Page 42 of Dangerous Silence
“Little pet, wearethe security,” the first man said, leaning into my face. The other two chuckled.
My face was on fire, sweat dripping from my arms.
“You’re making a mistake,” I said.
“We’ll see about that,” the first man said, lifting his spider hands to touch the bodice of my dress.
An elbow came flying, hitting the man in the nose. Before he could process, another one knocked into the third man holding my chin. Then Axe spun around, breaking the neck of the second one, but the man was still holding onto me and almost pulled me down with him. Axe grabbed me by the chest and pushed me against the wall, and the shock of it stunned me as I watched him tear the men apart. I slid to the floor, my eyes widening. One by one, he killed them all. Three men by himself.
As much as I hated it, I was relieved he was there. That he was helping me.
But where did it stop? No matter how much blood flew out of the corners of the men’s mouth, he kept punching until their faces were dented inward. A few people from the sides of the room had gathered, giving us space, and no one seemed to care. Hell, I didn’t even move. I didn’t know what to do. He was defending me, but by now, the men got the picture. He didn’t need to destroy the corpses too.
Finally, someone coughed, and that broke him out of his trance. He sat on his haunches, then glanced at his bloody, swollen hands, wiping them off on his pants.
Then he looked at me. “Let’s go,” he said.
Without a word, the two of us left the casino. Axe nodded at the bouncer, and he nodded back. What he had done was accepted here; no one hid behind the curtains of what was morally right or wrong. So what did that mean for Axe? For me?
In the car, Axe turned back onto the freeway, and we headed back toward the Strip.
“Where are we going now?” I asked. It had to be well into the a.m. I couldn’t imagine the night getting any worse, but I knew we had so much ahead of us.
“To rest,” he said. “But early tomorrow, we’ve got an appointment to make.”
CHAPTER 13
Axe
Similar to me, Zaid liked mornings, and even earlier appointments. Though I had known him for many years, I had never been to his home. There was no need, and I respected a man’s privacy, which I knew, like me, Zaid valued more than most. To find that he lived in the terrain at the foot of Mount Charleston wasn’t a surprise. In the soft light of dawn, I parked the van along the driveway, gravel crunching under the wheels. Stepping out of the van, Demi flicked the hair out of her face, then zipped up her pink hoodie.
We went around a small plot of succulents to the entrance.
“How do you know this guy again?” Demi asked.
“We worked together a few times when I was doing a job down here.”
“Oh.”
Curiosity and disturbance always danced together in Demi’s face. She wanted to know everything, and yet she knew that the more she understood, the harder it would be to hold onto herself, that purity that still lurked within her. Luckily, when it came to Zaid, there wouldn’t be anything to worry about. No fights. No death. It was simply a discussion with an associate, then an eighteen-hour drive back to Sage City.
I knocked and Demi shoved her hands in her pockets. The door opened, revealing a brunette with curled hair and bright eyes. A rose gold infinity collar was tight around her neck.
“Hi,” she said hesitantly, looking up at me. “Who are you?”
“Axe,” I said. “An old associate of Zaid’s.” I tilted my head. “You must be Heather.”
“I am,” she nodded and turned to Demi. “And you are?”
“Demi,” she said. The two women shook hands.
“Come on,” she said, motioning for us to come inside. “I’ll show you to the study.”
Zaid had creases near his eyes from age, and matching scars on both sides of his face, striking through his eyes. One of them was a shade lighter than his skin tone, while the other was tinted pink, which meant it had to be new.
“Axel Adler,” he said. “It’s been a long time.”
“Quite a while,” I said.
