King's Reign (Sydney Storm MC 6)

She nodded. “Yeah. I wanna have a drink with the woman who made King smile.” Before I could say anything to that, she reached for my hair and pulled a few strands to the side, and said, “Goodness, you need to tell me what products you use on your hair. It’s so silky. I do so much shit to mine that I swear it’s gonna start falling out.”

And just like that, this woman made me feel welcome and put me at ease. “Thanks for the drink. I’m Lily by the way, and I’m not sure I actually saw King smile today so you may be wrong there.”

She laughed. “Oh honey, you are gonna fit right in here. And yeah, your man totally smiled. You just missed it because you were too busy being all flustered by his hand down your top.”

I took the Jägerbomb Kree placed in front of me and lifted it up with a questioning look at the woman. “Two questions. What the hell is in this? And what is your name? I mean, by the time I’m finished with this drink, I may not remember it, but I’m gonna give it a good shot.”

She lifted her drink, too. “It’s Jäger and Red Bull, and just drink it down in one go, okay? Like, trust me on this. And I’m Monroe, but you can call me Roe.”

I eyed the drink. “Am I gonna make it to work in the morning?”

Another laugh escaped her lips. “Honestly, what’s one day in the whole year with a hangover?”

A blonde woman joined us and said, “Not that my cousin only ever has one day a year with a hangover.”

Monroe glanced at her. “Oh shush, Tatum. I’ve almost found a Jäger buddy. Don’t ruin this for me when none of you bitches will drink it with me.”

“Wait,” I said, looking at Tatum, “is this gonna taste bad?” God, the woman was beautiful with her long, blonde hair, stunning features, and gorgeous tattoos. I decided I wanted to be Tatum when I grew up.

She pulled a face and nodded. “Yeah, it’s fucking awful.”

“Shit,” I muttered. And then to Monroe, I said, “Okay, let’s do this.” And with that, I took her advice and downed the drink in one go. She did the same, and when she hit me with a questioning look afterwards, I pulled a face and said, “I agree with Tatum—it’s fucking bad—but I’m willing to go another round to see if it improves.”

“Fuck, yes!” Monroe said as she looked at Tatum and wrinkled her nose while grinning at her. She then called out to Kree, “We need another round, Kree. Before Lily changes her mind.”

Being with these two reminded me of being with Adelaide and the girls. By the time Kree had served up two more rounds of Jägerbombs and I’d drunk them, as well as the Jack and Coke I’d originally ordered, I was a little tipsy and unsteady on my feet. Monroe was in the same state, and between us, we’d become a little loud. Hailee, the woman Devil had referred to earlier as his woman had also joined us, along with another old lady, Evie. I knew nothing about club life, so I hadn’t even known what an old lady was, but they started my education, filling me in on a few things, all while getting drunk.

King was gone for ages, but I hardly had time to miss him. The girls had me laughing over stories of the funny stuff they’d done together, and I realised they must have spent a fair bit of time with each other to have all these stories. I liked the sisterhood that it felt like they had. I’d always been drawn to having friends who liked to get together often, and I hoped this might be the beginning of some new friendships.

“When are you and Nitro getting married?” Evie asked Tatum.

Tatum sighed. “We’ve put it off for now, while everything has been so up in the air. Honestly, at this point, I’m just glad to have him home again.”

“But you guys are still getting married, right?” Hailee asked.

“Yeah. We’ll just wait for the dust to settle.”

I wasn’t sure what they referred to, but it sounded like she and Nitro had been through something recently. I wasn’t the kind of person to pry, so I didn’t ask any questions.

A dark-haired man who was built like an I-don’t-know-what-except-he-was-freaking-huge joined us at the table where we’d relocated. With his gaze glued to Tatum, he said, “Vegas. You ready

to go?”

Her eyes snapped to his and her body reacted to him. She nodded and stood. Glancing at me, she said, “It was great to meet you. I’m sure Roe will organise drinks or something soon, so I’ll see you at that.” She then moved into the man’s embrace, their bodies connecting like they were made for each other. He had to be Nitro. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen a couple so in sync before.

As they left, King entered the bar and caught my attention. He made his way over to us, and I stood to meet him. Something had happened in between him leaving me and now returning. Gone was the relaxed King, and in his place was the wired King. His face was a mask of intensity and determination as he placed his hand on my hip and said, “I have to head out to take care of some shit.”

“Okay. I’ve had a few drinks, so I’m gonna call an Uber. It’s okay if I leave my car here, right?”

“Yeah,” he said, looking around the room. “I’ll get one of the boys to run you home.” He called Mace over and organised him to do that before turning back to me. “Depending on whether I get shit done tonight, I might be over later.”

With that, he left. No goodbye kiss, no other words exchanged. But I didn’t care, because each passing day with King in my life showed me that sometimes those things weren’t what mattered. The backbone of a relationship came down to more than displays of affection and fancy promises; it came down to actions that showed respect and care. Sometimes those actions consisted of words as well as deeds, but sometimes it was mostly the things we actually followed through on and did that meant the most.

18

Lily

“How much have you had to drink?” Adelaide asked me on the phone later that night when I told her about something weird that had happened to me during the day.