“What the fuck do you mean you can’t find the motherfucker?” he asks in a low and lethal tone. One that means he has lost all patience. Uh oh. Silence. “He what?” Silence. “Fuck! No, I don’t want you to sit there and play with yourself, dumbass. Find him. I want to know where that bastard is.” Some more silence follows and then there’s a lot more of Axel yelling before he finally slams the phone down in the cradle. I wait a little longer before pushing open his door with a soft knock.
His enraged gaze hits me and the tension is so thick I can’t help but take a step back into the hallway. I let out a small squeak when my back hits someone standing behind me. Whipping around, I see Coop there, and Beck is standing farther down the hall. Coop’s normally playful eyes are hard and determined. Beck doesn’t look like the carefree guy I am used to.
“Everything okay?” I question.
The guys share a pointed look before Axel answers me, and when I look back over at him, he has carefully masked his fury.
“Yeah, Princess. Get over here. And Coop?” He looks over my shoulder with a scowl. “Get your fucking hands off my woman.”
God, I love it when he gets all possessive.
Coop laughs and scoops me up into a big hug and kisses my cheek, earning a deep growl in warning from Axel.
“You do realize he is armed right, jackass?” Beck asks with a smirk.
Armed?
I look over at Axel and don’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
“Back holster, hanging behind the chair. My guess is he has at least five knives on him right now and an ankle holster,” Coop whispers when he notices my unspoken question.
“Three and no ankle holster today,” Axel says with an evil glint to his eyes.
Oh boy.
“Right. Well, if you two are done pissing all over the floor, are you ready to go? Dee is in the lobby and we’re ready whenever you are.” I walk over and offer him a quick kiss, knowing that if we don’t get going we won’t get to dinner for a long while.
“Let me finish up in here. I need to brief these two idiots and then we can leave. Go wait with Dee in the lobby.” I can tell he means business. Whatever I had overheard before was starting to weigh heavily the air again with his temper.
“All right, baby.” With one more kiss, I leave the office and shut the door behind me.
I brush off his mood and continue down the hall. I know they don’t handle small things here, and most likely, whatever has him heated up is just a normal kink in their day-to-day operations.
With a smile, I walk back into the lobby and sit with Dee and Emmy. Before I know it, we are in a heated debate on the pros and cons of sexting. I make a mental note to send Axel some fun pictures the next time he comes into the office.
Heavy’s is packed by the time we get there. Saturday is normally a big night for them, but tonight they are slammed. Maddox and Greg got here before us and held a table. We talked Emmy into joining us, so by the time everyone arrives, we are already getting loud and rowdy.
We are sitting in the back corner, all eight of us squished around a small table. Food and beer are littering every surface. We have been laughing and having a good time for the last two hours. Once dinner is over, Axel pulls me into his lap and starts whispering all sorts of naughty things he plans to do to me later in my ear. I am trying to pay attention to the friends around us, but the only thing I can think of is getting back to the house.
“What the fuck?” I hear Dee gasp over the rock music pumping through the bar.
I have to work at clearing my mind. Between Axel lust and the beer, I wasn’t following her sudden change of mood.
She is staring across the room, where Beck and Coop are at the bar getting the newest pitchers of beer. Coop is flirting with the bartender, but Beck currently has his tongue shoved down the mouth of what we liked to call a Heavy Slut. Bar regular and downright trash. This wasn’t normal Beck-style either. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is about getting under Dee’s skin.
“That stupid little fucker. I hope his dick rots off!” she yells in my ear. Axel starts shaking with laughter before I elbow him in the ribs. I give him a hard look before studying Dee. Now that the alcohol has loosened her up, I can see that, under the anger, there is hurt. Something happened between her and Beck.
Before I can open my mouth and ask her what is going on, she is on her feet and across the bar.
“Uh oh, looks like drama is about to start flying!” Greg yells across the table from his corner next to Maddox and Emmy, who is wide eyed and a little intimidated by our rambunctious group. “What’s her issue, Iz?” he asks.
“No clue. She wouldn’t talk about it. I thought they had been spending time together?”
“Not since last weekend. I don’t know the details, but he showed up at my place pissed as fuck and itching for a fight.”
We all watch as Dee walks up to the bar and grabs the Heavy Slut by the roots of her badly dyed blonde hair, pulling her from Beck’s hold. I can’t hear the words but her face looks horrible. I don’t think I have ever seen hatred like that coming from my little ball of joy.
What the fuck?
I make a move to get off Axel’s lap and go help but he tightens his arms around my waist.
“No.”
One word but no bend. He isn’t going to let me wade in.
“Ax, I have to.”