King's Wrath (Sydney Storm MC 5)

ing at the woman who had haunted my dreams for over a decade. Hell, she’d haunted them even when we were together. Ivy wasn’t a woman you simply forgot, not even in your sleep while she lay next to you.

I’d never wanted to forget her.

Nor had I tried.

I’d always welcomed the raging torrent of memories, even on the days they almost strangled the breath from me. They served as a reminder never to trust people or love again. Those memories were a tangled vine of Ivy, Jethro, Bethany, and my mother. Love, hate, lies, betrayal and death, all wrapped together in my head. Although I’d fucked up and fallen in love again after Ivy, I’d tried like hell to never go down that path again. Nothing good came from it.

“Hello, King. It’s been a long time.”

I’d stopped counting the days years ago. The years, however, sat between us, a harsh reminder of the choices I’d made. Choices she knew nothing of.

She watched me closely. When I found no words, because she’d caught me completely fucking off guard, she spoke again. “Are you going to say anything?”

The room had swallowed me. Consumed every thought I had. Jen’s death—her baby’s death—vanished from my mind.

I took a step towards her. “You look well.”

Ivy would be thirty-eight soon. She looked all of thirty. The beauty she wore today was a far cry from the ravaged beauty she’d walked out of my life wearing. I’d never forgiven myself for breaking her.

“Looks can be deceiving.”

My mouth turned dry, and I had difficulty swallowing. “What’s going on, Ivy? Are you not well?” What the fuck did she mean by that? Was she not fucking well? My mind raced with the possibilities of what could be wrong. The thoughts flying at me, though, became one big fucking jumbled mess.

Nothing fucking made sense right now.

Why the fuck was she here?

“Nothing that would ever concern you,” she snapped. “But I didn’t come here to talk to you about that.”

I restrained my frustration. Ivy always had liked to stretch me to breaking point. “Ivy,” I warned. “I asked you a question.”

The dull tone disappeared from her eyes. Resentment slashed the air between us as her hostility roared to life. “You gave up that right a long time ago, King.”

Fuck.

Ivy was the lightning to my thunder. When she sparked, I rumbled. And she had just fucking sparked. The raging storm inside me exploded out. I couldn’t hold it back any longer. “Answer me!” I needed to fucking know that she was okay.

She moved towards me, our bodies unbearably close. Her eyes were cold. The only time I remembered her looking at me with these dead eyes was the day I told her to get out of my life. “You don’t get to demand answers from me, King, so don’t fucking ask them. Now, if you want me to tell you what I know about the shit going down with your club, have Hyde take his gun off me.”

“I’m fucking confused here, Ivy. You came here, knowing we’d be here? And what the fuck are you doing in the attic?” She would at least answer those questions before I made my next move.

“Yes, I organised this meeting. This is a house I own. And I waited up here because I didn’t want all of your men pointing their guns at me.”

More confusion snaked through my mind. It made no fucking sense for her to have organised this meeting. “Put the gun down, Hyde.”

“You sure about that, brother?”

“Yes,” I barked, not removing my eyes from Ivy. I didn’t believe she would have a gun, but I wouldn’t have believed she could have anything to do with the shit Storm was in, either, so it was best to take precautions. Watching her closely was the only one available to me. I knew she wouldn’t talk until Hyde did what she wanted. Stubbornness was a classic Ivy trait.

“Fuck,” Hyde muttered as he lowered the gun.

Ivy glanced at him before giving me her full attention once she was satisfied. “There’s an attack coming. I don’t know when, and I don’t know how, but I’ve heard him talk about it for weeks. And it won’t just be on your club, it’ll be on your families, too. He wants them all dead.” She stopped to take a breath. “He wants to wipe everyone and everything you care about off the face of the earth. And I believe he could do it.”

He?

My jaw clenched. “Who?” I demanded. “Who the fuck are you talking about? And why?”

Her hard eyes refused to let me look away. “My husband. You took what was his, so now he wants to take what is yours.”