Page 142 of Caution to the Wind

Bat fired three shots into the interior. I heard the thud of the body hit the dash.

“Clear,” he called out to our brothers dealin’ with the middle car.

“You got this?” I barked.

Bat nodded, but I was already movin’ toward the second car to check on Mei’s status.

Zeus and Priest had just finished tradin’ shots with two triad men hangin’ out the back windows and were movin’ in on them. I charged by them, slammed my axe into the front passenger door and wrenched it open, droppin’ out of range with my gun leveled at whoever sat within.

Mei sat there in the lap of a tall white man in a black suit. Her knees were bent into a crouch on either side of his thighs, her chopper blade raised and pressed beneath his chin, cuttin’ into his throat just enough to release a thin line of blood.

Relief swooped through me hard enough I almost lost my fuckin’ balance.

’Til I noticed the silver, enamel enlaid gun pressed up under her rib cage, the gangster’s hand steady on the trigger.

“Hello, Axe-Man,” White Snake said calmly, even though he kept his gaze fixed on Mei above him.

I didn’t react to his knowledge of my name. A good enemy knew who his rivals were.

“Drop the gun,” I ordered from my own crouch, levelin’ my own weapon at his temple.

“I don’t think so,” he countered. “I believe I can get a shot off before you do. Before, even, thissiu lungcan slit my throat.”

He’d called Mei “little dragon.”

That, more than the sound of my name in Kate’s killer’s mouth made rage surge through me blood-hot.

“You’ve been watching us,” Mei murmured, studyin’ him with narrowed eyes.

“Of course,” White Snake agreed.

“Not because we’re your enemy,” she continued in a strange, choked voice.

I tensed, my heart beatin’ in my throat even though I could feel my brothers takin’ my back. Somethin’ wasn’t right, Mei was suddenly pale as a corpse, her knife wobblin’ under his chin.

Fear flooded the fires of rage inside me, and I tightened my grip on my gun, ready to shoot his fuckin’ brains out. Nothin’ was goin’ to harm Mei. Not on my watch. Not ever fuckin’ again if I had anythin’ to do with it.

“You don’t drop the fuckin’ gun, I’ll shoot you through the head,” I barked out, and when he didn’t immediately obey, I signaled to Priest through the window where he stood at the driver’s door.

He shot through the glass into the dead body in the driver’s seat.

It provided the distraction I needed to shoot White Snake through the hand holdin’ the gun to Mei’s side.

And my girl?

She didn’t fuckin’ hesitate, rollin’ outta the car as White Snake shouted in pain, movin’ to cradle the neat round wound pulsin’ blood through his wrist. She hit the ground on a smooth roll and jumped to her feet behind me, her own small gun raised and ready to shoot at White Snake.

Pride clamped itself around my throat, and inappropriately timed lust tightened my gut.

Fuck, she was magnificent.

Mei safe, I pressed my still smokin’ gun up under his chin where Mei’d left her blade’s mark.

“You killed my wife, and you just threatened my woman,” I growled, pressin’ hard into the axe and the gun so he choked and spluttered, gone white with pain. “Tell me the reason you murdered Kate Kay and I might not blow your brains out right here on the side of the road.”

“I’ll do better,” he growled, turnin’ his head so I got a look at his face in the dim light of the bikes’ headlights for the first time. My breath got stuck in my throat as I suddenly understood the reason Mei’d balked before. Other than his wide brown eyes, he was a male version of my daughter. “I’ll tell you the reason Katherine Kay was murdered, and I’ll give you reason not to kill me. Cleo’s already lost her mother, do you think, after all she’s been through, she deserves to lose her father, too?”

AXE-MAN