Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 511 of 619

The false dock was done. Ajax and his men sailed to the walled island town for the night before he crossed to find the woman who wanted his harbor. He would rest, then hunt her at dawn. The town's suite sat empty above the hall, and Ajax went up alone to think. He stood at the window and watched the dark water. Somewhere north the woman sat in her stone hall, buying his keepers, sending hunters. He had built a lie in the cliff to fool her men. Now he had to reach her and end it. Tomorrow. He turned from the glass and found JD in the doorway. JD ran the bar here. Marco's brother, sworn to read lies in men's faces, one gift split between two brothers. He and Marco had worked side by side since they were boys. They wore matching gold bracelets, one given each on the same day. JD leaned on the frame, green shirt half open, chest bare beneath the gold. "You should be reading captains," Ajax said. "Bar's quiet." JD stepped in. He didn't look away. "I read you all night at that table. You want the woman dead. That's true." He tilted his head. "You want something else too. That's true." Ajax held his ground. "You read too much." "It's the gift." JD crossed the floor. He moved slower than Marco, more careful, like a man used to earning a thing twice. "Marco already had you. He tells me things." A short smile. "I don't do big moves without him. But this one I want on my own." "Say it plain, then." "You." JD stopped close. His bracelet caught the lamp. "Since the night you swore me in. I've watched you carry all of it. The gate, the towns, the sea." He shrugged one shoulder. "I don't soften things. I want you tonight." Ajax measured him. The men held Black Oak by choice, not chains. JD had sworn freely. He read Ajax clean now, no fear in his face, only want. Ajax felt the same pull answer in his chest. "You're sure," Ajax said. "Not the wine." "No wine." JD's voice stayed flat. "I don't ask twice." Ajax closed the space and kissed him. JD kissed back hard, hands gripping Ajax's arms, gold bracelet cold against skin. They held it long, neither man pulling free. Ajax broke it once to breathe, and JD drew him back in. When they stopped, JD rested his forehead against Ajax's. "Now I've got you on my own," he said. "Not Marco's. Mine." Ajax let the words stand. He had bound another brother to the house, not by oath alone, but by the man's own choosing. At dawn he would sail north for the woman. Tonight the town was his, and so was JD. "Stay," Ajax said. JD stayed.