“The sex thing. That don’t matter. My sisteristhe prize. She makes lights come on in a room. You got money, so you got choices. Rebel got her own money. All she’ll expect is for you to pay for dates. Dad always does with Mom orwhen we go out as a family. That’s what men do. Take care of their women even if they got a lot of stuffs and a lot of money. Stop letting that money give you a swolled head. You will get Fia and you killed.”
“I didn’t give Fia any money.”
“Not yet. Another thing the club girls want? Especially the ones who’re trying to belong only to the Dwellers? Money. I know that cuz I always hear how they try to get Diesel to give them money and he asks if they are out their fucking minds. He said it’s cuz they’ll think they have a hold on him. I guess that means that they’ll think he likes them more.”
“Basically.”
“The club gives the club girls who belong to us money when they need it. Some of them are on the payroll to clean up, but it still smells mostly like ass and sweaty balls now.”
The club didn’t smellthatbad. Sometimes, his old apartment smelled worse. “How do you know what ass and sweaty balls smell like? You’re just a kid.”
Axel scowled. “Man to man? I’ll ignore that fucking insult. I’m giving you a lot of passes.Stoptesting my fucking patience. Besides, I got those motherfuckers, don’t I? What do you mean how I know how they smell?”
“You’re eleven. You don’t even have all your fucking adult teeth. How sweaty canyourballs get?”
“I didn’t mention ass and sweaty balls to have a fucking conversation about them. I was making a fucking point. Can you keep up already? Wait. Never mind. Explaining will help. See, I got balls. Dad calls them nuts sometimes, but whatever. I just want you to know the different names since you don’t know much. Anyway, I don’t think you’re being pervy. You didn’t ask to see them or nothing. Dad said that would be an automatic death sentence right now and always tell an adult if a perv asks to see my cock and balls or show me theirs or touch me or have me touch them. He wouldn’t have to worry. Me and my men would blow that motherfucker up ourselves.”
They probably would. “You’re getting off-topic.”
“Nope. I’m right on topic. I’m telling you to help your brain go from flea size to bee size. We got to do this in baby steps. Now, since I got ballsandan assandI’m a dudeandI run and jump and do a lot of stuffs, they get smelly. Understand now?”
Kaia nodded.
“That only took an hour,” Axel grumbled.
“More like five minutes.”
“You sure? It felt like a fucking hour.”
“Positive.”
“Okay, we got to wrap this up. So back to what I was first saying and how we got to talking about my sweaty balls. Mom knew how to make it smell good, but those motherfuckersdidn’t appreciate that, so let their noses fall off. The club girls can’t cook either. Me? If I was Prez. I get rid of all those girls cuz they’re nothing but fucking trouble. You know how they feel about Mom blocking them from Dad? Look at how some of the brothers look at Mom. Since they can’t have her, they let those other stupid girls talk them into being mean to Mom.” He sighed again. “And Dad’s dad. I don’t know what to do about that motherfucker. Mom probably wants to see Rule. Dad probably does too, but she didn’t bring him because he isstillfucking with her. But we got another problem that I’m trying to figure out what to do, so listen good. This is your last fucking chance to show me you got a fucking brain.”
“I’m listening.”
“Dad’s miserable without mom. I mean the mopey,Eeyore, sloth-like kind. He’s old likeEeyore, so it tracks. Mom’s young and fun. He won’t even dance unless it’s with her. Anyway, ever since I was a little kid, the first fucking thing Dad thinks about doing is leaving his fucking club. He probably wants to, but he loves his club a lot. When those motherfuckers voted against him cuz of Uncle Johnnie and Uncle Cash, he felt upset. Mom doesn’t go to the club that much anymore. Now, she took Rebel away again. It doesn’t take a genius to know that Dad’ll crash out. Even though Mom kept calling him, she still isn’t there. He should fucking behave but I didn’t ask advicefor that issue. Dad has a whole plan in place for CJ. I think Mom’ll want him to follow that cuz she’s his ride-or-die. She’s just so amazing and special. All he has to do is kill the motherfuckers who upset Mom, but a man feels it in his tired bones that he’s going to take the lazy route. Say he’s resigning. After Mom gave him CJ, too. So what do I do?”
How was Kaia supposed to answer that, especially since he felt as if he failed this test, Axel would be disappointed in him. It really shouldn’t matter because the kid was scary, but it did. Whether Axel liked him didn’t matter either. Kaia liked Axel.
“Tick-tock, tick-tock. You’re running out of time.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Kaia admitted. “It sounds like it’s a very delicate situation. Your Momisgreat, quite gorgeous and very smart. She’ll know what to do. Trust her.”
“First, her looks don’t got nothing to do with her brain. Donotget pervy like Diesel. Dad’ll kill you anyway, but that would be an awful way to go cuz you flirted with your girlfriend’smom.”
“I didn’t mean anything.”
“Yeah, no. Mom didn’t like what you said earlier, so you meant something, motherfucker. You don’t got to mention Mom’s face when you talk about all her other stuffs. You can say she’s smart, nice, kind, or whatever. That still don’t mean you get to comment on how she looks.”
“Axel—”
“Hush! I need to call my men and I’ve spent enough time trying to make your brain smart. They have a mission and I need to go through a checklist. That’s your final test since you failed all the other ones.”
“Can I at least know what it is you’re doing.”
“They got a suitcase of supplies cuz they’re telling Dad and Uncle Val, whose the driver of the week, that they have a big presentation. It’ll explain the bees. The ants are in the suitcase.”
Alarm rushed through Kaia.
