Bella Jewel: Angels In Leather

They’ve found me.

It’s only the third time Axel Wraithe has managed to catch up with me in just over a year, which isn’t bad considering he’s got sources, and I don’t.

He’s the President of the MC club Angels In Leather, and he’s been chasing me since the moment my father sent me running with information on a USB drive. I’ve never plugged the drive in to see what’s on it. I’ve never had the chance. Whatever is on it, though, I imagine is extremely important. He wouldn’t be chasing me like this if it weren’t.

Axel wouldn’t have killed my father if it wasn’t something he needed.

Would he?

I still don’t know what went down that day. All I know is that whatever my father has on this drive, Axel wants.

Axel used to be a part of our family, so to speak. He used to come over, and talk to my dad, and hang out with me when I was a little girl. That was until one day, when he went missing for about six months. When he came back again, there was something different about him. He was darker, angrier, and he hated my father with a wild passion. They became sworn enemies, and were constantly at war. He stopped speaking to me, and I rarely saw him. Until the day he saved my life.

Just after I started running, I heard that Axel had upended the town looking for me. Any friends I had, he went to them. Any person who knew me, he harassed. He was looking for the information. The information I’ve been running with for just over a year. The information that’s clearly been more important than anything else that’s come up in that time, because Axel hasn’t stopped looking for me.

Which means I haven’t rested.

There have been times I’ve wanted to just give in and let him take it from me, but then I think of my father’s face the day he died in the front of our SUV, and the desperation when he made me promise to run, and deliver this USB. If I let him down...I’ll never live happily. This is my mission, and sadly, it’s become my life. I don’t have anything else. Without this, I’m nothing. I have nothing...no one.

I have been struggling to find Raide. He’s not at the police department anymore, and without resources, I don’t know where he is. No one will give me any information. So here I am, in a women’s bathroom, trying to calm myself down and figure out a way to escape Axel a third time around.

He’s not an easy man to escape. He’s a goddamned genius, and he’s managing to get closer and closer to me no matter what I do. I have to think of something new.

I pat my face dry with my sleeve, and stare in the mirror at the empty blue eyes looking back at me. Most girls my age would be out partying, falling in love, enjoying their life, their jobs, their friends...but me, I’m running, living a criminal life that I never chose. On the rare days I get when I manage to relax, I find myself imagining what it would be like to just be normal.

I shake my head. It’s never going to happen.

I hear the distinct rumble of Harley-Davidsons outside, and I know they’ve stopped. I feel my palms become clammy, and my heart speeds up. I have to get out of here, and into the trees behind the gas station. They’re thick and lush, and I can run for miles through them.

The problem is getting out. This was the closest place I could find to gather myself, and it took Axel a matter of minutes to locate me. It’s never a coincidence with him. Never.

I swallow, and lift my hair up onto the top of my head again, tucking it under my cap. I pull my hoodie back over, and grip the straps that are sitting around my waist. My bag is strapped on as tight as I can get it, because I don’t want it to be taken from me. If that gets taken, then all this has been a waste of time, for me, and my father.

I pull my sunglasses down over my eyes, and I peer out the window. And there he is. I feel my body tingle with fear as I lay my eyes on Axel. He’s standing out the front of the gas station, speaking to the young woman, flashing a photo at her. I know it’s a photo of me. She nods, and points to the bathrooms. Goddammit. Axel lifts his head, and he turns his eyes in my direction.

I gasp.

Axel Wraithe is a gorgeous man. He always has been, but he’s got a heart of steel. I remember as a young girl, in the years before he and my father had a falling out, I used to think he was one of the most handsome men I’d ever met. He was just a young man back then, but he had the kind of face that women would drool over. Now...now, he’s older, and more defined, and even more breathtaking.

He has this thick black hair that sits messily on his head. His body is huge, tall and well-built, yet unlike most bikers’ skin, it’s not covered in tattoos. He has a few, but not many.

His shoulders put most body-builders to shame. His eyes are the color of turquoise water, and are the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen. He’s got a few days growth of stubble on his face, and his ears are filled with silver hoops.

His body is covered in all black clothes. Large, chunky black boots. Black jeans. A black shirt, covered with his black jacket that I know has a large angel surrounded in fire on the back. Their club’s patch. He wears chains around his neck, and leather bands around his wrists. Hanging off his jeans he has silver chains, topping off his look.

Axel is about thirty-two years old, and while he was my father’s friend, he was younger than him. Axel is ten years older than me, but even when I was just a young girl at ten, and he was twenty, we always got along. He was so carefree back then, so beautiful. Now he’s a monster with eyes that make you want to shrink inside yourself with fear.

He’s deadly.

He’s standing, staring at the bathrooms, with an empty expression on his face. Sweat trickles down my face as I turn, peering around the room for an escape. There’s a small, narrow window above the far toilet. It’s not locked, and I could squeeze out of it with enough effort.

I glance back out the front window and see Axel still staring at the bathroom, nodding to the lady as she speaks.

I have minutes.

My adrenalin spikes as I rush towards the toilet. I peer up at the window, and use the toilet and basin to launch myself upwards. I take hold of the windowsill, and use my free hand to rattle the glass pane. It’s rusty, but it dislodges itself easily enough. I shove it out, and it lands with a crash on the ground. My heart begins to hammer.

I unclip my backpack. There’s no way I can get through with it on my back. I peer out the window, and when I see it’s clear, I shove the bag through and let it drop down onto the ground. That’s when I hear the rattling on the toilet’s main door. My heart lurches, and I feel my jaw begin to drop.

“Hiding in a toilet won’t stop me from finding you, Meadow.”

Axel’s voice has me freezing, but only for a split second. I’ve been running long enough now to know how to keep myself from freezing for long enough to cause a problem. I lift my leg up, and try to be as quiet as possible as I jump three times, and shove my body through the small gap. I lose my balance when I push through too hard, and land on the dirt the other side with a thump. I roll, gripping my bag and throwing it on quickly before leaping to my feet.

And there he is.

I scream, and leap backwards as he appears around the side of the building. Up close, he’s powerful, huge, and dominating. He has a tattoo of a bird on his neck, and it seems to be staring at me, taunting me. I lift my eyes to meet his, and I gasp softly. Beauty—it just doesn’t cover what he is. He can’t be classed as beautiful. There is only one word I could ever use to describe him, and that is...devastating.

“Hello, Cricket,” he growls, using the nickname for me he used when I was a little girl. “Long time, no see.”