Page 33 of Dangerous Silence
“Wil,” Ellie said. “Stop it!”
Finally, Wil punched me in the nose, the pain like a lump of burning coal dropped onto my face. Using my legs, I threw him off of me. Pressure swelled in the bridge of my nose, and I sat up, holding my face.
Good job, brother,I thought sarcastically. What a stupid fight. I turned to Ellie.
“You did good,” I said to her. “Thanks.” She tilted her head, and Wil stood in front of her.
“Cut the shit, Axe,” Wil said, fuming. “You don’t put my bride in the middle of danger when you’ve got other people who aren’t family that you can use at your disposal.”
I glanced at Demi. Sometimes, I had felt closer to her father than I had to my own. That wasn’t family, but it wassomething.
“You both knew the possibilities,” I said to Wil. “You don’t want to spend your wedding night defeating the enemy, then fine. Go have your perfect honeymoon.” I stood up. “The rest of us will work.”
“You are a dick,” Wil said. He turned to Ellie. “Let’s go.”
Growing up, fights like this between us brothers blew over. Wil would cool down eventually. My men approached, and I told them to scout the house, to report anything they found to both me and Derek. They dispersed.
My nose seemed fine, but the blow had given me an instant headache. Demi came to my side, offering me her hand to stand up. I took it. We walked back to the car.
“Where’s that look?” she asked.
“What look?”
“The one you have after you,” she paused, “you know.”
It was hard for her to admit what I was capable of, but she was still interested in my thoughts. I tilted my head, then turned back towards the car.
“There’s a difference between execution and murder,” I said. “That was execution. Quick. Efficient.”
“And murder?” she asked.
“You get to decide what happens. You can take a moment to think. Figure out new ways to experiment.” Demi bowed her head. “Does that bother you?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I’m trying not to think about it too much.”
In the car, Derek called, then sent me the address for Harris Markson, a politician in the area who had ties to Miles Muro. My job was to take him down a notch, see where that left his relationship with Muro. We headed toward the next destination.
“You know your dad,” I said, “He worked for my family.”
“How?”
I wondered if she assumed that he simply butchered the remains for us. After what she had seen with Cannon, did she still expect her father to be fairly innocent?
“He was the lead enforcer before me,” I said.
“Enforcer?”
I nodded, letting that settle in. “I’ll show you what enforcing means.”
CHAPTER 10
Demi
As we drove through Brackston, a dull weight settled in my stomach, making me quake with anticipation. The town that was more industrial than the trees and coastline I had grown up with in Sage City, and noticing that made me bite my lip. I ran my tongue along my teeth, stroking the bumpy scarred edges mindlessly. I was trying to make sense of it all. An enforcer? Logically, I knew that enforcing meant that when it came time to put a law or a rule into action, you had totakeaction. I had seen what Axe had done in his torture room. Was that enforcing too? And if so, what did that mean about my dad?
We stopped in a quiet neighborhood with sprawling yellow and blue houses, matching white trim, bushes of flowers in the front. Axe took a street, parking next to a jungle gym. I raised a brow, but he put a hand on mine. Electricity surged through the point of contact.
“Wait here,” he said.
