk to me,” I pushed, fighting back emotions.

Mamma closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. I watched her swallow, the simple action we all take for granted now as monumental a task as climbing up Mt. Everest.