Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 413 of 619

With the north held off and the ship unloaded, Ajax walked down to his bar to count the empty room. The captains had sailed. The servers had gone to their bunks. Only three men remained inside, and they were not working. Tucker leaned against the bar with a cup in his hand. Marcus, the captain, sat close beside him. Marco stood across from both, arms crossed, a grin on his face. Ajax stopped in the doorway. He knew all three well. Tucker ran his port and his bar, prying secrets from captains with drink and charm. Marcus had sailed the ship north twice and come back both times, bound to Tucker by more than the silver chain around his neck. Marco read minds and held Ajax's door. Now the three of them stood among the servers' empty stools, showing off for each other with no one else to see. "Feel that," Marcus said. He flexed his arm and set it on the bar. Tucker pressed a hand to it and whistled low. "Solid," Tucker said. "Eight days at sea will do that." He turned his own arm to catch the lamplight on his gold chains. "But I keep this shape sitting still." Marco laughed. "You keep that shape talking. That's all you do." He pulled his shirt open a button and stepped closer. "I heard both of you thinking the same thing just now. Neither one's fit to print." Ajax watched. This was his hall, his men, his hour before the northern hunt. He could bark them apart. But he saw no threat here, only three sworn men easy in each other's company. He had built that ease. He had bound them with chains and shares and kisses, and now it held even when he was not in the room. He crossed the floor. All three turned. "Master," Tucker said, unbothered. "We closed the bar. Thought we earned a cup." "You did," Ajax said. He set his own hand on Marcus's arm, testing it the way the others had. Then he flexed his own and let them look. His chest was broader than any of theirs. "But mine's still the biggest arm in the room." Marcus snorted. Marco laughed outright. Tucker raised his cup. "No argument here." Ajax poured himself a cup and drank with them. He did not order them apart. He let the moment run. Three men who could have sold him a year ago now stood joking in his empty hall, loyal by choice. That was the thing he had been trying to build since he rode north alone. Not walls. Not silver. Men who stayed when no oath forced them. When the cups were empty, Ajax set his down. "Sleep," he said. "We ride north in two days. I'll want all three of you steady." They went, still grinning, and Ajax stood alone in the hall, sure now his house would hold.