Hyde's Absolution: Sydney Storm MC

by Nina Levine

  “It’s fucking clear,” I said to King who paced the bedroom we stood in with Nitro. The rest of the club members waited outside in the hallway, ready for King’s next order.

  He slowed and glanced up. Pointing, he said, “Here.”

  I followed his gaze to an attic ladder.

  Nodding, I said, “I’m with you, brother.” I signalled to Nitro, letting him know we were going up.

  King pulled the ladder down while Nitro moved to the bottom of the ladder, his gun aimed up. I followed King, wondering what the hell we’d find. Hoping like fuck it wasn’t a trap.

  “Fucking hell,” King muttered when he reached the attic. I took the last couple of steps, shocked to shit when I reached the top and discovered what King already had.

  “Hello, King. It’s been a long time.”

  No fucking shit it had been a long time.

  A woman stood in the empty room watching us.

  Ivy.

  The fucking love of King’s life.

  I pointed my gun at her, fully expecting King to as well, but he didn’t. Instead, he simply stared at her in silence. Stunned. I’d never seen him lost for words like this.

  She didn’t acknowledge me, but rather kept her eyes firmly glued to King. She had no weapons; truth be told, she was a weapon. To King, anyway. Fuck knew how many ways she could screw with him. I imagined she could wreak more havoc on him than any manmade weapon. “Are you going to say anything?”

  He took a step closer to her. She allowed that. Didn’t flinch. Didn’t appear to be concerned that a gun was pointed at her either.

  “You look well,” King finally said.

  Ivy was a beautiful woman. Stunning, in fact, with her olive skin, long legs, toned body, sultry eyes, and dark hair that fell to her waist. And he was right—she did look well. The last time I’d seen her was over a decade ago when King had walked away from her. He’d broken her back then, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen someone so ruined by a breakup as she had been.

  “Looks can be deceiving,” she said.

  “What’s going on, Ivy? Are you not well?” he demanded, concern lacing his question. He was wound tight, the muscles in his back bunched, his arms locked by his side.

  “Nothing that would ever concern you. But I didn’t come here to talk to you about that.” She was all business with her flat eyes, blank face and cool tone.

  She knew we were coming?

  “Ivy,” King said in a low, warning tone. “I asked you a question.”

  Her eyes blazed with bitterness. “You gave up that right a long time ago, King.”

  “Answer me!” he roared, his body coming to life with an urgent ferocity.

  Ivy snapped as fast as King did. Hostility radiated from her as she took the last step that closed the distance between them and went head to head with the man she’d once loved and promised forever to. “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?” I shared all his confusion. Was this a fucking setup?

  “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.”

  King was silent for a few moments. The only sounds coming from him were the heavy breaths he took. He surprised me for the second time since we’d made our way into the attic when he ordered, “Put the gun down, Hyde.”

  I kept my aim on Ivy. “You sure about that, brother?” It felt like a bad fucking idea to me.

  “Yes,” he barked.

  “Fuck,” I muttered as I did what he said.

  Ivy watched me for a beat before looking back at King. I kept my eyes fucking cemented to her, watching for any sign that she was about to turn on us.

  “There’s an attack coming,” she finally said. “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 be just on your club, it’ll be on your families, too. He wants them all dead.” She paused. “He wants to wipe everyone and everything you care about off the face of the earth. And I believe he could do it.”

  Jesus fucking Christ.

  King forced out a harsh breath. “Who?” he demanded through clenched teeth. “Who the fuck are you talking about? And why?”

  Her eyes bored into his. “My husband. You took what was his, so now he wants to take what is yours.”

  “Fuck! Tony is the one behind all this?”

  Ivy was married to Tony Romano, one of Australia’s biggest crime bosses. He lived in Melbourne, which was why he hadn’t been on our list of Italians to check into. I only knew this because King had made me track her movements for a few years after he’d left her. Her marriage had tipped him over the edge, and I’d convinced him to stop tracking her.

  I stepped forward, anger spiking through me. “What the fuck did King take?”

  She turned her face to look at me. “He took me.”

  “How the fuck did I take you?” King growled.

  Her eyes met his again, still blazing with a fierce intensity. “You didn’t, but he thinks you did. He thinks I’m leaving him because I never stopped loving you.”

  Epilogue

  Hyde

  3 months later

  Monroe hit me with the sexy look she pulled out when she wanted something. I’d just walked in the door after a long day out on club business. I hadn’t even had a chance to put my feet up yet, and I knew she was gonna blast me with requests to do shit around the house. I knew this because it had been going on for almost two weeks while she renovated parts of our house.

  I rested my shoulder against the doorjamb and crossed my arms over my chest. “What?”

  Her lips twitched as she fought a smile. She fucking knew what she was doing. She also fucking knew I’d cave to her demands. I always did.

  She came to me and rubbed her body against mine while looping her arms around my neck, making real sure to get that sweet pussy of hers against my dick. “It’s not so much a what as it is a my-parents-are-coming-for-dinner.”

  “Fuck, sugar, I was looking forward to a little couch time and then a whole lot of time between your legs.” Charlie was away on school camp until tomorrow, so I wanted to make the most of the night. Fuck knew, with all the club shit that had gone down recently, we could do with a night together, just the two of us.

  She pulled a face. “Ah, well that was never gonna happen. Charlie came home a day early. She’s in her bedroom.”

  My brows pulled together as I pushed off the doorjamb and straightened, ready to go find her. “She okay?”

  Monroe gripped my shirt. “Steady, tiger, she’s fine. Two of the teachers fell sick, so the trip ended a day early.”

  Thank fuck she was okay.

  I ran my hand over her hair. “She called you when she got back?”

  Monroe’s face lit up with a smile. “Yeah,” she said softly.

  I fucking loved the shit out of the way Monroe and Charlie had bonded. The day we received the paternity test results that confirmed I was her father, Monroe celebrated by throwing a party. She made a big fucking deal about Charlie in an effort to make her feel special. Hell, the kid deserved it after everything she’d been through. Once we’d moved all of Charlie’s stuff in, they’d decorated our house together and spent hours with each other doing the kind of shit females loved to do.

  Bending to kiss her, I murmured, “Our kids are gonna be the luckiest kids on the planet, red. Having you for a mother.” I knew she thought of Charlie like a daughter, but I also understood that she wanted her own babies. And I was gonna give them to her when she was ready.

  “Oh,” she said, remembering something, “Tenille called just before. She’ll be here just after lunch tomorrow.”

  We were navigating shared parenting with Tenille while
she and Charlie smoothed out their relationship. Craig had moved to Perth and hadn’t kept in touch with either of them. Charlie was disappointed, but I did everything I could to be the father she needed.

  “She better not be hours later again. I can’t sit and watch Charlie get upset all over again.”

  She smiled up at me. “I can’t wait to see you with a baby. I think it might just melt my heart once and for all.”

  I smacked her ass. I fucking loved that ass. “You let me know when you’re ready to get started on that. But for now, I’m gonna take a shower and get ready to face your dad.”

  She bit her lip. “Ah, yeah, no.”

  “No?”

  She glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. The large-as-fuck teal clock that took up half the fucking wall. I’d asked her if she was blind when she asked me to put it up, because surely we didn’t need a clock that size in the kitchen. She’d just laughed at me and carried on. I’d put the fucking clock up for her, figuring that at least we’d still be able to read the time when we hit ninety.

  Pointing at it, she said, “They’ll be here in like two minutes, maybe one. There’s no time for you to do anything except get the barbeque ready.”

  I scrubbed my face. “So let me get this straight. I’ve been working all day, I’m exhausted, with no pussy in sight, I’ve no time for a shower or a minute to myself, I have to be nice to your father all night, and I’m the sucker who has to fucking cook dinner, too?”

  She smiled like the world was running exactly how it should be. “Yes.” And then she added, “Because you love me.”

  She was fucking right about that.

  I backed her up against the wall and dropped my lips to hers. After I had kissed her, I said, “I love you like nothing fucking else, woman. But there’s gonna be some serious time dedicated to my dick later tonight. Just so you’re aware.”

  “You say that like it’s you getting the better end of the deal. I would have thought you’d know by now that if I could dedicate every second of the day to your dick, I would. Especially since you got that piercing.”

  Another thing I’d caved on for her. My prince albert was never far from her mind. Or her pussy.

  “Okay,” I said, moving away from her. “You got the meat ready for the barbie?” Fuck knew I needed a moment alone to get my dick under control. Throwing the fucking front door open to her father, sporting a raging hard-on was not on my list of priorities.

  She reached for my shirt. “Just one other thing, baby.”

  I hung my head. She only pulled the baby word out when she really wanted something. Looking back up at her, I said, “What?”

  “I need another room built in the shop. A little bigger than the waxing room you built. I wanna bring a beautician in, too.”

  I would give Monroe the fucking world if I could. She’d sure as shit given it to me. “How many more rooms you reckon you could use in the shop?”

  She frowned. “Why?”

  “I figure I’ll build them all at once. That way they’re done, and you won’t ask to cut in on pussy time again.”

  The doorbell sounded as she pressed a kiss to my lips and said, “You speak my language, Mr. McVeigh.” She turned towards the front of the house. “Will you let them in while I stir the sauce on the stove?”

  “You’re fucking kidding me, red. My dick is hard for you right now. I don’t need to give your father a reason to bust my balls today.” If Colin Lee had been any man other than Monroe’s father, I wouldn’t have given two shits what he thought of me. But he was, so I did.

  She pushed me away. “Okay, go take care of that. I’ll hold the fort until you get back.”

  I grabbed the meat out of the fridge and headed outside to the barbeque. Ten minutes passed, in which time I got myself under control and the meat cooking.

  Charlie brought out a plate of chopped onions. As she passed it to me, I took in the expression on her face. It was the one she wore when she had to bring up a conversation she really didn’t want to have.

  “Spit it out,” I said.

  “Ugh.”

  I would never understand teen talk. “Ugh, what?”

  She shifted nervously on her feet before finally saying, “Okay, so you know this fishing trip we have planned?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I don’t think I can go.”

  “Don’t think or can’t?”

  She pulled a pained expression. “Don’t think, but technically can’t.”

  “So you’re telling me you could go, but you’re choosing not to? What’s the reason?”

  “Well there’s this guy at school who I really like. I mean, really. And he asked me out on a date, but it’s for the Saturday night we would have been away. We could do fishing another weekend.”

  “That little shit from Melbourne is out of the picture finally?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yes.”

  “Thank fuck for that.” It had amazed me that relationship had lasted as long as it did once she’d moved to Sydney.

  “So are you cool with changing the weekend for the trip?”

  “Yeah, but I’m gonna need something out of it.” I’d learnt her negotiating trick and had started using it.

  She rolled her eyes again. I fucking hated this eye rolling shit, but Monroe kept telling me it was a phase that all girls went through and that she’d grow out of it. Couldn’t fucking happen fast enough as far as I was concerned.

  “What do you want?”

  “This new kid is gonna have to come for dinner here before your date so that Monroe and I can meet him. I wanna know all the details of where he’s taking you for the date. And I want you home by ten on the night of the date. Plus a guarantee that you’ll answer your phone should I call you.”

  “Oh God, you’re killing me here. Okay, how about he just comes for like ten minutes before the date so you can meet him? I’ll tell you the main place we’re going. I mean, I won’t know everywhere because there has to be some spontaneity. Home by ten thirty. And no phone call.” This was our new style of negotiating—I asked for the world and she tried to bargain me down.

  I met her gaze. “Sorry, baby, but on this, there’s no negotiating. Those are my terms. Take them or leave them.” This was her first real life date since she’d moved in with me. If I could go on it with her, I fucking would.

  Her eyes widened. “I thought we had this negotiating thing down pat? Why you gotta go break it?”

  “Take it or leave it.”

  She scowled at me for a moment. “Ugh. You used to be kinda cool when I first came, but now you are turning into such a dad.”

  I watched her as she stormed off. This wasn’t anything unusual for us these days. She’d cool down quickly and be back to try to renegotiate terms. On this one, though, she had Buckley’s. We’d be meeting that kid before I allowed him any alone time with my daughter.

  She passed Monroe’s father on her way inside. My chest tightened when I heard her say, “Maybe you could talk to Dad for me. He’s being difficult about me dating.”

  Dad.

  It was the first time she’d called me that. I’d do anything to hear it again.

  “Good luck with the dating thing,” Colin said, joining me at the barbeque.

  I eyed him. “Yeah. Charlie’s not gonna like how it all goes down.”

  “She’ll thank you one day. Parenthood is a long game. Some strategies you try don’t pay off for decades.”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  We turned silent for a little while. The only thing Colin and I had in common was Monroe, so conversation with him was difficult.

  “Looks like you need a new barbeque,” he finally said.

  I checked my irritation at that statement. “Had this one for seven years, Col. She doesn’t need replacing yet.”

  “Doesn’t hurt to upgrade every now and then.”

  “I don’t upgrade old faithfuls.”

  He pointed at the wooden trolley. “That wood’s seen better days
.”

  “Nothing I can’t fix.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “You always this argumentative, Aiden?” I’d given him my name in the first round of twenty-questions after I’d moved Monroe in. He’d refused to call me by anything else since then.

  “Only when people don’t listen to what I’m saying.”

  “Mmm.”

  We stood in silence while I finished cooking the meat. I threw the mushrooms and onions on the barbie that Monroe had chopped.

  “So you’ve been going to AA?” he said.

  I inhaled a long breath. This wasn’t a secret, but I didn’t love discussing the fact I struggled with alcohol. “Yeah.”

  Silence again for a long few minutes.

  And then—“How long until you decide to marry my daughter?”

  I turned to face him. Hadn’t seen that question coming. “I’ve already decided, Col.” I was just waiting for my divorce from Tenille to go through.

  “I figured as much. But I need to know when it’ll happen so I can start getting the cash ready to pay for it.”

  Hadn’t seen that coming either. “There’s no need. I’ll pay for it.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “You and I are going to have a problem if you argue with me over that.”

  “What? Different to the problem we have over me being with your daughter?”

  “I have no problem with that anymore. You’ve proven yourself.”

  “Jesus, you have a fucking funny way of showing it, then.”

  Before he could respond to that, Monroe and Charlie interrupted us. I narrowed my eyes at Charlie. She appeared happier than when she’d stomped away from me. I wouldn’t have put it past her to try to con Monroe into agreeing to this date. The two of them often played sides against me. What neither of my girls understood was that there were some things I was happy to let them have, but others were a hard no. This was a fucking hell no.

  “You finished with the meat?” Monroe asked.

  “Yeah. Just about done with the mushrooms and onions, too.”

  Col passed her the tray of cooked meat and then said to Charlie, “I’ve got something for you, Charlie.”