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“But Axe-Man? I don’t have a clue how to help him.
“I don’t have the first clue how to get him out from under that pain. All I do know is that word of his outburst at the hospital spread like rapid fire through our ranks, and based on that, it’s clear to me he hates you. And Axe-Man isn’t a man who emotes much, let alone like that. So you promise me you’ll stay clear of him as much as you can, or, Mei, friend of Cleo or not, I’ll have my man escort you out of town.” Her smile was sinister. “And trust me, he’s a whole lot scarier and more convincing than me.”
We all know now that you’re the reason behind Axe-Man going to prison, so don’t expect a friendly welcome party. We’ll put up with you around Cleo, for her sake, but otherwise, you’re on your own.” This time, it was me who laughed roughly, a cough that tasted of blood. Bea’s threat was no threat at all. I’d been on my own for so long I never hoped for anything else. At least, not anymore.
You set up this meet with Zeus Garro, I’ll give you the name of the reason your wife was murdered.”
“You didn’t let anything happen to you,” I whispered, and even though the volume was lost to my agonized fury, the words were filled with conviction. “I don’t care if you flirted with him. If he made you feel special and seen and you fell in love with him. I don’t care if you agreed to meet him in secret when you shouldn’t have. None of that matters to me or anyone that would ever hear about the absolute tragedy of what happened to you, Cleopatra. Goodness, love, and kindness are never meant to be rewarded with violence and hatred. Sometimes the worst kind of people are attracted to the best
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“Oh Glory,” I breathed, ripped apart by her anguish. “I swear it. If you believe anything I’ve ever said or done for you, please believe this. Sometimes bad things happen to good people for no better reason than that they shine so bright they’re incredibly alluring to someone swallowed up by the dark.”
It’s hard not to think after what happened to Mum…maybe the Kay women are cursed, or maybe we do something––”
“Absolutely not. Neither of you deserve what happened to you, Glory. If I have to tell you every day for the rest of our lives, I’ll do it. I can be very relentless, you know.”
“And besides, you aren’t a Kay anymore, and you haven’t been for a long time. You’re an Axelsen, and we both know Axelsens are like bamboo. You might bend under harsh winds, but you never ever break.”
We stayed like that for a long moment even though my knees ached. I would have stayed there for days if she needed that. But a little creak in the wood floors startled us both into jerking away and turning toward the door. Henning stood there, his big body taking up the entire doorframe.
“Henning,” I said, an exclamation of shock. Whatever softness had lingered in his expression was obliterated by the sound of his true name from my mouth.
“No. I asked Mei to come to the hospital, and then I made her promise she wouldn’t leave me again. I never told you because I thought it would hurt you, but I’ve seen Mei every few months for years now. She’s…she’s my family. Our family. I don’t care what happened before.” Tears came, great big ones that rolled down her face like waves even though her voice remained strong and sure. “Her heart has always been in the right place, and she should be, too. That right place is here, Dad. With me.”
“A word outside before you leave,” he ordered me, already turning around to depart on stiff steps.
Cleo sighed, an unwinding ribbon of weariness. “You know, he wasn’t so mad in the beginning. Even those first few weeks in prison. I think he kept waiting for you to show up. It was only when you didn’t, when he realized you’d left us, that he started to hate you like that.”
“And the hair, think about that, too.” “Pink,” she blurted, a little surprised by herself, eyes round, before she tried to shrug it off, awkward with one arm casted and wrapped in crinkly plastic to keep it from getting wet. “If I did it, I’d want it to be pink.” I beamed at her. “Pink dye and coffee at ten-oh-five tomorrow morning, Glory. See you then.”
The sight of Mei holdin’ Cleo reverently in the bathroom, sunk to her knees on the unforgivin’ slate tile to be eye level with my girl while she promised her that Cleo’d done no wrong in fallin’ for the psychopath who’d assaulted her would be seared into my brain for the rest of my livin’ days.
It was that I hadn’t seen the beauty of that connection between Cleo and Mei in eight years. I’d forgotten, somehow, buried under the layers of history and shit shovelled over top of it, how they made each other shine brighter. Somethin’ about Mei’s strong-willed spirit relaxed Cleo as if she trusted her friend to deal with the harshness of the world so that she herself wouldn’t have to bear the weight of it as much. And somethin’ about Cleo’s trust and gentleness eased the restless, vaguely antagonistic aura Mei often used as a shield. They were fuckin’ beautiful together. Always had been.
The girl I’d gone to prison protectin’. The girl who’d fuckin’ abandoned us.
’cause Zeus would just laugh, probably thinkin’ this was some kinda fucked-up fate, and I couldn’t escape it. For an outlaw with a record and blood on his hands, Zeus Garro was bizarrely romantic.
“Damn brothers,” I muttered. “They gossip worse than high school kids.” She laughed, head tipped back just like her father. “Ain’t that the truth? Boner was so mad he didn’t get a glimpse of her. He offered fifty bucks to anyone who’d tip him off to where she was at if she showed up again.”
“She meant somethin’ to you once?” she asked,
“Once,” I acknowledged tersely.
She hummed, blowin’ a pink bubble, then poppin’ it with a snap. “Unresolved history’s got a way of comin’ back to haunt us.”
“It’s so beautiful here,” she said, the prompt I needed to shake off this stupid nostalgia-tinged romanticism and get down to why I’d put myself out here with her in the first place. “Don’t get used to it,” I grunted and had the bittersweet pleasure of seein’ her jerk a bit, slapped by my harsh words.
“You still hangin’ out with that crowd?” I demanded.
“You don’t get to tell me to essentially fuck off and then demand to know about my life, Henning.”
“We’ve got eight years of secrets between us and zero trust. I get you want a brother here when I’m with Cleo. I can even pretend it doesn’t kill me to think you might wonder if I’ll hurt her or put her in danger. But if you remember anything about me, remember this…” Her eyes flashed up to me then, slicing through me like an obsidian blade. “I’d die for her just as happily as I’d die for you. No amount of time will ever change that. And no amount of hate.” Without another word, she bowed to me a little in mock servitude and then ambled down the stairs to the Kawasaki Ninja parked nearly out
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The engine revved. Nothin’ like the sweet growl of a Harley, but somethin’ else that still resonated in my biker-lovin’ heart.
Lauren cleared her throat from behind the counter, shootin’ me a frown before she passed Mei a paper bag already damp with fresh grease stains. “Your breakfast sandwiches. Tell Cleo I slipped in some extra avocado for hers, yeah? And if she’ll accept it, give her my love, okay?”
“H.R. said she’s gorgeous,” King noted. Ah, so that was the priority. Not Jiang and the business with the club. Not the dead ’coon at Honey Bear Café. For the romantic, the girl would always come first. “She’s a kid,” I rebuked with a one-shoulder shrug. And she was. Twenty-five. Sixteen years younger than me. Cleo’s best friend.
“Cress said the same thing ’bout me at first.” His eyes sparkled in the pale winter sunlight, so light a blue they seemed nearly transparent. “’Til I convinced her otherwise.”
snorted. “Yeah, well, she tried that once before, and it didn’t work.” “Uh-huh,” King murmured, but there was triumph rich in his tone, and I cursed myself for givin’ anythin’ away, especially to him. “So she loved you, once.”
“But if Cleo called her to her side, I figure she’s special enough in her own way.”
“Your sister offered to have the club run her outta town, and here you are, makin’ like you wanna roll out a red carpet for her.”
“Heard you got a new lady lover.” “She’s not my goddamn lover,” I snapped. Across from me, King coughed to hide his snort of amusement,
“Oh sweet,” Boner crowed, pivotin’. “So you don’t mind if I get a look at her, decide she’s worth pursuin’, and make a go at her?”
was about to headbutt him when he finally spoke. “Is this the way you greet everyone that comes knockin’ nowadays?” “Henning?” I gasped,
“If you want an apology, you’ll be waiting a while. I’m not sure what kind of girls you hang out with these days, but the usual kind of girl will do exactly what I just did when she finds an enormous slab of strange man meat in her room uninvited.” “Nothin’ about you is or ever has been usual,” he countered.
“Have you considered why they wrote the note in Chinese when both Stella and Lauren are white?” I watched thoughts cross his face like storm clouds. “It’s not because I’m in town. I think it’s because you are. It’s been a long time since shit went down in Calgary, but the Kuan brothers are the kind of men who never forget. They’re powerful enough, so they rarely have to.”
“Well,” I said to the popcorn ceiling. “How long will it be before he finds out I’m dating Jiang Kuan?”
I’m here because once, a very long time ago, your associate Axe-Man tried to help me, but mostly, I’m doing this as a favour for a friend. In fact, I could get my own ass in a sling just by extending this little courtesy. I always told them trying to help you lot would be like pulling a cow up a tree.”
“A favour to who?” I demanded, ’cause somethin’ about that didn’t sit right.
“Why would you want to be anyone else when you could be you?” I laughed so loudly that a mother putting her child into a car seat in the minivan a few parking spots away from us startled. “Oh Glory, you’ve always had such a skewed vision of me.”
“Mei Zhenette Raisinet!” I wheeled toward the sound of that familiar voice a second before I was hit by someone even tinier than I was. My laughter exploded out of my chest at the impact as Lin squeezed me in a hard, tight hug.
“It is good to see you,” she whispered back in Cantonese, still holding me a little too tight. I’d often wondered if Old Dragon had broken his promise and told Lin exactly what happened when I went home that night after the events at Turner Farm. It just didn’t make sense that she could still be so…kind without knowing I hadn’t had a choice in my disappearance back then.
“Does he have a girlfriend?”
It was Lin who answered, and she did it softly. In a way that was meant to be kind, I thought, but instead, it just embarrassed me even more. “He dates. But not seriously. Not for long.” “He’s always said he only needs us,” Cleo added,
“We haven’t been introduced, Mei, but I’m Cressida Garro. I run Paradise Found Bookstore on Main Street. You should pop in some time for a cup of tea and a natter. I have a feeling we could find a lot to talk about.”
“I wasn’t exactly expecting a red-carpet welcome, Glory. In a way, it makes me happy to know that you and Axe-Man have friends who are so protective of you.”
Dad’s been struggling with you back in our lives, but he’ll get over it, and when he does, everyone will see how much they’re missing out on not having you for a friend.” “I admire your faith,” I said dryly because I could so not see that happening.
