Page 51 of The Saviors: Part One
“Yeah, I think we do. You really need to figure out what’s more important. Taking down Charlie is at the top of that list. But do you really want to lead us like he used to lead the Saviors?” He spins on his heel, following Sean outside. Sean’s truck fires up and peels out of the driveway.
Axel wipes his nose with his shirt and turns to me. “I don’t know what you want me to say, man,” I say.
“Why didn’t you stop them from leaving?”
“Why should I? They’re right. As much as it sucks to fucking hear, you’re acting like your dad.” He whirls on me, and I hold a hand up. “Save it. I’ve defended you for too long. It’s time to take some responsibility for your actions. Starting with getting them back. But you better make damn sure this doesn’t happen again.”
“They just left. To be with Chelsea.” He sinks into a chair, all the energy leaving him at once. That’s the first time he’s said her name in six years.
“Chels isn’t our concern anymore. We fucked up by leaving her. You know it, and I know it. They make each other happy.”
“It wasn’t a mistake leaving. You know the threat against her if we stayed.”
“Did you not hear what Sean was starting to say? We left her here to be someone’s punching bag. We could have protected her from that and your dad if we had taken off like we planned.”
“He said what?” Axel says hoarsely.
I throw my hands up. “Were you not listening to him? Of course not, because it wasn’t what you wanted to hear. He started to say it before Kai cut him off. Fill in the fucking blanks, Axel.”
He drops his head in his hands. “I don’t know how to fix this.”
“Be the guy we all know and look up to. Drop this shit you’ve been pulling, and for fuck’s sake, leave her name out of your fucking mouth.” He jerks a nod. “You don’t deserve to tell them they can’t be with her. They can protect her, and given the way she was strapped today, she can protect herself.”
“She was incredible, wasn’t she?”
“She was, but I didn’t expect anything less of her. It’s time to come to grips with the fact that what we did was wrong. You need to start there if you want to fix a damn thing.”
Leaving him in the living room, I go to my room, lay on the bed, and stare at the ceiling.
When I looked her up, she was married to Brady Stinson. Is he the dickhead who hurt her? He’s the prick from high school that thought his shit didn’t stink. The judge’s son.The judge’s dead son.There’s no way Kai and Sean will let him live. Sean casually dropping that he cared about her proved that. I want to talk to her and tell her my side of the story. If she doesn’t want anything to do with me after that, then maybe I can move on.Fat chance, asshole.
I’ll find a way with or without Axel.
Chapter16
Axel
I’ve thought about the day I would finally see Chelsea again a million times. Walking into a meeting where I’m trying to take down Charlie wasn’t on that list.
So much went through me at that moment, sadness, anger, regret, remorse, andlonging.Anger won out in the end because that’s the only way I know how to deal with this bullshit. I knew there was a chance we would run into her, but I never truly prepared myself for that moment. Now I have to sit back and watch not one but two of my guys leave to be with her. Sean leaving doesn’t surprise me, Kai following behind him does. Not that I blame them. I should have kept my mouth shut when it comes to her. I don’t have the fucking right to tell them they can’t be with her, no matter how much it hurts since she was mine first.
“Is everything okay?” I look up at the sound of Nolan’s voice and try to smile.
“Yeah, man.”
Nolan flops on the couch in front of me. “You can talk to me. You know that, right?”
I lean back in the chair to stare at the ceiling, trying to get my thoughts together. You can add taking him on that mission to my list of regrets. I’ve never felt such panic as seeing that guy with a gun aimed at Nolan’s head. We get ourselves into those situations all the time. Hell, we’ve all been shot on more than one occasion, almost fatally. Usually, the guys can handle their own, and I let them, but I acted on instinct when I grabbed Nolan. I know he’s trained, but he would never have gotten a shot off in time, which means he shouldn’t have been with us. I’m still damn proud of him, though. He handled it all with ease, except for his little freakout when we got back to the house. It all hit him at one time, and he looked seconds away from losing his shit. So, I took him to the kitchen, got him a shot, and told him what I tell all my guys. “When it stops bothering you, it’s time to get out.” I haven’t gotten to that point yet. Every kill still bothers me to a certain extent. I’ve just learned to ignore it. I don’t know if I ever want Nolan to get to that point. “Go get us some beers, and I’ll tell you a story,” I finally say. I listen to him get up, and within minutes, he’s handing me a beer. I crack it open and drain the entire thing.
“Here,” Nolan says. I look up, and he hands me another. “I figured you’d probably need more than one.”
“Thanks.” I sip this one and sit up to look at him. “How much did you hear earlier?”
He shrugs. “All of it.” I figured as much. “Is Chelsea the girl?” The kid is perceptive, I’ll give him that.
“Yeah, she is,” I say sadly. “Cole and I grew up with her. Childhood best friends and all that shit. We all had shit home lives, so we stuck together growing up. We made a pact in high school that the day she turned eighteen, we were leaving Forest Grove behind and never fucking looking back.”
“What happened?”
