“How sideways?”
“I beat the shit out of Axel.”
“Yes, that’s what I pay you to do,” Crow says.
“No, Crow. Ireallybeat the shit out of him.”
There’s a pause. Alongpause. Then, “Is Axel breathing?”
I walk back to the mill. Jester tails me, mouthingwhat’s he saying. I frown and shake my head as I peer inside and see Malice prop up Axel in the chair. He’s bloody, and his face has seen better days, but he’s alive. “Yes, but it’s bad.”
“Define bad.”
Even from this distance, I see he’s, like, for real fucked up.
“More than a broken jaw, but he’s intact for the most part.”
“I see.” Crow never needs to say much because it’s what he doesn’t say that’s important. “I’ll talk to Flint. Axel is a liability. It’s why he allowed us to handle him.”
Jester stays with Malice as I march back to the Wrangler. “Yeah, well, if there’s blowback, it’s on me. Jester and Malice stopped me before I killed him.” Crow trusted me to get this job done with my usual precision and professionalism, and I’ll own my mess like a man. “I’m sorry, Crow. It won’t happen again.”
It’s a promise I intent to keep even if it means giving up my rank within the gang.
“As your president, I’m holding you to your oath. But as a fellow Unholy and a friend, I’m asking you if you’re okay.”
Hell no, I’m not okay.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“No, Wraith, are yougood?”
Not even close.
“Other than feeling like balls for dumping this on you, yeah, I’m good, Crow. But I’ll be better once Crane is dead.”
“Don’t worry about this. You do your job and finish up there, and I’ll do mine.”
Before I end the call, Malice and Jester emerge from the mill.
“He’ll be hurting for a while, but he’ll live,” Jester announces.
“Put Malice on the phone,” Crow says.
I hand the cell to Malice. “Crow wants you.”
Malice takes the phone. “What’s up?” After a brief pause, he says, “Nah, Wraith’s good.” Another pause. “Jaw’s busted. Nose, too. Missing a few teeth, but we’ve all seen his grill. Wraith did him a favor by knocking some of them out. We’ll dump him on the edge of Berserker territory and head back to Sanctum.” One more pause. “Yeah. Okay.”
Malice ends the call and hands me the phone. I tuck it in the pocket of my jean. “No worries. He’ll live.”
“Thank you,” I say, but it’s not enough because Malice glossed over how I lost it. If he’d been honest, Crow would have benched me—indefinitely. And maybe, rightly so.
“Yeah, well, I owe you, and not for cleaning up some blood,” Malice says with a shrug.
He doesn’t owe me shit.
We’ve all cleaned up each other’s fuck ups over the years. It’s what we do. In a world gone insane, we’re all we’ve got. It’s how it works when you’re Unholy. But, yes, there was a time when Malice messed up.Bad.He killed someone who didn’t deserve the bullet. That death haunts him. No one but me knows about that night. Not even Jester. Because I was the only one who was there. I helped Malice make the body disappear. He believes there’s a reckoning coming for him. Tells me he feels it in the air. Don’t know if that’s true or not, but as we head toward Hawley—toward Berserker territory—I wonder if Crane feels me coming for him.
Feels it in his bones.
