“Axel—”
“Please, Mom,” he interrupted her, throwing his little arms around her waist and hugging her tightly. “You can’t threaten to leave for everything that motherfucker does. His senileness will make you leave every day. The motherfucker already forgot how miserable he was when you leftsixteendays ago. Give him levels of punishment instead of the same time for the same crime.” Bursting into tears, he buried his face against her neck. “Please, Mom.”
“Shhhhh,” Meggie comforted, tangling her fingers through his dark hair and patting his back with her other hand. “Calm down, love, then tell me what you mean by levels of punishment.”
Pulling away from her and swiping his hand across his snotty nose, Axel licked his lips. “I need to prefer with my attorney to come up with a proper list.”
She and Diesel shared a smile. As angry as she was with him over Rebel, Diesel was a good big brother to hisbrothers, especially Axel and CJ. He’d taken Axel under his wing, and he’d set himself up as CJ’s protector from the time he’d met him.
If only he brought that same energy to his relationship with Rebel.
Axel raced around the table, stole the last of Diesel’s bacon and waited for Ryder and Ransom before they began whispering among themselves.
Christopher was as annoyed with her as she was with him, so they remained silent. Meggie’s heart melted at her sons’ happy laughter, unencumbered by the fear she’d desert them that was crippling their daddy and leading him to very stupid decisions.
“Okay!” Axel started off, then halted. “Get us more bacon, D.”
“That wasn’t your fucking bacon, Axel,” Diesel responded. “Youshould get more forme.”
Snorting, Axel stiffened his shoulders. “Motherfucker, I pay you too much to have to serve you, too. Whenever we have breakfast for dinner, I take your bacon. Stop acting brand new.” He glared at Diesel then stompedback to Meggie. “You said you’ll only leave Dad if he hits you or goes with another girl. Is that true?”
Meggie nodded.
“Let the record show, if that motherfucker ever does that, we’ll kill him. You won’t have to leave.”
“I don’t want your daddy dead.”
“Objection!” Axel told her. “The witness is speaking out of turn. If it makes you feel better, he’d sad himself to death, anyway. We’d do that motherfucker a favor by not giving him a long, retracted death.”
“Protracted,” Diesel said around a cough, ignoring Christopher’s glower.
“Yeah, that.” Axel folded his arms and studied Christopher. “It would be both punishment and a mercy kill.”
“No matter how you frame it, it would still be patricide,” Meggie declared.
“Patri…patri…pater…father? Diesel told me aboutpater familias. That isn’t important though. The only type of murder I wouldn’t do is mamacide.”
Christopher and the boys guffawed. Seeing Bishop chuckling, Gunner joined in.
“You meanmatricide,” Meggie corrected, smiling.
Axel slapped the heel of his palm against his forehead. “Oh brother.”
“We’ll discuss this later.” She had to pack. Unfortunately, there was only one of her. She could reassure Christopher and their boys shewasn’t ending her marriage until she ran out of oxygen. The only thing that would put them at ease was to show them. “I understand—”
“But I have to give you the stuffs you need to do, Mom,” Axel said.
She couldn’t brush her son off, as pressed for time as she was. This was important to him. “I’m listening.”
Hands behind his back, Axel began pacing in the small area between her and Christopher’s seats. “In law, there are levels of crimes and levels of punishment. There’s mismeaners and felonies. Criminals are felonies and civillies are mismeaners.” He paused and looked at Diesel.
He smiled. “So far, so good, Ax,” he said with pride.
Meggie appreciated that he didn’t correct Axel. It might have dampened his enthusiasm. There would be time to learn.
Axel beamed at Diesel, then resumed pacing. “If Dad hits you that’s a felony and an automatic death sentence.ButI’d also have to fine that motherfucker first, so he’d pay for my bomb stuffs so I could kill him.”
A giggle escaped Meggie, but she pressed her lips together to contain her laughter since this was so important to Axel. Even Christopher seemed amused.
