by Levine, Nina
I looked at Mum to find her watching me with love, and it almost made me burst into tears. I held my shit together, though, and asked, “You organised this? And why? It’s not my birthday.”
She smiled, but it was Brynn who answered. “I asked her to organise it as a thank you for everything you’ve done for me. It means the world to have you for a sister.”
“Oh God, now I really am gonna cry,” I muttered.
“I organised it,” Mum piped up, “and King picked it up for me while he was out getting dinner.”
My gaze went straight to him, and I found him watching me with that intense look of his I loved. While we shared a moment, the kids scrambled up off the couch and the floor, and Mum cut the cake. When the space next to King became free, I curled up next to him, wrapped an arm around him, and said, “Thank you.”
He looked down at me, still with the intensity that told me he was going to fuck me just the way I liked it tonight. “I didn’t do anything. This was all your mum and sister.”
I smiled. “I know, but I’m still thankful you picked it up.” I dropped my voice. “Maybe I’ll save some of it for you to lick off me later.”
His hand moved to my neck, and he swept my hair out of the way so he could run his fingers along my collarbone. “That dirty mouth of yours will get you in trouble one day,” he murmured softly enough so that only I heard.
I snuggled in closer to him. “I hope so.”
He threaded his finger under my necklace that I’d finally located. “You found your grandmother’s necklace.”
“Yeah.”
“Good.” With that one word, he’d given me a taste of his soft again, and butterflies filled my tummy. I would never have enough of his kind of soft.
“Do you want me to cut you some cake, Lily?” Mum asked.
I nodded and sat up straight, still pressed against King’s side, with one leg folded so it rested on his thigh. “Yes, please.”
Brynn caught my eye as she, Jamie, and the kids traipsed back out to the dining room to play more scrabble. “I love you,” she said.
“I love you, too, Brynny. You and me are gonna have a big long D&M before bed tonight, okay?”
She grinned, knowing exactly what I was referring to. “Yup, but I got shit to get back to now if you catch my drift.”
“Oh, I catch your drift, fishing girl,” I said with a laugh.
The doctors had told her she was making good progress with her recovery, and while I knew she was in pain and still had a long way to go, my sister was tough. She’d speed through her recovery and be back out there fishing in no time.
King’s phone rang, and he leaned forward a little to grab it from his pocket. As he did that, he settled his other arm over my shoulders, slipping his hand under the material of my shirt so he could rest it skin-to-skin just above my breast.
“What’s up?” he answered the phone.
Mum brought cake over for King and me. I noticed how she didn’t ask if he wanted any; she just assumed he would. She placed his on the coffee table and handed me mine.
“Thanks,” I said softly so King could still hear the person on the other end of the call.
He’d listened silently for a few moments, and I’d just taken my first amazing bite of cake when he said, “Ivy, stop. You’re working yourself into a state when you don’t need to be. Ask—”
Ivy.
The woman I’d met in King’s office.
An ex of his.
I wasn’t usually a jealous woman, and I trusted King completely, but I couldn’t deny a streak of jealousy shot through me when he said her name. She must have cut him off, because he’d been about to say something before stopping abruptly.
“No,” he said.
His tone had turned a little harsh, and I decided I didn’t want to hear any more of the conversation, so I attempted to stand. However, King had other ideas. He quickly moved his hand to grip my shoulder and held me tightly to him.
I turned my face to his and found him watching me closely. He gave one quick shake of his head, signalling that he didn’t want me to leave.
“I’ll call you tomorrow. Brian will be able to help you with this, so stop fucking worrying about nothing.” With that, he ended the call in the way only King did—abruptly with no goodbye.
I shifted to sit cross-legged sideways on the couch, looking at him. I was going to broach the subject of Ivy, because if I didn’t, it might just send me crazy. And too bad if he didn’t want to discuss this; I needed to. “I know you told me Ivy is in the past, but I kinda need to know how far in the past. Like, is she recent and you guys are still—”
He cut me off. “I’ve had three relationships that mean something to me. Ivy was the first. I hadn’t seen her for over a decade until recently, and now I’m helping her get back on her feet after her husband died. That’s all there is to this.”
“And the other two?”
“Jen was my second one. She isn’t alive anymore.” His eyes searched mine for a long, silent moment. “You are my third.”
My heart beat a little faster and a little louder. I smiled at him and threaded my fingers through his. “You are my second.”
I decided I liked King’s way of discussing stuff—straight to the point with no bullshit and no dragging it out. He simply shared what he felt was important and then moved on. And he didn’t ask for anything more than the same from me.
I squeezed his hand before letting it go.
I then reached for our cake and passed his to him.
We then ate in silence except for when I put my fork down halfway through my piece and said, “I’m leaving the rest for you for later,” to which he muttered, “Fucking hell.”
It was the best night I’d had in a long time, and my heart swelled with happiness at the thought of so many more to come.
Chapter Twenty-Three
King
I sat listening to what Axe was telling me, trying not to lose my shit. It had been a hell of a morning already, and now it was shaping up to be the day I’d have to take care of something I’d been putting off for too long. It seemed the feds were closing in on the club, and because of the level of secrecy surrounding their latest witness, we would have no way of silencing them. Detective Stark was proving a worthy adversary, but she was one I didn’t want.
Stretching my neck, I tried to shake the tension there. Knowing we had a lot of business to take care of today, I’d woken with it. Lily had bossed me into allowing her hands on my back and neck, and while the massage had eased some of that tension, it had stirred a fuckload of other tension I’d needed to take care of.
I looked at Axe. “So confirm for me so I know I’ve got a handle on what you’re saying. Stark has a witness that they’re locking down tight. Johnny can’t get at the information to find out who it is. But whoever it is will likely jam more than their dick up our ass.”
“That about covers it.”
I clenched my jaw as the decision I had to make worked its way through my head. “I’ll take care of this today.”
Axe’s expression turned thoughtful. “They’ll keep coming at you even if you eliminate her.”
“Let them. I’ll just keep coming right back. I refuse to allow them to take the club down.”
“Fuck, King, do you ever think life would be a whole lot fucking easier if you turned clean instead? I don’t know how you live like this, always chasing your fucking tail, putting out fires and waiting for the next one to hit.”
This was an argument we’d had for years. I had no fucking clue why he kept bringing it up. This would never change for me, and he had to know that. “Maybe life would be easier, maybe it wouldn’t. We’ll never fucking know, because I’m not gonna step out there and try it. I’ll take my chances getting shit done the only way I’ve ever known—kicking and fucking screaming. And at the end of the fucking day, when I lay my head down, I’ll breathe easy knowing it doesn’t matter what fires I have to put out tomorrow, because my club will be
right there by my side putting out the same damn fire. I will never do life without my brothers.”
He leant forward. “You could still do it cleaner than you are.”
“No, we couldn’t. This is what we know, Axe. And the world sure as fuck isn’t interested in helping me today any more than it was interested in helping me when I was a kid. I won’t put my life in anyone’s hands but my own.”
Hyde stepped into the office and glanced between us. “Hate to interrupt, but we’ve got a problem.”
“What?” I asked.
“I still haven’t confirmed what the fuck’s going on, but it seems Black Deeds wanna pick a fight with us. They just undercut us on a cleaning job.”
I shoved my chair back, anger forcing hard, furious breaths from me. “You and me are gonna pay Zero a visit right fucking now. And if we need to make a fucking statement to get this shit sorted, that’s exactly what we’ll fucking do.”
Hyde nodded. “Agreed, brother.”
The Black Deeds president and I had a long, hard history that I was more than ready to end if he was intent on pursuing this agenda. I hadn’t forced myself and my club on Sydney only to shit myself at the first sign of trouble. Storm’s reign would be enforced with this visit to Zero.
* * *
The Black Deed’s clubhouse was tiny compared to Storm’s, but that didn’t mean it didn’t house a formidable club. Zero was known for his ruthlessness, and while at times we’d been at war with each other, I gave him credit for the way he held his club together.
Hyde and I took Devil, Kick, Nitro, and Mace with us. We met some resistance at their front gate, but Zero approved our entry, and five minutes later, we stood in front of him, his VP, and a handful of his men.
He glanced between us, narrowing his eyes at me. “It’s been a while since you’ve turned up looking like you’re planning a fucking war, King. What gives?”
My muscles tensed. Every single last fucking one of them. I did another quick sweep of the weapons I could see, and made some rough calculations of each man’s likely move if I shot their president. Meeting his gaze, I said, “That’s because you’ve handled your shit, we’ve handled ours, and I had some fucking peace. Today, you shat all over that peace, and I’ll happily begin a fucking war to get it back.”
His face clouded with anger and he took a step forward, getting in my fucking face. Snarling, he demanded, “Care to fucking say that again.”
I closed the tiny distance between us, adrenaline spiking in my veins. My hands fisted by my side as I threw back, “You heard it the first time.”
“Yeah, I did, but whoever you got your information from doesn’t know shit.”
“He got his information from me, asshole,” Hyde said, “And it’s solid. Your club cut us out of a deal by going in at 30% less than our price. That tells me you mean business.”
Zero didn’t take his eyes off me. Smart motherfucker. “I don’t know what the fuck he’s talking about. The last fucking thing I need on my plate is to be dealing with the fallout from something like this. So fucking stand down, tell your men to stand down, and let’s get to the fucking bottom of this together.”
I searched his eyes. I’d always had a good feel for Zero. And he’d never fed me shit. Not once. So I was inclined to believe what he said.
Raising my hand, signalling for my men to pull back, I moved away from Zero. “Hyde, give us all the information you know,” I said, eyes still pinned to Zero’s. I also kept his men in my peripheral, staying aware of their every move. While we’d worked our way to this point, I trusted no fucker. Tension sat thick in the air, and I had no intention of easing it until I had what I came for.
Hyde rattled off the job details and Zero listened closely before making a call to his VP. They had a heated discussion, and from the way Zero’s face twisted with anger, I figured he’d been given the information he was after.
Ending the call, he shoved his phone back into his pocket and pulled his gun out. I’d seen that coming and had my hand on mine before he even reached for his. Within a matter of seconds, we all stood pointing our weapons at each other, the tension in the room at a whole new fucking level.
“Royce!” Zero barked, gun trained on me. “Get your ass here.” To me, he said, “Steady with that gun, King. We don’t want to start something here that we can’t stop.”
I ground my teeth together, gripping my gun harder. “In case you missed it, I’m good with starting something we can’t stop. Hell, with the way I’m feeling today, I’m fucking itching to start something.”
“Fuck,” Zero muttered, “You’re a fucking madman.”
I grinned, that wave of crazy I fucking loved taking over. “That I am, my friend. That I fucking am.”
He scowled. “We’re not fucking friends.”
“We could be if you’d stop trying to tickle my fucking balls.”
“Jesus, the shit you come out with. If I was after you, I’d be doing a whole lot fucking more than tickling them.”
“Yeah, I’ve figured that by now. You’d be clamping your fucking teeth down on them. So give me whoever the fuck did this shit and let me deal with them.”
“You’re not dealing with anything. I’ll take care of this.” He paused for a beat before barking out again, “Where the fuck is Royce?”
No one had the chance to answer him, because a gun sounded from behind him. I ducked just in time to miss the bullets coming straight at me. Hyde went into action, lunging at the asshole who’d fired it. One of Zero’s men joined in, and soon we had a fucking shit-show of a brawl on our hands.
“Fucking hell,” Zero bellowed, wading into the fight and reefing the guy who’d shot at me out of the fight.
When he had him, he restrained him by gripping both his wrists together and locking an arm around his neck. Almost choking the breath out of him, he roared, “What the fuck have you done?”
The guy, who I presumed to be Royce, struggled in his president’s hold, rage pouring from him. When Zero eased the pressure on his neck a little, he spat out, “This is for what Storm did to Gibson!”
“Fuck. I told you to forget that shit,” Zero said.
“Yeah well, he was my cousin. No fucking way was I letting his death just sit like that. We had allegiance to him, and I don’t ever forget who my loyalties lie with.”
Zero spun him around and punched him, knocking him flat to the ground. Shoving his boot down on him, he roared, “Your fucking loyalty is to this club, brother. You just pissed all over that by pulling this shit.”
Yeah, he had. He’d also loaded a gun and aimed it at himself.
I crouched down beside him and pressed my gun to his temple. “Gibson was a piece of shit, so it makes sense to me that you are, too. I don’t play well with men like you.”
“King, he’s mine,” Zero said.
I shook my head. “No, he’s mine.”
I pulled the trigger, and without a second glance, I reared up and pointed my gun between Zero’s eyes. “Are we gonna have a problem, Zero?” I demanded, my body buzzing with the need to drive home the fact that Storm had control of this city. When he didn’t answer, I pressed the gun firmly to his head. “Answer me! Do you understand that if you step on our fucking toes, we won’t hesitate to retaliate? And when we do, we won’t care whose blood flows.”
He worked his jaw, his shoulders rock hard with anger. Finally, he spat out, “Yeah, I fucking understand.”
I watched him for another few moments before taking my gun off him and signalling to my guys that we were done here. As I took a step away from Zero, I said, “Keep your men in check, and we won’t have a problem.”
He jerked his chin at me. “Fucking remove yourself from my property or else we will have a problem.”
Axe was right—every day brought a new fire to extinguish. What he didn’t grasp was that I lived for this shit. It fed my fucked-up soul. It kept me dancing with the devil rather than becoming the devil. If I didn’t have my club to go to battle
for, I would go out there and seek the shit out myself. And that was something I swore I would never do.
* * *
Sometimes not everything was as it seemed.
Sometimes you discovered something about a person that contradicted what you previously assumed to know, and it slanted shit in another light. And then you had to fucking reassess everything you thought you knew and make a new plan.
As I watched Detective Stark arguing with her husband on her front lawn, I got a feel for the woman and what her life consisted of. She’d presented herself as a ballbuster, and while I didn’t doubt she was at work, she was far from that in her own home.
Her husband was abusive, and her fear of him bled from every one of her veins.
“You will never fucking leave me, bitch!” he yelled, gripping her face so hard I could feel her pain. “I will find ways to stop you, and if you continue to battle me, I will take Marie from you, and you will never see her again.”
Motherfucker.
She tried to fight him off, furiously slapping him and pushing him, but she was no match for his strength. Finally, he let her go, shoving her to the ground. After spitting on her, he stalked to the Mercedes in the driveway and screeched out of there.
I left my bike and crossed the street. When I reached her, I jerked my chin towards her front door. “We have shit to discuss. Inside.” My tone left no room for a discussion on this; we would be talking, and we would be doing it inside.
She picked herself up off the ground and hurried inside. Fear still consumed her. I suspected that had more to do with her husband than me, but I would make use of it.