Page 9 of No Mistakes (No Mercy #2)

AXEL

I stand frozen, watching as the car disappears down the road into the distance. The sun is setting, and a cold breeze wraps around me, like a reminder that without her, there is a piece of me missing.

I don’t move while the weight of everything crushes on top of me from the inside out.

She was gone, and I had no one to blame but myself.

Footsteps scruff against the gravel, and I don’t have to look to know it was Ant. He stands beside me, silent but observing like always.

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of him pulling his phone out.

“You can’t fix this with a bullet.” The message reads.

A bitter smile tugs at the corner of my mouth. I know a bullet can’t fix this, but if I could, I would’ve already put one through my own goddam heart.

“I know,” I mutter, my voice low. “But it doesn’t mean I don’t want to try.”

Ant doesn’t respond. Instead, he just stands there like a goddamn statue, giving off the kind of silent judgment only a brother could perfect.

Solid. Steady. Annoyingly calm.

I’d probably have to light myself on fire before he so much as blinked, and even that is a push.

I drag a hand through my hair, gripping the back of my neck like it could hold me together.

I had one chance left. One fucking chance, and I already set it on fire the second I walked into that room and saw the look on her face.

But beneath all of the emotions that ran through her, the one thing that gutted me the most was the look of hurt.

The kind you don’t come back from. She looked at me like I was the bullet that hit her straight through the heart.

I look towards Ant, and I can’t help but almost laugh because, between the two of us, he’s the one who doesn’t even speak. Yet somehow, he’s the only one saying exactly what I need to hear.

Nothing.

No lies. No pretty words. Just standing there like he’d keep doing it even if the world burned down around us.

Hell.. Maybe it already has.

I scrub a hand down my face, the scrape of my calloused fingers against the stubble on my chin doing jack shit to ground me.

“She’s gone,” I mutter, more to myself than him.

Gone, because I broke her. Gone, because I couldn’t keep a grip on the one thing that made me feel alive for the first time in years.

Ant shifts slightly, dragging his gaze across the empty parking lot where Eva’s car once sat.

I let him have a moment because with Eva gone, that also means Mandy’s gone.

He won’t tell us any information when it comes to his relationship with her.

But it doesn’t take a genius to know that something is going on between the two of them.

I see it in the way his eyes light up when she walks into a room.

Mandy has the same effect on him that Eva has on me.

That whenever she’s around, it’s like the whole damn world around you disappears.

I watch as his shoulders rise and fall as he sucks in a deep breath, pushing his feelings down before jerking his chin towards our vehicle, telling me it’s time to go.

I release a sigh while dropping my gaze towards the floor because, after all, we don’t have the luxury of standing here like heartbroken idiots. Not when the real work was still ahead of us.

I roll my shoulders back, forcing my spine straight even though everything inside me feels like it’s caving in.

“Let’s go, Flynn should have the package by now,” I say, my voice rougher than intended.

I may have lost Eva for now, but this was never just about winning her back. It’s about surviving long enough to deserve her. About tearing down the world that tried to destroy us and building a new one where she never has to flinch at a knock on the door again.

She doesn’t know it yet, but every lie I told, every secret I’ve buried, was for this.

For her .

And I will burn every fucking thing in Chicago to the ground before I let anyone, even her, tell me it’s too late.

We arrive back at the house in record time with Ant behind the wheel.

At one point, I swear the car swayed hard enough to make it lurch, and I had to brace myself against the door to try and stop myself from landing in his lap.

He didn’t even blink at my reaction when it happened, just kept his eyes on the road.

I unclip my seatbelt as he turns the engine off. “Have you ever considered slowing down before you kill us both?” I mutter, side-eying him. Ant’s only response was a smirk, and I know the bastard is enjoying himself.

The atmosphere around the house sends a chill down my body. It was too quiet.

I look towards the door where I watched Eva disappear, and the air feels thinner as I replay the scene over and over inside of my mind.

I walk along the gravel driveway, welcoming the sound of it crunching beneath my feet.

I push through the front door, and I’m met with the weight of silence, but not the peaceful kind. The kind that sat on your shoulders, waiting for you to break.

“He’s back,” someone calls from the living room. I recognise Flynn’s voice as the sound of people moving floats through to the hallway.

I walk into the living room to see the rest of them already gathered.

Gunnar was sitting on the edge of the coffee table, elbows on his knees, his expression set like stone.

Carter’s leaning against the wall, arms crossed, his stare razor-sharp, and Flynn…

He’s pacing like a caged animal, like he’d been doing since I left.

No one says a word when I step in, and Ant steps through the door following me.

“You look like shit,” Gunnar says finally.

“I feel worse,” I respond, dragging a hand through my hair. It still smelled like her from when I was staying in the house without her, hiding my secret. The smell of Lavender and something warmer underneath, something I can’t name, but whatever it is, it makes my chest hurt.

Every day, I would use her products to feel a little closer to her.

“So, she’s gone?” Carter asks, his voice low.

I look towards him, nodding. Ant informed me on the way back to the house that Mandy made the decision to take Eva back to Boston, where she can find herself properly, and that if I really wanted the chance of forgiveness, I needed to be as far away as possible.

“Good,” Flynn snaps. “Now maybe we can finally get our heads outta our asses and deal with the real problem”

I turn slowly to face him. “You wanna say that again?”

He doesn’t flinch, “You heard me. We’ve been spiralling since this all started. Traitors in the ranks. Cops on our payroll are flipping. We’re hanging on by a thread, and you’re too busy chasing after someone who-”

“If you value your life, you won’t finish that sentence,” I warn, my tone serious.

Tension snaps through the room like a live wire. Ant steps between us without saying a word, his silence louder than any shout. One look from him is enough to make Flynn shut his mouth.

I exhale through my nose and drop into the arm of the couch.

“Eva needed answers,” I tell him. “I tried to give them. Whether she wants to know more is up to her.”

Gunnar stands, “We’re all hurting, Axel. But we don’t get to fall apart. Not now.”

I can’t help but look at Gunnar. Every time I see him, I think of the little boy he used to be.

Chasing us around with sticks, pretending they were swords.

Eating everything in the house to the point our mother couldn’t keep the fridge stocked enough.

But now, when I look at him, I see the man he’s become.

I never wanted him to be introduced to this world, but maybe it was naive of me to think that.

It’s in our blood. We’re all destined to this life one way or another, and now it’s his too.

He doesn’t look like a kid anymore. Not even close.

He’s tall now, broad in the shoulders, built like someone who could carry the weight of this whole damn family if he had to.

His jaw is sharp, set like stone, and there’s a new edge in his eyes.

Cold. Calculated. Not the wild-eyed boy who used to laugh without a care.

His hair’s darker now, longer too, pushed back like he hasn’t bothered to tame it.

But it’s his stare that gets me every time—steel blue and unreadable.

The kind of look that makes people step out of your way without asking questions.

There’s power in him now, quiet and simmering just beneath the surface.

And if I’m being honest, it scares me a little.

Not because I don’t trust him, but because I know what this life can do to good men.

I want to believe he’s strong enough to survive it, to rise in it, but a part of me still wants to shield him.

Like I used to when he scraped his knees or got in over his head.

But I can’t protect him from this. Not anymore.

Whether I like it or not, the darkness has him now. And all I can do is stand beside him, hope he remembers who he is beneath all of it, and make damn sure no one drags him under.

I look around at the only people I have left. My brothers. The ones who followed me through every reckless decision I’d made. The ones who would die with me, even if they didn’t always agree with me.

“We need to find out exactly what is happening in Chicago,” I tell them. “I know we received intel from the remaining members of Marco’s crew, but we need it verified. Double checked. Triple Checked. Are they still in the holding space?” I ask, directing my question mostly to Flynn.

Flynn Scoffs. “Where else would they be? Playing poker with Carter?”

Carter snaps his head towards Flynn, mouth open. “Are you saying I’m too soft to run an interrogation?”

“I’m just saying if it were up to you, we’d be offering them tea and a second chance.”

I raise a hand, stopping the argument before it gets too far. “Enough.”

Flynn walks towards me, “Yeah, they’re still in the basement. Shitting themselves, last I checked.”

“Good.” I say, “We start there. I want names, locations, everything they know. I want the entire structure of the Chicago ring laid bare by the end of the night. Who’s still operating? Who’s gone ghost? Who’s pretending they’re loyal but aren’t. Got it?”

Ant shrugs, completely unfazed, and taps twice on his phone. A map lights up, glowing red with heat signals, names tagged, and locations flagged. Of course, he’s already built a goddamn war board with the information we’ve been given.

I take it from him, scrolling through with a low whistle. “You get off on this, don’t you?”

Ant grins and nods once.

“Creepy bastard,” I mutter, but there’s no bite to it.

I shake my head and look back towards the phone. “This is why I keep you around.”

Gunnar steps closer, peering at the screen. “So what’s the play?” He asks.

I look towards them all, knowing that the next step in our lives will change everything, change who we currently are.

“We play fast and hit hard,” I say. “We find out every secret, every operation, and we take Chicago back from the inside out. I want their dealers, their runners, their front-facing businesses. I want every corrupt cop on their payroll bleeding for a second chance.”

Flynn cracks his knuckles, smirking like he’s waited his whole damn life for this. “ Finally . We’re back, baby!”

I pace a few steps, trying to burn off the tension coiled in my spine. “They thought taking me out would be enough. That if they broke me, they’d break all of us. But I’m still here. We’re still here. And they have no idea the hell we’re about to rain down on them.”

I head for the door near the kitchen, bending down to pull the duffel bag from the cabinet. It’s heavy, full of gear that we brought over from the safe house before Eva arrived. I throw it over my shoulder, walking back and hand it to Gunnar without a word.

He grips the strap, knuckles going white. He doesn’t ask any questions. Instead, he nods his head as if he knows what to do.

“It’s your time to shine, brother,” I say, looking him dead in the eyes. “Go get us some answers and do whatever you have to do to get them. This is the start of your initiation.”

I see a small smile appear on his face before he masks it.

He nods his head once more, and I watch as he takes a deep breath, preparing himself before walking towards the door that leads to the basement.

Carter follows suit, giving me a nod of approval just as the door to the basement closes behind him.

The house stays quiet for a second too long as the rest of us don’t speak. No one breathes as we wait for confirmation that they’re downstairs.

A muffled scream breaks through the door, and a smile makes its way onto my face because that’s when I know, we’ve just lit a fuse.