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.”
“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.”
20
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.
“You ready, King?” Hyde asked.
I pulled out my gun. “Yeah, brother. Let’s shake some fucking shit up.” With that, I drove my foot into the back door of the joint and kicked it in.
The heavy metal blasting through the house assaulted every one of my senses. That and the smell of weed filling the place. Winter had come through with this address after digging through all of Brant’s known associates and visiting them one by one. Hyde and I had tagged along to two other places so far today, and I was really fucking hoping this would be our last stop. I was always down for some fun, but this fucking weather did my head in. I wanted to deal with Brant, get Ivy out of this shithole town if she was with him, and get back to the woman who had settled herself deep in my soul.
We made our way towards the voices we could hear, and when we entered the dining room where a guy and a girl sat smoking pot, I pointed my gun at them and said, “You’re having a fucking party and forgot to invite us.”
The guy shoved his chair back, stood, and pointed his gun at us. “And who the fuck are you motherfuckers?”
Before he had a cha
nce to pull the trigger, Winter had him in a chokehold. “Put the gun down, asshole. We just wanna chat.”
As the asshole attempted to fight Winter off, the girl made a grab for my gun. I saw her coming and reached my hand out to push her back down into her chair. “Stay the fuck down unless you want a bullet through your fucking head,” I snarled.
She spat at me. “Fuck you!”
Jesus, I didn’t need her shit today. We’d come for one reason today and it didn’t concern her. Aiming my gun at the wall behind her, I shot at it, over her shoulder. The intent was to frighten the fuck out of her so she’d sit down and stay quiet. I didn’t achieve my goal. The dumb bitch lunged at me instead, so I found myself in a fucking wrestling match with her.
“Fucking hell,” I roared as I wrapped my arms around her and barrelled her backwards into the wall. When I had her there, I grabbed her around the neck while pressing my gun to her temple. “You want this?” I demanded. “Because I’m not fucking above killing a woman if she gets in my way.”
“Carly!” the guy yelled out. “Stop!”