Monroe was distracting me and she wasn’t even anywhere near me. I couldn’t get her out of my head. And that was a dangerous distraction to have when Storm was in the middle of shit.

Salvatore Ricci had turned out to be a dead end. He didn’t have anything to do with Jacko’s death and had proved it to us. That left us with a few other options, but getting to the bottom of it all was proving hard to do. King’s call tonight had been in regards to the guy Fox had put us onto. He’d been found dead with a message delivered to King afterwards.

“You’ve taken what’s mine, now I will take what’s yours.” King’s wild eyes came to mine as he waved the piece of paper sent to him in a box with the guy’s head. “What the fuck does this even mean?”

I had no idea either. It made no sense to me that this guy’s head had been sent to us. We’d had nothing to do with him until recently. And it made even less sense as to what King had supposedly taken from whoever was behind all this.

Bronze stepped forward. King had called him, Devil, Nitro, Kick and me in to deal with this. “You definitely don’t know this guy?” He indicated to the head in the box. “Not even from years ago?”

King scrubbed his face. “I’m almost one-hundred-fucking-percent sure I’ve never had anything to do with him.”

“And he gave you no leads when you saw him?”

Nitro shook his head. “Nothing. Hyde made sure he was in enough pain to speak if he had anything worth sharing, but he didn’t.”

Bronze nodded. “I don’t need specifics.” It was the warning he often gave us when we were about to cross one of his self-imposed boundaries. I didn’t know why he bothered. Simply working with us the way he did crossed enough lines to ensure his imprisonment if his colleagues ever discovered his corruption.

“I want to know everything about him,” King said to Bronze, indicating he wanted Bronze to look into him.

Bronze exhaled a frustrated breath. “I’m stretched, King. You’ve got me investigating three other guys. I’m trying to get through a huge workload at work, and I’m trying to evade Ryland, which is starting to prove difficult. Something’s gotta give if you want me to look into this.”

King frowned. “Why the fuck is Ryland on you?”

Bronze shrugged. “Got no fucking idea. I’ve either searched something or asked the wrong person something, and it’s triggered his interest in me. He’s been sniffing around for days, asking me all kinds of shit about Storm. I need to lay low.”

King met my gaze again. “We need to deal with Ryland.”

“Take him out of the equation?” I asked to confirm I’d understood where he was going with this.

Bronze held his hand up. “No. Let me look into him.”

“What will that achieve?” I asked, not following.

“There’ll be some dirt there. I just need to find it and then use it to get him to back off.”

This whole fucking situation was doing my head in. I’d had little sleep this week. That, on top of dealing with this shit, caused me to lose my patience with Bronze. “I’m about fucking done with pussy-fucking-footing around this, Bronze. I say we remove Ryland once and for all. And as for these three other Italians, why the fuck are we being so damn careful with them? Just fucking eliminate all of them.”

“Fuck, Hyde,” Devil said, “Who twisted your panties today?”

I shot daggers at him. “It’s starting to feel like Storm has lost their edge. We need to mark our fucking territory and make it clear again that you don’t fuck with us.”

“Yeah, but we can’t just go fucking pissing over whoever we want,” Nitro warned. “That shit will give us more issues than we have now.”

I needed a fucking drink. “Fuck it,” I muttered, and turned to head into the clubhouse bar.

“Where the fuck are you going?” King demanded.

“I’m getting a drink. Maybe when I get back you assholes will have come to your senses.”

I stalked out of the office and down the hallway to the bar, ignoring the shit they called out to me as I went. The minute I hit the bar, I decided it wasn’t the best idea. Being Friday night, members packed the room, and they were loud as fuck. A headache had kicked in while listening to everything King said, which meant the combination of music blaring from the speakers and drunken antics was like walking into hell.

Kree watched me with a wary eye. Smart woman. “Whisky?”

I nodded. “Why are you here? I didn’t think you worked nights anymore.”

“I don’t usually, but we were short staffed, so I came in.” She poured my drink and handed it to me. “Why do you look like you could murder someone?”

I poured some of the whisky down my throat. “Because I could.”

An argument broke out between two club members next to me at the bar. Within moments, fists were involved, and the few empty glasses on the bar top went flying, smashing onto the ground.

“For fuck’s sake!” I roared and moved to break them apart. I managed to do that, but in the process, ended up with a fist in my eye. That infuriated me more than I already was, and I retaliated with a fist to his fucking face, knocking him to the floor.

I glared at him as I picked up my drink. “Next time you wanna fight, take that shit outside.” I downed the rest of my whisky and shoved the empty glass at Kree. “I’ll have another,” I barked.

She arched a brow. “You want to try that again?”

“Not particularly.”

“I’m not making you another until you speak to me like a civil human being, Hyde.”

Fucking hell. “Make me a fucking drink, Kree, or else you and I are gonna have words about your employment here.”

“Hyde.” King’s ominous voice came from behind me.

I faced him, shoulders squared. “Have you come to your senses?”

Distaste clung to his words when he ordered, “My office. Now.”

We watched each other, silently waging war. This wasn’t an unusual occurrence for us. One minute united, the next going to battle with each other. It never lasted long, but over the last few months, tensions had simmered to boiling point. I did my best to reel my shit in, but when my mind snapped like it had tonight, my efforts were futile.

When I didn’t budge, he repeated himself in the quiet, menacing voice that signalled he’d also reached his limit. I managed to come to my senses enough to heed his warning. When we arrived at his office, he kicked everyone out and closed the door behind us.

“If you were anyone else, I’d tell you to get the fuck out of the clubhouse for the way you spoke to Kree.”

“You’re fucking joking, right?”

“No.”

“Who the fuck is Kree to you, King? I’ve watched the way you are with her. I’ve never seen you like it with any other woman here.”

“That’s not fucking important here. Your—”

I cut him off. “You’ve never cared about this shit before. Why the change all of a sudden?”

“Fuck!” He slammed his hand down on the desk and then paced the width of the office in silence for a few moments. Finally, he stopped and looked at me. The torment I saw in his eyes was enough to make me stop. Something else was going on here.

“What?”

“The club is in danger, and I can’t fucking figure out who is behind it. I can’t fucking stop it. And I can’t fucking make sure everyone is safe.” He paused for a moment. I’d never seen King in this state before. He lived and breathed power, not this bewilderment. “The only thing I seem to have any control over at the moment is the club.” He jabbed a finger in the air at me. “I fucking need you behind me, brother. Not pissing all over club members and staff. Not losing that fucking temper of yours all the damn time. Go home, get yourself together, and when I see you next, I don’t wanna see any of this bullshit. It’s done. I’m not fucking putting up with it anymore.”

He was right. I was smart enough to acknowledge that.

I nodded, but said nothing. There wasn’t anything to say to that. King wasn’t looking for promises; he never was. The only thing he was interested in were actions that produced results.

“Go home. Bronze is looking into Ryland and the other guy for us. There’s nothing else to do here tonight.” With that, he exited the office, his shoulders tense with the burden he carried.

Fuck.

Letting King down wasn’t something I wanted to do. And I’d done plenty of it over the years. I hadn’t cared enough, though. Life had just been something to get through. Until now. Now, I had reasons to do better. To be better.

I stopped at the bar before I left. Kree was busy so I waited for her. When she was free, I said, “I was an asshole. I’m sorry.”

Her eyes searched mine. I had the distinct impression she was assessing my honesty. Finally, she nodded and said, “Apology accepted. Don’t do it again, Hyde. I’ve put up with enough shit from men in my life. I won’t accept it anymore.”

“Understood.”

I respected the hell out of a woman who stood her ground. If she’d told me to go fuck myself, I would have understood. Now that I’d calmed down I would have. Not earlier, though. No, earlier my temper owned me. And that scared the everloving fuck out of me. It reminded me that I really was my mother’s son.