Page 172 of Ruptured

“It matters to me.”

“’Cause you’re stupid.”

“You don’t understand. Aunt Meggie and Uncle Christopher would never walk away from you, so you’ll never know how that feels.”

Folding his arms, Axel glowered at him. “I don’t got to know howthatfeels to know you shouldn’t be mean tous‘cause ofthem. We were never mean to you. Mom said it’s okay to ask questions to understand something better. She said it can help you help somebody. Or help yourself. I just want to know about them to help you so you won’t leave again but fuck you. I don’t got to know.Youknow this—you ever leave me again and I’mnevertalking to you for the rest of my life. If I don’t plan a way to fucking kill you for hurting my feelings.” He puffed out his little chest. “Am I clear?”

Diesel smiled. “Perfectly,” he said gravely.

“Promise?” Not giving Diesel a chance to respond, Axel held out his hand. “Let’s shake on it.”

“Promise,” Diesel swore, shaking Axel’s hand. “Why don’t you play a game on your cell phone?”

“It’s at the hospital with Ransom. I gave it to him before he cut class today. He’s putting a VPN on it, so I can see a porn site from overseas.”

“Excuse me? You said girls are gross.”

“The ones my age are, but the grown girls in the videos are so pretty,” Axel explained. “They’re almost the beautifulest in the world.”

“Almost?”

“Texas girlsarethe beautifulest,” Axel said. “Ryder said everything’s bigger in Texas, including ta-tas. That makes them the beautifulest.”

“Beauty isn’t only about a woman’s body, Ax. It’s also about what’s inside them. Their soul. Their outlook on life.”

Kicking his legs, Axel rolled his eyes. “You don’t believe that, ‘cause you wouldn’t have married Tabitha. Ransom thinks she probably sucks good cock.”

Diesel choked. “What the fuck do you know about that? When I was your age, I couldn’t imagine that concept.”

Axel rolled his eyes again and shook his head. “When you was my age, you wasn’t around no MC. Even Rule, who was always praying, liked club girls. It’s how we grew up. Reb…she’s going to be okay, huh?”

“She’ll make a full recovery.”

“Okay, so the Blonde Viper…we like to spy on her for so many different reasons. She got real cool music. She makes cool dives in the pool. We try not to look when her ta-tas are out and we pitch our fucking phones when she skinny dips. It’s gross. She’s our sister.Anyway,when Rule first started pulling away from her, her and Mattie was in the natatorium and they said Rule was starting to look at them differently ‘cause of the club girls. They said he couldn’t be mean to them but that he was objecting them because he didn’t understand they weren’t choosing to be a club girl.”

“Objectifying. They may have had a point.”

“Objectifying?” Axel thought about that. “Object’s in that word.”

“It is.”

“That means girls are objects to Rule?”

“Basically.”

“That’s not right. Girls are girls. They’re alive. Objects aren’t.”

“A concept some people find hard to understand.”

“Girlsaresupposed to listen to men, aren’t they?”

“Girls are supposed to do whatever makes them happy, whether or not a guy approves.Orgirls and guys in a relationship listen to each other.”

“That means compromise. Dad says that’s what him and Mom does, but that’s not true ‘cause he does shit, she finds out and gets mad, then he undoes shit.”

Diesel laughed. “That about sums it up.”

“Mom is so cool. Did you know she could fight? And she’s ordering motherfuckers’ deaths. She’s such a badass. I didn’t know she had it in her. I thought she was only there to take care of us and we always had to protect her.”