Hyde's Absolution (Sydney Storm MC 4)

I didn’t want to fight with him. Not tonight. But I was so deep in this with him that all I could do was fight back. Fight for him.

“That whisky isn’t going to solve a goddam problem of yours.”

He swirled the amber liquid in the glass. “It’ll sure as fuck make me feel better.”

I gripped his bicep hard, desperate to make him hear me. “Let me help you feel better.”

His eyes bored into mine. “Don’t you fucking get it? Nothing you say can fucking help me feel better.”

“I know that, Hyde. But tell me something—how many days has it been since you’ve had a drink?”

He shifted his gaze from mine and stared straight ahead. “Almost two.”

I let his arm go. “I guarantee you that you’ll regret taking even a sip.”

His jaw clenched, and he slammed the glass down. Whisky spilt over his hand and the counter. “Fuck!” he roared, pushing himself off the stool.

His eyes found mine, and I sucked in a breath at the torment I saw there. His pain cut right through my heart, and I wondered how we would ever get through this night.

“I’m not my fucking mother, Roe!” He jabbed his finger at the whisky. “I don’t want that fucking shit, but my body craves it like nothing else.”

He pulled deep breaths in, struggling to get his breathing under control. Grasping the back of his neck, he walked away from me before turning and coming back my way. He paced like this for a good five minutes while I remained silent and waited while he did whatever he needed to do.

The silence was shattered when he stalked back to the bar, picked up the glass and threw it at the wall. He then wrapped his hand around the neck of the whisky bottle and hurled it at the wall, too.

Fire flared in his eyes. Anger and so much pain. “I’m struggling, red. Like I’ve never fucking struggled. I have no idea how to even come back from the shit that happened today. This fucking pain is pulling me under. And all I wanna do is drink myself into oblivion.”

There he was.

I went to him, my heart breaking for him all over again. I gripped his shirt. “You do it one day at a time. You lean on me. You lean on King and Nitro and all your other brothers. But no fucking way do you go near that bottle again. You get your ass to an AA meeting if that’s what you need, and you accept there’s no shame in asking for whatever help you need.” I moved a hand to his chest. “And you start sharing more from here. You don’t carry your burdens by yourself anymore. That’s what I’m here for.”

His eyes searched mine while he listened intently to what I said. Resting his forehead against mine and wrapping his arms around me, he exhaled a long breath. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to. His arms around me rather than that glass of whisky did all the speaking we needed.

We clung to each other for a long time, foreheads resting together. It was in that quiet space that I felt like we’d taken a huge step forward. There really was beauty to be found in pain.

When he lifted his head to look at me, he said, “Come home with me.”

I curved my hands around his neck and nodded. I pulled his face down and brushed my lips over his. I had fallen so deeply for this beautiful, broken man, and I would love him so big until he could find a way back to himself.

Chapter 35

Hyde

I ran my hand over Monroe’s ass before reaching for her leg and pulling it over my own. “Morning, sugar.”

I’d been awake for a good hour or more, but I hadn’t wanted to wake her too soon. She needed her sleep after last night. Not waking her had also given me time to get my head together.

I’d woken with a million thoughts. Most of them dark. Many of them about finding the closest bottle of whisky. I had a long road ahead of me to win this battle—the drink, the family shit, my relationship with Monroe—but she’d made me understand I didn’t have to do it on my own. And for the first time in my life, I was ready to share that fucking burden.

She angled her head so she could look up at me, hitting me with a smile. “Morning.”

“You hungry?”

She rolled so her stomach met mine, her pussy teasing the fuck out of my dick. Reaching her hand around my neck, she pulled my lips to hers and kissed me. “Sorry about the morning breath, but I needed those lips of yours.”

I gripped her ass. “Fuck morning breath. Give me back that mouth.” When she hesitated, I ordered, “Now, red.”

A sexy smile spread across her face, and she gave me what I wanted. Waking up with her was the best fucking way to wake up. When she ended the kiss, she said, “I’m impressed.”