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I left Hyde and headed to my room. Mine was the one at the far end of the hallway. While the clubhouse was large, not every member had a room. I’d had mine for eight years, and my sisters weren’t strangers to it. I hated that they were dragged into my shit. Especially after everything we’d all been through as kids. And I really didn’t fucking want that for Keith and Rebecca.
“So how long this time?” Skylar demanded the minute I stepped foot in the room. She sat in the middle of the bed with her books spread out around her, pen tapping impatiently on one of the books. Annika sat in the armchair in the corner of the room with Rebecca sprawled across her while Keith hunched over a colouring book on the floor, completely engrossed in what he was doing.
“Skye,” Annika said in a low warning tone. Always the peacekeeper, she often tried to intervene in whatever Skylar and I had going on. It was pointless, though. Skye and I were both stubborn and usually refused to back down.
Skylar scowled. “No, Nik, I’m over this. It feels like it’s just one thing after another with Storm at the moment. When is this madness going to end? I just want to be able to live my life without having to worry about all this shit.”
“It’ll be over soon,” I started, but my phone rang, cutting me off.
“Oh, that’ll be Axe probably,” Skylar said, waving at my phone as I yanked it out of my back pocket. “I already called him and told him you’d kidnapped us.”
“Jesus,” Annika muttered, glaring at Skylar. “Why do you always do this?”
Skylar returned her glare. “Do what?”
Annika sighed, and I sensed her exhaustion. I wasn’t sure if it was over the argument or life in general. She’d been through a lot lately—stuff I wouldn’t blame her for being worn down over. “Bait him. It’s like you want him to lose his shit at you.”
Fuck. These two were in a mood with each other. Not unusual, but I wanted as little to do with it as possible.
I stabbed at my phone to answer it as I said to the girls, “I’ll be back. Don’t kill each other while I’m gone.” And then to Axe, I said, “Skye filled you in?” I exited the room as my sisters went head-to-head.
My brother’s deep voice rumbled through the phone. “She told me you had them holed up at the clubhouse, but she didn’t tell me why. You need me, brother?”
“Yeah, I need you. And I need Zane, too.” I caught him up with everything that had happened.
“Fuck, man, I’ve been waiting for Ivy to come back. Didn’t figure it would take her this long. You think she’s spinning shit? We both know how unstable she can be.”
I raked my fingers through my hair. “I need to have a conversation with her about it.”
“But you don’t want to get that close to her, do you?”
Axe knew me better than most and having grown up with Ivy and me, he knew her well, too. He knew how dysfunctional our relationship had been, so he understood my need to distance myself. “At this point, it doesn’t matter what I want. I have to do this for the club.”
He was silent for a beat before saying, “I’ll get there as soon as I can. Just dealing with a situation here, but I should be done with that by tomorrow, the next day at the latest.”
After he promised to catch Zane up with everything, we ended the call. I exhaled sharply as I contemplated what I had to do next.
Ivy.
I had to have that conversation with her.
Alone.
Fuck.
Too much could go wrong in this scenario, but I knew there was no way she’d tell me anything if we weren’t alone.
14
King
* * *
Winter had Ivy in the room we kept free for members of other chapters who dropped in. When I entered the room, I found her sitting in the middle of the bed glaring at him. She diverted her attention to me as I moved closer to her. Cold eyes met mine, and her lips flattened. “Finally,” she muttered.
Anger rolled off her, but it didn’t diminish her beauty. Fuck, if anything, Ivy had grown more beautiful in the fifteen years since I’d seen her. The long dark hair, olive skin, curves, and ass I’d always been attracted to were all still there, but age had enhanced everything. It added to her appeal. A bad fucking thing for me when I was determined not to fall again.
I jerked my chin at Winter, indicating he should leave. When I had Ivy to myself, I dragged a chair next to the bed and sat. “Why now?” I demanded, keeping my eyes fixed firmly on her face so I could assess the truth of everything she said. Not even her body would distract me from this task.
