Axel: Chapter 13

Waking this morning, I know I’ve had a slight head cold, but thanks to the good sleep, I’m feeling good apart from a slight dullness in my head.

I know I can work that off, so I dress in my joggers, put my runners on, and make my way downstairs. Walking to Axel’s office, I see he is standing looking out of the window, so I walk up behind him and wrap my arms around his waist.

‘Are you okay?’

Axel turns but keeps me in his arms, resting his chin on the top of my head. ‘Yeah, I just had a bit of bad news.’

‘Can I do anything to help?’

‘No, not really. My dad’s oldest friend is dying, and he’s left me everything. I’m shocked and saddened, I have to admit.’ Axel takes a deep breath. ‘It’s only about eight weeks since I saw him and he never mentioned he was ill. Now he’s telling me he has about nine months left.’

‘Is it Jenkins? The man you were going to see today about the business?’

‘Yeah, I call him Jenks, same as my dad did. He’s been an uncle to me all these years.’

‘Well, if you’re going to take the business over and he’s on his own, why don’t you bring him here or we go to live with him, make sure he has company until the end.’

Axel gives me an odd look, then smiles. ‘That’s why you’re a great ol’ lady. You think of everyone and how we can help them. I don’t think he will, but I’ll see what I can do.’

‘Okay. I’m going for a run around the compound. Be back in a while. I need to run off this head cold I think I had a touch of.’

‘Don’t overdo it babe.’ Axel says, then kisses me on the forehead before I walk out and head out into the fresh air.

Taking deep breaths and stretching, I notice Jig is on the gate and give him a wave, which he returns with a smile. I indicate I’m going on my run and he gives me a thumbs up.

Setting off around the compound, I clear my mind and enjoy the freedom of the run.

I do four laps of the shorter run I regularly do and eventually stop with my hands on my knees, head down and taking steadying breaths.

I’m soaked after this run and slightly shaky, so I know I’m not quite a hundred percent, but feel better than I did yesterday at least.

Inside, I walk into the kitchen, take a bottle of water from the fridge and hold the cold bottle against my forehead before drinking a third of it in one go.

Hammer walks into the kitchen grinning, ‘Girl, you stink.’

‘Oh, thanks Hams, kind of you to say so.’ I respond, but not taking his comment too seriously.

‘Are you working tonight?’

‘Not that I know of. I thought I may go to the shop, check how far it’s gotten and then do some orders for the new equipment. Well, if you tell me a date to have the delivery of this equipment, that is.’

‘They stripped the main floor. The first floor Brag and Sting will get finished today. Ruger has finished the top floor and they’ll do the basement tomorrow.’ Hammer tells me and I have to admit I’m shocked they’ve done so much in such a short amount of time.

‘It’ll take a couple of weeks to get the old plaster off, put the new up, and replace any flooring. Any orders we place won’t need to be delivered for at least seventeen days. Once the basement is empty, if we have any deliveries before we need them we can put them in that space.’ Hammer says, giving me a squeeze on my shoulder, ‘In the meantime, you can work at the club while they are shorthanded, if that’s good with you?’

‘Yes, I can do that, Hams. I’m happy to work, as you know. I’m not needed tonight, so I think I’ll get one of the prospects to go get some groceries and I’ll make a chili for everyone. What do you think? Do you think they’ll eat it?’

‘You bet. They’ll all eat it. Make sure you make enough as most of this lot will eat twice as much as you think, then come back for seconds.’

Laughing, I nod and check which prospect is around so I can send them while I’m in the shower.

Petey stands with Beer at the bar so I amble over and give him a list of what I need and then I rush up to my room.

Once done, I head back to the kitchen to see that the groceries are sitting on the counters, so I take out the largest pan, which takes two hands to hold, and I grin to myself as although it reminds me of the prison kitchen, it also has me thinking how many of the men will dig in to eat.

After I’ve diced up the onions, I brown the ground beef and add the onion. I keep stirring until it is showing no pink at all. Thankfully, Petey got me the lean ground beef, so I don’t need to drain off any fat.

I stir in the peppers, garlic, beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce and add chili powder, cumin and oregano.

Next, I take out the ingredients to make cornbread to serve with the chili. Turning the oven on to preheat, I mix the ingredients.

Whisking all the dry ingredients, I then add the butter, sugar and honey, whisk the eggs and buttemilk, then pour them in and make the batter.

I pour the batter into prepared pans and set in the oven to bake. I’ve made more than enough, I hope, and any left over I can wrap and store for a week so it’s not a problem making a large batch.

Beer walks into the kitchen while I’m washing rinsing dishes and placing them in the dishwasher. ‘Hi Mia, what are you making? It smells great.’

‘Chili and cornbread.’

‘Shit, I hope that’s for everyone. My stomach is rolling at just the smell.’ Beer grins, takes the lid off the pan and takes a deep breath of the chili. ‘Hmm, smells damn fine.’

‘Get your hands off the pan.’ has both Beer and me spinning around to see Axel with his arms crossed over his chest but with a smirk on his face.

Giggling, I look at Beer, who shakes his head, squeezes my shoulder and heads back out of the kitchen.

‘You look happier.’ I say to Axel, then pass cups over to him while I get the coffeepot for us both to have a drink.

‘I am. I’ve had some thoughts and you know Jenk has lived exactly as he’s wanted to. He never wanted the responsibility of a wife and kids, but he loved my parents and he’s always been there for me if I needed him. A true uncle, although not by blood.’ Axel takes a seat and I give the chili another stir while he’s talking.

‘He knows I’ll look after the place, which is something he’s spent a lifetime building. The place is run down, but he has a full book of work lined up. His reputation is still great, and that’s something that we’ll need to take from him and into the future of the club.’ Axel smiles and turns to the door when someone enters the kitchen.

‘I’ll do whatever is needed to make sure he’s okay, Axel. No one should be on their own at this time and we have so many brothers he could always have someone with him.’ I state, then walk over to the table, ignoring Candy, who had entered the kitchen a minute ago.

‘There’s a parcel for you at the front door Mia.’ Candy says, then wanders back out.

Axel stands and I follow him outside, and there is a parcel, nothing on it apart from my name. Picking it up, Axel carries it to the commons room and places it on a table, he then takes out his knife and cuts the string that is wrapped around it.

When he opens it, I screech and jump back, because in that parcel is a dead chicken.

Axel takes out a note which states, ‘

.’ and looking at the chicken, it has no head.

I rush to the kitchen and lean over the sink, sucking in deep breaths to stop myself from vomiting.

I can hear Axel shouting to people in the commons, but when I look out of the kitchen window, I see Candy and Brandy in the garden compound, whispering to each other.

Taking out my cell, I take a video of these two with their heads together. Something is not right, but as yet I cannot prove anything is going on with all the club women.

Axel walks into the kitchen, places his hands on my shoulders, and gives them a gentle squeeze. ‘You okay, babe?’

‘Yeah, I’m okay now Axel. It was just a shock. Can I show you something, but you have to keep an open mind.’

‘You can show me whatever you like.’ that is when I pass my cell to Axel showing the small video I had just taken of the two club women outside.

‘What am I looking at, babe?’

‘That happened immediately after that parcel was delivered. Why did they meet outside like that? Why do they look like they are colluding?’

‘Send this to my cell and I’m going to talk to Specs.’

Before I can give a comment, Axel storms out of the kitchen with his cellphone in his hand. I send the video and go back to stirring the chili. I thank whoever took out the corn bread, as it could have burned to a crisp by now.

Looking at the wall clock, I see it’s nearly time to eat and although it’s not the usual thing to cook meals, the odd times that I have everyone of the brothers have turned up to eat.

Hammer walks into the kitchen, gets bowls and silverware ready, and stands waiting for me to serve, I think. I lift an eyebrow and can’t stop the twitch of a smile at the corner of my mouth.

Brothers enter the kitchen, many place a kiss on my forehead as they grab silverware and find a seat at a table.

Shaking my head and riding myself of the chicken incident, I plate up cornbread and place it on the table, making sure I leave a suitable space between or the brothers will argue over who got more cornbread.

I serve up the chili, and Hammer passes bowls to the table. Once everyone has a meal, I turn to see Axel walking in and take our meals to the table.

Sitting next to Axel I smile at Hammer and Ruger who are sitting at my side and we eat in silence, it isn’t long before some brothers are back at the pan getting second helpings much to my amusement as they nearly fight over who has more than someone else.

Axel catches me smirking and shakes his head, but laughs along with me. It is a pleasant meal. I’m not totally happy thought that the club women are also eating at one end of the table. The bitches never cook, but are always stuffing their faces when anyone else does.

‘Axel, where is Abbie? I haven’t seen her for a few days.’

‘She went to see her brother. He was in the hospital, had his appendix removed. She also said she may stay with her brother, not come back at all. I told her to think about it and let me know.’

‘Oh, okay, I’ll be glad when she’s back.’ I say and I note Buzz, Drag and Hammer are nodding in agreement.