Angels In Leather

CHAPTER 10 MEADOW Heroes can only save those who need them. I don’t need them.

I’m sitting in that same position he left me in, unable to make my body move. I don’t know what there is to say. I stopped trusting him...I made him the enemy. I close my eyes, and I try to think back, to think of everything that went down, and it hits me like a brick to the face. I did make him the enemy, and I stopped trusting him, because I ran. I never stopped to let him explain; I just ran.

I stopped believing in him because my father did.

“Axel said to give you this.”

I look up to see a girl standing at the door. She’s got blonde hair, big boobs, and a curvaceous body that most women would die for. The tiny skirt she’s wearing is riding high up over her backside, and the red top squeezes tightly against her breasts. I wonder who she is? I watch with curiosity as she walks in and places the food on the table beside me.

“Who are you?” I ask, my voice coming out scratchy and pathetically broken.

“Miranda, and you’re Meadow,” she says, and then I’m sure I here her murmur “his Cricket” under her breath.

“Why did he send you in?”

She gives me a hard look, placing her hands on her hips. “Because he can’t stand the sight of you.”

My heart feels like someone stabbed it, and I feel sick. How do you pick who is wrong and who is right in a situation such as this? He killed my father, so I should hate him. I gave up on him, so he should hate me.

“Axel isn’t the kind of man you want to mess with. I would strongly suggest you give him what he wants, and run as far away as you can.”

I stare at her for a long moment. “What would you know about me, Axel, or this situation?” I snap defensively.

How dare she thinks she knows what’s best.

“Because I’ve been fucking Axel for six years now, and he’s all kinds of fucked up. You have no idea what lurks in the darkness. None. He doesn’t need someone like you in his life; you’d never understand his level of sick. You’re just a constant reminder of why he’s so fucked up to begin with.”

Me? What would I have to do with it?

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, but my voice wobbles.

“I know more than you think, Cricket,” she breathes, and even that sounds like a snarl.

She doesn’t give me a chance to answer. She just turns and walks out. I stare at the door for a long moment, mulling over what she said. What would I have to do with any of this? I never did anything to anyone. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and sent on a mission I really didn’t deserve.

I turn my eyes to the tray of food she placed down, and, regardless of my anxious stomach, I’m starving. I lift the tray off, and see some sort of stir-fry made with plenty of beef, vegetables and noodles. I lift the fork, and I begin gulping the food down, hardly chewing. I’m so hungry it’s embarrassing how I’m eating right now, but there’s nothing I can do to stop the way my hands tremble with need, or how my body desperately needs to be fed.

Mid way through, I feel my throat beginning to tickle. I cough, and lift a glass of water and swallow it. Maybe it was too hot. The tickle increases, sending warmth up into my cheeks. What is happening? I take another sip of water, but the warm feeling begins increasing, and my throat starts to itch. I realize what’s happening then...I’m having an allergic reaction. I gasp for air, and panic fills me. I stare down at the food. I can’t see any seafood in it, but that’s the only thing that causes this kind of reaction in me.

“This is your last chance,” a voice comes from behind me, and I spin to see Axel walking in, a hard expression on his face. “You tell me, or I will let you die.”

“You’d let me die?” I whisper, feeling my throat beginning to swell and close in.

“No point in lettin’ you live if you’re never goin’ to tell me where that USB is, so yeah, I’d let you fuckin’ die.”

I feel panic begin to swell in my chest as breathing becomes more difficult. I gasp for air, and grip my throat, wrapping my fingers around it and trying to rub. I’m highly allergic to seafood, and Axel knows this. He knows because he helped me when I was ten years old, and I had my first reaction.

“Y-y-y-you put seafood in there, didn’t you?” I rasp.

His expression doesn’t change. “I had to get it out of you, one way or another.”

I begin to wheeze, and I feel my breathing decreasing. I’ll die. If he doesn’t give me a shot, I’ll die. I look up at him with tears in my eyes, and I see a moment of hesitation in his. It’s there, a moment where his eyes shifted.

“Why...why would you do this to me? I never did anything to you,” I wheeze, rubbing my throat. “I adored you. I loved you. I...you saved my life. Why would you do this? Why?”

“Because there’s nothing left inside me. Now give me the location, or I won’t give you this shot.”

He lifts his shirt and pulls out the shot I know I need. He must have got it from my bag, I always carry one with me. My vision begins to blur, and I begin gasping for air so badly it sounds like I’m having a coughing fit, only with air. I don’t want to die. I’m tired of the fight. He’ll never let me go, and he’ll never tell me what went down that day. It’s not worth dying over, and it’s not worth this pain.

I drop my head, and I gasp through wheezing breaths. “It’s in a bank downtown, in a locker.”

Then, my vision swims, and my world begins to turn. I collapse down, and I’m sure in those moments before I pass out that I hear Axel say the same words he said to me when I jumped off that bridge.

“Keep breathing, Cricket. Don’t close your eyes.”

I know it’s only a dream though. The monster inside him is far stronger than the man trapped behind it.

MEADOW

“Meadow, where you at, girl?”

I hear Axel’s voice, and I skip into the living room to see him standing with a great big grin on his face. “Guess what?”

“What?” I cry, running over and leaping into his arms.

He swings me around, and I laugh loudly, my blonde hair flicking in a circle as we move.

“I got a new bike!”

“For real?” I squeal. “Show me.”

He nods his head towards the front door, and I run out into the yard to see the shiny red Harley-Davidson in the driveway. I groan in awe and walk out, running my fingers over the candy-apple paint. “It’s a Super Glide.”

“Your favorite.” He grins, putting his hand on the top of my head and resting it there.

“Are we taking it for a ride?”

He beams. “Hell yeah we are, get your helmet.”

I run inside, and in a split second I have a helmet on and my riding boots. Axel gets on the bike, and I climb on behind him. He starts the powerful machine, and we speed off down the road.

He takes me around all the good bends, and up to the local lighthouse before stopping at our favorite lake. I jump off, and run toward the water. When I reach it, I lean down and run my fingers through the cool liquid.

“So, what’d you think?”

I spin toward him, and grin. “It’s amazing!”

He drops down onto the grass, and pats it. I slump down beside him.

“You know, you’re the only one I wanted to share it with,” he says, smiling down at me.

I bump my shoulder into his. “That’s because I’m your number-one girl, right?”

He laughs, and wraps an arm around my shoulder. “You’ll always be my number-one girl, Cricket. I’ll always be here for you.”

“Meadow, wake up.”

I hear Axel’s voice, and I feel my body coming to. Everything hurts, and my head is pounding. I swallow. My throat is so dry that I can’t get enough saliva to coat it, so it burns.

I flutter my eyelids open, and see Axel staring at me. He’s got a needle in one hand, and a glass of water in another. I realize then I’m soaking wet. He must have been splashing me with it to try and bring me around.

I look up at him, and any sympathy I had for him is now gone.

I hate him.

“Get away from me,” I croak, shifting into a sitting position.

He doesn’t say anything. He just stares down at me.

“Get out...just get out of here....”

“I need that location, Meadow,” he orders.

I lift my scathing eyes to meet his, and he flinches. “You’re a no good piece of shit. I hate you. I hate everything about you. Go and die, Axel. You’re nothing to me anymore. Now...GET THE FUCK OUT!”

He stares at me for the longest moment, and so much passes between us. Then he turns, and he walks out of the room without another word.

And I put a brick wall around my heart.

I can’t feel like this any more.

It’s time to end this.