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

by Giana Darling

“I feel like I’m dreaming and it hurts because I know I’m going to wake up,” she whispered in a choked-off voice.

“No runnin’ now,” I warned her. “Not again.” “No,” she agreed. “I’m home again.”

“You don’t look scarred from the experience,” he started blandly. But then, that was his way. That he’d mentioned the beating at all meant he’d been more than concerned about me.

“You didn’t get in touch. I was worried The Fallen had done something to you,” he confessed.

“I’ve never seen you like this,” he murmured, eyeing me sidelong.

“You seem so settled in your skin. Where is the bitter knife of Mei Zhen pressed to my throat?” I laughed. “I was never that combative, was I?” He raised a brow in answer.

I’m in a place where I want to believe the best in the people I’ve chosen to care about.” “Axe-Man and your Cleo.” “Yes, and The Fallen MC as a group. They’re good people. They…they’re a family. A criminal one, yeah, but I like their values. They’d burn down the world for each other.” “Ah, and you’d burn down the...

Jiang frowned at me but pocketed the ring. “Is the idea of marrying me so unpalatable?” he asked stiffly. “Yes,” I said, but my mouth softened. “You’re gay, and for better or worse, I’ve been in love with Axe-Man my whole life. We are not a good match, and you know it.”

“Save a proposal for someone you love, Jiang.”

“Aren’t you sick of this? This inaction, this dishonesty? I know I am.

I want to change things for both of us. I want the chance for us both to find peace. If I had a way to do that, would you help me, big brother?” His gaze shifted over a passing crowd of high school students before he answered. “If I could. But I live in the real world, Mei, and sometimes, you do not.”

“I’m going to kill Kasper,” I told him baldly and watched him flinch like the words were throw...

“No. You think he doesn’t care about me, but he spared you, didn’t he? If you meant less to me, he would have killed you that night at Purgatory.”

“Sometimes, you get to choose your family,” I said, sliding my fingers down his sleeve into his hand to twine them together. “I thought I’d be alone the rest of my life after my ma died and Florent kept me from the Axelsens. Then you showed up,

“If you go after him, just know I will not take sides.”

“You won’t leave here and go straight to him?” He sighed, turning to me fully for the first time. I let him take my arms in a firm grip and shake me slightly. “You are my mui mui. My little sister as he is my big brother. I won’t hurt either of you.

Do what you will, what I always have known you will do and what I want you to do even if I cannot help. I won’t stop you. Besides, you know revenge isn’t frowned upon in China the way it is here. Confucius himself said ...

The woman you are, I always knew this da...

“I love you,” I told him in Cantonese as he swayed and fell into the railing. I tossed his arm over my shoulder like he was my boyfriend and we were shuffling along in a romantic stroll toward Axe-Man. “I promise, when I’m done, both our worlds will be a better place.”

Before I could turn to go, he was tugging on my hand again, fixing something around my wrist I couldn’t see until it was secured there. A golden bracelet shaped like a dragon winked at me in the yellow light of the streetlamps in the parking lot.

“It’s a tracker,” he explained, voice rough with emotion that also shone from his turquoise eyes. “Not losin’ you again.”

“You’re not going to blow the whistle on me?” I whispered,

“You’re not my enemy,” he said,

“Be a doll and take me to the drop-off, won’t you, Cedar?”

“Fuck me,” I cursed, shocked to see Cedar standin’ there.

“What the fuck is he doin’ with the triad?” Zeus asked rhetorically. “Fuck, he hasn’t blown her cover yet.” “He was my best friend once,” I said slowly, tryin’ to work it out. “It’s possible he’d protect Mei like he did even after he betrayed me back in Calgary.”

I spun around to face Ashes Li and grinned, my teeth bared. “I was hopin’ you’d be here. Remember me? I killed your brother ’cause he murdered my wife.”

“That’s why we took Jiang. He didn’t want an active part in hurting his syndicate or his brother, but his brother killed his lover and threatened to do the same to him just for his sexuality. And he’s loyal to me.

“Even if we take half this cash?” Kodiak asked with brows raised. “Even then,” I said. “Your cut for killing the king and installing the prince.”

“C’mon, babe. Nova told me what Axe-Man inked onto you without your permission. You still want to tell me it’s casual?” “Oh! What did he do?” Tayline leaned forward with huge brown eyes. I stole a glance at Cleo who sighed heavily, even though her eyes sparkled. “You better tell us, Rocky, before Tay tackles you and searches you herself.”

You could make a home here with us, Cleo’s voice rang in my mind,

“Blossom,” Boner called, but it wasn’t his usual charming tone. I opened my eyes to see him standing in front of me, scowling. Scowling because Kasper Kuan was at his back holding a gun to his temple.

“It wasn’t just the triad’s own bank, you wu lei zing! The fucking cartels used our bank.” Boner laughed. “Oh boy, Javier Ventura is gonna fuck you up for losin’ him money.”

“Stay where you are, Mei Zhen,” Kasper demanded. “I don’t just want your death. I want your white man to suffer. I want Maxwell Dutton to know he will never be free of me. I will stalk him and his until he has no one left.” His gaze darted to the door. “Is his daughter in there right now?”

“It doesn’t matter. You’ll do. Get down here, Mei Zhen, you’re coming with me.”

I swallowed, warring with my flight-or-fight response.

If it was only me, and not Ransom, Boner, and Pigeon at risk, I might have risked it.

And I couldn’t flee. There was no way I’d expose Cleo to more harm. No way I could let violence into the house at my back filled with sisterhood and happiness and soon-to-be-wedded bliss.

So, I sucked in a deep breath and tried to channel Axe-Man’s strength. “Okay.” “Fuck no, Blossom,” Boner grunted, voice strained from the pain of his wound.

“Ransom, Pigeon,” I called out as I stumbled after Kasper. “Tell Axe-Man––” I had to swallow a hopeless sob as it rose into my mouth. “Tell Axe-Man I love him, and I hope he forgives me for leaving him again. But I’m not sorry for doing it. He told me once he’d pay any price for me. It’s my turn to pay the price for him.”

I closed my eyes as the tears came and terror claimed every nerve in my body, but even then, in the dark driving toward my death, I couldn’t be sorry I was the one paying for our revenge instead of Axe-Man or Cleo or the rest of the club I’d unwittingly started to think of as my home, too.

I wanted to start our life together right this fuckin’ minute.

“Dad.” Her voice trembled and instantly my blood turned to ice in my veins. “Dad, the triad came to the house. M-Mei was outside, and I guess she made a deal with them. Her for our safety. They…they took her. They stabbed Boner and shot Ransom, but by the time we got outside, they’d driven off with Mei.”

“Curtains,” I growled so rough the word tore up my throat comin’ out. “They took her.”

“They’ll kill her,” I said to myself, gut clenchin’ so fiercely I thought I’d vomit. “They’ll kill her in the car or soon after.”

“No, this is the Seven Song. They’ll kill her, and they’ll do it brutal. They’ll film it or leave her for me to find.”

“Her bracelet,” I ground out as Curtains, ignorin’ my quiverin’ rage, jumped up onto the stool beside me and flipped open his laptop. “She left the house wearin’ it.” “I can get a lock on it,” he promised, fingers already flyin’ over the keys.

“I got it,” Curtains howled, shovin’ the screen to show me a movin’ dot on the Sea to Sky Highway headin’ down to Vancouver. “I can track it on my phone. Let’s move out, see if we can catch them before they stop.” ’Cause the moment they stopped, they’d end her. End the life of a girl who’d do any-fuckin’-thing for the people she loved. A girl whose love language was throwin’ herself on a sword meant for someone else’s side.

“We’ll get her, brother,” Bat swore to me. “I refuse to watch you live out another fuckin’ tragedy.”

“Pigeon told Cress,” King said, stalkin’ out the door beside me. “That she told him to tell you she was sorry to leave ya, but that she was happy to do it. It was her turn to pay any price for you.”