42. CHAPTER 37
AXL
My father is playing the part of a stupid fuck if he thinks I’m going to let him fuck with what I have with Saylor. And I know he’s not fucking stupid.
I don’t stop to talk to the guard at my family’s estate. If he hadn’t seen me coming and opened the gate, I might have plowed my G-Wagon right through it. My father had better fucking be here.
I’ve done a lot of shit because it’s what I was told to do.
It’s the cost of being in a secret society with all of our rules and rituals.
I think most of them are fucking useless and just a way for the Council to maintain their control over the empire they’ve built—all of us ants in the ant farm ready to do their bidding.
And I can accept that. I’ve even learned how to live and thrive within it.
But what I won’t accept is being told that I can’t have the girl I want for the rest of my goddamn life.
If someone thinks they’re going to take her from me, they’d better put a bullet in my head.
Because the amount of destruction I will rain down on every fucking person in my path will ensure not a fucking soul survives.
My obsession runs that deep, and I don’t give a fuck how insane that makes me sound.
So if Adam Hollister thinks he has the power to make me do something as trivial as agreeing to an arranged marriage, we’re going to put an end to that bullshit today.
I enter through the garage and continue straight to his office. If he’s home, that’s where he’ll be. I storm through the door without knocking.
What I find there makes me stop in my tracks. My father is behind his desk with his reading glasses on, a stack of files in front of him, and there’s a naked woman on her knees at his feet.
She’s gagged with her wrists behind her back. Her head is down, and she doesn’t look up when the door opens. She doesn’t even flinch.
My father does look up and narrows his focus on me. He pulls his glasses off and sets them on the desk. The only hint of emotion in his expression is a tinge of annoyance.
“It’s about fucking time you come and see me. I’ve only been trying to talk to you about this for weeks.”
He doesn’t acknowledge the woman at his feet. He doesn’t dismiss her or cover her or make any move to suggest that it should bother either of us.
“Where’s Mom?” I motion toward the woman on the floor with her head still down. I don’t give a shit who my father fucks. But if he does something to hurt my mother, that’s just another thing that I’ll kick his ass for.
“Mind your own goddamn business son. Once you’re married to Tracy, you can do what you want too. Just as long as you knock her up until you have your heir.”
“I’m not going to fucking marry Tracy.” I step into the office and close the door behind me because I don’t need the staff hearing what I’m about to say to him.
“I don’t know what part of my words aren’t fucking clear to you, but you need to hear me.
I don’t care what you’ve arranged with her family.
I don’t care what deal you’ve made. It’s not fucking happening. ”
My father stands from his desk and buttons his jacket, and I watch the woman on the floor tense. Her shoulders pull tight, and her fingers curl behind her back. She still doesn’t look up.
“Just look at my badass son. You think you know how this works?” He comes around the desk and snaps his fingers at his side. “Come here, pet.”
She crawls to him and repositions herself at his feet, keeping her head down. He pets her head while glaring at me. “This is how it’s done. You know the importance of our family making connections through marriage.”
“The Carters are a fine connection for you.” Given what I think of David and Justin Carter, that isn’t true at all. But I also don’t give a fuck. “I’m only going to say this once. Saylor is mine. I’ll never give her up. So you’d better get on board with that really fucking fast.”
My father’s jaw tightens, and his hand stills on the woman’s head. He stares at me for a long time, and he’s deciding how this is going to go.
“You don’t get to tell me what I’d better do.
” He says the words through gritted teeth.
“I have arrangements in place with Tracy’s stepfather that go beyond anything your little obsession with the Carter girl is worth to this family.
Connections that ensure we increase our power and influence, and I’m not going to let my son’s dick ruin what I’ve spent years building. ”
I take a couple steps closer. “Is that why you set me up? To make Saylor think I fucked Tracy?”
His eyebrows raise. Then he looks down at the women for a second before focusing on me. “You could just actually try fucking her.”
My blood boils and all I see is red. I’m across the room in a flash. I grab the front of his shirt and drag him forward. The woman scrambles backward on the floor beside us.
“Stay the fuck away from Saylor.” His collar is twisted in my fist, and his face is inches from mine. “Or I’ll inherit all of the business and connections you love far faster than you’d like. Because I mean it when I say that I will fucking kill you.”
He grabs my wrist, but he doesn’t try to pull away. He just holds onto it and stares at me with the same cold expression he’s had since I walked in. “Get your hands off me, Axl. You forget that I’ve been through the same training as you, son. I’m not some pussy you can intimidate.”
I hold him there for another second. I want him to feel how close I am to making good on that promise.
Then I shove him back, and he stumbles into his desk.
It’s not an empty threat, but killing him would create complications I’d rather avoid.
But if he says the wrong thing, I’ll snap his neck in this room.
“When’s the last time you’ve killed someone with your own hands?” I cock my head to the side, making sure he understands the threat for what it is. “It was last night for me. So when I tell you to stay away from Saylor or I’ll kill you, that’s what I fucking mean, Dad.”
He fixes his collar and then waves the woman back over to him like she’s some kind of goddamn emotional support sidekick. His eyes don’t leave mine, and there isn’t a trace of fear in them. That’s the part that pisses me off the most. He’s not afraid of me. He fucking should be.
“You’re going to regret this, Axl.” He picks his glasses up from the desk and puts them back on. “Saylor isn’t the right woman for you. She’s pretty, and I get why your dick is obsessed with her, but she isn’t good enough for you or our family.”
“You don’t get to talk about her.” I charge forward and punch him in the face, then grab his collar and point at the woman now cowering at his feet. “You have her here in my mother’s house and you’re telling me who’s good enough for this family? Fuck you.”
“That’s different and you know it. You always were too much like your mother.
” He didn’t even flinch when I punched him, and that pisses me off even more.
“This is my fucking house. What I do for pleasure is my business, and your mother understands that our marriage is a business agreement. The sooner you learn that, the better off we’ll all be. ”
I look at him standing there with blood on his lip and zero change in his expression. And I see exactly what my future looks like if I were to become him. A man who plays games with other people’s lives while fucking a woman half his age that he keeps as a pet. That’s the life he wants for me.
Fuck that.
I open my mouth to ask him about Hawthorne and Keller. I want to know exactly how my father knows them, but I can’t. I close my mouth and fist my hands at my side. I can’t say anything that might tip them off. I don’t trust my father.
It takes every bit of my control to leave before I hit him again. If I start, I’m not going to stop. The only reason I don’t kill him where he stands is to keep my mother off the goddamn auction block.
But if he pulls more shit, he’s dead. And then I’d fuck Saylor and get a good night of sleep, knowing I ended him.
I don’t look back at the house when I get in my car. I peel out of the garage fast, and the tires squeal on the concrete.
The drive back to the Talon mansion takes forty minutes, and I spend the first ten with my hands gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles ache. I keep replaying the conversation in my head, and every version of it ends with me putting my father in the ground.
My phone buzzes, and Crew’s name lights up on my dash. I glance at the screen.
Crew: Ran the names from the raid. I thought you should know that Travis Keller is Tracy’s stepfather.
I grip the steering wheel tighter. Tracy’s stepfather. The very man my father made arrangements with. The man whose family connections are supposed to increase our power and influence—he’s a fucking trafficker.
What the fuck else is my father involved in that I don’t know about?
My foot presses harder on the gas. I need to get back to her. The way my father spoke about Saylor doesn’t sit right with me.
I pull up the cameras on my phone, not giving a shit how fast I’m driving. A bit of tension leaves my body when I see that she’s napping in our bed.
This is all a web of fucked-up bullshit. I should take Saylor and run so she doesn’t have to be around any of this shit anymore. But this is our world. I know how to protect her here as long as I keep the Sinclairs on my side.
I think about the woman on my father’s floor. She appeared to be willing, but is she? I’d like to think I know my father better than that, but it appears that I don’t.
And whatever he’s hiding, I’m going to figure out what it is.