Page 17 of Axel (Belles & Bratva Beasts #2)

And he does, all the way back to his place, where he sets her down. Together, we watch Sparky prance toward her litter box, and though she’s pregnant as hell, that pussy has pride.

Yeah, I’m really growing attached.

“Ready for our date?” Axel turns to me.

A date? Wow, he’s serious, and I’ve never officially been on one. Hookups and meet-cute-cocks at a bar don’t count.

I glance down at my thrift shop score: an old Michael Kors emerald sheath dress, and that deep vulnerability stirs inside. “Should I change first?”

His intense stare glides up my legs, lingering over where he touched me this morning, before his icy gaze heats every cell in my body. “Don’t you dare change, Ruby Jones.”

Oh, no.

This hot dickhead went from making me murderous to making me melt.

We drive to the restaurant in a dusky silence, his Russian music growing on me as a valet rushes to take his Jaguar. We enter, and Axel gently presses his hand to the small of my back.

Just as he did to Alena Allen .

I don’t know why I think of it now or how I feel about it.

But holy hell, do I feel.

It’s nameless and potent as we weave our way to a corner in the back of a blooming courtyard. The restaurant is a Victorian home turned famous spot for Charleston’s elite. It takes months to get a reservation, but the hostess beams at Axel, silently escorting us to this table like it’s his.

“Don’t you worry, you’ll be spotted?” I whisper when he pulls the chair out for me. Like he has manners. Like he’s a prince, a Bratva prince.

Nope, I can’t get past that part.

If I thought Axel was wealthy and powerful as a rogue South Carolina lawyer while running vigilante crimes as a side hustle, I was right.

But now I know he’s also the missing heir to the second-largest crime organization in the world.

He makes me and my little spying on him feel like Dora The Explorer, not the Black Widow.

“I want to be spotted as Michael Cummings, the lawyer.” He sits beside me. “I want the illusion of a normal life with nothing to hide, including very public dinner dates. ”

Jealousy stabs my heart.

Insecurity, too.

I’m not his special date; I’m a token cover story.

I hate that I care. I hate feeling this vulnerable, so I look away.

Women in fashion I can’t afford cut their eyes at me. I can’t face Axel and won’t confront their judging glares, either, so I look down, twisting the linen napkin in my lap.

“Ruby,” Axel’s voice is low and pressing, “what did I say this time?”

“Nothing.” I won’t look at him.

“No, I said everything again, but I don’t know what. Talk to me. What did I say that hurt you?”

Answering him would only hurt me more, so I don’t.

I need him to read my mind. I need him to see my memories so I don’t have to relive them.

I need him to see the girl who lost control of her bladder during a seizure at school.

I need him to know what it felt like to be bullied about it for years.

I need him to understand what it feels like to be powerless, mocked, and shamed.

Axel could inherit even the darkest world, and I still wouldn’t belong in it. He wouldn’t understand and…

His hand reaches for mine. Hidden by the tablecloth, no one sees him gently hold it. No one but me hears him say, “I haven’t been on a date since the day I met you.” No one feels his warmth, but I do. “Is that what upset you?”

Oh, god, this isn’t a game.

This is real.

“Why me?” I lift my trembling chin. “Why do you say you want everything from me when you come from the height of power, even the criminal kind, and I come from nothing? I have nothing but my…” I pause, remembering what he calls me, “my wildfire to give.”

“Honestly?” He doesn’t let go of my hand, and I like his hold on me.

“Because you remind me of my mom, and I don’t mean it in a weird Freudian way; I mean it as the highest compliment.

She survived horrible violence and escaped with six sons.

A strong woman raised me, and I know when I meet one. When I met you .”

“But you don’t really know me.”

“Yes, I do.” He cocks a grin. “You flip off drivers who honk at slow pedestrians. You give lost tourists directions. You tip every busker and barista way too much. You threw a butter pecan milkshake at some boys who were picking on a girl waiting for the city bus, and?—”

“You saw all that?”

“Stanley the Stalker strikes again.” His thumb caresses my hand. “Yes, Ruby, I see you. The butter pecan was a guess, but I know it’s your favorite ice cream.”

“That’s freaky.”

“I prefer impressive , but hey,” he smirks, “you know I like getting freaky, too.”

He lets go of my hand, and I grab a breath because he’s right.

I was bullied, but now I’m strong. By the time I was a junior in high school, I’d had enough.

I fought back. My sister, Scarlett, taught me her MMA moves, how to punch and choke, and I spent more time in suspension than in school.

Honestly, fighting back helped to relieve the stress that triggered my seizures.

This is who I am now.

“So, since you like getting freaky,” I let go of my napkin to twirl the knife on the table, “you’ll like my plan.”

He leans back in his chair. “Okay, let me hear it.”

“Hear it? No, it’s happening. I rented a night at the chalet where Nick and Zar were illegally filmed. I’m going tomorrow to give the owner’s camera an erotic performance. Then, I’ll wait for him to bribe me, too, and when I go to pay him, you can kill him. ”

Axel’s speechless, then furious. “The fuck you are.”

I silently mouth, “It’s happening.”

“It’s a death trap.”

I mouth again. “It’s happening.”

“Ruby…” He clenches his fist like he wants to pound the table, but won’t draw attention. “You are NOT going alone to a criminal location where you’ll expose yourself to be illicitly filmed, then bribed. Yes, I’ll kill the man bribing Nick, but you’re not going to find him that way.”

“It’s the only way.” I keep spinning the knife. “I called Liam Farley while you were in court today. For five hundred dollars to his Venmo, I got the three names of who owns that LLC, so now we have to find out which one is the criminal.

“So,” I sigh, “you can either come with me tomorrow and make it an even more convincing show for the camera or wait for me to get the intel on the man bribing Nick all by my silly self.”

“We’re not fucking on camera,” he seethes. “I’d never let us be exposed like that.”

I shrug. “I didn’t expect you would. But you can sit out of range of the camera while you play my boss, and I’m your secretary. We’ll pretend we’re having a naughty affair and rented the chalet where I give you a dirty show until my husband calls, and we have to leave.”

“You’re not married.” He grits his teeth. “And you sure as fuck won’t give a dirty show to anyone.” Pause for his smirk. “Except me.”

“Come on,” I huff, “think with your Carolina lawyer brain, not your jealous Bratva balls. The owner doesn’t know I’m not married, and sextortion is the fastest growing cybercrime in this country, and hiding adultery is a top reason for it.”

I lean forward, hissing my whisper, “Nick isn’t his first victim, and he won’t be the last. Imagine how many rental properties this guy has, how many people’s lives he’s ruining because he’s violating their privacy.”

Axel fumes, but runs the calculations. He’s tempted in more ways than one; I knew he would be.

“We go,” he orders, “but we do it my way. There are loopholes in your mission, and I never operate alone.”

“You won’t. You’ll be with me.”

“No,” he corrects. “Remember, you’re mine now. You’ll always be with me and another king.”