“Same,” Keon replies.
“Clear our way. Meet us in the house,” Axel commands. We meet up in the office and get seated around the table. “Where did the spotlights come from?”
Keon grins. “I stole a couple of tanks.”
“You what?” Axel laughs.
“They had them parked unattended. I just gave them a new home.”
“Well, it worked out. We need to search these guys and see if we find anything useful.” Axel pulls Chelsea into his lap and wraps both arms around her. “I doubt it, but it’s worth a shot.”
“What’s the plan now?” Ari asks. “They’re getting bold coming here.”
Before anyone can answer, Axel’s phone rings. He answers it and flips it to speakerphone. “Yeah?”
“Why are you so hard to kill?” Charlie’s voice filters through the line, and my entire body tenses up. I feel a hand slide onto my thigh and squeeze. My eyes flash to Sean, and he squeezes until I can unlock my muscles. “You know this only ends one way, right?”
“Yeah, with you in a goddamn body bag,” Axel growls.
“Speaking of body bags, I’m sorry to hear about your little toy’s hero. What was his name? Gavin?” If he’s asking about him, that means that our plan worked, and Gavin is in the clear for now. “He put up a good fight.”
“What the fuck do you want?”
“Your head on a fucking stick! I can’t finish what I started if you’re still breathing.”
“Then come kill me,” Axel taunts. “You keep sending amateurs to do your dirty work. What’s the matter, Charlie? Are you scared?”
Charlie laughs, and it has a weird edge to it. “Of you? No.”
“I think you are, or you wouldn’t be working so hard to take me down. Or did your ego take a blow when I tookyoudown?”
Nolan makes a rolling motion with his fingers and starts typing faster on his computer. I see areas on the screen lock in and expand, trying to find where Charlie is calling from. “I already told you that I let you.”
“And I call bullshit. If that’s the case, why did it take you six years to retaliate?”
“I needed to put my plan into action, and now you’re getting in the way. Stand down, Axel.”
“Fuck off, Charlie. I’ve decided to run the Saviors how they were meant to be. Tosavepeople.”
“You really think you’re some kind of fucking hero, don’t you?”
“He is,” Chelsea speaks up, surprising everyone. “He’s more than you’ll ever be. All you are is old, bitter, and a goddamn coward who wants to kill his own son.”
“Ah, the little toy speaks. Do you really think they care about you? They left you—”
“Shut up. They left to protect me from you. There’s nothing that you can say that will convince me otherwise.”
“I’m starting to understand why Brady beat the shit out of you.”
Chelsea’s face pales, but she pushes her shoulders back, refusing to feed into his bullshit. I’m so fucking proud of her right now, and from the looks of everyone in this room, they are too. “Only someone like you would say something like that. Or set something like that into motion.”
“Because you made them weak!”
“She makes us stronger,” Axel barks.
“She’s going to be the reason you die. Mark my words, I will be the one to slit your throat, but not before I make you watch me kill her first. I’m going to make good on my threats first, though.”
The line goes dead, and all eyes snap to Nolan. “He’s blocking me somehow. I thought I was getting close, and then it started pinging everywhere.”