King's Reign (Sydney Storm MC #6)(7)

She frowned, pulling her arm away. “What?”

The hole in my heart grew a little bigger as I watched my daughter struggling. “Don’t shut down on what’s happening.”

Her face pulled into a scowl. “I’m not shutting down, Mum. Some of us just have stuff we still have to do. If I fall behind on school, it’ll only be harder to catch up after this is all over.”

I didn’t understand what she meant by that. “You mean after Brynn comes home?”

Her eyes stayed locked to mine while she remained silent. I knew by her refusal to answer my question that she didn’t have faith she’d ever see her aunt again.

Oh God.

Pain sliced me.

I have to keep the faith.

She looked at Linc. “Can we just go buy a printer?” Harsh again. Bleak. My poor baby. But I couldn’t reach her. God, I could hardly reach myself.

Linc nodded and they left me alone with my thoughts. Mum had refused dinner and had locked herself in her bedroom. Zara and Robbie were also in their rooms. Thank goodness my mother had a big house. Beds for all of us, even Linc who had taken it upon himself to move in and help us through this.

The police had given us the go-ahead this afternoon to move back home, so Linc had spent a few hours there cleaning up after he collected the kids from school. He’d had to get the key off me, and that had brought King front and centre in my mind again. The man was such a strong presence even when I tried to push him to the side.

And now I was thinking about him again.

Ugh.

I stalked to the kitchen to grab a smoke. My attempt at quitting had flown out the window completely. Everything had flown out the damn window.

Once I’d located a cigarette, I headed out the front door to check the mailbox. Linc may have already checked it, but I wasn’t sure. As I bent over to check the box, a car pulled up down the street. Straightening, I narrowed my eyes to watch it. A guy got out and walked to another car that was parked in front of him. King’s men. I watched them have a conversation, anger rising in me. It struck suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, but I knew it had to be a reaction to everything I was dealing with. And yet, even though I realised that, I channelled every ounce of that anger towards King as I stomped down the street towards his men.

It was irrational.

It was ungrateful.

But I was pissed at the world, and I couldn’t stop myself.

“Why are you guys still here?” I yelled as I approached them.

They both glanced at me, their faces not revealing any surprise at my behaviour.

The one I recognised as the guy King had called Mace once when I was at the clubhouse, said, “King wants your family watched.”

“I don’t care what King wants. I want you to leave. I don’t need his protection.”

He pulled a face. “Sorry, babe, no can do.”

I looked at the other guy who watched me with care. “Let me guess—you only take your orders from King, too?”

“Yeah. And I agree with him. There’s no harm to you if you just go about your shit while we go about ours. Keeps everyone happy.”

He was right.

I knew that.

But I had this overwhelming need to remove King from my life after he’d removed himself from mine. If he didn’t want anything to do with me anymore, I would slam that door closed and hammer bolts in it. The hurt he’d inflicted wasn’t something I wanted to experience again. After years of keeping my heart to myself, only sharing little pieces of it here and there, I’d been ready to crack it wide open again. Not anymore.

“Give me your phone,” I said to Mace, holding my hand out.

He shook his head. “No.”

“I’m not going anywhere until I speak with King, so one of you needs to get him on the phone.”

Mace’s gaze hardened. He appeared to wrestle with his thoughts, until finally he muttered, “Fuck, Lily, you don’t make shit easy for a man.”

I lifted my brows, waiting for the phone.

Stand your ground.

Do not let these guys steamroll you.

He pulled out his phone and made the call, passing it to me before King answered.

Nervous energy engulfed me as I held the phone to my ear waiting for King. My tummy went crazy with nerves, annoying me. I didn’t want to feel anything. Didn’t want to be this affected by King.

But I was.

Damn.

“Mace,” King barked, “is everything okay?”

My hand shook as it gripped the phone hard. “It’s not Mace, King. It’s me.”

Silence.

“Lily.”

Oh God.

No.

The gravel in his voice hit me first.

Then, the hint of softness.

Totally unexpected.

And confusing.

King didn’t do soft, so it made no sense.

But it couldn’t be denied—King had just toned himself down a level for me.





4





King





Christ, I’d needed to hear her voice. Three days without it, and I was questioning my own fucking sanity. What kind of man thinks about a woman non-fucking-stop when he’s only known her for three weeks? I’d made a mistake telling her we were done. We were a long fucking way from done.