Page 21 of Ravaged Soul

“I survived once. I’ll do it again.”

“Yeah, fuck that. Not a risk any of us are willing to take.”

“What if it’s not your decision?”

His chuckle is utterly humourless. “At the risk of sounding like Hyland, if you try to leave and take Luis’s insane deal, I’ll be forced to tie your sweet backside up in my bedroom until this is over.”

“Like that would stop me.”

“I tie excellent knots. Go ahead and test me.”

Narrowing my eyes, I pin him with a look. “I could take you.”

“You’re welcome to try. I’d enjoy it.”

Warm water stings my skin as he cleans the small cuts, letting me stew in my thoughts. I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s taking the same line as the others. Jokes aside, Axel is as protective as my other teammates. It just manifests differently.

“I’m following up that warehouse lead tonight,” Axel reveals, causing me to jerk. “Rayna traced the unregistered license plate from the vicinity of Tom’s apartment to a local delivery company.”

“You know it could be anyone. Luis is too smart to be that sloppy.”

“You’re right. It could be.” His thumb strokes over my swollen flesh, cleaning each graze. “But Warner wants us to check it out.”

At the mention of our leader’s name, my insides clench tight.

“He isn’t okay, Ax. I’ve never seen him like this.”

Axel halts for a moment before rising off the remaining blood. “I know.”

“This morning, he just…”

Words fail me. Seeing Mr Dependable nearly broken, frantic with terror and limping around in a state of exhausted determination, is part of the reason I fled for the training room.

Warner has hardly spoken outside of yelling orders or doling out surveillance tasks. I know that he’s mentally struggling justas much as I am. Tom’s not just his childhood best friend. He’s his brother too.

I have no idea how to help him. Fuck, I can’t even take care of myself. I feel like I’m burning up, and I know Warner’s following right behind me. Add in our complicated dynamic since the stolen kisses we shared, and the situation is a ticking time bomb, primed to explode.

“He can rest while we investigate those plates and the intelligence team works on getting us more video footage.” Axel turns my hand, assessing his work.

“You know he won’t, though.”

“I’ll hide his prosthetic if I have to. He will sleep.”

“Not the worst idea.”

“It’s not the first time I’ve had to do it,” he admits.

Probing a particularly swollen joint on my left hand, Axel glances up to measure my reaction. I wince, briefly meeting his honeyed jewels.

“Next time, wear wraps when you have a semi-suicidal boxing frenzy.”

My lips roll inwards to suppress a smile. “Yes, Nurse Slaughter.”

“Or at least call me so I can watch the show. You know I love seeing you in action. It’s sexy as fuck.”

“It wasn’t a pretty sight, Ax.”

“Now that I don’t believe.” Swapping to my other hand, he begins the same gentle process. “You’re hot when you’re mad. Feel free to use my face instead of a boxing bag next time.”