Page 3 of The Saviors: Part Two

Leo squeezes my shoulder. “You don’t have to thank us. This is what family does. We’ll get yours back.”

I steel my spine and stand up.

You better get ready, Charlie, because I’m coming for you.

Chapter2

Axel

4 days ago

Ihave never been one to be scared. It was ingrained in me at an early age that fear made me weak. I never understood that statement until I woke up with my arms chained above my head and no idea where the fuck my family was or if they were even still alive. The last thing I remember is Charlie calling to say that Brady has Chelsea. My only hope is that he’s lying.

Charlie hasn’t shown his face to me yet, only sending his minions in to beat the shit out of me or torture me for information on the Abbs Valley crews. I don’t have shit to tell him, and Charlie should know that since he taught me how to withstand torture.

The door flings open, smacking the wall, and I don’t even lift my head. “Beaten already, Axel?”

Guess today’s my lucky day.

I grit my teeth at Charlie’s voice and lift to look him in the eye. “Fuck you.”

“Maybe you need a little more incentive.” He walks further into the room and shoves a phone in my face. I have to force myself not to react when I see Nolan on the screen, hunkered over a keyboard, because I know that’s what Charlie wants. “He’s got a smart fucking mouth.”

“What is this about?” I ask, trying to act unaffected, but the blood on Nolan’s face and shirt makes me see red.

Charlie pulls a chair over in front of me and sits down. “He has twenty-four hours to get me into the Abbs Valley groups’ computer systems.” He looks at his watch. “Time is ticking, and I’m not in yet. What do I do to people who fail?”

“Are you fucking stupid? You don’t think they are locked up tighter than that?”

Charlie kicks the leg I took a bullet in, but I don’t make a sound. “What do I do to people who fail?” Charlie asks again.

“Holden is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Nolan is going to need more than twenty-four hours.”

“Are you saying that he’s not good enough? Because I would think someone on your team would be able to get me into anything that I want.” Charlie scrolls to something on his phone, and when he turns it around, I want to fucking puke.Kai.He’s locked in a cage, and his eyes are screwed shut, but I can see his lips moving. “This is real-time. Eventually, one of you will break.” How the hell does Charlie even know about Kai’s claustrophobia? That’s private information, and everyone involved in Kai’s torture is dead.

“We can’t tell you shit because we don’t know anything.”

“I know you know about Gray. I also know you just left there. But you’re trying to tell me they don’t share any information with you?”

“Are you fucking deaf? Like I told the punks you sent in here, we don’t talk about business.”

“You should know that Shadow is dead,” he says casually, like my world isn’t falling apart around me. “And so is Cole.”

Rage hits me square in the chest. I wrap my hands around the chains, pull myself up, and jerk my legs up. I kick forward with everything in me, right in Charlie’s face. His chair topples backward, hitting the floor with a bang. “You motherfucker!” I pull on the chains as hard as I can, feeling the cuts on my chest ripping open even further. There is no goddamn way they are dead. I would feel that loss.

Charlie jumps to his feet, clutching his nose. He swings a Glock up and presses it to my forehead. “Calm down.”

I press harder against the barrel. “Fucking shoot me, you piece of shit. Take me out of this world so I can come back and haunt you for the rest of goddamn eternity.”

He pulls back and busts me right in the mouth with the barrel of the gun. “I won’t kill you, but I will kill Kai.”

I spit blood right in his face. “No, you won’t. Or you would have done it already. What’s with the theatrics, Charlie? Why are you coming at me so hard? Because you fucking know that I can take you down. I’ve done it once, and you can mark my fucking words, I’ll do it again.” I push against the barrel again. “So shoot me or get the hell out of my face.”

“I let you take me down. It’s the only way my plan would work.”

“WHAT GODDAMN PLAN?!” I’m way past rational thought at this point. “You ran like the fucking coward you are. And you think you can take down Alessa Poletti, the Perezs, and the Orlovs? I knew you were fucking crazy, but holy shit. They understand the true meaning of family, so you can bet your ass they’re protected.”

“They know how to protect theirs, but do you? Because from where I’m standing, you let your ego get your family hurt. What does that say about you?”