Sydney Storm MC Complete Series

by Levine, Nina

  I wiggled closer to him and placed my hand on his cheek. “He’s responsible for the scars on your back, too?”

  He nodded once but didn’t say anything.

  I wasn’t the kind of person who hated people. It was such an extreme emotion, and I didn’t feel it was a useful one. But I hated King’s parents. And I hated what they’d done to him physically and emotionally.

  I pressed my lips to his and kissed him. It wasn’t one of our usual kisses, more of a softer, quick kiss. He didn’t push for more, and I didn’t give more. When I ended it, I said, “Thank you for sharing that part of yourself with me. I won’t bring them up again, but if you ever wanna talk about stuff, I’m always here. I just want you to know that.”

  His eyes searched mine for the longest time. He didn’t respond to that, but I knew he took it in. Finally, he said, “Roll over and go to sleep. You’re tired, and I have plans for this body in the morning.”

  I rolled over.

  I also wiggled my ass against him, loving the grunt that came from him when I did that.

  He tightened his embrace and hooked a leg over mine, pinning me in place.

  I loved every second of being in this bed with him.

  And I was already ready for his plans for the morning.

  Chapter Nineteen

  King

  “Kree still giving you hell?” Hyde asked late the next afternoon when he got back to the clubhouse after taking care of some club business.

  I placed my phone down on the office desk after just having finished a call I’d rather have avoided with Eric Bones about some bullshit I’d have to take care of tomorrow, and stretched my legs out in front of me. “Yeah. I’ve got Havoc taking care of her ex. Just waiting to hear back from him when it’s done, and for Griff to then confirm she’s safe before I rip those fucking cameras from her house.” I jerked my chin at him. “You heading home?”

  “No, I’m on my way over to Monroe’s shop. She’s got some renovations for me to take care of.”

  I stood and met him at the door. It was time for me to leave, too. Lily’s oven was playing up, so I’d told her I’d take a look at it. I’d just opened my mouth to reply to Hyde after stepping out into the hallway when a fist came flying at me. Having not seen it coming, I stumbled backwards, hitting the wall hard.

  Zane came at me with another punch, but I was ready for him this time and blocked him. Grabbing hold of his fist, I shoved him back and bellowed, “What the fuck, Zane?” In all the years we’d known each other, we’d never had a problem between us.

  He yanked his hand from mine, fury rolling off him in waves. “I fucking told you I had the Don situation under control, and you went ahead and stuck your fucking nose in it anyway. And caused Kree a major fucking problem in the process.”

  Anger surged from deep inside me, and every inch of my body tensed. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”

  “You should have stayed the fuck out of it, King. I was handling it.”

  “No, you fucking weren’t. You were fucking tiptoeing around trying not to fucking upset anyone. Fuck that shit when your cousin is at risk.”

  “You wanna know what you managed to do by sticking your nose in? You alerted the Vinzanis to the connection between Don and Storm. They did a little digging and discovered Kree works for you, discovering, in the fucking process, that she now lives in Sydney. They didn’t fucking know that before, King.” He jabbed his finger at me. “That shit is on you.”

  His words became a jumbled mess as they each made their way into my brain.

  What the hell had I done? I’d been so fucking sure of what we needed to do to fix this shit.

  “What’s Don’s tie to them?” I asked as I tried to shake the anger out of my system. Problem was, the anger was now directed at myself for fucking this up. And that was a whole lot fucking harder to shake than any anger I ever felt towards someone else.

  He continued glaring at me, his chest pumping furiously with his own anger. “He got tied up running a dog fighting ring for them when he was trying to make some cash to pay off his gambling debts. I paid off his debts in exchange for him leaving Kree alone, but it turned out he had information about those dogfights stashed on a hard drive somewhere that the Vinzanis want. He took off after I covered the debts, and they couldn’t find him, so they’ve been threatening his family and friends in an effort to draw him out.”

  “So you have no idea where he is?”

  “I said they couldn’t find him; I found the asshole yesterday and put a fucking bullet in his head like you wanted me to do. I then delivered the hard drive to the Vinzanis and told them to leave Kree out of this shit.” He paused for a moment before adding with another jab of his finger, “But you put her at risk for a while there, King, and you need to learn to take a fucking step back when I tell you I have shit handled. Or else you and I are gonna have some big fucking problems going forward.”

  I scowled at him. “Perhaps in fucking future you could give me the whole fucking story.”

  He shook his head at me. “Don’t twist this to suit your-fucking-self, King.”

  We stood glaring at each other, neither wanting to back down, when Hyde stepped into the argument. “Let’s call this shit a day,” he said, glancing between us. “No one’s in the wrong, it’s just a fucked-up mess. However, we’re all on the same fucking side, so let’s walk away and mark it as handled.”

  Neither Zane nor I budged until eventually he blew out a long breath and ground out, “Yeah,” before stalking away from us.

  As he left, Devil came striding down the hallway towards us, a look of determination on his face. When he reached us, he said, “You know how I spoke to Lily’s neighbours and none of them had seen anyone suspicious the day her sister was shot?”

  I nodded, not liking where this was going. “Yeah.”

  “Well, turns out one of the neighbour’s sons has been away and just returned home, so she asked him if he’d seen anything. He did, and the description he gave me matches Brant.”

  The anger Zane had stirred exploded like a fucking volcano spewing lava. I turned to Hyde. “We heard anything more from Winter today?”

  “Nothing yet.”

  “Fuck,” I roared, my chest tight with fury. “We need to get down there.” I looked at Devil again. “And I want two guys at Lily’s place within the next half hour. Keep eyes on her and the kids until we have Brant.”

  He nodded his agreement and left us.

  “Fucking hell,” Hyde said. “How the hell did we fuck shit up so badly with Brant?”

  “At this point, I don’t fucking care how. All I care is that you and I find him and rip him the fuck apart so he can’t get at anyone else.”

  “Yeah, brother. Agreed.”

  “I’m gonna head over to Lily’s and give her a rundown of what’s going on. I’ll be back so we can leave at ten. I need you and Axe to figure out how the fuck we can shake these feds so we don’t have a fucking fan club follow us to Melbourne.”

  “Will do.”

  * * *

  “Zara! Have you seen my necklace?”

  I rested my ass against the kitchen counter in Lily’s kitchen and watched silently as she tried to make dinner while she also attempted to load the dishwasher, clear old shit out of the fridge, and search in weird fucking places for the necklace. I’d arrived fifteen minutes ago, and she’d been going on about it from the moment I stepped foot inside the house. She was worked up over losing it, and Zara was ignoring her each time she called out about it. Those two had a fucking fiery relationship, completely different to the one she had with Holly. Some days I thought Lily would completely lose her mind over the shit Zara did.

  “Fucking hell,” she muttered, rifling through her handbag. “I could have sworn I put it in here.”

  I pushed off from the counter and moved to her. Attempting to take the bag from her, I said, “I’ll look for it. You finish the casserole.”

  She clutched the bag, refusing to let
it go. “You don’t know what it looks like.”

  “Fuck, Lily, it’s a fucking necklace. I know what they look like.”

  Her eyes widened. “Don’t you take that tone with me.”

  Jesus fuck. I’d had a headache before I got here, and it was only getting worse. “Pass the fucking bag.”

  She scowled and pushed past me so she could dump the entire contents of the bag on the counter. After a quick inspection, she shook her head. “It’s not there.” A moment passed before she said, “Oh shit, maybe it’s in the laundry.” She then bolted out of the kitchen, presumably to head into the laundry.

  “Just ignore Mum,” Holly said, joining me in the kitchen. “This happens all the time with that necklace. She always finds it.”

  I couldn’t recall ever seeing Lily wear a necklace. “What’s the importance of it?”

  Her eyes met mine, a sad expression in them. “It was her grandmother’s necklace. They were close, and she freaks out in times of stress if she can’t find it.” She shrugged. “I don’t know why. It makes no sense to me, but that’s Mum for you. She can be a little crazy sometimes, you know?”

  I nodded. I was getting a feel for that side of Lily.

  I followed her into the laundry and found her madly going through a jewellery box. Seemed like the oddest fucking place for one of them, but what the fuck did I know? Moving behind her, I placed my hand over hers and halted her progress. I brought my other hand to her neck, wrapping it around her throat. Meeting her questioning gaze in the mirror on the wall, I said, “What’s going on? Why are you stressed?”

  She jerked her hand out from under mine and snapped, “You’re slowing me down. I’ve got a million things to do tonight, so please just let me find this necklace so I can get back to my freaking to-do list.”

  “Stop,” I growled, turning her to face me.

  She winced, tensing under my grip of her neck. It drew my attention there, and being the bastard I was, her pain turned me on.

  Without easing my grasp of her, I demanded, “What the fuck is going on? When I left here this morning, you weren’t like this.”

  “Yeah well, when you left here this morning, I hadn’t had a shitty day at work, or a son who isn’t really talking to me, a daughter who skipped school to hang out with her boyfriend, or a missing necklace. On top of that, I just discovered I have to bake ten freaking cakes by Thursday for a bake sale I didn’t even know was on because not one of my children told me about it. And I am no freaking expert when it comes to baking cakes. I would have preferred time to practice the cakes they want me to cook.” She reached for my hand around her throat. “And can you please let me go. I’m all for your hands on my neck when you’re fucking me, but right now, not so much. Right now I just need to be able to breathe a full freaking breath so I can get my shit together.”

  I stepped closer to her, forcing my body hard against hers. She had me fucking hard for her with the bullshit she just threw at me. The urge to spin her around, bend her over and hold her down while I slammed inside of her overwhelmed me, so I was hanging on by a fucking thread here. Gripping her neck harder, I said, “None of that shit is the real reason why you’re in a fucking panic, so stop bullshitting both of us and start fucking giving it to me straight.”

  She drew in a ragged breath as she curled her fingers around mine at her neck and tried to prise them off. I gave that to her because I wanted her to talk. When I let go, she said, “I’m not bullshitting you, King. That stuff stresses me out. Some days it feels like I’m drowning. Like I literally can’t breathe under all the stuff I have to deal with.” She glanced down for a moment, turning silent, before meeting my gaze again and placing her hand to my chest. “I’m also feeling a little overwhelmed by you, I think. Like, not in a bad way. It’s just a lot so soon, you know? A month ago, I didn’t even know you, and look at us now.”

  “So you bring that to me when you’re feeling like this. You don’t ever shut that shit down and hide it from me. I’m not a fucking mind reader, Lily.”

  Her brows shot up. “Are you fucking kidding me, right now? I just laid my feelings out for you, was as honest as I could be, and you give me that? And for the record, I wasn’t trying to hide it from you. I was trying to process it all myself so I didn’t have to worry you with it. I know these feelings are just because this is so new and so fast.”

  I gripped her waist. “My job is to worry. Your job is not to fucking worry. I don’t care if what you’ve got to tell me will rip shit apart, because I will put that shit back to-fucking-gether. So in future, you bring me your feelings and anything else you’ve got, and hand them to me.” I bent to growl into her ear. “My job is to take care of you, and I don’t give a flying fuck how long I’ve known you, you are mine now, and I will go to the fucking ends of the earth for you.”

  When I pulled my head back, I found her staring at me. This lasted for a good few moments, and then it was like a switch had been tripped. Her hands landed on my cheeks, and with the kind of force that caused my gut to tighten, she dug her fingers in and pulled my face to hers. Our lips smashed together, and she kissed me with wild fucking recklessness. She wrapped one leg around my body and used it to fucking climb me, adding her other leg until she’d positioned herself where she wanted to be, arms and legs encircling me, mouth still kissing the fuck out of me.

  I dragged my lips from hers. “You wanna kiss me like that, you need to be prepared for me to fuck you,” I rasped. This was not the fucking time for sex. Nor the place. But hell if I would be able to stop myself if she continued down this path.

  She squeezed her legs around me. She was fucking panting with lust. “Lock the door. You can be quick, but fuck, I need you inside me right now.”

  I ground my teeth together. “Your kids are right the fuck out there, Lily. You really want them to hear me fuck you?”

  “King, for the love of all things good, just fuck me already. I guarantee you they all have their headphones on. Most of the time that pisses me off, but I’m starting to think it might not be such a bad thing.”

  I was no fucking saint. With her clinging to me, I took the few steps to lock the door before sitting her on the washing machine that was shaking its way through the spin cycle. She reached for my jeans and madly pulled my cock out, like a fucking starved woman. That shit only got me harder. Pulling her off the machine, I spun her around, forced her down over it, shoved her dress up, and yanked her panties down. And as the machine vibrated and shook, I grabbed her hair and pulled her head back while pounding into her so fucking violently that she would feel me for days.

  It didn’t take either of us long to come. I couldn’t recall any time in my life that I’d orgasmed so fast. That was the effect Lily fucking had on me.

  As she pulled her panties up, her eyes met mine. “When I said I was overwhelmed by you, I just meant that I wasn’t looking for a relationship when you came along. And you aren’t like other guys. You’re intense and fast. It’s not a bad thing, though. I like that you’re always here and that it feels like I’ve known you forever even when I know hardly anything about you. I mean, I can’t even explain it—I just feel like this is so right, this thing between us. Like it was meant to be. God, and now I’m rambling and—”

  I put my finger to her mouth to quiet her. “I have to go away, and I’m not sure when I’ll be back. Might be a day, might be a few. While I’m gone, I’m gonna have some of my guys watching you and the kids. And before you give me hell over that, there’s some shit going on with my club that has put you in danger. I don’t want to scare you, but you need to why I’m doing this.”

  Concern flickered in her eyes. “How bad is this? Like, how worried do I have to be for the kids? You’re freaking me out here.”

  “Remember when I said it’s my job to worry?” At her nod, I continued, “Let me do my job. All you need to do is go about your business like normal. I’ll handle the situation, and then I’ll come home and shit will go back to normal.”

&n
bsp; “You’re not going to tell me what’s going on, are you?”

  I shook my head. “No. You need to learn to trust me when shit like this comes up.”

  She watched me silently, processing that. I waited for an argument, like all the females in my life liked to give me, but in the end, she nodded and said, “Okay.”

  Fuck.

  Some of the tension in my shoulders eased.

  How the hell had I been blessed with a woman like Lily?

  She finished straightening her clothes as I zipped myself up. When she was done, she asked, “Are you staying for dinner, or do you have to leave straight away?”

  “I’m not leaving until ten tonight. I’m here till then.”

  A smile settled across her face. “Good. I’ve got some jobs for you. And also, prepare yourself to watch re-runs of the royal wedding.” At the arch of my brow, she lifted hers too and said, “Trust me, Harry gets me hot. You’re gonna want me to watch those re-runs.”

  Fucking hell, this woman.

  I jerked my chin towards the door. “Go. Get your list of jobs for me.” After she hit me with one last smile and turned towards the door, I said, “And Lily?” She looked at me. “I will never be like other men. When I know what I want, I don’t fuck around. I make sure I get it. And while I may have fucked up with you once, that shit won’t happen again. You take whatever time you need to wrap your head around this relationship. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Chapter Twenty

  King

  I eyed the house Hyde, Winter, and I stood outside as the cold Melbourne wind whipped around us. Motherfucking winter had come a few months early. Not only were we dealing with wind, but rain had poured down on us at least once every hour since we’d arrived in this fucking city about six hours ago.

  Melbourne and I were not friends. Never had been. I’d tried to avoid coming here after a crazy African motherfucker had attempted to cut my head off years ago. The assholes down here pulled some shit I wasn’t a fan of. However, now that I’d decided to set up shop here, I figured I needed to get over my shit and find some fucking joy in the place. Today didn’t look like it would be the day for that.