by Levine, Nina
Annika sighed, and I sensed her exhaustion. I wasn’t sure if it was over the argument or life in general. She’d been through a lot lately—stuff I wouldn’t blame her for being worn down over. “Bait him. It’s like you want him to lose his shit at you.”
Fuck. These two were in a mood with each other. Not unusual, but I wanted as little to do with it as possible.
I stabbed at my phone to answer it as I said to the girls, “I’ll be back. Don’t kill each other while I’m gone.” And then to Axe, I said, “Skye filled you in?” I exited the room as my sisters went head-to-head.
My brother’s deep voice rumbled through the phone. “She told me you had them holed up at the clubhouse, but she didn’t tell me why. You need me, brother?”
“Yeah, I need you. And I need Zane, too.” I caught him up with everything that had happened.
“Fuck, man, I’ve been waiting for Ivy to come back. Didn’t figure it would take her this long. You think she’s spinning shit? We both know how unstable she can be.”
I raked my fingers through my hair. “I need to have a conversation with her about it.”
“But you don’t want to get that close to her, do you?”
Axe knew me better than most and having grown up with Ivy and me, he knew her well, too. He knew how dysfunctional our relationship had been, so he understood my need to distance myself. “At this point, it doesn’t matter what I want. I have to do this for the club.”
He was silent for a beat before saying, “I’ll get there as soon as I can. Just dealing with a situation here, but I should be done with that by tomorrow, the next day at the latest.”
After he promised to catch Zane up with everything, we ended the call. I exhaled sharply as I contemplated what I had to do next.
Ivy.
I had to have that conversation with her.
Alone.
Fuck.
Too much could go wrong in this scenario, but I knew there was no way she’d tell me anything if we weren’t alone.
Chapter Fourteen
King
Winter had Ivy in the room we kept free for members of other chapters who dropped in. When I entered the room, I found her sitting in the middle of the bed glaring at him. She diverted her attention to me as I moved closer to her. Cold eyes met mine, and her lips flattened. “Finally,” she muttered.
Anger rolled off her, but it didn’t diminish her beauty. Fuck, if anything, Ivy had grown more beautiful in the fifteen years since I’d seen her. The long dark hair, olive skin, curves, and ass I’d always been attracted to were all still there, but age had enhanced everything. It added to her appeal. A bad fucking thing for me when I was determined not to fall again.
I jerked my chin at Winter, indicating he should leave. When I had Ivy to myself, I dragged a chair next to the bed and sat. “Why now?” I demanded, keeping my eyes fixed firmly on her face so I could assess the truth of everything she said. Not even her body would distract me from this task.
Her gaze roamed over me as she sat in silence, not answering my question. She liked what she saw; that was clear in the heat flaring in her eyes. I allowed her silence, and when she met my eyes again, I lifted my brows questioningly.
“You’ve aged well,” she said. “Is there a woman looking after that body of yours?”
“Ivy, I didn’t come here for a catch-up. I want to know what the fuck’s going on with your marriage, and why after fifteen years you’re suddenly dragging me into it?”
Her nostrils flared. “Oh, so we can discuss my personal stuff but not yours. Have I got that right?”
I leant forward. I didn’t want to, but the pull was too great. “The only personal shit I’m interested in is whether your husband is out for my blood. And I want more details on this attack you say is coming.”
Before I realised what she was doing, she scooted to the edge of the bed. Our bodies were only inches apart. Reaching out, she ran a finger down the scar on my face. “I’ll never forget the day I first saw this scar,” she murmured. “We were just kids then.”
I quickly moved my hand to pull hers from my face, but her reflexes were faster, and she grabbed hold of my hand and held it to my scar. Her touch blazed against my skin. It was too fucking much. “Ivy,” I warned in a low dark tone. “Don’t do this.”
She brought her face closer to mine. Not close enough that our lips touched, but close enough to fuck with my head further. “You’re so hard now, King. You always were, but not so much with me. I guess fucking around on me and kicking me out really did change things between us. But I’ll never forget you as that eleven-year-old who shared his ice cream with me after I ate all mine and wanted more. That was the King I loved.”
I ripped my hand away and stood as I shoved my chair back. My eyes bored into hers as I barked, “Tell me about your husband!”
Adrenaline pumped furiously through my veins while I fought to remain in control of this situation. Even after all this time apart, she still knew how to push my buttons. I didn’t fucking need her bringing up our past. The best way to deal with it was to ignore it because she’d pounce the minute she saw a reaction to anything she said or did. God fucking help me, though, I was struggling to ignore her.
Her lips pursed together as she stared at me with eyes full of hatred. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw hurt flash through them first. “Tony hates you. He feels like he’s competed with you for twelve years, and he’s had enough, especially now I’m leaving him.”
It was time to really push her. The sooner we got this over with, the better. “That’s bullshit, Ivy. I don’t fucking buy it.”
She didn’t flinch or react in any way. She simply said, “That’s your choice, King, but I’m not lying to you. I hate to think what will happen to your club, though, if you choose not to believe me.”
Interesting.
She didn’t blink.
But still, I needed to push a little more to be sure. “Tell me, why would you come here and warn me when you hate me so much?”
Again, no reaction. “You might be a cheating asshole who can’t keep his promises, but I’m loyal to a fault. Regardless of how you treated me back then, Nik and Skylar don’t deserve whatever Tony has planned. I’ll always look out for those girls. They were family to me.”
Every instinct I had told me to walk the fuck out of the room and come back later when I had my shit under control. At this point, I was warring with my belief of every word she uttered, and my gut instinct to never believe anyone until I verified facts myself.
In the end, my gut instinct won out. “Where’s Tony now?”
“He’s either at work or at home tonight, but don’t go looking for him yet, King. You need to spend time making sure everyone here is safe. And you should take as many men with you when you go. He’s got security everywhere.” She wrapped her arms around her body, a look of concern on her face.
I stepped closer to where she sat on the bed and lifted her chin up to bring her eyes to mine. “You’re worried about me now?” Things weren’t adding up. One minute she was angry and seemed like she wanted to inflict hurt, the next, she was trying to keep me safe.
She pushed my hand away and stood. “I’m worried for the people who have put their trust in you. They’re the ones I want to keep safe. God knows I understand the devastation that trusting you completely can end in.”
* * *
“You believe her?” Hyde asked later that night.
I threw some whisky down my throat as I scanned the clubhouse bar where we sat. It was quiet; most of the members were getting their families to safety. “I don’t fucking know, brother. The Ivy I used to know wouldn’t fuck with me, but I don’t know her anymore.”
“Why would she make that shit up?”
That was the question I’d been rolling around in my head for hours. “Revenge. But fuck, fifteen years is a long time to wait for that, so it seems unlikely. If I believe that, though, I have to believe she’s telling the truth.”
I drank the rest of my whisky. “Yeah.” I hated to admit that, because I wanted nothing more than to finally have an answer to who was screwing with my club. I also wanted to believe that Ivy wouldn’t lie to me, but mistrust filled me.
“So we’ll keep her here until we know more, then?”
I stood to leave. “Yeah.”
Until then, I’d stay the fuck away from her. If I had any hope of getting my club through this alive, I needed to keep Ivy out of my sight.
* * *
Kree opened her front door when I knocked on it late that night, and shook her head at me. “King, it’s nearly eleven thirty, which is when most normal people are either in bed or about to be. I know you like to drop in unannounced, but your visits are getting later and later.”
I’d been keeping an eye on Kree since she’d come to work for the club as a bartender. Her cousin Zane who I’d known for over fourteen years, had asked me to watch over her while he dealt with her abusive ex in Brisbane. After the night I stopped by last Christmas to give her some cash when I knew she was struggling, I’d come by regularly. It was a fucking mystery to me why, but being around her calmed me. And I’d needed some fucking calming over the last few months.
Ignoring her speech, I entered her home. “You should know by now I’m not like normal people.”
She closed the door and muttered, “Yeah, but I’m still holding out hope for a change.”
I made my way to her kitchen and the cupboard that housed my bottle of rum. She never argued with me when I left it here. Kree seemed to know what to bother arguing over and what battles to avoid. Smart woman.
I met her gaze and held up the bottle. “You want one?”
Sighing, she nodded. “Yeah, I could do with one tonight.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “What’s going on?” I glanced around the kitchen and added, “Why aren’t your candles lit?” Usually she had a fuckload of them blazing in all rooms. It concerned the hell out of me that she’d burn her house down one day, but it concerned me more that she’d deviated from doing something she always did.
“It’s nothing for you to worry about. And”—she shrugged—“I just didn’t feel like burning them tonight.”
She may have been smart, which I liked, but she was also fucking stubborn and proud. This wasn’t the time for that. “Spit it out, Kree, and don’t leave anything out.”
Irritation flared in her eyes. Taking the drink I offered her, she downed almost half of it before saying, “I like you, King, but man, you are difficult. Sometimes a woman just wants to handle her own shit.”
I took a long swig of rum. If her argumentative side was coming out to play tonight, I was going to need it more than I already did. “And sometimes a woman needs to know when to let a man handle it.”
Silence filled the room while we watched and waited for the other to make the next move.
Finally, she reached into one of the kitchen drawers and pulled out a folder filled with paperwork. Dumping it on the counter, she opened it and passed me the top document. “My husband is being an asshole. That’s what’s wrong.”
After I read the letter from her husband’s lawyer, I growled, “Your husband is being more than a fucking asshole, Kree. Why the fuck hasn’t Zane dealt with him yet?”
Her husband, Don, was using the law to draw her out of hiding by applying for a parenting order. There was no way Kree would agree to this, which meant she’d have to fight him. As far as I was concerned, Zane simply needed to put a fucking bullet in his head. That would solve her problem once and for all. We’d discussed this once, and he’d told me he did things differently to me. I’d let it go at the time, but if he couldn’t fix this for her, I would.
“Zane sent me that letter because Don’s lawyers sent it to him, not knowing where I am. He told me not to worry and that he’s dealing with it. But that doesn’t make this any easier. I know Don, and he has ways of finding people.” Her voice cracked as she spoke, alerting me to how worried she was. This was unlike Kree who was usually strong and calm.
I placed the letter back in the folder and shoved the folder in the drawer. “I’m moving you and the kids to the clubhouse.”
Her eyes widened. “What? No. The kids don’t need any further disruptions to their routines, King. They’ve finally started making some friends in the street. I don’t want to take them away from that. Not again.”
“It’s either that or you guys stay here and wait for Don to find you. And besides, we’ve got club shit going on that also means you need to be moved. I’m not taking any chances, Kree.”
“So this is one of those situations that I need to let a man handle?”
I scrubbed my face. “Fuck, don’t fucking argue with me. Not tonight.”
Something I said or the tone I used caused her to soften. “When?”
I finished my drink. “Now. Pack a bag.”
The softness I’d manage to stir in her disappeared, replaced with a scowl. “You test me, King, that’s for bloody sure.”
With that, she left me alone while she packed and woke the kids. Fifteen minutes later, we were on our way to the clubhouse, Kree sitting next to me with her arms crossed, signalling her annoyance, and the kids sleepily whinging in the back. I paid no attention to any of it. Keeping people alive consumed my focus, and I would do whatever that took. Whoever was fucking with my club would never have the chance to hurt someone close to me again. I’d make fucking sure of that.
Chapter Fifteen
King
Ivy turning back up in my life was fucking with my head. Fifteen years without her by my side, yet it felt like only yesterday I sat back with a whore’s mouth wrapped around my dick while killing the love Ivy had for me. But the love I had for her had never died, and that was proving to be a mindfuck I didn’t have the time for. Not when I had club business to take care of.
Splashing water over my face in the clubhouse kitchen, I attempted to shake off the exhaustion that came from no sleep and trying like fuck to put regrets from years ago out of my head. They swam there, circling like hungry sharks desperate to feed on me, determined to dominate my attention.
Regret would choke the breath from me if I gave it space in my life, so I made a point not to. I didn’t dwell on shit, and I sure as hell didn’t spend time thinking about the bad decisions I’d made. But as much as I’d tried over the years, the regrets I carried over Ivy refused to ease up. I’d made promises to her and then I’d poured gasoline over them and lit the match myself.
The mindfuck of it all was that as much as I regretted how it went down, I still believed it was for the best. I was certain that if we’d continued on the path we were on, we would have destroyed each other. Our love may have been pure, but it was as fucked up and dysfunctional as it came.
I scrubbed a hand over my face and took a good look in the mirror. Thirty-nine years of hard living had etched itself into my skin, as had the exhaustion that staked its territory in my life. I was fucking tired of the battles I was fighting. That Storm was fighting. Shit had to get better soon; otherwise, what the hell was the point of it all?
Movement to my right caught my eye, and I turned to find Skylar entering the kitchen.
“You look like shit,” she said, her voice groggy from what I guessed to be too little sleep. Moving to the fridge, she grabbed out the milk before reaching for a mug and the coffee. “You want a coffee?”
I rested against the counter. “You gonna slip some poison in it?” She’d spent last night pissed at me, so I found it surprising we were even having this conversation. Skylar could hold a grudge for longer than anyone else I knew.
Her eyes met mine. “Now why didn’t I think of that?”
“Because deep down in that cranky soul of yours you do actually love me.”
“Mmm, let’s not get too crazy here, big brother. Love is a strong word.”
I crossed my arms and narrowed my
eyes at her. “Okay, what are you fishing for this morning?”
“What? I can’t offer to make my brother a coffee without having a reason?”
“You refused to even look at me last night you were that pissed off. And now you’re coming to me with a sense of fucking humour and an offer for coffee first thing in the morning before you’ve even fully woken up. I’m not buying it, Skye. What’s going on? What do you want?”
Her shoulders sagged a little. “Fine,” she muttered. “It’s not so much what I want, but what I need. I’ve got a tutorial on today that I really have to attend, and I’m figuring you’re going to try to block me from going.”
Fuck.
I scrubbed my face. “I don’t want you leaving the clubhouse. Can you get the notes from someone?”
She shook her head. “No, this isn’t about the notes. It’s about being involved in the discussion that’ll be going on today. I really need to be a part of it.” She hit me with the look that told me to expect a guilt trip to fall from her mouth next. “Besides, you’re paying for this course so I’d expect you to want me to be there for something this important. I mean, I know you don’t want me to fail.”
Jesus, she knew how to push my buttons. She always had. “I’ll find someone to take you.” At the smile that snaked across her face, I added, “Two things, though. One, if I’m going to put you at risk like this, I hope like hell your grades are good at the end of the semester or we’ll be having words. And two, this coffee you’re about to make me better be the best fucking coffee you’ve ever made me.” It was going to be a long fucking day while I worried about her safety.
Her smile morphed into a grin that screamed triumph. “Two things, King. One, when have you ever known me to make a shit cup of coffee? And two, my grades will make you fucking weep they are that good.”
Without waiting for my response, she turned away to make coffee. I watched her in silence, remembering the day she’d agreed to go to university. She’d fought me on it for a long time, but I’d refused to back down. Skylar was smart, and I wanted her to have the best life she could, so it was a no-brainer for me that I pushed her to study. The day that Silver Hell cunt beat her up, I stepped in and forced her to get her shit together. Between partying almost every night and drinking far too fucking much, she was slowly pissing her life away. The beating seemed to knock some sense into her, and it had made my fucking year when she’d finally said yes to uni.