AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll help,” I said. “If I can.”
“You help me every goddamn day.” Then he traced his fingers against my throat. “I am sorry.”
Tears burned in my eyes for the tragedy in his voice. But also because no one had ever apologized for actually hurting me before—then again, everyone else who’d done it hadn’t cared if they hurt me.
“Thank you.” I caught his hand and kissed his palm.
“So…” Freddie elongated the syllable, pulling my attention toward him and the rest of the room. The silence had weight. “What did we miss?”
He winked when his gaze collided with mine, but I understood what he meant. The guys were all strung out and a little too sober. Rome turned the sketch he’d drawn toward me and I skimmed it.
“Oh. You drew the King.”
“So, he is the man you had dinner with a few nights ago?” Milo asked.
“Yes. The same one we had to meet a few weeks ago with Ezra. The king.” I wrinkled my nose. I got the joke. His name was Julius King—so taking the name “The king” was more than a little ostentatious. Then again, after meeting the man, he seemed to live up to all that arrogance.
Milo’s scowl deepened, and the temperature in the room shifted. Even Mickey let out a ragged breath.
“What happened?”
I twisted in Mickey’s lap and then stood up. Kellan and Liam were grimmer than I’d ever seen them. Jasper and Vaughn looked more disturbed than angry. Rome seemed more thoughtful, but Milo—he was furious.
“Milo?”
Mickey caught my hand, squeezing gently, but no one else was saying anything.Everyonewas looking at Milo. Fear plummeted through me.
“Is it Lainey?”
He jerked his head up. “No, Ivy, Mayhem is fine—as far as I know.”
Relief cut through me like it severed all my strings. “Then what?”
“That man…” Milo said, nodding to Rome’s sketch. “He might be calling himself Julius King now—for all I fucking know, maybe he changed his name legally. But that’snothis name.”
Ice slicked over my spine at the frost in Milo’s tone. Worse was the barren wasteland in his eyes when he locked his gaze on me.
“Take a long look at him. Memorize his face. Thennevergo near him again.”
Beyond the obvious… “Who is he?”
“His real name is Jeff,” Mickey said quietly. “Jeff Hardigan.”
“He’s the son of a bitch who dumped us,” Milo said, and the hostility edging every single word sent goosebumps racing over my skin. I jerked my gaze from Milo to the sketch again. Rome had always been a truly gifted artist. He’d captured the arrogance in King, as well as the harsher elements of his personality: the abrasiveness and the way he had of staring right through a person.
This was our father?
I cut a look toward Milo again. Only he wasn’t staring at me, but at the sketch. “Our father tried to have you killed?”
Why?
“That’s not all he did, Ivy.” The dead notes in his tone pulled at me. “However, you don’t need to worry about him. You willnevergo near him again.”
Except… I tracked my gaze to Liam. We’d thrown a gauntlet down at King. He gave me the barest head shake. Not a discussion for now.
All I wanted was to do something that would make it all better for Milo, I just had no ideawhat.Releasing Mickey’s hand, I folded my arms. Milo might not want a hug. I dismissed that thought a second later and simply went to my brother.
He gave a little jolt when I wrapped my arms around him. Closing his own arms around me, he pulled me in close.
