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“And I’m hoping this won’t take too long because Devil was about to take me home and fuck me before he received the call to come here,” she said, her body losing some of its tenseness.
King stared at her in silence, his face blank. You could bet his mind wasn’t blank, though. That brain of his would be processing thoughts at a rapid pace. Finally, he threw the remainder of his rum down his throat and said, “Jen, take Hailee into the lounge room. I want to talk to Devil alone.”
Jen shot a look of anger King’s way and started to say something, but King’s face clouded over with a dark warning and he barked, “Now!”
Her face scrunched up and she spat out, “You can be a fucking asshole when you want to be.”
King’s eyes didn’t leave her. “Yeah, well it takes a bitch to bring it out in me some days, and you’ve managed to hit the fucking motherload today.” He tracked her movements as she exited the room, Hailee in tow. When we were alone, he jerked his chin towards the backyard and said, “We need to take this outside.”
I followed him all the way to the middle of his yard. Darkness cloaked us and the heat of the night stuck to our skin. We were in the middle of a fucking heat wave in Sydney, and it wreaked havoc on my ability to think straight at times. However, my thoughts were clear as fuck. Something had spooked King and I sensed danger ahead.
“We found Shannon,” he started. “He won’t be a problem for anyone anymore. But he told me some of the shit that Jen told him while they were together, and it’s likely to come back and bite us in the ass.”
“Jesus, what did she tell him?”
“A lot of shit about how the club operates. Who supplied us back when she and I were together. Who our allies were, and our enemies, that kind of shit.”
“A lot of that has changed, though, King. How will that hurt us? Especially if he’s dead now.”
His voice dropped. “She told him about Moses. And I’m guessing that if the feds are sniffing around about that, he’s told them or someone else.”
“Fuck.” I raked my fingers through my hair, a sense of dread snaking through me. “Why the fuck would she tell him that? And what exactly did she know?”
“That’s what we’ve been arguing about. She swears she was drunk when she told him and that she didn’t tell him much at all. She doesn’t know the full story of what happened, because I never told her, but I’m guessing she knew just enough to give the feds a fucking hard-on.” He blew out a harsh breath. “I swear, women are more fucking hassle half the time than they’re worth. I should have known that Jen was sneaking around the fucking club sniffing out gossip and information.”
After spending time with Jen that week and seeing a different side to her, and then hearing her desperation tonight to reconcile with King, I paused for a moment while trying to take in all this new information. It would be easy to brand Jen as a malicious and vengeful bitch, and while she definitely fit that bill, I knew she was so much more complex than that. Not that giving her an inch of forgiveness would help the club, yet I couldn’t quite bring myself to despise her completely.
“Okay, so we can’t go back and change what’s been said or done. And I know you, King, as much as you’re angry with her now, you’ll end up standing by her, for the baby’s sake if nothing else. Which means that going another round with her is pointless. Why don’t you let me talk to her and see what I can find out?”
He remained silent for a beat; the only sound coming from him was his angry breaths. His anger made me think he’d say no to my request, but he surprised me when he agreed. “That woman will be the absolute fucking death of me one day. I know that, yet I can never say no to her. I can scream at her until I’m fucking blue in the face and feel like my chest has been ripped open with rage and hate and love. And yet, I can’t fucking say no.” His words fell out of his mouth along with his anger. In the end, all he seemed to be left with was an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. It reminded me that the only time I’d ever seen him like that also involved Jen.
“I understand, brother.”
And, I did. What he said about her dredged up my deeply buried feelings about my father. Feelings of hurt that were threaded with rage and hate and love also. However, just like King, I knew that if my father reached out to me now, even after fifteen years, and offered me hope that things could be different, I wouldn’t be able to say no. Even though saying yes could destroy me.
“Talk to her, Devil. Find out what we need.”
I headed back inside and found Jen and Hailee talking in the lounge room.
Jen glanced up at me. “Hailee has a wealth of knowledge about morning sickness. I’m hoping she might have the cure for me.”
Jen and King were so fucking similar. I guessed that was why they clashed so much. They were the only people I knew who could go from one extreme of emotion to another in less than ten minutes. Gone was her anger and in its place was something close to calm and happy.
Hailee touched her arm gently. “That remedy hasn’t worked for everyone I’ve told about it, but it has had some great results.”
“What’s the remedy?” King asked from behind me.
I stepped aside so he could join us. When he didn’t enter the room, I glanced back at him to find his arms crossed over his chest and his hard stare back in place. While he seemed resigned to the truth of his relationship with Jen, it didn’t appear that he was going to make it easy for either of them.
Jen’s wary gaze lingered on him. “A glass of milk and a milk arrowroot biscuit before getting out of bed in the morning. We’re not sure if it will help much in the afternoon, but I’m mostly sick in the morning now, so I’m hoping this will cure it.”
King listened intently and then nodded before giving his attention to Hailee. “Hailee, I think it’s time you and I had a chat. I figure that any woman Devil brings to my home must be one he intends spending some time with, which means she’s also a woman I want to get to know.”
Hailee’s eyes revealed her surprise, but she didn’t hesitate to stand and agree. The earlier apprehension I’d felt had eased and had been replaced with confidence that King would treat Hailee well.
Jen turned to me after they left and said, “He wants you to talk to me, doesn’t he?” She sighed. “That seems to be his way of dealing with me these days.”
I sat next to her. “He does, but it was my idea. Clearly, you two weren’t getting anywhere.”
