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She nodded her understanding and guided her daughter away from me. I watched them for a few moments. I didn’t care what the fuck it took, I’d make sure they stayed safe. I always had, and I wasn’t fucking stopping now.
“King!”
I turned to find Bronze watching me, a wild expression on his face. Jerking my head towards the office, I barked out, “Nitro, my office!” He was somewhere in the club; someone would pass that on. Hyde, Devil, and Kick were already there, waiting to get shit started.
A few minutes later, door closed, I faced the five of them. The air in the room swirled thick with expectation. We all wanted the same thing. Even Bronze. He might have been a cop, but he knew what had to be done. He and I had been through a lot together in the seven years since I’d recruited him, and the one thing I knew for sure about him was that he had zero tolerance for family members becoming casualties of war. I knew without even having to ask him that he’d stand by me and avenge the deaths of Jen and her child. It’s what I’d done for him all those years ago, and while Bronze wrestled with his conscience over many things, his loyalty for that act was guaranteed.
I looked at him. “Where are the feds?” They’d pulled eyes off us yesterday, so they’d missed the events of today. That caused me to question the shit that had gone down. I didn’t fucking trust anything at the moment.
“The team has been moved for now. Looks like you’ve managed to lose your tail for a while.” At my questioning look, he added, “Trust it, King. I did some digging. It’s straight up.”
I decided to run with it just being a coincidence. Turning my attention to Hyde, I asked the question I’d been putting off since I arrived back at the clubhouse, “Where’s Ivy? And has she said anything else?”
My body remained on high alert since the moment I’d laid eyes on her in that attic. Every muscle tense, I warred with myself over her. Fifteen years apart and yet I still felt that pull to her. I wasn’t sure, though, what it meant. I hoped it only lingered because of our family history. I did not need to fuck myself over by wanting something that had no place in my life.
“I’ve got her with Winter. Told him not to let her out of his sight. And no, she didn’t utter another word to me.”
I nodded. Winter was a good choice. Glancing at Kick, I asked, “You took care of Jen?”
Another fucking question I didn’t want to ask. I’d left him to take care of her bod
y when we headed out to meet with Ivy.
“Yeah, brother. What’s the plan there?”
I knew what he was asking. Where are we going to bury her?
I scrubbed my face, feeling every fucking one of my thirty-nine years, and then some. It was unbelievable to me—and not fucking much was anymore—that out of the two women I’d ever loved, one of them was now dead because of the other one.
“Jen’s got no one in her life. You find somewhere for her and let me know. I’ll be there.” I was all she’d had in the end. She might have driven me fucking crazy, but she didn’t fucking deserve this shit.
Discussing this wound me tighter than I already was. The headache pounding against my skull felt like it could explode the fuck out of my head, and the muscles across my shoulders bunched to the point of pain. In an effort to get shit moving so we could stop fucking talking, I barked, “I want all family members moved to safety. When this shit goes down, I don’t want any of them around. Nitro, you and Devil take care of that while Hyde and I work out a plan to get to Tony.” And while Kick finds a place to bury Jen.
Fucking hell.
“And Marx?” Nitro asked. “What do you want done with him?”
Marx was of no use to us anymore. “Stay with him tonight and then get rid of him tomorrow.”
Nitro nodded his understanding. “Will do.”
After everyone filed out, leaving Hyde and me alone, I said, “Choose three men and send them to Melbourne. Get eyes on Tony. I want to know if Ivy’s telling the truth.”
He watched me with the same level of fierce intensity that churned deep inside my gut. He’d stood by me years ago and watched as I lost my shit after Ivy left, so he had to understand what it meant for me to even question Ivy’s honesty in this. “And if she is?”
My hands clenched by my side. “Then we end this once and for all. I don’t give a fuck how it affects ties we have to anyone else. We’ll send the fucking word out—Storm doesn’t tread carefully anymore. They wanna take us on? They’ll pay the fucking price regardless of whose ass they’re kissing.”
Hyde’s nostrils flared and he exhaled sharply. “Agreed.”
It wouldn’t have mattered if he hadn’t, but it made shit easier that he did agree. “I’m gonna check in with Skye and Nik.”
He hesitated for a beat before asking, “You gonna call Axe? Zane?”
“Yeah.”
I would be calling in every fucking favour ever owed to me. And I’d drag every chapter of Storm into this war with us if I had to.
But first, my family needed me, and they were always my top priority. We hadn’t lived through the shit we had for nothing. Our bonds had been forged in hell, and they were strong. Unbreakable. We may not have been blood, but I gave no shits about blood. The only thing I cared about was that they’d always taken my back. For that, I’d give them my life if I had to.
