Page 82 of Remiss

“Like Uncle Cash,” Axel confirmed. “Strike one for Uncle Johnnie, Aunt Kendall. Perjuring to hide his motherfuckery isn’t allowed. You have to be honest.”

“Axel–”

“If someone was being mean to Mattie, you’d expect her to be honest, wouldn’t you?” he asked impatiently.

“Yes, but that’s different, so–”

“I will impose a fine if you continue to try to say anything other than what I ask you.”

Kendall wasn’t sure why she continued humoring the boy, especially when she wouldn’t allow her own kids to talk to her with such disrespect. Her nephew was a charmer, though, and quite entertaining.

“Would you like a recess to help your thoughts, counsellor?” Axel asked with the seriousness of a little judge.

“Diesel has been educating you?” she guessed.

“Yeah,” Axel said proudly. “On law stuffs and Medieval stuffs.”

“I applaud him for choosing such an apt student.”

Axel grinned. “Thank you, Aunt Kendall. When I was a little kid, Mom took me to watch Diesel on his first case helping you. He didn’t do much, but Mom and me talked all the way home about how much brilliance you had. I started liking the law ‘cause of you.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” Kendall murmured, touched. For some stupid reason, tears pooled in her eyes. “That means so much to me.”

Sliding down from his stool, Axel rushed around the island and ran to her side, throwing his arms around her. “Don’t cry,Aunt Kendall. If I got to, I’ll blow up Uncle Johnnie first and make a new bomb for Uncle Cash.”

Kendall blinked and pulled away to look at her nephew. “Excuse me?” she said weakly.

“Dad says to prior…priori…uh–”

“Prioritize?”

“Exactly.Prioritize. He says toprioritizestuffs. Sometimes you got to move stuffs from first place to another spot.”

“You do, but I don’t think he expects you to rearrange, er…” Kendall tangled her fingers through her hair. “Uh, death.”

“Fucking motherfuckers up who got to die?” Axel shrugged. “I’m not CJ. I don’t got a problem carrying out executions. You can’t be a leader like that, but I hope he learns. He’d make a cool Prez.”

Kendall nodded. “I think so, too.”

“CJ thinks I need to know my place, but so does he. He doesn’t realize he’s Outlaw’s son.”

She thought about the cunts who’d tried to kill CJbecausehe was Christopher’s son. “I think he knows.”

“No,” Axel insisted. “‘Cause if he did, he’d know he only has to answer to Dad. That’s why the members don’t…they don’t…” He shrugged. “They like him, but I don’t think they think he’s hard enough. Me and my men? We’re standing on business early. We demand respectnowso when we join they won’t ever doubt we’ll fuck a motherfucker up.”

“How does this relate to you wanting to blow up your uncles? They’re adults.”

Axel gave her a disapproving look. “Club code, Aunt Kendall. Loyalty, respect, and freedom. Uncle Johnnie and Uncle Cash betrayedmy dad. Andmy dadis the club. He’s also the head of the family, so those two motherfuckers betrayed us and the brothers. Disloyalty and disrespect. That means the freedom has been thrown out the toilet.”

“Out the window,” Kendall corrected, unable to stop herself.

He glared at her. “Out the window,” he spat, sweeping her with a look of disgust.

“I think you’re misinterpreting freedom. It refers to the open road mainly.”

“Nuh-uh,” Axel said with a decisive shake of his head. “It meansfreedom. Free to think how you want. Free to like who you want. And free to be however you want.” He thought for a moment. “Like Uncle Cash and Uncle Stretch.”

“What do you mean by that?” Kendall asked slowly, unsure how much Axel understood.