Caution to the Wind (The Fallen Men, #7)

by Giana Darling

The sight of her kicked me in the teeth and again in the fuckin’ gut. ’Cause, fuck, she’d been a pretty kid, but she was a gorgeous woman.

“But let’s hope not, for Cleo’s sake. She’s got a whole family’a badasses at her back, and she always will. Hopefully, that gives her the shield she needs to feel safe again.”

Daiyu used to say I didn’t know how to do anything gently. My love was violent. I threw my heart against unsuspecting acquaintances, trampled on it myself before they could pick it up off the ground, and when I stuck it back in my chest, torn, dirty, beating a little less madly than before, I didn’t even bother to wipe it off. It was a reckless, dangerous kind of love that hurt those I tried to care for as much as it hurt me.

“And, Mei, you don’t want to fuckin’ lie to me ever again. I’m not the soft man you once knew.”

“Well,” I said to the popcorn ceiling. “How long will it be before he finds out I’m dating Jiang Kuan?”

“Somethin’ stop you from gettin’ a good sleep? ’Cause I’m the one with a baby, and I look a helluva lot better than you.” “You’re just better lookin’,” I deadpanned.

“The Fallen MC isn’t for sale, now or ever. You want what isn’t yours, you better be prepared to die for it.” “This didn’t go well for you last time, trying to stop our progress,” Jiang reminded me. “No, but I got a whole different brotherhood at my back, and they’re the kinda men who are happy to live free and die hard for what matters. Now get the fuck outta our town.”

“I don’t think that kind of love can be forced, no matter how much we long for it.”

“And I’m going to leave now before I do something I regret.” “Like hurt me?” I asked mildly. He levelled me with a cool glance. “Like hug you.”

“If you’ve stayed friends with him over some mis-fuckin’-guided attempt to get justice for Kate, I swear to fuckin’ God, Mei, I’ll turn you over my knee and tan your ass so hard you won’t be able to sit for a goddamn year.” “I’m not a child anymore, Axe-Man,” I sneered, shoving at him with two hands. He didn’t even budge. “You think I’d threaten to spank you if you were?” he asked, his voice so dark, so rich, it felt like black velvet tied around my throat just a little too tight.

“You fuck around with me long enough, you’ll find out.” “Is that a dare?” I practically purred, but there was that edge of violence still curled in my belly.

I reared up, biting into his lower lip so hard it broke the skin, and his blood burst on my tongue. The iron tang made me moan. I’d been so hungry for him for so long that it seemed nothing short of cannibalism would satisfy me.

“Take it,” he ground out, collecting my clawing hands in his then holding them above my head so my entire centre of gravity was focused on where we were connected.

He looked like he hated me. No, that wasn’t strong enough. He looked like I’d killed every dream he’d ever had. Like I’d betrayed him irrevocably. Like he couldn’t stand the sight of me.

I was lying there, limbs akimbo on the bed, bruised from his teeth, wet and swollen from his cock, red thong still attached to my left ankle like the last hanger in an empty closet.

But I was officially done pining after Henning Axelsen. He was dead and buried inside a man I didn’t know and didn’t love named Axe-Man.

I fucked her like I hated her. Usin’ her. Tryin’ to forget exactly who it was I was drivin’ my dick into, only she kept remindin’ me in a myriad of inescapable ways. That goddamn cherry blossom scent. The absurdly silky texture of that raven-wing hair.

“It’s The Fallen MC’s world, and you know who makes the rules in it? Motherfuckin’ me. So start talkin’, or I’ll show you why they call me Axe-Man.”

“Fuck you!” “No,” I murmured, knockin’ my fist against the desk. “You’re the one who’ll be fucked if I find out this girl died ’cause you’re a fuckwit. If you believe in God, I’d start fuckin’ prayin’.”

“But she’s not even Fallen,” Dane pointed out, not judgin’ but curious. “No,” I agreed, swingin’ up into the Ford and lookin’ back at Mei lyin’ prone in the back seat. “But once, she was mine.”

“You might be the girl who sent Axe-Man to prison, but you gotta understand something. I was the girl who stabbed my now-fiancé in the chest. Bea was the girl with her own stalker psychopath. Loulou was the girl who shot a rival biker in the head.” She shrugged as if such things were normal, a rite of passage, and maybe in the biker babe handbook they were. “If Axe-Man forgives you, who are we to hold the past against you?”

“My reasons are my own.” “Not now, they aren’t. You’re in my house, hangin’ around my daughter, causin’ trouble in my town, so the reasons are owed to me. Pay up.”

I’m one girl, not the destroyer of fucking worlds.” “You destroyed mine once before,” he stated through clenched teeth. “I won’t let you do it again.”

“We’re a fuckin’ biker club, Mei, not a goddamn nunnery. You think we’re opposed to a little good old-fashioned revenge?” Zeus asked with a smile as sharp as a knife’s edge.

Never thought you were a damsel, Mei Zhen. You’ve always been a dragon.”

The woman twirlin’ from the pole five feet from our table was as relevant to me as a muted TV in the background. Even though I was shootin’ the shit with Nova, King, Bat, and Dane, all I could see was Mei.

She’d infiltrated my life like a fuckin’ disease, and I was gettin’ worried there wasn’t a damn antidote.

“She’s the human version of a nightmare,” I retorted. Nova snorted. “Yeah, a nightmare you want to fuck.”

I waited for everyone to chime in on my behalf, but for outlaw bikers, these fuckers believed way too fuckin’ much in romance.

“What does that say about us, huh? That we measure love by our willingness to die for each other?” I teased.

‘In Chinese or English, there are no words to properly express just how much missing you eats at me. It’s like your absence is a rabid animal, taking huge chunks out of me whenever I’m vulnerable, nipping at my heels just when I think I might be getting too close to some kind of new okay.’”

Come at me, everything in me screamed, you want my penance, then fucking take it from me.

“Do I need to threaten to turn you over my knee again to get some honesty from you?” he practically purred, crowding me against the wall beside the door. Without breaking my gaze, he reached out with one hand and carefully closed it around my throat. “You want me to fuck the truth outta you, don’t you?”

“You want me to fuck the truth outta you, don’t you?”

Something about his viciousness was honest and made me feel cared for in a way that was elemental. He wanted me despite everything between us, and it made me feel powerful.

“I can’t. Even though you stabbed me through the fuckin’ heart, it can’t fuckin’ forget how to care about you. Even with my blood on your teeth, I can’t fight the mad urge to kiss you. Maybe especially with my blood on your teeth, your little claws in my chest. I’ve always had the bad habit of wantin’ what wasn’t good for me.”

it can’t fuckin’ forget how to care about you. Even with my blood on your teeth, I can’t fight the mad urge to kiss you. Maybe especially with my blood on your teeth, your little claws in my chest. I’ve always had the bad habit of wantin’ what wasn’t good for me.”

wanna destroy you like you destroyed me.” “So do it,”

My love for you has always been the cipher needed to decode me.”

Here, I wanted to say, look at the way my loneliness has corroded my internal organs.

Even when I hate you, you’re mine.”

“You were just a girl before, and the moment you came to town and I saw you were a woman, you awoke this fuckin’ beast in me.”

was bein’ seein’ at your worst, on the precipe of burnin’ down the whole world for selfish reasons, and bein’ encouraged to take your fill. No one had ever seen the darkness in me and enjoyed it. Not like Mei.

“Your love language is throwin’ yourself in the face of danger to save your loved ones from somethin’ so slight as a paper cut.”

That she’d made a hero outta me that way still burned in me like I’d swallowed starlight right outta the sky.

and after we put Kate’s killers to bed, I want you safe. But I will always be the Off-White Knight to your Rocky. That’s an oath I’ll swear in blood, and if I ever break it again, I give you leave to kill me by metal, wood, fire, water, or earth.”

“Gonna paint you,” I told her. “Then I’m gonna fuck you like I shoulda the first time.”

“Every inch of you is fuckin’ gorgeous. Inside. Out. Covered in paint. Covered in cum. Covered every day in my ink like a livin’ breathin’ fantasy. All of it, any which way, is mine. You get that, little dragon?”

I’d let her chew me into pieces or swallow me whole as long as she stayed with me forever.

She was sittin’ on the table the triad members had been meetin’ at, sippin’ from a glass of leftover sake with two dead bodies on either side of her, both their necks obviously broken. “A little messy,” she noted dryly, takin’ in my blood-splattered body and drippin’ axe with a small smile. “But now I know why they call you Axe-Man.”