Page 161 of Caution to the Wind

The axe was too small for a proper beheadin’, but I didn’t care about that. The next swing killed Ashes in one decisive fell, levelin’ him broken like a damaged toy on the ground.

“For Kate, you motherfucker,” I cursed as I pulled my axe free again.

The chaos had stilled around us, and I looked up suddenly, searchin’ for Mei amid the carnage.

When I found her, I let out a bark of shocked laughter.

She was sittin’ on the table the triad members had been meetin’ at, sippin’ from a glass of leftover sake with two dead bodies on either side of her, both their necks obviously broken.

“A little messy,” she noted dryly, takin’ in my blood-splattered body and drippin’ axe with a small smile. “But now I know why they call you Axe-Man.”

I laughed again, shocked to find myself enjoyin’ a moment with Rocky in the aftermath of battle even though I shouldn’t’ve been.

This was my fighter, my Rocky girl.

I caught sight of Priest up noddin’ at her in respect as he cleaned his wicked knife on his tee and fought the inappropriate urge not to laugh again.

Instead, I stalked over the bodies to Mei and caught her up in my arms, kissin’ that smug smile off her mouth. “You’re somethin’ else, little dragon.”

She grinned back at me, wipin’ a droplet of blood off my cheek with a little wrinkle in her nose. “You get home and cleaned up, I’ll show you just what I am.”

MEI

There wereone hundred and eleven illegal immigrants being kept in the underground facility of the Golden Door Inn. Some of them were as young as eleven, some as old as their late eighties. All smuggled from China with the promise of some kind of Canadian dream. Only, they hadn’t had enough money to pay the premium prices of the Seven Song triad, so they’d been indentured by the syndicate into working in their underground bank.

I tried my best to deal with them, speaking rapid-fire Cantonese as I sought to soothe and reassure them, while the club dealt with all the rest.

King, Nova, and Dane were in charge of the front of the house. They’d put out the fire and reassured the workers before the fire trucks came. While they dealt with upstairs, below stairs, unbeknownst to the cops and firefighters, the most notorious MC in the country were at work cleaning their weapons, tending to their few cuts and scrapes, and figuring out the best way to steal half of the Seven Song triad’s illegal money.

“We can’t take it out on the back of our fuckin’ bikes,” Wrath grunted. “C’mon, be real, Boner.”

“I am,” he countered. “We got saddlebags, backpacks, pockets.” He put both hands in his hoodie pocket and bulged it out in an approximation of how much money he could fit in it. “I could get ten grand in here alone.”

Before Wrath could growl something at him, Axe-Man stepped in calmly. “It’s not the worst idea”—he held up a hand to stop Wrath––“’cause it’s our only fuckin’ option. We don’t have time to figure somethin’ better out. Kasper wasn’t fuckin’ here, and he’s gonna get wind of this eventually, even though we took care of the affiliated members. You think the girls workin’ upstairs don’t know who they work for? They’ll call it in any minute if they haven’t already.”

“He’s right,” Zeus verified. “We wanna take a cut, we gotta get a move on.”

“Especially ’cause we don’t know where that motherfucker Cedar went,” Axe-Man muttered, still brooding over why Cedar would’ve helped me and why he would’ve contracted with the triad.

It seemed pretty obvious to me that Cedar had no other option but to help Seven Song after he’d been excommunicated from The Fallen, but I knew Axe-Man wouldn’t let it go until he had more concrete answers.

“It’s gonna bring what’s left of the triad down on our fuckin’ heads,” Bat argued. “You wanna buy that trouble?”

“What triad?” Priest deadpanned, his cold gaze shifting over the dead gangsters they’d sat in seats at the table like a macabre meeting of the dead. They’d all had numbers of executive members of the triad inked into their necks.

The only two missing were Jiang, who was secured at the clubhouse, and Kasper, whereabouts unknown, unfortunately.

“This kinda outfit doesn’t just disappear,” Dane said, backing Bat up.

“That’s true,” I said, stepping into their little grouping even though I had no real right to. “That’s why we took Jiang. He didn’t want an active part in hurting his syndicate or his brother, but his brother killed his lover and threatened to do the same to him just for his sexuality. And he’s loyal to me. I think, if we let him take charge of what’s left, we could get the triad out of Entrance and make a kind of truce.”

Axe-Man slung an arm around my shoulders and tucked me into his side. It was a physical show of support and pride that warmed me through to my bones.

“Even if we take half this cash?” Kodiak asked with brows raised.

“Even then,” I said. “Your cut for killing the king and installing the prince.”

“We haven’t killed the king yet,” Axe-Man growled.