by Levine, Nina
“Trust me, I know.” She glanced at her watch. “Shit, I’ve gotta go. My boss will kill me if I’m late today.” She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a breath mint before smiling again and saying, “Your sister did really well yesterday. She should be standing on both legs by this afternoon.”
“Good. I need her home with me as soon as possible.”
She slowed and fixed her gaze on me. “I like your dedication to family. I mean, unless you’re some creepy stalker brother who keeps his sister locked away, but out of all the vibes I’m getting about you, that isn’t one of them.”
We watched each other silently for a few moments as more thunder rumbled overhead. And then she was gone, and I was alone again with my thoughts. Fucking worst place to be.
I had another smoke before going back inside to check on Skylar. Today was going to be a long one. And with a bit of fucking luck, one that produced some results in our efforts to track Romano and our rat down. But to get that shit done, I first needed to make sure my family was okay.
* * *
Annika glanced up from the coffee she was making when I entered the clubhouse kitchen an hour later. “You look like hell.”
“I fucking feel like it too.” I jerked my chin at the kettle. “You got enough for another one?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I’ll even take pity on you and make toast to go with it if you haven’t had breakfast. You want vegemite?”
I lifted a brow. “What are you after, Nik?”
She pulled another mug from the cupboard. “Maybe I just think you need some TLC at the moment. I’m not the sister always wanting stuff, remember?”
She was right. Annika was the maternal type while Skylar was the complete opposite. Nik never asked me for much at all. I had to force my way into her life when I knew she needed me. Skye, on the other hand, was the sister who came looking for me when she wanted something. It had been the other way around before Margreet died. Her death altered our relationships, causing Annika to shut down on me, and Skylar to demand my attention constantly.
I moved closer to her and leant against the counter. “Vegemite sounds good.” As she made coffee and toast, I asked, “Are you guys holding up okay here?”
She stopped what she was doing and gave me her full attention. “We’re fine, King, but it’s odd for you to even ask that. Usually you just want to tell us what to do, not ask us how we’re doing. What’s going on? And where’s the brother I know and love?”
Scrubbing my face, I muttered, “I’m trying here.”
She smiled. “We’re good. The kids are running wild, but they get on well with Kree’s kids, so at least there aren’t any problems there.”
Fuck, I hadn’t made the time to speak with Zane about Kree’s ex. He was due to arrive today, so I made a mental note to do that then.
I took the coffee she passed me. “I just came from the hospital. Skye’s physio says she’s doing well. She should be home in a few days.”
Axe joined us, his gaze coming straight to me. “Zane’s about five hours out. He’s got all his gear with him.”
Zane ran his own security firm, his team mostly all ex-commando, and had the best surveillance gear you could get your hands on.
I nodded just as my phone rang. Bronze.
“Bronze, you’re not gonna hit me with bad news so early in the morning, are you?”
“Not bad so much as interesting. The info you have on Romano being raided by the cops is wrong. It didn’t happen.”
I gripped my phone harder. “He wasn’t raided?”
“Correct. Whoever told you that is full of shit. He’s not even on their radar at the moment. Well, not besides the usual level of interest they have in him that is.”
None of this made sense. Why the hell had Brant fed us that bullshit? “Anything else?”
“Yeah,” he said forcefully. “Why the fuck have you got the blonde grilling me on Ryland? I’ve got enough shit going on, King. I don’t need her all over me too.”
Tatum.
“I told her to investigate Ryland. He’s too invested in this case, and at some point, he’ll cross a line to get the result he wants. Tatum’s gonna figure him out and she’ll work with you on that.”
“Fuck.” He paused for a moment. “Fine, but just get her to back off a bit. She’s a little too fucking enthusiastic.”
“She’s not gonna back off, Bronze. She’ll do whatever it takes to get Nitro out and to get Ryland off our back. You’ll just have to deal with her.”
“Some days I regret agreeing to work with you,” he muttered.
“Yeah well, we both know you’d make the same choice over if you had to.” I eyed the toast Annika held out for me. “I’ve gotta go. Call me if you find anything else.”
I ended the call and took the plate of toast off Annika, already going over in my mind what I’d just learnt. Axe’s and Annika’s conversation blurred into the background as I tried to figure out Brant’s angle. He’d seemed attached to Ivy. More than fucking attached if I really thought about it.
I pulled out my phone again and called Hyde.
“I was in the middle of something,” he grumbled, and I heard Monroe complaining too.
“Fuck, brother, you need to get Monroe out of town. I thought you’d moved her already.”
“You ever tried to convince an argumentative woman to do something, King? I’m fucking working on it.”
I could imagine the shit she’d given him. “Yeah, I can imagine.”
“I was just about to get my dick sucked, so maybe you could move this along.”
“Bronze has new information that contradicts what Brant told us. Romano wasn’t raided by the cops. We need to talk to Brant again.”
“Yeah. And I’ll talk to Ivy again.”
Hyde had interrogated her yesterday while I buried Jen. He’d let me know she hadn’t come through with any further information, but I was yet to discuss it with him. I’d avoided it. Hadn’t wanted to know how far he’d had to go with her.
“No, I’ll have this chat with her.” I’d allowed him one shot at her; I wouldn’t give him another. Fuck knew I was wound tight because of it. Because of my inability to wrap my mind around my feelings about Ivy showing back up in my life. And that I just let Hyde at her like that? Fuck, that fucked my head up even more. Had I really become a man so hardened by the shit I’d lived through that I was willing to abandon someone I’d once loved?
“I figured you’d say that. I don’t think she knows much more than what she’s already given us. It makes sense, especially with what Ghost told you yesterday. I reckon Romano’s fucking with us, brother.”
“You think he sent Brant to feed us that bullshit?”
“Yeah. Brant played the Ivy card well, and I bet that was because Romano told him to. To get to you. Romano wanted to know if you had Ivy.”
“I’ll talk to Ivy. And for fuck’s sake, lay the fucking law down with Monroe. I don’t want her caught in this shit we’ve got going on.”
Ending the call, I looked at Axe. “I’ve gotta take care of something, and after that, you and me are gonna talk to Brant again. And this time, we’re not going easy on him.”
He nodded. “Understood.”
I left the kitchen and made my way to Ivy.
Winter sat outside her room, looking exhausted. He stood and met me. “She still isn’t eating much, and I think she may be feeling sick.”
I nodded. “Take a walk while I talk to her. You look like you could do with some sleep too, so I’ll organise for one of the guys to give you a break today.”
“Thanks, brother.”
It had been two days since I’d seen Ivy, and Winter was right, she looked ill. She sat in the armchair in the corner of the room with her legs curled up under her and her head resting on the arm of the chair. Lifting her head, she said, “What now, King? Another fucking interrogation? I’m surprised you didn’t send one of your men to do it.”
I dragged the other chair in the
room to where she was and sat in front of her. Resting my elbows on my knees, I ran my eyes over her. Hyde hadn’t touched her, thank fuck. The only marks on her face were the bags under her eyes. Those damn eyes, though, roared with mistrust and anger. They threw out an accusation I found hard to stomach. It turned out that no matter how hard I tried to bury my fucking soul, it was still there. My fucking heart may have been frozen for years, but those eyes of Ivy’s caused it to thaw, and that made me feel even more out of control than I already did.
When cornered like this—when forced to confront myself in ways I didn’t want to—I drew upon the only response I’d ever known. I fought back with anger. When Ivy threw her hurt at me like this, I always threw mine back. And so it seemed, we never changed.
“Yes, another fucking interrogation. But only because I’m trying to keep you safe. Do you even fucking understand that?”
She sat up straight in the chair, her body rigid. “All I understand is that I came to you with information that was good and you’ve done nothing but thrown it in my face since I got here. And then you didn’t even have the decency to come in here yourself yesterday to ask me what you wanted to know. You sent one of your men to do it. I know there’s nothing between us now, King, but I honestly thought there was more than that. I thought I deserved better than that.”
Fuck.
She did deserve better than that.
I shoved my chair back and stood, pacing the room for a moment, trying desperately to get my thoughts in order, before coming back to her. I couldn’t fucking figure out what I was thinking, what I was feeling. It was like my mind had been reprogrammed in the years after she left and now it was misfiring, unsure how to register everything being thrown at it. The only thing I truly knew was that we had to get through this and then go our separate ways again. I could not allow myself back into her life or her into mine. But fuck, getting us to that point felt like the hardest fucking thing I’d had to do in a long time.
The best way I knew to deal with shit like this was to avoid it. So I ignored what she said and focused on what I needed. “It turns out Brant’s information was wrong.”
She stared at me for a long few beats before blinking and muttering, “You’re a fucking asshole. You can’t even be bothered to discuss what I just said to you. I’m glad you cheated on me because I was better off without you in my life.”
Her words sliced through me. Fuck knew how because I’d learnt a long time ago not to let people hurt me like that. But Ivy had always had a way of cutting deep.
“Tell me what you know about Brant,” I demanded in a low dark voice. I needed to get this information from her and then get the hell out of this room.
She uncurled herself from the chair and stood. Coming close—too fucking close—she snarled, “I told Hyde everything I know. I don’t know anything about Tony being raided, and I don’t know why Brant would turn on him.”
My breathing sped up as I fought all the emotions coursing through me. Fought feeling them. Needing to put space between us, I took a step back. “Tony wasn’t raided. Brant lied about that. What I want to know is why.”
The anger rolling off her burnt out a little, replaced by confusion. “I don’t know why he’d do that. That makes no se—” She stopped talking abruptly, and I zeroed in on that.
“It makes no sense to you?”
By the way her mouth fell open and her eyes widened a fraction, Ivy appeared bewildered by what I’d just told her. And that confused me.
When she didn’t respond, I pushed her. “What’s going on, Ivy? Why doesn’t this make any sense to you?”
She wrapped her arms around her body and looked at me with anger again. “Nothing makes sense! I don’t understand what’s going on. And I feel like I’m going to be sick, so can you please get me a bucket or something in case I vomit?”
Her face had turned white, and I recalled what Winter had told me earlier. Gripping hold of her arms, I directed her back to sit in the chair. “Wait there, I’ll get you something.”
She curled into a ball and closed her eyes as she rested her head on the arm of the chair again. As I exited the room, I heard her murmur, “Thank you.” It surprised the hell out of me and caused my guilt to rear its head. Although the only emotion that seemed to come from her was anger, I knew that was how Ivy coped with life. She’d used it when we were a couple, and it seemed she hadn’t changed. But her “thank you” reminded me that at the core of that anger was a vulnerable woman. I needed to remember that and make allowances. The only way we’d survive this would be for one of us to back down, and I knew that had to be me. I wasn’t sure I had it in me, but after everything I’d put Ivy through years ago, I had to fucking try.
Chapter Twenty-One
King
“You think you could manage not to shoot him today?” Axe asked as we prepared to question Brant again.
I eyed Brant who sat at the table in the middle of the room looking nervously between Axe and me. “What? You don’t like a little blood in your interrogation room?”
“I’ve told you everything. I’m not sure why we’re doing this again,” Brant said, fear clinging to every word that fell out of his mouth.
Axe moved behind Brant and bent so he could talk into his ear. “That’s your first lie for the day, Brant. Don’t let there be another or else King’s gun will be the least of your worries.”
Brant’s eyes widened and he swallowed hard, but he took Axe’s advice and didn’t utter another word.
I took the seat opposite him. “You lied to us the other day, too. Your boss wasn’t raided by the cops.”
“No, he was. I know he was.”
Interesting—he didn’t frown or give off any body language that he was confused by what I said. I glanced up at Axe who remained behind Brant and jerked my chin to indicate the show was his for now. Axe knew how to hurt people without killing them. I struggled with that, so this part of the interrogation was his.
Axe wrapped an arm around Brant’s neck and squeezed hard. When Brant panicked and attempted to pull out of my brother’s grip, Axe said, “Easy there. You keep thrashing about like you are and you’ll likely end up choked to death.”
Brant’s face reddened as he tried to suck in some breaths. He stopped fighting Axe and nodded his agreement.
“Good,” Axe said. “Now, I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to give me straight answers. If you don’t, this is going to get a whole lot uglier for you. Got it?”
Brant forced air out of his nostrils and nodded. He looked like he was about to shit his pants, and I had to wonder why Romano had used him for this dirty work. If he’d sent Brant to us, I suspected he’d chosen the wrong man, because Axe was about to break him and then, if needed, I’d finish the job off.
Keeping his arm firmly around Brant’s neck, Axe continued, “We know for a fact that Romano wasn’t raided by the cops. Why did you lie to us?”
Brant shook his head, and Axe eased his grip just enough for the asshole to splutter out his words. “I didn’t lie! That’s what Tony told me! I swear—”
Axe clenched his jaw as he squeezed Brant’s neck again. “Bullshit.” When Brant shook his head again and tried to claw Axe’s arm from his throat, Axe tightened his hold even more and yanked him up out of the seat. Dragging him back towards the wall behind them, he growled, “Shit’s about to get real messy for you, Brant. Start fucking telling the truth.”
By the time Axe slammed him against the wall, Brant was fighting for breath. When Axe let him go, he raised his hands in a defensive manner and pleaded, “Stop! Ask me anything else. I’ll tell you whatever you want.”
Axe threw out his first question without hesitation. “Did Romano send you here to give us false information?”
“No.”
Axe slapped him. “I’ll ask that again. Did Romano send you here?”
Brant held his face where Axe had hit it. “No, he didn’t. I came by—”
Axe slapped him
again. Harder. “Why did you come here then?” His questions were rapid fire, giving Brant little time to think in between.
“Because I wanted to check on Ivy. You’ve gotta believe—”
Again, Axe slapped him. “I don’t fucking believe you, Brant. Give me something I can buy into.”
Brant’s words came out fast, like he was tripping over them to get them out. “I was worried for her safety. I knew Tony would be going crazy looking for her, so I wanted to check that she was with you or that she was safe somewhere else. After Tony went into hiding—”
Axe gripped Brant’s shirt with both hands and pulled him forward before slamming him back against the wall. Moving fast, he punched him hard in the gut and demanded, “Who told you Tony went into hiding?”
Brant doubled over, holding his stomach and trying to draw breath. “Fuck, man—”
Jesus, it was taking every ounce of my self-control to hold myself back. I wanted to get in there and punch every last breath out of the motherfucker so that he’d just fucking give us what we wanted. Instead, I paced back and forth, giving my brother the space to drag the information from him.
But, fuck.
Axe didn’t allow Brant the opportunity to complain. He punched him again and roared, “Who the fuck told you Tony had been raided by the cops?”
Brant stumbled, almost falling to the ground. Doubled over, he yelled, “Tony did!”
Axe took hold of Brant’s chin and lifted his face. A moment later, his fist connected with the asshole’s cheek, knocking him to the ground. As Brant lay in agony, Axe crouched beside him. “Start from the beginning and tell us everything. I wanna know why you care so fucking much about Ivy’s whereabouts, and how you came to have that conversation with Romano about being raided.”
Brant stared at Axe with hatred while catching his breath.
Axe watched him in silence, waiting.
My brother’s patience fucking amazed me. It always had. Even when we were kids, he’d had this level of calm that I envied. I’d never had patience for much. My father had seen to that. He’d wired my brain to respond with anger and swift retribution whenever I felt fucked over.