Chapter Twenty-four
King
Waking up with Grace in my arms was something I’d wanted for so fucking long. Something I never thought I’d get.
But here she was.
When I left her in my room last night, I thought she’d still be there when I got back. I hadn’t been gone that long. Cash could have handled that shit without me. The fire was already out; no one had gotten hurt.
Seeing Corbin and not my brother had set my nerves on edge. Then finding out Ravage was gone pissed me off.
“Where the fuck are my brothers?” I glared at Nav, because if anyone knew where and what Ravage was doing, it was that motherfucker.
“Well, um, Firestride had some information... about the body that was found and Ravage, uh...”
I stood there waiting while Nav stammered over his words. Which told me I really wouldn’t like what he had to say if he ever got the fucking words out.
“He what?”
“He and Dec set a trap,” Cash offered.
“What kind of fucking trap?”
“Well, Dec concluded that the body found around town was different from uh...” I waved my hand in a circle hoping he would speed it up. “Different from the other bodies found on the ranch. Karlyn has a serial killer hunting her. Ravage knew who it was, so he took Karlyn camping—”
“He’s fucking camping?!” I shouted.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “So let me get this straight. I have one brother, whose wife is ready to drop his kid any fucking second, and he’s traipsing around in the goddamn woods? And another brother who decides to go camping while a fucking serial killer is hunting his woman?”
“That about sums it up, Prez.”
I turned to glare at Romeo. I inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly as I silently counted to ten.
“When they get back,” I said with a calm I didn’t feel, “I want to know. Other than that, don’t fucking bother me unless someone is dead.” I stalked toward the hallway but turned back to the room and added, “Or if Maureen goes into labor and you can’t find her asshole husband.”
Shifting on the bed, I put my head in my hand, resting on my elbow. I stared at Grace. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on in her head. For years, we’d fought about being together. She didn’t understand why I couldn’t claim her. And I didn’t understand what the fuck she didn’t get.
There were rules I had to follow, especially if I expected my men to follow those same rules. Not to mention the fact that she was too fucking good for me.
I didn’t deserve her.
She was so fucking perfect.
My blonde bombshell.
And she was finally mine.
Mine to hold.
Mine to protect.
Mine to love the way she deserved to be loved.
I might never do something that made me worthy of her, but fuck if I was giving her up now.
I was happier than I should have been, knowing that Steele wasn’t her father.
I’d need to get Nav on it and see if he could track down who was.
It might make me an asshole, but I hoped whoever he was, he was fucking dead already.
Grace stirred beside me, and my eyes roamed over her face as she stretched and looked up at me.
“It’s always been you, Grace. From the first moment I saw you behind the bar, men swarming around you hoping you would notice them. But I’m the lucky son of a bitch who took you home.”
Her eyes closed, shame flitting over her features, and I knew what she was thinking about.
“I noticed you the second you walked in,” she confessed. “I’d had a plan. I was so stupid.” Her eyes opened, and she stared at me. With tears in her eyes, she added, “I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you.”
I leaned down and kissed her. “I love you, Grace.”
Her expression changed then to one of concern. “You said nothing had changed.”
“I meant my feelings for you.” My fingers grazed her cheek, and she leaned into my hand. “It doesn’t matter to me who the fuck your father is. You’re mine now, and I’m never letting you go.”
“And what happens if my father is the president of another club?”
I shook my head. “I don’t fucking care. I’ve already claimed you at the table. Jack will have your cut tomorrow, and I’m gonna put a fucking ring on your finger before the bastard, whoever the fuck he is, comes looking for you.”
“And what if I don’t want all that?” she asked.
“I don’t fucking care.”
“I want to believe you, King, but the moment you thought Steele was my father, you pushed me away. I can’t handle being pushed away again.”
“Steele was my president. I know I’ve said this before, but there are rules, baby.
Rules I have to follow.” I paused before I told her everything.
I needed her to know what happened. “The man you met—Jude. His road name is Chasm. He was my best friend. He’d joined the club a year before I did and worked his way up to enforcer as I worked my way up to road captain.
We used to talk about branching off. Starting another chapter.
Neither of us wanted to be in the club when Steele eventually took over from Titan.
I’d talked to Titan about it. He hadn’t planned for Steele to take over.
He didn’t trust him. His own fucking son.
Titan had planned to have the charter changed.
He wanted me to take over from him. And Chasm would have been my VP. ”
Grace was quiet. Her green eyes never left me as I talked about the past.
“When Titan died, we all believed Steele and Stone. That he and his wife had been killed by a rival club. Except Chasm. He started digging. Looking for the proof that Steele was behind it. As far as I knew, Steele had no idea.
“We were on a run; there was a warehouse we were supposed to meet buyers at. Chasm and I were supposed to go in together, but Steele called. I’d told him to wait, but Steele wouldn’t let me go.
Chasm was concerned the buyers would balk, so he went in alone.
The warehouse exploded, and I thought I’d lost my best friend.
“When I returned to the club, Steele acted as though nothing had happened. As though all we’d lost was a deal.
He’d had pretty words for the club, talk about getting justice and all that shit, but there was something in his words that didn’t feel right.
That was when my faith in him really started to wane.
Cash already didn’t like Steele, and he shared various reasons why.
I couldn’t ignore Cash’s concerns anymore, not after what happened to Chasm. ”
“But he’s alive.”
“He’s alive. I don’t know how and I don’t know why he hasn’t come looking for me sooner. I think he blames me.”
“Why would he blame you?” she asked, sitting up and pulling the sheet with her. I stared at the arm covering her chest and holding the sheet in place, wanting desperately for it to drop so I could distract her from this conversation I didn’t want to have.
I rolled onto my back and looked at the ceiling. “Chasm and I fought about Steele. A lot. I’d refused to believe he had anything to do with his father’s death.”
“Even though his father didn’t trust him?”
“Even though his father didn’t trust him.
Steele and Titan didn’t see things eye to eye, almost ever.
When Titan died, I was a twenty-six-year-old punk who looked up to Steele.
For most of my life, I’d only had Declan, and we constantly butted heads.
Especially when I joined the club. I just thought Titan didn’t want to hand the club over to him because they disagreed on how things should be run. ”
“Titan wanted to bypass Steele for you to be president, but you didn’t trust his judgment when it came to his son?”
“Twenty-six-year-old punk, Grace. I didn’t care.” I shrugged. “I heard president, and everything else was just noise.” I sat up and pulled her against my chest. “I know I’m not fucking good enough for you. But I love you, Grace.”
“But not enough to go against the man you thought was my father.”
“Are we still having the same fucking argument? He’s dead, Grace. He wasn’t your father, after all. Why is he still fucking between us?”
She pulled away and climbed out of the bed, taking the sheet with her. “Because you still don’t fucking get it!” she shouted. “Nothing has changed.”
“Every-fucking-thing has changed!” I argued. Grace closed her eyes, and a tear slipped down her cheek. I got up and went to her, trying to hold her, but she pushed me back.
“The circumstances may have changed, King. But your feelings, your sense of right and wrong when it comes to the club, will always be between us. I thought I could do this. I thought I could be happy with whatever you were willing to give me, for however long it lasted, but I can’t.
I can’t be my mother. I can’t live my life according to the whims of an MC president who says one thing and does another. ”
She slipped past me into the bathroom as someone knocked on the door.
“FUCK!”
I walked over to the door and yanked it open. I stood there, my junk hanging out, Maureen on the other side, her eyes wide and blinking.
“Shit!” I slammed the door closed and grabbed my jeans. Once they were on, I opened the door again. Maureen glared at me.
“You and I need to have a come-to-Jesus moment.”
“Maureen—” I started, but was cut off by Blade, who was coming up the stairs.
“Ravage is back.” He took one look at the way Maureen was scowling at me and turned around and rushed back downstairs.
“Maureen—”
“Go. I’ll talk to you later.” She waved me off, and I slipped on my boots but left my cut and shirt in Grace’s room. We weren’t done talking, and I’d grab it all when I came back. Right now, I needed to have a come-to-Jesus moment of my own, with my fucking little brother.
I made it to the main room in record time. I didn’t pause. I walked up to the five men who were pissing me off and clocked Ravage in the cheek. He stumbled back against Firestride, then came back swinging.
I’d gotten to know him well enough over the last few days to expect him to fight back, so I dropped down, hitting him in the gut. The whoosh of air told me he hadn’t expected it.
Nav got in front of me and pushed me back, while Eros corralled Ravage.
“What the fuck?!” he screamed.
“I’d ask you the same fucking thing. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Prez,” Nav said quietly, looking over at Karlyn. “Maybe we should take this to church.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I want all fucking five of you in church right fucking now.”
I turned around and stormed through the double doors after I called out, “Cash and Zeus, now!”
I threw myself into my chair and seethed as Cash and Zeus entered church.
Cash looked my way, and I shook my head.
He knew me well enough to know I wasn’t just fucking angry.
The thought of both my brothers in the fucking woods with a damn serial killer had me fucking terrified. I could have lost them both.
“Use your fucking words, Prez.”
“Fuck you, Cash.”
Nav walked in, followed by Eros, Indigo, Firestride, and finally Ravage. We glared at each other across the table.
“You ever come at me like that in front of my woman again, you’re fucking dead.”
“Sit the fuck down. I will apologize to Karlyn later.”
“You don’t fucking go near her.”
I stood up, bracing my hands on the table in front of me, and snarled, “I’m the king of this motherfucking castle. Sit your ass down and shut the fuck up.”
Everyone in the room was quiet as Ravage and I faced off. His nostrils flared, and he huffed his breath through his nose like a fucking bull.
“I see the resemblance now,” Indigo muttered.