Axe almost kissed her. But then he remembered that there were probably security cameras all over the outside of the mansion and around the property. Shit, he was still worried whether anyone had seen their little clinch behind the old oak tree the other night.
“Let’s go.” She smiled so widely, he couldn’t help but return the grin a little. “And brace yourself, Peyton thinks he’s a god because he rewired the GPS system on my phone.”
“Oh, yeah. V taught us that—should have thought of it myself. And if that cousin of yours is a god, it’s only because his bong is telling him lies again.”
Axe dematerialized downtown first and checked the alleyway. Then he texted Peyton’s phone, which Elise still had, and told her to come along ahead.
“This feels like a date,” she said as they walked around to the front of the cigar club. “Don’t you think?”
As she took his hand and kept holding it, he frowned. “Are you sure you want to come out of the closet with me, so to speak?”
“I’m all about honesty, right? I have nothing to hide.”
“Once Pandora’s box is opened, you can’t shut it back up.”
“I’m not afraid. Are you?”
He cleared his throat. “Fuck no.”
As they came up to the entrance, Axe held the door open for her. And he had to admit, he wanted Peyton to know that Elise was his and his alone.
“I’m going to take my cues from you,” he muttered after he followed her in.
“Good.” She linked an arm through his. “Let’s do this.”
As they walked back to Peyton’s regular table, Axe was aware that he was blushing like a motherfucker—but hopefully, the dim lighting and the ambient smoke in the air hid the shit well enough. Funny … for as many people as he’d fucked, he’d never been … claimed … before. Never wanted to be, either. And the realization made him like something else about Elise: She always knew where she stood. There was no waffling, no inconsistency, nothing hidden or misrepresented about her.
She was solid as a rock.
And given that he’d had a void for a mother and a ghost for a father?
Okay, wow. Enough with the psychoanalyzing.
Peyton was already at the seating arrangement, holding court with some other vampire males, his casual, Rich Guy suit and open-collar shirt making him seem like exactly what he was: a son of privilege who always got the girl, had the car, led the pack.
And that male’s eyes snapped to where Axe and Elise were linked.
Axe was ready for anything. But what he got, at least in the short term, was nothing much: Peyton just stared over at them and then smiled remotely as Elise broke free and approached him.
The bastard didn’t get up, but made her come to him—which made Axe want to leave the guy spitting teeth and shitting out his lower intestines.
“How great am I?” Peyton said, like he was the fucking Pope or something. “G’on, tell me. Don’t hold back.”
Elise just cocked a brow, took out his phone, and swapped it for her own. “You are amazing. Incredible. And a total blowhard—which, considering how young you are, is really saying something.”
“I’ll just focus on the first two, thank you very much.” Peyton looked at Axe, his tone hardening. “And if it isn’t the man of the hour. The big hero. Sit down and have a drink. Or as you’re working, maybe you should stand in a corner and just watch her, bodyguard.”
Elise froze, but Axe didn’t.
He simply parked it across from the guy and kept his hands out and ready. He didn’t think Peyton would make a direct move, but there clearly had been a lot of alcohol consumed already, and the male was giving off territorial hormones like he had Elise’s certificate of title in his back pocket.
Fucking asshat cocksucker.
Elise crossed her arms over her chest. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
Peyton shrugged. “It’s the truth. He works for your father, doesn’t he. He’s supposed to keep you safe, isn’t he. What exactly do I have wrong here?”
“Your tone of voice, for one thing.”
“Ah. Interesting. So you’re coming to his rescue.” Peyton lifted his Scotch. “See, I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.”
“We’re leaving.” Elise shook her head. “This is ridiculous. And you’re being totally inappropriate.”
“Am I? Funny, does your judge of character only kick in when you’re not fucking someone?”
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd it was go time.
Axe exploded up out of his chair and was on the son of a bitch a blink later, picking the male up by the throat, knocking his leather armchair over, and forcing him backward until they hit the emergency exit and burst outside.
Axe spun Peyton around and hung him up on the outside of the building. “Time for you to back off.”
“You asshole,” Peyton hissed. “You fucking got her, didn’t you.”
Elise came rushing out of the cigar bar—but Axe stopped her with an order and a palm in her face. “Go back inside.”
“Axe, don’t hurt him—”
“Let me handle this—”
“Let him go—”
Peyton’s fancy loafers were dangling above the ground, and he was turning blue, but he was so furious, he didn’t seem to care.
“Why do you”—Peyton gasped—“want her to leave?”
Axe snarled, baring his fangs. “Because there’s no reason for her to see what I’m going to do to you.”
“Axe, please—”
That was when Novo materialized on the scene, sauntering over from across the street, the female more amused than surprised as the emergency exit clicked shut.
“Peyton,” she drawled, “you always find the fun, don’t you.”
“Al—” He choked and coughed. “—ways.”
It was hard to say when exactly Axe tweaked to the fact that they were in trouble. But one minute, he was focused on getting Elise to go back inside so he could kill Peyton, and the next …
Novo caught the scent at the same time he did, the female’s head turning to the direction the wind was coming from.
“Oh, shit,” she said under her breath.
Axe dropped Peyton and let the guy find his feet and his oxygen. If he did. “Elise, back inside. Now.”
“No, I’m not leaving until—”
Axe took her arm and airlifted her to the door. “That’s a lesser. That smell—it’s not old garbage, that’s a fucking lesser.”
Elise’s look of alarm was the good news and the bad news: bad because he never wanted to see her scared; good because she didn’t argue with him anymore.
He grabbed for the handle on the door they’d come out of and—locked. The emergency exit was locked. Duh.
“Goddamn it,” he hissed.
Axe only had one gun on him, but as he glanced at Novo, she was already taking her forty out. Peyton was the same, palming up—except he was coming toward Elise.
“I’ll take care of her,” the male announced.
“No, she’s my responsibility—”
“She’s my cousin—”
“Will you two cut it out—”
The three of them escalated to yelling, which was exactly the wrong fucking thing to do, because down at the end of the alley, the lesser, who had previously had no concrete direction, glanced their way.
And then started coming at them.
“I’m going to do this—”