by Nina Levine
“Nothing that would ever concern you,” she snapped. “But I didn’t come here to talk to you about that.”
I restrained my frustration. Ivy always had liked to stretch me to breaking point. “Ivy,” I warned. “I asked you a question.”
The dull tone disappeared from her eyes. Resentment slashed the air between us as her hostility roared to life. “You gave up that right a long time ago, King.”
Fuck.
Ivy was the lightning to my thunder. When she sparked, I rumbled. And she had just fucking sparked. The raging storm inside me exploded out. I couldn’t hold it back any longer. “Answer me!” I needed to fucking know that she was okay.
She moved towards me, our bodies unbearably close. Her eyes were cold. The only time I remembered her looking at me with these dead eyes was the day I told her to get out of my life. “You don’t get to demand answers from me, King, so don’t fucking ask them. Now, if you want me to tell you what I know about the shit going down with your club, have Hyde take his gun off me.”
“I’m fucking confused here, Ivy. You came here, knowing we’d be here? And what the fuck are you doing in the attic?” She would at least answer those questions before I made my next move.
“Yes, I organised this meeting. This is a house I own. And I waited up here because I didn’t want all of your men pointing their guns at me.”
More confusion snaked through my mind. It made no fucking sense for her to have organised this meeting. “Put the gun down, Hyde.”
“You sure about that, brother?”
“Yes,” I barked, not removing my eyes from Ivy. I didn’t believe she would have a gun, but I wouldn’t have believed she could have anything to do with the shit Storm was in, either, so it was best to take precautions. Watching her closely was the only one available to me. I knew she wouldn’t talk until Hyde did what she wanted. Stubbornness was a classic Ivy trait.
“Fuck,” Hyde muttered as he lowered the gun.
Ivy glanced at him before giving me her full attention once she was satisfied. “There’s an attack coming. I don’t know when, and I don’t know how, but I’ve heard him talk about it for weeks. And it won’t just be on your club, it’ll be on your families, too. He wants them all dead.” She stopped to take a breath. “He wants to wipe everyone and everything you care about off the face of the earth. And I believe he could do it.”
He?
My jaw clenched. “Who?” I demanded. “Who the fuck are you talking about? And why?”
Her hard eyes refused to let me look away. “My husband. You took what was his, so now he wants to take what is yours.”
Understanding smashed into me. But this puzzle was still a long fucking way off being solved.
“Fuck! Tony is the one behind all this?”
Hyde moved closer to Ivy, anger clouding his face. “What the fuck did King take?”
She looked at Hyde. “He took me.”
I drew a long breath and then slowly released it. “How the fuck did I take you?”
I hadn’t had any contact with Ivy since the day she walked out of our house. This bullshit her husband was carrying on about enraged me. Fuck, he’d killed a woman and her unborn child today because of it.
Ivy’s eyes came to mine again. “You didn’t, but he thinks you did. He thinks I’m leaving him because I never stopped loving you.”
My chest tightened as my mind went into overdrive in an attempt to keep up with my rapidly-firing thoughts. I might have broken Ivy when I told her to go, but living without her had completely annihilated me.
I met Ivy when I was eleven.
I promised her forever when I was twenty.
I fucked it all up when I was twenty-four.
“Is that true?” I demanded.
I didn’t want to know, but fuck, I needed to know.
She stared at me.
Didn’t answer my question.
And then she blinked. “No.”
Her lie blazed between us.
It was in her blink.
Ivy always blinked when she lied.
Fuck.
We could never repeat our history.
Never.
It would fucking kill us both.
“Round everyone up, Hyde. We’re heading back to the clubhouse.” I reached for Ivy as I issued the order. To her I said, “You’re coming with us.”
She attempted to shrug out of my hold. “No, I’m not.”
I gripped her arm hard. “This isn’t the fucking time to argue, Ivy.”
Her eyes turned from cold to angry, and her body tensed. “I didn’t come here for you to stop my progress with leaving Tony. I’m flying out of the country today, so take your damn hands off me and let me go.”
I shook my head. “Change your plans. This isn’t up for negotiation.”
“I see you’re the same old King you always were,” she spat. “Always completely focused on what you want. God forbid what anyone else wants.”
My fingers dug harder into her skin as I lowered my face to hers. “I’m not going to say this again, so listen up close. You came to me with information I need to check out. While I do that, you’ll stay with my boys. And you’ll do this willingly, Ivy, or else you and I are going to have a big fucking problem, and you won’t like the outcome.”
Her eyes widened a fraction. She seemed surprised. “You need to check what out? You don’t believe what I told you?”
A headache clamped down over my skull. Too much shit had happened today, and I had a lot more to deal with now that I’d had this conversation with her. Ivy and I had history—a fuckload of it—but that didn’t mean I would simply take her word for this. I may have loved her once, but I’d learnt a long fucking time ago not to let love get in the way. These days I ran on distrust and gut instinct. “Did you ever know me to be a man who didn’t check shit out? Not even you could make me roll the fuck over and blindly believe something.” I yanked her arm. “Now move!” I barked as the pain in my head intensified.
“God, you’re a bastard!” At least she’d stopped resisting me and had taken a few steps towards the attic ladder.
“You already knew that. Were you expecting something different?” I wasn’t the man she’d known. Not anymore. And if she thought I was a bastard back then, she had a lot to learn about who I was now.
She chose not to answer that. Instead, she gave me one last filthy glare before following Hyde down the ladder. When I reached them a few moments later, he had her by the arm.
His eyes met mine. “You want me to take Ivy back to the clubhouse?”
My natural instinct was to keep her as close to me as possible, but I fought that. I needed to be smarter here. I knew if she stayed with me, it would likely fuck with my thinking. “Yeah, brother. I’ll meet you there. And can you send Nitro over to Nik’s to bring her back to the clubhouse?”
He nodded and headed outside. Ivy didn’t put up another fight. And she didn’t look back at me. She simply allowed Hyde to direct her movements.
Everyone had cleared the house, leaving me alone, which was a good thing. I fucking needed the space.
I sucked in a long breath and exhaled it harshly. Fucking Tony Romano. I’d never suspected he was behind all the shit going on. I’d heard the stories about his and Ivy’s marriage. That they were a volatile couple. It hadn’t surprised me, though. Not with the history she and I shared. But what she’d told us seemed extreme. Fuck, Tony ran an empire; he didn’t have time to be fucking around on a revenge mission.
Pulling out my phone, I dialled my sister Skylar. It went to voicemail. Fuck. She had a habit of missing my calls. Or fucking ignoring them.
I dialled her again, my chest tightening with the need for her to answer.
Voicemail again.
I stabbed at the phone to try her again.
She finally answered. “Jesus, King, I’m in the middle of studying for an exam here.”
I ignored her attitude. “And I’m in the middle of trying to save your
fucking life, Skye. Pack your shit up. I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes to pick you up and take you to the clubhouse.”
“Ah, that would be a no. I have too much studying to do.”
I massaged my temple where my headache kicked at my head. “This isn’t up for negotiation. Take your books with you.”
“Why?”
Skylar’s twenty-four years were her downfall. She was too young and too sheltered to understand the darker parts of life. That was entirely my fault because I’d raised her that way. I’d fight every fucking minute of every fucking day to keep her sheltered, but the sooner she grew up and realised I knew best, the easier my life would be.
“Because I said the fuck so,” I barked, unable to keep my frustration in any longer. “Be ready when I get there.”
Without waiting for her reply, I ended the call and dialled my other sister, Annika.
She picked up straight away. “Hey.”
“Nik, I need you to pack up the kids and wait for Nitro to swing by your place. Some shit is going down with the club, and I want you all safe with me at the clubhouse tonight.”
Silence for a beat. And then—“Is this you being overprotective or is it for real?”
“Fuck, between you and Skye...,” I muttered. “I’m being deadly serious. Nitro is on his way. Be ready for him. I’ll see you at the clubhouse.”
Again, I hung up before she could attempt to argue with me. Today wasn’t the fucking day.
Images of Jen crumpling to the ground after that motherfucker put a bullet in her flooded my mind. Her eyes would haunt me forever.
The way they came to mine in disbelief.
The way they screamed her horror.
The way they condemned me for her child’s death.
This really wasn’t the day for anyone to fight me on any-fucking-thing.
This was the day for me to stand the fuck up and take control of this fucking city.
Jen was right in her condemnation. I may not have put that bullet in her child, but I may as well have. No fucking way would I allow that shit to happen again.
13
King
* * *
“Uncle Zac!”
Annika’s daughter, Rebecca, threw herself at me after coming screaming down the hallway of the clubhouse to the office where I was going over shit with Hyde. Her little arms circled my legs as she hugged me, her blonde curls bouncing all over the place.
I scooped her up, and she wrapped her arms tightly around my neck while nuzzling her face in there too. For a tiny six-year-old, she was strong. “You been a good girl?”
She lifted her head and met my gaze, nodding with wild energy. “Yes!” Her eyes widened with expectation. “Do I get a treat?”
I narrowed my eyes at her, making her work for it. “You think you really deserve one? How good exactly have you been?”
Tiny fingers dug into my neck while she wriggled in my arms. When she answered my question, she did it with her signature style of enthusiasm. If I had to describe my niece in one word, it would be spirited. A huge contrast to her brother, Keith, who was mellow and a little shy.
“I’ve been the best. Ask Mummy! I even put all the books you bought me away in the bookcase this morning!”
“Mmm… was that before or after Mummy asked you to?”
Devil’s voice sounded from behind Annika. “King, hate to butt in, but Bronze just arrived.”
My eyes cut to his, and I nodded. “One minute.” Giving my attention back to Rebecca, I raised my brows signalling I was waiting for her answer.
Her little lips pressed together in the way they did when she had to tell me something she didn’t want to. She then nestled her head against my neck again while admitting softly, “After.”
Tipping her face up to mine, I said, “You promise to do it before from now on?”
Her curls bobbed as she nodded. “Yes.”
I bent to deposit her on the floor. “I’ve got a new book for you, but if I hear you’re not sticking to our agreement, I’ll take it back.”
The excitement in her eyes couldn’t be mistaken. I fucking loved her love for books.
Annika placed her hand on her daughter’s head while giving me her eyes. “Thank you.”
“Where’s Keith?” Even though he was eight, two years older than his sister, he didn’t have her confidence when it came to being around people, so he usually shadowed his mother.
“He’s coming in with Nitro. I guess they got talking about bikes.” She sighed. “You know what he’s like. He’s got that love of bikes you always had.” He did. And I knew it concerned her, but I ignored that. Keeping a man from his bike was like taking his fucking air from him. I encouraged Keith’s interest in bikes whenever I could.
“I’ve gotta deal with some stuff. I’ll come find you once I’m done. Skye’s studying in my room if you wanna hang out with her.” My sisters knew their way around the clubhouse, but Annika preferred the quiet, so I figured she’d choose my room over the bar.
“How bad is this, King?”
I’d been a member of Storm for seventeen years, and we’d been through some shit with the club in that time. I kept my family close, so we always stuck together in these times. While Skye grumbled her way through them, Annika just dealt. Always practical in her life, she understood the need to get on with shit and do whatever it took to survive. But that didn’t make it easier for her. I knew that while her strength ran deep, the effort to achieve it was great.
“Bad. Skye will fill you in.” I didn’t want to discuss this in front of Rebecca.
She nodded her understanding and guided her daughter away from me. I watched them for a few moments. I didn’t care what the fuck it took, I’d make sure they stayed safe. I always had, and I wasn’t fucking stopping now.
“King!”
I turned to find Bronze watching me, a wild expression on his face. Jerking my head towards the office, I barked out, “Nitro, my office!” He was somewhere in the club; someone would pass that on. Hyde, Devil, and Kick were already there, waiting to get shit started.
A few minutes later, door closed, I faced the five of them. The air in the room swirled thick with expectation. We all wanted the same thing. Even Bronze. He might have been a cop, but he knew what had to be done. He and I had been through a lot together in the seven years since I’d recruited him, and the one thing I knew for sure about him was that he had zero tolerance for family members becoming casualties of war. I knew without even having to ask him that he’d stand by me and avenge the deaths of Jen and her child. It’s what I’d done for him all those years ago, and while Bronze wrestled with his conscience over many things, his loyalty for that act was guaranteed.
I looked at him. “Where are the feds?” They’d pulled eyes off us yesterday, so they’d missed the events of today. That caused me to question the shit that had gone down. I didn’t fucking trust anything at the moment.
“The team has been moved for now. Looks like you’ve managed to lose your tail for a while.” At my questioning look, he added, “Trust it, King. I did some digging. It’s straight up.”
I decided to run with it just being a coincidence. Turning my attention to Hyde, I asked the question I’d been putting off since I arrived back at the clubhouse, “Where’s Ivy? And has she said anything else?”
My body remained on high alert since the moment I’d laid eyes on her in that attic. Every muscle tense, I warred with myself over her. Fifteen years apart and yet I still felt that pull to her. I wasn’t sure, though, what it meant. I hoped it only lingered because of our family history. I did not need to fuck myself over by wanting something that had no place in my life.
“I’ve got her with Winter. Told him not to let her out of his sight. And no, she didn’t utter another word to me.”
I nodded. Winter was a good choice. Glancing at Kick, I asked, “You took care of Jen?”
Another fucking question I didn’t want to ask. I’d left him to take care of her bod
y when we headed out to meet with Ivy.
“Yeah, brother. What’s the plan there?”
I knew what he was asking. Where are we going to bury her?
I scrubbed my face, feeling every fucking one of my thirty-nine years, and then some. It was unbelievable to me—and not fucking much was anymore—that out of the two women I’d ever loved, one of them was now dead because of the other one.
“Jen’s got no one in her life. You find somewhere for her and let me know. I’ll be there.” I was all she’d had in the end. She might have driven me fucking crazy, but she didn’t fucking deserve this shit.
Discussing this wound me tighter than I already was. The headache pounding against my skull felt like it could explode the fuck out of my head, and the muscles across my shoulders bunched to the point of pain. In an effort to get shit moving so we could stop fucking talking, I barked, “I want all family members moved to safety. When this shit goes down, I don’t want any of them around. Nitro, you and Devil take care of that while Hyde and I work out a plan to get to Tony.” And while Kick finds a place to bury Jen.
Fucking hell.
“And Marx?” Nitro asked. “What do you want done with him?”
Marx was of no use to us anymore. “Stay with him tonight and then get rid of him tomorrow.”
Nitro nodded his understanding. “Will do.”
After everyone filed out, leaving Hyde and me alone, I said, “Choose three men and send them to Melbourne. Get eyes on Tony. I want to know if Ivy’s telling the truth.”
He watched me with the same level of fierce intensity that churned deep inside my gut. He’d stood by me years ago and watched as I lost my shit after Ivy left, so he had to understand what it meant for me to even question Ivy’s honesty in this. “And if she is?”
My hands clenched by my side. “Then we end this once and for all. I don’t give a fuck how it affects ties we have to anyone else. We’ll send the fucking word out—Storm doesn’t tread carefully anymore. They wanna take us on? They’ll pay the fucking price regardless of whose ass they’re kissing.”
Hyde’s nostrils flared and he exhaled sharply. “Agreed.”
