Blood Vow (Black Dagger Legacy #2)(135)

“—and I guess … I’m kind of thinking I’m one of them.” Peyton shrugged. “So yeah, Axe is having a horrible time. He looks half dead. And look, I’m not telling you what to do about this. But you might as well know the truth. What you choose to do or not do … is up to you. He’s not perfect … but he’s not like me, okay? He’s not worthless.”





FIFTY-THREE


Axe never cashed the check that Elise’s father sent him.

Nope. He just put it on the mantelpiece above the fire, knowing that at some point, he was going to throw it into the flames. Just not tonight. And not last night, either. Or the one before that.

It kind of felt like his last tie to Elise, and yes, it was pathetic, but that was one bene of living alone—no one else knew the weaknesses of your thoughts, your heart, your little rituals. It was like singing in the shower off-key—nothing you had to share with anybody else.

Sitting in front of the hearth, he was naked and the back side of him was cold, but he didn’t care. He hadn’t cared about much since Elise had laid down the hammer—

The knock on his front door drew his attention from the flames. “Open,” he called out, not giving a shit who it was, and knowing that he could get to his gun if he—

Axe jumped to his feet. Then remembered he was naked, and grabbed a pillow off the old sofa. “Elise?” he said to the closed door. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Her voice was muffled. “Do you, ah … do you mind if I come in?”

He shrugged. Mostly because his brain had traffic-jammed and rendered him too stoopid to talk.

Then he remembered she couldn’t see him. “Yeah. I mean, sure.”

Next thing he knew, she was stepping inside, closing the door and walking forward slowly, like she was thinking he might change his mind at any moment.

God … she looked good. Then again, she always looked good. Even when she hated him.

“Look, I don’t know.…” She cleared her throat. “I don’t know how to say this, so …”

“G’head. Whatever it is, I’m fine with it.”

She’d already dropped a bomb in the center of his chest. So what if she took his arms and legs off as well? And, yeah, yeah, yeah, he should yell at her and get all righteous and shit over the fact that she’d gotten him wrong. But honestly, he didn’t have the energy for it.

“I’m sorry.”

Axe recoiled. “What?”

“I’m … listen, I’m really sorry. I might have misjudged you I think.…”

“Wait, what?”

She started talking and he didn’t really follow. Something about Peyton and Novo coming over to her father’s house. The key thing. Membership. Not talking. No sex.

“What?” he repeated.

“Like I said, they came over because Peyton wasn’t feeling right about it all. He thought that you were being unfairly maligned by me.”

Axe blinked. Then just shrugged. “So …?”

“So, yeah, um …” She shook her head. “Can you just tell me why … you didn’t explain to me about the key?”

“And you’ll believe me now?”

“Yes, I think I will.”

He dragged a hand through his hair and relived himself standing in that closet of a dead female he didn’t know, Elise holding that piece of metal out to him. “I thought … I thought you wouldn’t understand. You know, that you’d write me off or something. I don’t know. I gave up the drugs, but in a lot of ways, I was still self-medicating with sex, you know? Just trying to get out of my head.”

“Did you ever hurt anyone? At, the, ah … club?”

“Like Anslam, you mean? No. Never. And I was never with Allishon. I didn’t even know her, to be honest. A lot of people go there.” He threw up his hands. “Whatever, I just wanted you to believe in me, okay? I wanted to be the male that I saw you thought I was. And a sex addict was not part of that picture.”

“Do you feel any need to … go back there?”

“Not since I met you. When I took Novo to The Keys, none of it interested me anymore. I just didn’t get juiced like I used to. I wanted to be with you and only you.”

“Is that still true?” she whispered.

Axe crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you want from me, Elise? Why did you come here?”

“I’m just … I’m so sorry. I jumped to conclusions and I leveled a lot of things at you. And I’m really sorry. My emotions got the best of me, I guess.”

“It’s okay,” he muttered. “I mean, it’s cool.”

“It’s really not.” She seemed so sad. “I guess the truth is … well, as you said, I’m a better professor than I am a student. I decided everything, and you’re right, I didn’t let you even defend yourself.”

As a silence stretched out, Axe wanted to pace around, but, hello. Ass naked.

“I’ll ask you again,” he said. “Why are you here?”

“Because … I love you. That’s why.”

It took a while for the words to sink in. And what do you know, he went good and speechless when they did. In his most pathetic fantasies, he had wanted—hell, prayed for—this turnaround on her part. Had hoped against hope it would be the one miracle he would ever receive. Was this even real?