Nitro's Torment (Sydney Storm MC 2)

I smacked her ass lightly. “Okay, tell me who is right.”

“Huh?”

“Before… you were muttering something about some woman being right. What did you mean?”

She sighed. “My therapist. She says these things to me that I don’t agree with at the time, but then I’m always proven wrong. It drives me fucking crazy.”

My respect for Tatum only grew in that moment. “What did she say that was right this time?”

“She told me that perhaps I didn’t always need to be looking into the future trying to figure out how situations would turn out to decide whether to pursue them. I argued with her, but just now when you asked me about seeing ten years down the track, it made me think that maybe she was right. Maybe I don’t need to think that far ahead with you.”

I already liked her shrink. “In answer to your question, this wasn’t just about getting laid last night.”

She stilled. “Okay,” she said softly.

I decided brutal honesty was the best way forward. “I can’t give you a play-by-play, though, Vegas.”

Watching me quietly, she thought about that for a minute. And then she shifted so she was lying on top of me instead of sitting. Her lips lingered on mine for a beat before she smiled. “I can work with that.”

* * *

“Billy’s raised his price,” King said later that day. He’d called me, Hyde, Kick and Devil into the office to discuss our gun supplies. We still hadn’t worked out what Dragon had planned, but we knew he had stocked his supplies high.

“Jesus, he’s already overpriced,” Kick said. His recovery was going well but I knew he was sick of being cooped up in the clubhouse where King

had been keeping him. They’d argued repeatedly over it, but King remained adamant. It didn’t surprise me. Kick was King’s golden boy, always coming through with whatever King needed. I’d seen the fear in King’s eyes when we’d brought Kick in after being shot. He hadn’t slept until he knew Kick would survive. And these days he was taking no chances. I figured Kick would be stuck in the clubhouse for weeks still.

“Well, you know my thoughts on Billy,” I said.

“And you know that there aren’t many other options,” Hyde snapped.

“Maybe we need to look outside Sydney,” I said, glaring at Hyde.

Devil cut in. “Well, whoever we get them from, we need to make sure they’re not going to screw us over down the track and withhold supply like Sutherland has.”

King nodded. “Agreed. And I want our stockpile doubled.”

I whistled low. We already had a huge stockpile. It was a risk to double it. Heat from the cops had been circling us for weeks. They were busting their balls trying to clean up the city and had targeted Silver Hell and Black Deeds. Bronze had managed to keep us out of it but we were kidding ourselves if we thought that could last forever. Carrying a large supply of guns could come back to bite us in the ass if they raided us. “You sure about that, King?”

His jaw clenched. “Yes. Put the feelers out, Nitro. Find us a new supplier or get Billy to lower his price.”

I nodded. King was notorious for not changing his mind once made up.

“How much longer are we going to hold out with this truce?” Hyde asked. He’d been pushing King to rethink the whole thing. Dangerous, I thought. If we broke it, we risked the heat shining our way from the cops and we also risked Dragon being steps ahead of us and coming out guns blazing. It was better to hold off and figure out his plan first.

“As long as it takes,” King snapped. “We rush this, Hyde, and we could lose everything.” King wasn’t known for his patience, and I could tell the strain this waiting had put on him. Reaching for his phone, he said, “I’m heading out for a bit. Call me if you need me.”

“Where the hell does he go every day?” Devil asked after King left the office.

I wondered the same thing. It had been going on for weeks. King kept shit close to his chest, though, so none of us knew.

“Got no idea,” I said. “Who wants to come with me to find us some guns?”

Kick lifted a brow. “You got a lead on someone?”

I smirked at him. “Sit down, fucker. You’re not going anywhere.”

He blew out a long breath. “Fuck, King is fuckin’ killing me here. Hell, even Evie isn’t giving me hell about taking it easy anymore.”