Axl dropped his head because he couldn’t hold it up and battle the rage of fire in his chest at the same time.

Yeah.

That was ugly.

And it got uglier.

“That’s tough, brother, but it gets tougher,” Aug said quietly.

Axl lifted his head and stared again at his friend, that burn inching up his throat.

“Not just every competition or recital, but every class, which was every day, including Sunday, he was there. He’d videotape it. And from the ride home to repeated viewings of the video after, he’d dissect every second of what she’d done, highlighting the bad. Making her take notes on what she needed to work on. Report back the next day after practice on how she felt she worked on those points. Sometimes even making her do lines, like ‘I will relax my arm,’ and she’d have to write it five hundred times.”

“You’re fucking joking,” Boone growled.

Aug shook his head. “She said to the judge, that when he’d pinch her or shake her, it was a relief. He’d feel bad about doing that, so for a while, he’d lay off the other stuff.”

“So she was glad he’d physically abuse her so he didn’t mentally destroy her,” Axl stated.

He felt all the men’s eyes on him.

He knew why.

His voice was not right.

The huddle became closer.

“Lock it down, Axe,” Mo murmured.

Axl didn’t take his eyes from Aug and went on, “But he mentally destroyed her.”

“I saw that dance,” Auggie said low. “And, brother, she’s way into you. Watching that, it was like watching her say she wants you so bad, it’s killing her. It fuckin’ hurt watching her dance like that for you. So yeah, she wants you that bad and won’t let herself have you, he mentally destroyed her.”

Axl stepped back.

The men shifted to follow.

He stopped and stated, “I crossed that line to creeper. Could not get a lock on what was goin’ on with her, so I followed her. She has a studio. Not to dance. To create shit. When she left, I let myself in. It’s filled with pieces of substance. No watercolors or delicate sculptures. Big pieces. A couple that are even taller than me. They all gotta weigh hundreds of pounds. Her mediums are concrete and steel, iron and stone, marble. Even the soft stuff is hard or jagged. Like copper wire or aluminum. And you gotta have no heart in your chest if you can look at her shit and not need to fight taking a knee to battle the pain.”

“Fucking hell,” Mag whispered.

“I stood in that space and I got up in her face,” Axl told them.

“You want to be a part of her life, a good one, one of the few,” Boone pointed out. “I don’t condone bein’ a dick to her, but you’re only human, brother. Just give her some breathing room and then go fix it.”

“I’ll talk to Lottie and she’ll talk to her,” Mo offered.

Axl shook his head. “No. No one knows about this. Her art. That space. I already violated it. I don’t want to make that worse.”

Mo nodded his concurrence.

“Boone’s right,” Mag put in. “Give her breathing room and then go and fix it.”

“Not much time,” Boone said. “Just don’t give up.”

“How much of a dick were you to her?” Auggie asked.

“I told her she hurt Lottie and I told her I knew what that dance was about and she blew it, with Lottie and with me,” Axl admitted.

“That doesn’t sound like much of a dick,” Auggie observed. “What you said is the truth.”

“There’s layin’ out the honesty and bein’ an asshole while you lay out the honesty, and I was the second one.”

All the men knew of that distinction, so no one said anything.

“What about Cisco?” Mag asked, bringing them full circle. “Do I need to get Evan on that?”

“Let me talk to Hattie tomorrow,” Axl said.

“It might not be him takin’ it there, making a move on her,” Boone told him. “Told you all, Cisco’s got a thing about the women. He’s taken them on. Feels responsible for them. Probably guilt he scared the shit out of them when he abducted them. But I gotta admit, maybe it’s just that he’s a nuanced guy and he’s a piece of shit out there in the world, but he knows the right way to treat women.”

“The man fired on Axl,” Mag, jerking his head toward Axl, reminded Boone of the firefight Axl had with Cisco’s associates while they were taking Ryn.

“They’re either the worst shots in history, or they had orders not to hit me,” Axl said and all eyes came to him. “There had to be nearly eighty rounds exchanged in that and there was a lot of damage to the vehicles parked in that parking lot, but no one was even grazed.”

“So now you’re on the same bent as Boone that there’s more that makes this guy when he’s picking up Hattie from work at two o’clock in the morning?” Mag demanded.

“I think it’s clear I got more work to do with Hattie and it’s not gonna help me, not even having taken her out to dinner, bein’ that guy who’s an even bigger ass to her, I jump to conclusions about what’s going on with Cisco when, right now, strictly speaking, it’s none of my business. But she knows I want it to be my business, so I ask, and she can decide if she wants to tell.”

“I do not see Hattie with Cisco,” Mo mumbled.

Obviously, Axl didn’t either.

He saw her with him.

He saw all that curly hair of hers on his pillow in the morning and in his lap when she was blowing him.

He saw himself wading in and finding a way to guide her out of her father’s life, no matter what fucked-up reason she was still in it, so he could help her find a road to healing.

And he saw himself finding ways to make her laugh and finding others to give her a life that, the next time she pulled a mold from set concrete, seeing what she wrought might bring joy, not cut you to the quick.

That’s what he saw.

And if once, just once, she gave him a shot to kiss her like he meant it, she might see it too.

“Me either, I barely see her with Axl,” Auggie stated, taking Axl from his thoughts. “She needs an accountant or something. Boring and no drama.”

“And I’m drama?” Axl asked.

“Brother, her father’s a top-of-the-heap dick, when I thought yours was. But Don Yates beats out even Sylas Pantera, something that was impossible, until Hattie. So she still deals with Yates’s ass, but this goes the way you want it to, she’s gotta meet your dad, and if you think Sylas won’t bring the drama, you need to wake up. Because I believe in you and I saw Hattie dance that dance. So you’re gonna win that battle, eventually. But with those two in the mix, that’s not even close to winning the war.”