Page 32 of Bruised MC Bear

“What about you? Are you okay?”

Axe croaked out a laugh. “Me against a few shitty panther shifters? Hell yeah, I’m all right.”

“Good. Where are you?”

“That place.”

“Hang on. Did you say what I think you just said?”

“I did.”

“Crap. Do you need us to take care of anything while you’re going awol with your old lady to be?” Silas kept up the goddamned goading, but now he was also more focused on their words. “I figured it had to be some real good pussy to get you to ignore everything else here, especially that clearance.”

“Yeah well, keep your mind on your old lady’s parts, not Angel’s,” Axe grumbled. “I think I’ve got everything covered. Any other updates?”

“No. I’ll keep you posted as soon as I have any answers. Call in every couple of days, as usual.”

“Will do. Hey Prez, hang on a second.” Axe noticed a sound in the background, something in the quality of the phone connection, rather than anything that was going on over on Si’s end of the line. The clicking triggered a few sudden flashes of images in his mind, and all of a sudden he knew exactly why he had come to this particular motel. “Prez?”

“Yeah.”

“Tell VV to hang on ten,” he said, pronouncing every word and letter carefully. “Did you get that?”

“Got it. Godspeed, brother.”

Axe hung up and turned to face Angel again. She must have gone inside and used the bathroom, because she was a lot less jittery now than a few minutes ago. Shoving his phone into his pocket, he went to greet the problem head on.

“Hey, what’s going on?” she asked. “You don’t look too thrilled—”

“Get inside. Right now,” he said firmly, releasing a threatening growl from the back of his throat so she would not dare to question him now.

She didn’t say a word.

Axe hurried with her across the parking lot, and quickly grabbed their bags out of the back seat of the van. Returning to their room, he got inside and shut the door behind him. He took the hotel room key and examined it in his hand, looking back and forth from the key to Angel. She was not ready for what was about to happen. He dragged her bag off his shoulder and stepped in front of her again.

“It smells like mold and orange juice in here,” Angel said, surveyed the dump, which was worse than the last place. She scrunched up her nose and gave Axe a face. “Maybe we should find somewhere else?”

That was when Axe held her arm and spun her around to face him.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” she shouted. “I was going to take a goddamned shower!”

“You’ll do that, all right. You know why?”

“You’re kind of hurting me right now, Axe. But fine, tell me why.”

“Because my house, my rules. Understand?”

Her lips trembled as recognition hit that he was not fucking around right now. Excellent. It meant he could relay precise instructions to her, and she would not give him any resistance.

“You’re going to get into that shower and turn on the water.” He showed her the small bag in his hand. “Do not lock the bathroom door. Take off every piece of clothes you have on, and put on these clothes when you get in there. After that, you’re going to stay inside the bathroom and wait for me. Do you understand? And not another word.”

She nodded and began to do exactly what he said. Once the shower was on, Axe stepped inside. She was already naked. He placed a finger to his mouth so she would not speak, and pointed at the bag again. It had a simple t-shirt and boxer-styled shorts with a drawstring in the waist. Instead of letting her go into the shower, he made her put it on, and threw his phone into the shower stall, submerging it in water. They headed to the back door of the room and exited, leaving every item he and Angel had packed at her place, as well as her purse from the library. Even that piece of shit minivan was staying behind for the rest of this little trip.

One of the Beartooth Brotherhood trucks was out back, exactly where they had left it for precisely these types of emergencies. With a hand on her shoulder, he led her to the passenger side and helped her in. Getting into the driver seat, he started the truck and drove off, taking a gravel side road as opposed to getting back on the main road.

“You can speak now,” he informed a terrified Angel. “Sorry I had to get a little firm back there.”

“That was not a little firm, by the way!”