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“Uncle Zac!”

Annika’s daughter, Rebecca, threw herself at me after coming screaming down the hallway of the clubhouse to the office where I was going over shit with Hyde. Her little arms circled my legs as she hugged me, her blonde curls bouncing all over the place.

I scooped her up, and she wrapped her arms tightly around my neck while nuzzling her face in there too. For a tiny six-year-old, she was strong. “You been a good girl?”

She lifted her head and met my gaze, nodding with wild energy. “Yes!” Her eyes widened with expectation. “Do I get a treat?”

I narrowed my eyes at her, making her work for it. “You think you really deserve one? How good exactly have you been?”

Tiny fingers dug into my neck while she wriggled in my arms. When she answered my question, she did it with her signature style of enthusiasm. If I had to describe my niece in one word, it would be spirited. A huge contrast to her brother, Keith, who was mellow and a little shy.

“I’ve been the best. Ask Mummy! I even put all the books you bought me away in the bookcase this morning!”

“Mmm… was that before or after Mummy asked you to?”

Devil’s voice sounded from behind Annika. “King, hate to butt in, but Bronze just arrived.”

My eyes cut to his, and I nodded. “One minute.” Giving my attention back to Rebecca, I raised my brows signalling I was waiting for her answer.

Her little lips pressed together in the way they did when she had to tell me something she didn’t want to. She then nestled her head against my neck again while admitting softly, “After.”

Tipping her face up to mine, I said, “You promise to do it before from now on?”

Her curls bobbed as she nodded. “Yes.”

I bent to deposit her on the floor. “I’ve got a new book for you, but if I hear you’re not sticking to our agreement, I’ll take it back.”

The excitement in her eyes couldn’t be mistaken. I fucking loved her love for books.

Annika placed her hand on her daughter’s head while giving me her eyes. “Thank you.”

“Where’s Keith?” Even though he was eight, two years older than his sister, he didn’t have her confidence when it came to being around people, so he usually shadowed his mother.

“He’s coming in with Nitro. I guess they got talking about bikes.” She sighed. “You know what he’s like. He’s got that love of bikes you always had.” He did. And I knew it concerned her, but I ignored that. Keeping a man from his bike was like taking his fucking air from him. I encouraged Keith’s interest in bikes whenever I could.

“I’ve gotta deal with some stuff. I’ll come find you once I’m done. Skye’s studying in my room if you wanna hang out with her.” My sisters knew their way around the clubhouse, but Annika preferred the quiet, so I figured she’d choose my room over the bar.

“How bad is this, King?”

I’d been a member of Storm for seventeen years, and we’d been through some shit with the club in that time. I kept my family close, so we always stuck together in these times. While Skye grumbled her way through them, Annika just dealt. Always practical in her life, she understood the need to get on with shit and do whatever it took to survive. But that didn’t make it easier for her. I knew that while her strength ran deep, the effort to achieve it was great.

“Bad. Skye will fill you in.” I didn’t want to discuss this in front of Rebecca.

She nodded her understanding and guided her daughter away from me. I watched them for a few moments. I didn’t care what the fuck it took, I’d make sure they stayed safe. I always had, and I wasn’t fucking stopping now.

“King!”

I turned to find Bronze watching me, a wild expression on his face. Jerking my head towards the office, I barked out, “Nitro, my office!” He was somewhere in the club; someone would pass that on. Hyde, Devil, and Kick were already there, waiting to get shit started.

A few minutes later, door closed, I faced the five of them. The air in the room swirled thick with expectation. We all wanted the same thing. Even Bronze. He might have been a cop, but he knew what had to be done. He and I had been through a lot together in the seven years since I’d recruited him, and the one thing I knew for sure about him was that he had zero tolerance for family members becoming casualties of war. I knew without even having to ask him that he’d stand by me and avenge the deaths of Jen and her child. It’s what I’d done for him all those years ago, and while Bronze wrestled with his conscience over many things, his loyalty for that act was guaranteed.

I looked at him. “Where are the feds?” They’d pulled eyes off us yesterday, so they’d missed the events of today. That caused me to question the shit that had gone down. I didn’t fucking trust anything at the moment.

“The team has been moved for now. Looks like you’ve managed to lose your tail for a while.” At my questioning look, he added, “Trust it, King. I did some digging. It’s straight up.”

I decided to run with it just being a coincidence. Turning my attention to Hyde, I asked the question I’d been putting off since I arrived back at the clubhouse, “Where’s Ivy? And has she said anything else?”

My body remained on high alert since the moment I’d laid eyes on her in that attic. Every muscle tense, I warred with myself over her. Fifteen years apart and yet I still felt that pull to her. I wasn’t sure, though, what it meant. I hoped it only lingered because of our family history. I did not need to fuck myself over by wanting something that had no place in my life.

“I’ve got her with Winter. Told him not to let her out of his sight. And no, she didn’t utter another word to me.”

I nodded. Winter was a good choice. Glancing at Kick, I asked, “You took care of Jen?”

Another fucking question I didn’t want to ask. I’d left him to take care of her body when we headed out to meet with Ivy.

“Yeah, brother. What’s the plan there?”

I knew what he was asking. Where are we going to bury her?

I scrubbed my face, feeling every fucking one of my thirty-nine years, and then some. It was unbelievable to me—and not fucking much was anymore—that out of the two women I’d ever loved, one of them was now dead because of the other one.

“Jen’s got no one in her life. You find somewhere for her and let me know. I’ll be there.” I was all she’d had in the end. She might have driven me fucking crazy, but she didn’t fucking deserve this shit.

Discussing this wound me tighter than I already was. The headache pounding against my skull felt like it could explode the fuck out of my head, and the muscles across my shoulders bunched to the point of pain. In an effort to get shit moving so we could stop fucking talking, I barked, “I want all family members moved to safety. When this shit goes down, I don’t want any of them around. Nitro, you and Devil take care of that while Hyde and I work out a plan to get to Tony.” And while Kick finds a place to bury Jen.

Fucking hell.

“And Marx?” Nitro asked. “What do you want done with him?”

Marx was of no use to us anymore. “Stay with him tonight and then get rid of him tomorrow.”

Nitro nodded his understanding. “Will do.”

After everyone filed out, leaving Hyde and me alone, I said, “Choose three men and send them to Melbourne. Get eyes on Tony. I want to know if Ivy’s telling the truth.”

He watched me with the same level of fierce intensity that churned deep inside my gut. He’d stood by me years ago and watched as I lost my shit after Ivy left, so he had to understand what it meant for me to even question Ivy’s honesty in this. “And if she is?”

My hands clenched by my side. “Then we end this once and for all. I don’t give a fuck how it affects ties we have to anyone else. We’ll send the fucking word out—Storm doesn’t tread carefully anymore. They wanna take us on? They’ll pay the fucking price regardless of whose ass they’re kissing.”

Hyde’s nostrils flared and he exhaled sharply. “Agreed.”

It wouldn’t have mattered if he hadn’t, but it made shit easier that he did agree. “I’m gonna check in with Skye and Nik.”

He hesitated for a beat before asking, “You gonna call Axe? Zane?”

“Yeah.”

I would be calling in every fucking favour ever owed to me. And I’d drag every chapter of Storm into this war with us if I had to.

But first, my family needed me, and they were always my top priority. We hadn’t lived through the shit we had for nothing. Our bonds had been forged in hell, and they were strong. Unbreakable. We may not have been blood, but I gave no shits about blood. The only thing I cared about was that they’d always taken my back. For that, I’d give them my life if I had to.

I left Hyde and headed to my room. Mine was the one at the far end of the hallway. While the clubhouse was large, not every member had a room. I’d had mine for eight years, and my sisters weren’t strangers to it. I hated that they were dragged into my shit. Especially after everything we’d all been through as kids. And I really didn’t fucking want that for Keith and Rebecca.

“So how long this time?” Skylar demanded the minute I stepped foot in the room. She sat in the middle of the bed with her books spread out around her, pen tapping impatiently on one of the books. Annika sat in the armchair in the corner of the room with Rebecca sprawled across her while Keith hunched over a colouring book on the floor, completely engrossed in what he was doing.

“Skye,” Annika said in a low warning tone. Always the peacekeeper, she often tried to intervene in whatever Skylar and I had going on. It was pointless, though. Skye and I were both stubborn and usually refused to back down.

Skylar scowled. “No, Nik, I’m over this. It feels like it’s just one thing after another with Storm at the moment. When is this madness going to end? I just want to be able to live my life without having to worry about all this shit.”

“It’ll be over soon,” I started, but my phone rang, cutting me off.

“Oh, that’ll be Axe probably,” Skylar said, waving at my phone as I yanked it out of my back pocket. “I already called him and told him you’d kidnapped us.”

“Jesus,” Annika muttered, glaring at Skylar. “Why do you always do this?”

Skylar returned her glare. “Do what?”

Annika sighed, and I sensed her exhaustion. I wasn’t sure if it was over the argument or life in general. She’d been through a lot lately—stuff I wouldn’t blame her for being worn down over. “Bait him. It’s like you want him to lose his shit at you.”

Fuck. These two were in a mood with each other. Not unusual, but I wanted as little to do with it as possible.

I stabbed at my phone to answer it as I said to the girls, “I’ll be back. Don’t kill each other while I’m gone.” And then to Axe, I said, “Skye filled you in?” I exited the room as my sisters went head-to-head.

My brother’s deep voice rumbled through the phone. “She told me you had them holed up at the clubhouse, but she didn’t tell me why. You need me, brother?”

“Yeah, I need you. And I need Zane, too.” I caught him up with everything that had happened.

“Fuck, man, I’ve been waiting for Ivy to come back. Didn’t figure it would take her this long. You think she’s spinning shit? We both know how unstable she can be.”

I raked my fingers through my hair. “I need to have a conversation with her about it.”

“But you don’t want to get that close to her, do you?”

Axe knew me better than most and having grown up with Ivy and me, he knew her well, too. He knew how dysfunctional our relationship had been, so he understood my need to distance myself. “At this point, it doesn’t matter what I want. I have to do this for the club.”

He was silent for a beat before saying, “I’ll get there as soon as I can. Just dealing with a situation here, but I should be done with that by tomorrow, the next day at the latest.”

After he promised to catch Zane up with everything, we ended the call. I exhaled sharply as I contemplated what I had to do next.

Ivy.

I had to have that conversation with her.

Alone.

Fuck.

Too much could go wrong in this scenario, but I knew there was no way she’d tell me anything if we weren’t alone.