55. CHAPTER 50
AXL
Everything fucking hurts. I can’t tell where one injury ends and the next starts. My ears are still ringing from the blast. I try to move, and my body tells me to go fuck myself.
I’m on my back. I don’t remember being put on my back. The last thing I remember is running down the hallway toward Saylor’s room and calling out for Priest. Then the second explosion hit, and everything was gone.
Saylor.
I force myself to open my eyes and sit up. There’s so much pain in my ribs I almost black out again. Someone’s hands are on my chest pushing me down. I try to shove their hands away.
“Don’t move, Axl. You’re in bad shape and have at least three broken ribs.” Priest is next to me. His face is covered in dust. There’s blood on his shirt, likely from whatever wound the bandage on his neck is covering. One of his arms is in a sling.
I realize I’m in a ridiculous hospital gown. I look around the hospital room. It’s just Priest in here with me, but I see other Talons moving through the halls outside the door.
“Where is she?” I wince, trying to shift my legs over one side of the bed. “Is she alright? Did someone get her out?”
Priest doesn’t answer. His jaw tightens, and he glances at the doorway as Crew and Kase appear.
“Where the fuck is Saylor?” I’m about to rip someone’s head off if they don’t answer me.
Crew steps in first, Kase following behind him. Crew glances at Priest like they know something I don’t, and then he focuses on me. The expression on his face makes my heart pound, and I fist my bloody hands.
“They found a body in the rubble.” Crew’s voice is even, but his jaw is tight. “Where Saylor’s room was. They’re saying it’s her, Axl. Everyone else has been accounted for.”
The room goes quiet. The ringing in my ears gets louder.
“No.”
“The east wing collapsed. The blast—”
“No.” I rip the IV out of my arm and swing my legs off the bed. My vision whites out for a second from the pain in my ribs, but I don’t give a fuck. “That’s not her. I need to see the body.”
“Axl, you can’t—” Kase starts.
“Get the fuck out of my way.” I’m on my feet, and I don’t know how. The floor tilts, and Priest catches my arm with his good hand before I go down. I shove him off. “That’s not her. I’m telling you right now, that’s not my girl.” I grip my hair with both hands. “It can’t fucking be her.”
“Axl.” Priest’s voice is calm, but there’s an edge to it. “Sit down before you pass out.”
“Fuck sitting down.” My legs are shaking, and the room won’t stop moving. I grab the bedrail to stay upright. I know it isn’t her. “Where are my clothes? My phone was in my pocket. Where’s my fucking phone?”
“The doctor said you need—”
“I need my goddamn phone, Priest.” I look at Crew. “Where are my fucking things?”
Kase pulls a bag from under the chair by the door. He hands it to me without a word. My jeans are cut up and covered in dust and blood. I dig through the pockets until I find my phone. The screen is shattered across the top right corner, but it lights up when I press it.
“She didn’t have her phone on her, Axl.” Priest is watching me, obviously getting more concerned for my mental state. “We can’t track her.”
I don’t answer him. I open the app and enter the code. The one I set up the day I pierced my girl’s nipples. I’ve been a part of enough missions to know I wasn’t going to take any chances with losing her. That’s why I made sure I was the only one who had the key to remove them.
My chest loosens, but I keep my face even. There she is. The tracker in her nipple piercings proves that she has been taken somewhere. She’s still alive. She has to be. I zoom in on her location and see she’s at the building where we helped the Sinclairs move the girls.
Fuck. If Justin was connected to the trafficking ring, he’d have known about his father’s building.
I stare at the screen, and I don’t let my face change. I look at Priest first, then Crew, then Kase. I check the doorway. Two Talons pass in the hall. I wait until they’re gone.
“Close the door.”
Kase closes it, and they all eye me cautiously. They think I’ve lost it.
“She’s alive.” I keep my voice low enough that no one could hear if they were listening at the door. “The body in the rubble isn’t hers.”
Priest steps closer. “How do you know that?”
I turn the phone toward him. The signal blinks steadily on the screen. “I put a tracker in her piercings. She’s at the building we cleared with the Sinclairs.”
“What kind of piercings?” Kase asks.
“Don’t.” I don’t have time for bullshit conversation. “Dane told us that Justin was connected to all of this. He set up this bullshit and took her.”
“It didn’t make sense that Justin would kill her after what we learned from the tox screen.” Priest adds. “So what are we going to do? Look at us. We’re going to need help. We have no idea what we’re walking into.”
“We can’t trust anyone.” I shift on my feet, working through the fucking pain because I’m going after my girl. “Dane confirmed that Ryan is involved too. We don’t know what other Talons have been sucked in.”
“How are we going to do this?” Crew asks. “It’s not like no one is going to notice if the four of us charge out of here. If someone here is involved, they’re watching you.”
He’s not wrong. But I’m going. I can’t sit here useless when she could be hurt, or worse.
“I need the Sinclairs. Where’s Dane?” I’m still irritated that he didn’t tell me everything, but I can understand what lengths he would go to in order to keep his wife safe.
I’d do the same to protect Saylor. I’d do fucking worse. I’d sacrifice everyone.
The three of them exchange a look that I don’t fucking like.
“Goddamnit. What is it?”
“Dane’s in surgery.” Priest winces when he speaks and adjusts his arm. “He took the worst of it. He was closer to the blast than we were. He wasn’t breathing when they brought him in.”
My jaw tightens. “Is he going to make it?”
“They don’t know yet.” Priest glances at the door. “His sons are here. And all of their wives. They’re down the hall waiting.”
The Sinclairs will be out for blood. Fox Sinclair is the oldest Sinclair brother.
If Dane doesn’t make it off that table, Fox takes control of everything—the Talons, the Council seat, the entire operation.
And right now, he’s standing in a hallway waiting to find out if his father is alive or dead.
If something happens to Dane, the Sinclairs will burn this city to the ground.
“Get Fox.” I look at Crew. “Just Fox. Tell him I need to speak with him. Don’t say anything else just yet.”
Crew leaves. The room is quiet except for the noise in the hallway and my own breathing, which hurts more than I’d have ever thought possible. Every inhale feels like a knife between my ribs.
Kase moves to the window but keeps his eyes on the hall. Priest sits in the chair by my bed and neither of us talk. He knows what I’m about to ask Fox to do, and he knows what it’s going to cost.
The door opens, and Fox Sinclair walks in. He looks ready to kill the first person who looks at him wrong. His eyes move across the room to each of us, taking a read of what this is about. He’s every bit his father’s son.
Crew steps in behind him and closes the door.
“How’s Dane?” I ask. Whatever frustration I have with Dane right now, I respect him. And I know I can trust the Sinclairs.
“He’s still in surgery.” Fox’s voice is even, but his jaw is clenched. “They haven’t told us anything new. What do you need, Axl?”
“I know where the men who did this are.”
Fox steps closer, nostrils flaring. “Tell me what you know right fucking now.”
“Dane confirmed tonight that you all knew Justin and Ryan were connected to the trafficking. They took Saylor. I have a tracker on her. But there’s no one else we can’t trust to bring in on this, and I’m going to fucking get her.”
Fox takes the phone from my hand when I hold it up. “That’s the building we cleared.” He hands the phone back. “Tate’s been wanting to burn that place to the ground since we pulled those women out of it, but I wouldn’t let him do it yet.”
“Now he gets to.”
“Goddamn right he does.” Fox pulls out his phone. “I’m getting my brothers. We’ll make a plan, and we’re doing this now.”
“No one else, Fox. Not until we know how Justin got explosives into your father’s compound. Someone helped him. I’m not putting Saylor’s life in the hands of someone who might tip them off.”
“The people in this room and my brothers. That’s the team.” He’s already texting. “We’ve hit that building before and already know the layout. None of them get to live.” He looks up from his phone, and the look on his face is pure Sinclair. “Except your girl.”
“Except my girl.” I lift myself off the bed and push through the pain. Priest is at my side, but I wave him off. Nothing will hold me back from getting my heathen.
Tate and Thorne come through the door less than two minutes later. Tate’s eyes are cold, and his mouth is a straight line. Thorne is quieter than usual and looks like he wants to rip the walls apart.
Fox fills them in fast. When Fox finishes, Tate looks at me. “How many do we think are inside?”
“I don’t know. Justin wouldn’t need a full operation for one girl.”
“He probably thinks you’re dead.” Thorne speaks through gritted teeth, his hands fisted. “He’s sitting over there thinking he took out both of you and our father. They don’t get to take the easy way out.”
“We’re going to need fire power and all the gear,” Tate says, cold and detached from the emotion of what is happening.
“The women can’t stay here without us.,” Fox says to his brothers. “They have to go to the panic room. I’m already concerned about what this is doing to Ivy in her condition.”
“Reese is on edge with what we’ve been doing,” Tate says, softening more than I usually see him. “All of this is a lot for her.” He grips Thorne’s shoulder. “Sloane too.”