Page 115 of Caution to the Wind

“It was a warning,” I told them. “Tonight.”

“The triad doesn’t give warnings.”

“Not usually,” I agreed, adjusting on the pillows with a grimace. “But Kasper killed his brother’s lover once. I think killing another would be stretching the family loyalty to the breaking point, even for a Chinese family.”

“So you are fuckin’ him.” Even though there was no undulation in Axe-Man’s tone, his entire body seemed carefully clenched around a mass of emotions working behind his stormy eyes.

“No,” I said, suddenly so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open. “I agreed to be Jiang’s beard when I moved to Vancouver. We go out on ‘dates’ every week or two, and I attend certain functions with him. We don’t have a physical relationship, but I guess, after all these years, we’re friends of a sort.”

Friends the way two stray cats were friends, banding together to hunt mice but wary enough of each other to sleep apart.

“Jiang Kuan is gay?” Bat asked, his black brows raised into his hairline.

I levelled him a cool look. “What, gangsters can’t be gay or something? It’s the twenty-first century.”

“I’m not shocked he’s gay,” Bat corrected. “I’m shocked his brother allowed him to live for it. Kuan is known for bein’ an old-school sonuvabitch.”

“Yeah, well, Kasper basically raised Jiang after their parents died. And family is complicated. That’s why I’d say I’m alive right now. That, and even though they obviously saw Axe-Man leaving my room, they didn’t have enough evidence to support me working with The Fallen. Kasper knows I knew the Axelsens in Calgary. It’s feasible I might have run into Axe-Man in town, and he was confronting me.”

“Feasible, but not likely,” Zeus noted.

“Jiang is valuable, not just as his brother, but to Seven Song,” I admitted. “He’s the Vanguard, which means he’s in charge of operations. Basically, he coordinates most of the triad’s big jobs. If Kasper killed me, Jiang might turn on him, so basically, he kills me, hehasto kill Jiang, just in case.”

“You’ve wedged yourself into quite the position,” Axe-Man drawled. “Only question remainin’ is why the fuck you’d do that?”

Exhaustion was knawing at my bones, sucking out the marrow, but I still managed to jut my chin out at Axe-Man and say coolly, “My reasons are my own.”

“Not now, they aren’t. You’re in my house, hangin’ around my daughter, causin’ trouble in my town, so the reasons are owed to me. Pay up.”

“You never used to be so stupid, Axe-Man,” I said casually just to watch those big hands fist. “Do you really thinkIbrought trouble to Entrance when the mother chapter of the fucking Fallen MC resides here? You don’t think the Kuan brothers had their eyes set on you from the moment they expanded to British Columbia? You don’t think they stillhateThe Fallen for what Rooster Cavendish did to them in Calgary? I’m one girl, not the destroyer of fucking worlds.”

“You destroyed mine once before,” he stated through clenched teeth. “I won’t let you do it again.”

“Fuck you,” I tried to hiss, but it came out like a whisper because I felt like I’d been punched in the gut again.

“Axe-Man, step out,” Zeus ordered in a quiet, intractable manner.

For a moment, I thought he’d argue, but with a glower in my direction, Axe-Man pushed himself out of the chair and stalked out of the room, shutting the door a little too hard behind him.

I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing so I wouldn’t cry like a little girl.

The bed decompressed by my hip, and the scent of leather and a hint of vanilla filled my nostrils. When I opened my eyes, Zeus was sitting beside me. Up close like that, I could see the tan lines in his face, the crow’s feet, and rows in his forehead paler than his tanned skin. He was weathered from years of riding on the back of a bike in all elements, and there were some threads of silver in his dark brown, blond-tipped long locks, but all of that only proved to heighten how ruggedly handsome he was.

I blinked, a little dazzled despite myself.

“You gotta excuse Axe-Man. Never seen him treat a woman anythin’ but gentle. What happened to Cleo? It’s been hard on him, and he’s not himself.”

When I didn’t deign that with a response, he cracked a small smile and chuckled.

“Yeah, you comin’ into town didn’t help matters much. But you’re a smart woman. I bet I don’t hafta tell ya that there’s a thin fuckin’ line between love and hate. He loved ya once, but after eight years and what happened between ya, it’s understandable he got a bit turned around. I think he’d be hard-pressed to know himself exactly where he stands next to it.”

“Deep beyond the boundaries of hatred,” I said dryly.

“But you don’t hate him.”

I let my lids lower, hiding the extent of it from those astute silver eyes. “No.”

“You want to help him and Cleo. That’s why you came?”