“I can’t make my Queen walk now, can I!” he exclaims, making his way across the room. I let out a highly un-boss-lady like giggle as he places me down in a chair. Getting on his knees, he sits in front of me.
“Now, my lady,” he says with a smile, “what shall I feed you?”
I narrow my eyes slightly at him but can’t keep up the straight face. This goofy Ax is one reserved only for me, and I love him for it. Placing my hands on either side of his face, I pull him forward into a kiss.
“You’re insane, but I kind of like you,” I whisper to his lips. The smile I feel on his is the only answer I need.
Six
Axle
As we eat, Ana tells me about the rest of the meeting, and I laugh loudly at the recap of her interaction with Desmond.
“Fuck, I wish I had seen that,” I say as I finally stop laughing. A knowing smirk sits on her face.
“How did you get so good at this shit, anyway?” I ask her. She raises a brow questioningly at me.
“The men actually like you,” I continue. “And you seem to know how to manage these savages. You sure you weren’t in prison before this?”
She gives me a small smile. “I may not have been in this kind of prison before,” she tells me, “but I’ve seen a lot of different types of leaders in my life. Some were good men and some bad, but that never seemed to make as much difference when it came to how much people liked them. The best ones, good or bad, were liked in general. Distract the mob, so to speak.”
I grin. “I like that you don’t hesitate to stab fuckers who piss you off.” She laughs and the sound fills my chest. I love making her laugh.
“Yeah, but still wish I didn’t have to do that. I don’t know what came over me to stab him like that,” she muses. I raise an eyebrow at her.
“You’re no lady, Ana,” I tell her with a smile. “You are a vicious little thing…and it’s perfect.” She laughs at this, not at all offended by my comments.
“Lady or not,” she replies, “it didn’t occur to me how hard this might be when I challenged Cole.”
“Well, you’re doing good,” I tell her honestly.
Our conversation trails off as we finish eating. I’ve run out of the apples Ana favors, but luckily still have a decent quantity of dried goods. Ana has a damn healthy appetite and a penchant for snacking when she’s stressed. It drives me insane I have to rely on the fucking asshole guards for supplies to support her, even just to feed her.
“Ax, what are we going to do about this shipment thing?” she asks, her voice low as she pulls the thought from my head. My eyebrows bunch together as I watch her.
“I don’t know,” I reply. “We’ve never had anything like this happen before. I was going to talk to Ethan about it today, but the conversation got away from me. I have a few ideas we should talk through, though.”
“What happened to him earlier?” she asks. I quickly tell her about our conversation and his appearance.
“Poor Ethan,” Ana says. She sees my surprise at her statement and smirks. “Yeah, I didn’t like the slut-nun but Ethan’s still a good guy, I feel bad he’s so crazy about her.”
I laugh at this declaration.
“Her name is Sammi, and she’s actually a pretty nice girl,” I tell Ana, watching as her eyes narrow to a glare. Her acting all jealous is actually endearing as hell, and I’ll admit I provoke her a little. When she doesn’t drop the look, I quickly clear my throat and change topics.
“So, what next, boss?”
Ana’s face transforms into a smile that almost knocks me over, it’s just that brilliant.
“Well, I don’t know what to do about the shipments…but I do have an idea to make the inmates less pissy while we figure it out.”
* * *
“Seriously?” I loudly whisper at her for the third time as she moves around the yard. A gathering of inmates hover around watching us, and I honestly don’t know what their reaction to this is going to be. These are violent and hardened criminals, not fucking school children. But Ana won’t be dissuaded.
“What’s happening here?” a voice says from behind us and I turn to see Luis and a few of his boys making their way into the courtyard. Ana straightens up and wipes her hand off, turning to Luis.
“Games day,” she replies with a grin and one of Luis’ guys laughs, stopping when I shoot a glare in his direction.