Axe’s Fall(65)

Axe looked over. “You mean Rosie? Nah, nothing was going on.”

Baylee tossed her hair. “You know, Axe, you are a free agent. I mean, what we’re doing is just for fun. So do whatever the fuck you want, I don’t care.” She swallowed the lump in her throat, yanked out of his grasp, and headed down the hall. Behind her, Axe’s boots stomped on the linoleum as he followed, the jingling of his chains grating on her nerves.

A second after she knocked on the president’s door, a voice boomed, “Come in.”

Grasping the doorknob, she started to turn it when Axe’s arms circled her waist, drawing her in to his chest. He nuzzled her neck and whispered in her ear, “Don’t be like this. You know you’re the only one for me. I haven’t looked at another woman since we met at the wedding.”

His breath scorched her neck, and goosebumps pricked her skin. She fell back in to him, enjoying being in his arms again.

“You comin’ in?” Banger asked.

Baylee wriggled out of Axe’s embrace and opened the door. The president reclined on a brown leather desk chair, his legs on his desk, crossed at the ankles. His blue eyes were filled with surprise when she walked in.

She started to close the door when Banger looked over her shoulder and said, “That you, Axe?”

“Yeah,” Axe replied from behind Baylee, entering the room. “Banger, this is our architect, Baylee.”

Banger smiled widely, the lines around his eyes crinkling. Nodding, he ran his gaze up and down her body. “Now it all makes sense.” He winked at Axe, who grinned like a Cheshire cat.

Baylee resisted rolling her eyes, but if she had a bat she’d knock them both over the head.

The meeting with Banger went better than Baylee had expected. She hadn’t anticipated liking the president, but he was an easy-going man, although she was sure he could be hard and ruthless if the situation demanded it. After all, he couldn’t be a softie and be the national president of a one-percenter club. He was around forty-five and a nice-looking man. What amazed her most was how solid he was—he was all muscle.

After the meeting, Baylee marched back to the great room, ignoring Axe as he tried to convince her to go to lunch with him. Storming out of the club, she slammed into Puck.

“Sorry,” she said as she rubbed her head. The man was powerfully built.

“Didn’t see you,” Puck muttered, his eyes focused on Axe.

“It’s okay.” She headed to her car, smiling as she overheard Axe’s and Puck’s conversation.

“Why the fuck didn’t you warn me she was coming to the club?” he asked in a low voice.

“Tried. You didn’t pick up.”

She glanced at Axe as he scrolled through his phone, then shook his head and cursed. She slid into the driver’s seat then zoomed out of the parking lot, giving Axe nothing but a cloud of dust. A few minutes later, she caught sight of Puck in her rear mirror, the chrome on his Harley blinding under the hot, summer rays.

* * *

In the middle of the afternoon, as she replayed Axe and Rosie’s scene in her mind for the umpteenth time, Baylee decided that she may have jumped to the wrong conclusion. Axe had turned his head when the brunette leaned over him, and he definitely wasn’t touching her. Maybe he was telling the truth about her coming on to him, and he was just getting ready to push her off when he saw Baylee. He kept repeating the same story in the deluge of texts he’d been sending her all afternoon—the ones she hadn’t answered.

Maybe she’d hear him out and give him the benefit of the doubt. The previous night, Palmer caressed her hand many times, and, to the onlooker, it would seem as though they were an item. Looks could be deceiving, however.

She missed Axe.

“Puck?” she called from her office doorway.

The gruff man looked up from his phone.

“Do you know if Axe is at the clubhouse?”

“He’s at the shop. He’s closing up for Hawk ‘cause him and his ol’ lady got shit to do.”

“I need the name and address of the shop, please.”

A few minutes before six o’clock, Baylee switched off the motor and tried to relax her frazzled nerves. Breathing in deeply, she touched up her lipstick then locked her car door, noticing Puck against his Harley as she walked into the repair shop.

Axe glanced up from the cash register, his head jerking back as he gave her a double-take.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

“Did you need something?”

She nodded. “You.”

Tingles skated across her skin when he sucked his breath in. His eyes captured hers in a piercing gaze.

Axe came out from behind the counter and yelled to Puck, “Take off.”