King's Reign (Sydney Storm MC #6)(47)

She frowned. “Huh?”

“He’s not a good guy, Ivy. He shot a woman tied to the club and left her for dead. Where is he now?”

Her eyes widened. “Umm, I don’t know. He said he had some stuff to take care of.”

I glanced at Hyde. “You and I will wait until he gets back. Winter can take her now.”

“What? Take me where? You can’t just come here and boss me around again,” she said, her shoulders pushed back like she was ready for a fight.

“You’re not fucking safe here, Ivy.”

“I don’t—”

I cut her off. “You need to get your shit together and leave with Winter. We don’t have time to fucking stand around arguing over this.”

Before she could respond to that, the sound of the front door opening and closing filtered through to the lounge room, and Brant called out, “I’m home, Ivy. Where are you?”

I put my finger to her mouth to silence her and jerked my chin at Hyde. He took the few steps to position himself behind the wall near the entry to the lounge. Winter also moved out of sight. When Brant stepped through the entryway, his eyes came directly to me, darkening with displeasure as they did.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked, glancing between Ivy and me. “If you’ve come to get her, she’s with me now.”

I pushed Ivy behind me. “No, asshole, she’s with me.”

He advanced our way, his face a storm of hatred. “You’re a smug fucker, King, but this time you’re wrong. This time, Ivy chose me, not you. She finally woke up to the fact you treated her like shit all those years you were together. And she realised I would never treat her that way.”

“Until the day she changes her mind,” I snarled, “And then you’ll just stalk and murder her, you sick fuck.” At the surprise on his face, I said, “Yeah, we know who you really are, Brant, and we know your history with women. I haven’t had a chance to tell Ivy yet, but once I do, you really think she’s gonna choose you?”

Ivy inhaled sharply and stepped from behind me to face Brant. “Is that true?”

His face twisted into an ugly canvas of malice. “They’re lying to you, Ivy. He always lies to you.”

I grabbed her bicep and tried to pull her back behind me, but she refused to budge. Instead, she took a step toward him. At the same time, he pulled a gun out and aimed it at her.

Motherfucker.

No fucking way was he getting a round off.

I lunged for her as he pulled the trigger.

The gun fired, the sound deafening as I lurched toward Ivy.

A second gunshot rang out, and Hyde bellowed something out I couldn’t understand. I was too focused on getting to Ivy that I could barely make out what he was doing, but I did see him charging toward Brant.

I collided with Ivy, covering her body with mine, and we went down.

A moment later, a thud echoed on the floor next to me.

I looked up to find Winter rolling Brant over before Hyde stood over him and shot him. Moving off Ivy, I stood and eyed Brant who lay dead at my feet.

Looking at Hyde and Winter, I said, “We need to get the fuck out of here now.

Hyde nodded. “Yeah, brother. You good?”

“Yeah.” The shot Brant fired at Ivy missed both of us, thank fuck.

“King.”

I turned to Ivy who stood staring at me in horror. “Was that stuff true about Brant?”

“Yeah.” When she didn’t say anything to that and just kept staring at me in shock, I reached for her. “You need to pack a bag, and we need to leave. And if you try to fucking argue with me, I’ll put you over my shoulder and carry you the fuck out of here.”

She blinked and then nodded. “Okay.”

Ten minutes later, we were on our way to the premises Winter had found for Storm to operate out of. Romano was out of the picture, Brant was out of the picture, and Ivy was safe. We would finalise some plans with Winter for what he had to do going forward, and then we’d go the fuck home. And once we’d taken care of the feds, life could get back to fucking normal.





21





King





I stood in the doorway and watched Ivy at the kitchen table talking with Brian. I’d brought her to the women’s shelter that he ran for us yesterday and she hadn’t been happy with that decision. She’d argued with me for a good half hour over it until I’d had enough and told her to pull her head in. I’d left not long after that, hoping like fuck she stayed. It had been a long night of little sleep while my thoughts thrashed about in my head.

I’d come to the decision I couldn’t force her to do something she didn’t want to do. Fuck knew, I’d forced enough upon her in the years I’d known her. And not all good things. It was up to her what she did now. I would help her in whatever way she asked, but I had to take a step back and let Ivy live her life to her own plan.

Brian glanced my way and stood. “King, we were just wondering what time you’d come by.”

I entered the kitchen, my eyes meeting Ivy’s. There was still resentment there, but it had eased a little. To Brian, I said, “Can you give us a minute?”

He nodded. “Sure.”

After he exited the room, I pulled out the chair next to Ivy and sat. Resting my arm on the table, I turned my body to face her. Taking in the tired lines on her face, I said, “You didn’t get much sleep either?”