Chosen (Motorcycle Club Romance): Axel and Paige 2 (Fallen Idols Motorcycle Club Book 5) (2 page)

TWO

AXEL

“You got someone to pick you up?” Marcus asked, as I gathered up the few personal effects I brought, mostly pictures of my mom and my bike. As far as cellmates go, Marcus ended up bein’ a great one. Quiet, tidy, and kept to himself. He even let me vent when I told him about the “girl back home” who was off limits, but I couldn’t seem to get out of my mind. And by vent, I meant he talked me out of punching multiple holes in the wall at least twice.

I kept Paige’s identity secret. I didn’t want to jeopardize her job in any way, but these last six weeks had been torture. Especially after hearin’ from Max that she’d started goin’ out with that fucker Jimmy Westmore. I almost added a few years to my sentence, needin’ to pummel the shit out of him for even thinking about touching her. I didn’t, Pops helped me see reason, but I wanted to—bad. That piece of shit bragged to anyone who would listen about his hot new girlfriend. It took everything in me not to break every bone in his body while chanting “mine, mine, mine” as I tore him limb from limb.

It didn’t matter. Today, I was a free man, and I could finally have Paige see me as an equal, not inmate number 28497-B. I planned on findin’ her and beggin’ her to give me a chance. A real chance to show her who I actually was, and not the idea she had in her head. I had no clue what her deal was with hating MCs, but I knew that, if I could just explain, she’d give me a shot. She felt what I felt, I know she did, and that couldn’t be ignored.

Unfortunately, that would have to wait until some club business was taken care of. When Trista came by a few weeks ago to fill me in, I was floored. I knew things were bad with parts missin’, but a rat? No. I couldn’t believe it. Every member of the Fallen Idols was a brother. Family. They wouldn’t betray us like that. No, I needed to find out what was really goin’ on. It had to be a set up, right? Those goddamned Feds trying to get us to turn on each other. That was the only thing that made sense.

“Let’s go, Cook,” one of the prison guards bellowed. “Gotta get to processing and retrieve your possessions so I can finally be done with you.”

I rolled my eyes, but resisted the retort on the tip of my tongue. I didn’t need to give him a reason to retract my early release. Thank God for prison overcrowding. Instead, I turned to Marcus, and held out my hand.

“It’s been real, man. Stay sane in here, yeah?”

He grasped my hand in his before bringin’ me in for a man hug. “Go get that girl. And keep your nose clean, so I don’t end up seeing you again, you hear me, boy?”

I patted him on the back and chuckled. “You know it.”

Thirty minutes later, my eyes were peering out into the bright California sunshine without the restrictions of barbed wire fencing. I took a deep breath, relishing the moment.

“Hey hey! There he is!” Rocco called. “How’s it feel to be a free man at last?”

I shook my head at Rocco. You’d think I’d have been inside for years rather than a month and a half with the way he acted. “Good to see ya, Roc.” I walked up to him, givin’ him a quick man hug, and a sharp pat on the back before lookin’ around for… ah! There it was. “You brought Lucille.” I strode up to my treasured FatBoy, runnin’ my hands over her smooth chrome. “Aw, I missed you, girl.”

Rocco chuckled. “Yeah, I had one of the new prospects follow me up with the flatbed. I knew you’d want to get reacquainted with your lady. And here,” he tossed me my cut. “I’m sure you’ll be wanting this, too.”

I caught it with one hand, and slipped it on, finally feelin’ like myself again. With my cut on my back, and Lucille between my legs, everything was right with the world.

“Alright, man. Let’s ride. We’ve got church this afternoon.” Rocco mounted his own bike, securing his dome.

“No doubt. Shit’s been hittin’ the fan since I’ve been gone. How’s Ace? Anything new on those stolen car parts?”

Rocco frowned, leanin’ his elbows on the handlebars of his bike. “Nah, man. We’ve got nothing new. Ace is… Ace. I’ll let him explain what happened. It’s a fucked up story, Ax.” He spat. “Things have been crazy with Rev getting shot, Ace’s whole ordeal, the beef with the Almas, and so forth. It’s been insane.”

“Jesus! What the hell happened while I was gone? It’s like the world went and flipped up on its head. War? Kidnappings? Fuck, Roc.”

I mounted Lucille and turned the ignition, double-checking that the kill switch was off before shifting into neutral as she roared to life, purrin’ like a kitten. I closed my eyes, savorin’ this. There was no sweeter sound in the world.

Except for maybe when Paige moaned my name as I brought her to orgasm. I shifted in my seat, now half erect at the thought. Fuck! I needed to see her.

Rocco and I drove back to Brooks Landing, takin’ the scenic route, so I could get reacquainted with my bike. When we finally got back to Raven’s Nest, everyone was there waitin’ for us to start church.

I rode in to the parking lot, and was greeted with cheers as everyone came out to welcome me back. I backed into my designated spot, happy to be home.

“Good to see you, Ax Man!” Rev called. His arm was secured in a sling, no doubt still sore from getting shot.

“Welcome home, Axel!” one of the club sluts called, sideling up to me and planting a wet kiss on my cheek. “Certainly missed you around here. Maybe we can get reacquainted later?”

Her arms snaked around me, grabbing my ass. I reached behind me, and held on to her wrists, pullin’ her away from me. “Hey, Mandy, it’s—”

“Candy,” she pouted.

“Yeah. Candy. Sorry. Hey, listen, I gotta go talk to Pops. We’ll catch up another time.” I don’t know why I bothered to lie to her. I knew I’d never let her spread her legs for me. No matter how perky her fake tits were, or how many times she shoved them in my face, she was a poor replacement for Paige, and I couldn’t bring myself to settle.

“Alright!” Rogue called. “If you’re not wearing a patch, beat it! We’ll welcome Axel home properly tonight.”

The club sluts and wannabes drifted away as the members headed inside Raven’s Nest. This was our home. Our sanctum. I kissed Maya on the cheek before headin’ inside and took my seat beside Pops.

He clapped his hand on my shoulder, and gave it a squeeze.  “Missed you, son.”

I smiled. “Missed you too, Pops. It’s good to be home.”

“We’ve had a tough couple of months,” Rogue began. “Things haven’t gone well with the Almas, our business, and some members have been having some personal shit go down.” He eyed Ace, Ryder and me before continuing. “We need to get our house in order now before we can expect the tides to switch in our favor.

“First thing we need to do is figure out who the fuck is taking our shit down at the warehouse. Trista, what new information do you have on that front?”

Trista cleared her throat. “Unfortunately, not much. I spoke to Chen again, and he checked with his boys. It wasn’t any of them. That Lexus was a proper buy from a dealership and everything. There’s a paper trail. The cameras were tampered with, and our tech guy couldn’t pinpoint any incriminating information on who did it, so that was a dead end too. We were, however, able to confirm there’s a tail, and it’s that goddamned Fed, Velasquez.”

Ryder fisted his hands. “That fucker just won’t give up, will he? Was he not humiliated enough last time when he got reamed out after wasting so many of the Bureau’s resources? I mean, they never even caught us with an unpaid parking ticket.”

“Which is exactly why he’s looking for revenge,” Trista explained. “If you want my bet, it’s gotta be him. He can’t get to us on the legal end, so he’ll mess with our business, and try to get us to think we have a rat.”

Pops cleared his throat. “No, I don’t buy it. If he knew our shipments schedule in advance, then he’d have gotten a warrant, and just busted us. He wouldn’t have swiped them right from under our noses.”

Rogue nodded. “I agree. It wasn’t the Feds.” He paused, sighing. “Ryder, I hate to even suggest it, and we’ve all been thinking it, but the timing is too much of a coincidence.”

“No,” Ryder cut him off. “For the last time, no! I know what you’re going to say, and the answer is no. She wouldn’t turn rat. She might hate this club, and want nothing to do with me, but she’d never do that to Cruz or her mom.”

Rogue closed his eyes, and scrubbed his face with his hands. “Then one of us is the rat.”

The whole room erupted. Everyone shouting, irate at the very idea that a brother—or Trista—would rat. Rogue stood at the front of the table. “Enough!” he bellowed. “Sit down and shut the fuck up.” He waited until everyone had done so. “Alright. I know none of you want to believe it, and neither do I, but we have to explore the possibility. Right now, it’s the scenario that fits the best given the information we have. Any of you can give me a better option, I’m all for it, but for now, we need to consider it.”

No one spoke, but, all around the room, hands fisted and heads shook. It surprised me when it was Pops who spoke up.

“Rogan, it saddens me that we even have to consider this, but you’re right. We do. I have a suggestion.”

“I’m all ears.”

Everyone turned his or her attention to Pops. “Here’s what I suggest. I want two man teams to guard the warehouse twenty-four seven, for the days leading up to our next shipment. I also want to up our security cameras, if only to keep a closer eye on Velasquez. Tail the tail, ya know?”

“Finally, I want to question each of you individually. Let me look each of you bastards in the eye to see who’s lying.”

Rogue nodded. “Do we need to put it to a vote? Or are we all agreed?”

“Agreed,” the room chorused.

“Now,” Rogue began. “We have to fill Axel in on what the hell has been going on around here. Ace, you’re up.”

Ace sighed. He looked tired and more disheveled than usual. “So, yeah, I got grabbed. Only for a night. They gave me a shiner, but nothing else. And they didn’t say shit.”

“Who did it?” I asked, fearful this was more retaliation for what I did with Las Almas.

“Some hoodrats.”

“Wait, what? We don’t run with black gangs. What would they want with you?” I tried to think; maybe he had an outstandin’ debt or some other personal shit.

He shrugged. “Dunno. And I don’t have money trouble. I haven’t played in months. Been going to meetings and everything.”

“Plus, I promised to shoot his dick off if he lost any more money,” Trista added with a smirk.

Everyone snickered at her comment even though no one thought she was kidding, includin’ Ace. “Rev got shot when they took me. It was weird, though. I don’t think they wanted me. They didn’t say shit. It was like they knew they had the wrong guy. Kept whispering to each other, and looking at me funny and shit. No message to the club or anything, just let me go.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I said.

“You’re right, it doesn’t,” Rogue agreed. “Mix up or not, this doesn’t slide. They shot Rev. They destroyed the clubhouse, and they mind-fucked with Ace all night. We’ll find them. And when we do, they’ll regret not double checking their facts first.”

Trista looked at me. “There’s more.” She slipped me a piece of paper across the table. “Them taking Ace wasn’t the only thing that doesn’t make any sense.” I picked it up and read it.
Trust no one.

“Turn it over,” she instructed.

Paige Morrison’s name, and a phone number. Shit. “What the fuck?”

Pops turned to me. “That’s the nurse from inside, right? We were watching her, but she moved. We have to find her, Axel; this girl has to know something about Ace. About what happened that night.”

I nodded. This was my responsibility now. “I’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise.”

Rogue looked at me with serious eyes. “You better, son, because if she’s involved, it won’t matter. She’ll have to go.”