King (Sydney Storm MC 7)

I put my arms around him and snuggled against his chest. It wasn’t often King gave me this side of him, so when he did, I cherished it even more. “I love you, too.”

Monday was a write-off and Tuesday wasn’t much better. King made it safely to Brisbane, thank God. I always worried about him when he went on a ride, so I didn’t sleep much Monday night. Having to work all day Tuesday, on very little sleep, with assholes filling my day, left me with the headache from hell by that afternoon. King had organised for Kick, who had stayed in Sydney, to take Zara to her maths tutoring after school, and he’d been called back to the clubhouse while driving her home afterwards, so I drove over to collect her from there.

With said headache.

And a million jobs on my to-do list for the night that was only causing the headache to intensify to unbearable levels.

So it was in that state that I came across Jenny from the Block, otherwise known as Marley, otherwise known as the bitch who hated me. I referred to her as Jenny from the Block in my head because she looked like Jennifer Lopez. I needed to stop thinking of her like that, because while she was beautiful like Jennifer, her soul was ugly as hell.

I stumbled across her in the kitchen when I ducked in there to grab a drink. She and June, another old lady, were discussing the fact King had ordered their men to go to Brisbane with him. They didn’t hear me come in and carried on unaware I was listening.

“I’m so fucking over this bullshit,” Marley said. “King speaks and our men just have to come running.”

“Lizard is this close to wanting to leave the club,” June said.

“Yeah, I keep telling Marx to stand up to King—” Marley started, but I cut her off.

“You know, if you have such a fucking problem with King and this club, you should just fucking leave,” I said, glaring at both of them. “Jesus, do you two even understand what the club is all about?”

Marley returned my glare and came towards me. “Of course we fucking do. We’ve been around for a lot fucking longer than you have, remember?”

“Well it doesn’t sound like it, Marley. It sounds like you need a lesson in how shit works a

round here and to learn some respect for the club and for King.”

“Are you fucking serious right now, bitch?”

I stepped right into her personal space and crowded her. “Yes, I fucking am.”

Fuck, right now, after the day I’d had, I wanted nothing more than to knock this bitch down. And I would if she kept pushing me. And I didn’t even care if King took issue with that.

She pushed my shoulder and hit me with a nasty smile. A smile that told me she didn’t think I had it in me to take her on. “Yeah, I doubt it, Lily. You’re a fucking basic bitch. I have no idea what King sees in you. I mean, it’s not like you’ve got the balls to be the kind of old lady he needs. I’m pretty sure he’s got a couple of sluts on the side who fuck him the way he really needs—”

My brain exploded with both pain and anger. How dare she say that shit about my man? I lunged at her, shoving her back so hard she slammed into the counter in the middle of the room. Every inch of me blazed with fury as I closed the distance between us again and went after her some more. Slapping her face, I yelled, “Don’t you ever fucking say shit like that about King again!”

Her face contorted with her own fury and she screamed back, “I’ll say whatever the fuck I want to say!” Grabbing at my hair, she yanked it hard before punching me.

Soon, we were punching, slapping, and screaming at each other. Kitchen equipment flew everywhere as we made a mess in there. June tried to get in on it, too, but I punched her so hard she collapsed onto the floor and didn’t come back up.

“Fucking hell,” Kick yelled when he came to see what the noise was all about. Pulling Marley off me, he roared, “Stop!”

She thrashed in his hold, but was no match for him. “Put me down!”

“I’m not fucking putting you down until you calm down,” he said, his eyes meeting mine. “What the hell happened?”

I arched a brow as I pushed my hair out of my eyes. “I was just taking care of business.”

It was his turn to arch a brow. “This is your way of taking care of business?”

I took the few steps to where he stood with Marley. Looking her dead in the eyes, I said, “No, this is.” Gripping her face hard, I snarled, “If you ever talk shit about King again, I will make you fucking regret it. I will do everything I can to ensure you never fucking step foot in this clubhouse again. And if you think I don’t have the balls or the power to do that, fucking try me, bitch.”

She glared at me for another long minute before jerking out of Kick’s hold and striding out of the kitchen.

June scurried after her as Kick whistled low and said, “Remind me never to cross you, Lily.”

“I don’t think that’ll be an issue, Kick. You’re not a bitch like those two.”

He chuckled and then lifted his chin towards the door. “Zara’s in the bar waiting for you, but if I were you, I’d go clean up your face first.”