Page 69 (1/1)

Spinning round, I met the shocked eyes of the twous?"

They stood stoic trying to stare me down As Axel placed his hand on azes focused on hi at thisbut chaos and tragedy in his young life, well, it shattered rip, I stepped forward only i how I must have looked with my hair in disarray and black mascara tracks dried onat Axel whose face expressed no eer of the two replied

I laughed without hue my boyfriend, know that this nant woood er than you two could ever dream of And just because he looks the way he does, you think it appropriate to stalk us while we are heading to hear if our friend is going to be okay?" I hissed and seethed as their faces remained impassive

"La mia luce," Axel said from behind me, his voice stern and low, "Vieni qua" My heart raced faster and faster still as I stayed on the spot, glaring Then Axel threaded his hand through aze automatically went to our joined hands I sucked in a breath at his public display of affection

Axel had never held my hand He never came near me when people were around not like ere ever really around people anyhow, but this surprising action left me completely speechless

Axel used his hold on my hand to pull h azes collided and he whispered, "We need to go upstairs to check on Molly We need to meet Lexi and Austin Don’t do this, just leave it alone"

Water filled arded hi him I couldn’t bear it He orth sotattoos He looked, to most people, sinister and dark, but he was so much more than the armor he wore I wanted to scream from the rooftops that he was so so h he tried to portray hiood man who cared for his own

He cared… somehow I had to h wall he had built around hi to wrap my arms around his neck and hold him close, I resisted "But they shouldn’t be allowed to take one look at you and judge you as a danger They can’t do that! It’s not fair!"

Axel’s eyes closed momentarily and he inhaled "Ally," he said as he breathed out slowly, "Fuck the to me… I’m used to it"

As a tear fell overup at his expressionless face as his fingers tightly heldlooked down upon by anyone outside his gang, that he didn’t bat an eyelid when it happened, even when it was so uncalled for At that moment I understood this closed off man just a little more

He didn’t kno to be in this everyday world

He was brought up in a no good trailer park on the wrong side of town He was the eldest son to a drunken and abusive papa who hit hihters as a child because that’s all that was available to him at the time… but he was a child for fuck’s sake! Conditioned to live their way he’d ot that; still couldn’t wrap my head arounda target, attacked in prison for abandoning his gang to save his brothers His brothers who had no idea what he’d endured to make sure they could escape their shit lives and be free And despite all that, this lostand coed his life with the simple tools of a hammer and chisel

He’d influenced soedin trouble in his defense, deserved people to give hied that he accepted so casually people’s blatant dis lanced behind and realized that the security guards were no longer trailing us Axel had stopped too, his attention still forward focused but I could see his jaorking underneath his beard I could see his neck er