Page 51 of Secret Mission

“For Christ’s sake. He saved our lives.”

“You’re lucky you lived. His fiancée, Hope, didn’t.”

A bomb could have been louder than his grated words.

My heart leaps into my throat.

His fiancée?

Shock and sadness at hearing this news. For Truck. For her.

Pinned against his brother’s chest, I feel breathless and angry.

He shouldn't have told me.

I shouldn’t ask more. But the question just rolls out of me.

“His fiancée died?”

This makes Axle’s jaw tighten, his chest becoming rock hard against me. “You two seem close already. He didn’t tell you he killed her?”

Red pulses behind my eyes.

I want to shove his arms off of me. I don’t even know what he’s talking about, but I hate it.

“I’m not talking about this with you.”

I’m suffocating from my confusion and miss the rustle of bushes beside me, until there’s a motion, and something black flashing in the low, red light.

When my eyes focus, there’s a gun muzzle against Axle’s temple, and a man I know pointing the weapon.

“Put her down.”

Chapter Sixteen

Every hair on my body stands on end when I turn around. So, this is why my sixth sense has been screaming. We had predators on our trail.

Tensing my hands, I center myself.

Axle’s red head lamp floods the small opening between the dense jungle foliage, casting the shadowy scene in nightmare shadows.

Three people. Axle. Allison. And some asshat with a sizable pistol.

“You picked the wrong guy.”

Axle’s rebuke is low, lethal, and scary quiet. The kind of calm that should make anyone think twice about what they’ve done.

If Axle is like Truck, this guy is seriously fucked up.

Moving at a snail’s pace, I draw my weapon from the holster at my lower back. If I play this right, I can take him down.

But all the cards have to align.

“Axle, take it easy.”

Unceremoniously, Axle opens his arms and dumps Allison on the ground.

She cries out in shock.

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