Everything Carries Me to You (Axton and Leander Book 3) by S.P. Wayne Read Free Book Online

can have some of the summers help," he said. "I'll form a committee."
    "How well can you disguise that?" Leander asked.
    "Bitch, please," New York said, looking offended. "My paper trail is a beautiful work of fiction."
    "Don't do anything actually illegal," Leander said.
    New York hummed.
    "Goddamnit," Leander said. "What?"
    "Like, don't do anything illegal about this , or in general?"
    "About this," Leander said. "What are you doing in general?"
    New York hummed.
    "Motherfucker, if you're carrying right now I will kick your ass."
    "Doubtful," New York said, tutting and patting Leander's most broken leg.
    "For fuck's sake, don't get forced into rehab again," Leander said.
    New York hummed a response.
    "I'm serious," Leander warned. "Not when I need you to get shit done."
    "Okay," New York said.
    "And this is a long con," Leander said. "This is a slow burn of a plan."
    "Because you need your legs to heal before we go hurt the guy?"
    "The point of this isn't to hurt the guy," Leander said.
    "No?"
    "He'd just keep coming," Leander said
    New York breathed carefully, seeming to consider the potential implications.
    "Okay," he said.
    "Okay?" Leander asked, raising an eyebrow.
    "Okay," New York confirmed, looking at Leander steadily.
     
    ++
    Sarah came by ten minutes after New York left, peering around corners carefully to avoid running into him.
    "So," she asked Leander, as she was gathering the last of their things so they could leave the hospital. "How'd it go?"
    "According to plan," Leander said. "Send him the population density data parameters in three days when he's back in the office."
    "Does he suspect?"
    "No," Leander said. "Not at all."
    "I always forget that he's ridiculously handsome," Sarah said.
    "Yeah, he's just an asshole."
    "He's a good friend," Sarah said, not looking up from sliding things into her bag.
    "Yeah," Leander said.
    "He cares about you. He's willing to go to bat for you," Sarah said. "Without even asking questions about why."
    "Yeah," Leander said. "I know."
    "How many of us are you going to use up?" Sarah asked. "How many people that love you are you going to burn through for this?"
    "I know what I'm doing," Leander said.
    "So, all of us, then?" Sarah asked lightly, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "All right. I'll be back with a nurse and we can get out of here to finish ruining your life."
    Leander said nothing.
     
    ++
    When his discharge processed and Leander was outside for the first time in two weeks, the sun was bright and shining and beautiful.
    He resented that the sky wasn't mourning with him, but he didn't dwell very long on that sense of betrayal.
    He couldn't.
    He had so much to do.
     
    ++
    The first week back home was fairly easy. Leander was far more exhausted than he would admit, and his body didn't share his sense of urgency, it just wanted to sleep fourteen hours a day to heal up. His appetite was good and he was cooperatively taking his antibiotics and all else. There had been that push, his last few days in the hospital, to get the first phase of things done, and arrange all his people where he needed them to be: Sarah at his side, Christina as far away as possible, and New York in his pocket.
    Yeah.
    He could rest now.
    Could he rest for now?
    Leander's body didn't give him much of a choice.

ELSEWHERE
    There was a wolf bleeding out on the bed. Shock had set in and he wasn't moving.
    Dana was bent over, arms hugging his own midsection, chest heaving. There was bile in the back of his throat. The smell of blood was hot and heavy in the air.
    Axton was dying.
    "Right," Dana said, as he straightened. "No time for hysterics."
    He stepped outside the room and then swiftly returned, wheeling in an IV fluid stand and also a tray of medical instruments. Turning to survey the scene, Dana took in the amount of blood all over the bed--the floor--there was even spray on the walls. It never ceased to surprise him, even as a hunter who killed for his meals, just how much blood could come