Page 72 of Royal

I grab the gas and pour it straight down the pipe, and his body arches in pain when the gas enters his body.

Shane hands me a match before I can even ask for it. I drop it in the tube, causing Twister to burn alive from the inside out. You can see the smoke coming from his pores. I stare into his face of agony, smiling the whole time until he is dead.

It’s like I can breathe fully for the first time today. Because all of the people who have threatened my family are now dead.

“It’s over, go see to my sister,” Shane tells me, and I shake hands with all of them, leaving the mess to the prospects to clean up.

Gavin looks horrified, but mostly because he is terrified of me now because he should have been watching Naomi when she was taken. After all, that was his job. “Better do as you’re told, prospect, or your next.” I smack his shoulder as I walk by, and everyone laughs.

“I think he is going to quit,” Knight tells me as the door shuts behind us, that part done and over.

Now I’m going to see my kids and fuck my woman.

Naomi

The kids have asked me a hundred questions about what happened to my face, so I made up a lie that I fell in the bathroom at the park and the door swung shut on me.

They believed me but the girls have made it their mission to make sure I’ve been taken care of.

It’s super sweet.

Presley is hovering. “I promise I’m okay, angel.” I reach for her and she climbs in my lap, snuggling into my chest. My ribs are screaming at me, but I don’t care how much it hurts, she needs me.

An hour later, I have them bathed and in bed. I’m lying on the bed when I hear Royal walk up the stairs, and I try not to jump out of bed so I can run to him.

He appears in the bedroom doorway, looking like he has showered again at the clubhouse.

The knot on my head is making me feel so exhausted now that I’ve started to relax.

Royal slips out of his clothes into a pair of sweats, collapsing into bed with me. I scoot over and rest my head on his chest, needing to be close to him.

I yawn hard and loud, causing him to chuckle. “I know you wanted sex but I think you need sleep, sweet girl, your head has to be hurting you.”

He is not wrong, my whole body feels like I have been run over by a car.

“Do you need any painkillers?” he asks me.

“No, you’re the only medicine I need,” I say through another yawn, and he tightens his arms around me, kissing the top of my head.

“Sleep, baby.”

And I’m out.

The next morning, I wake up to the feeling of being stared at, a feeling I have grown to be accustomed to with Donovan when he tries to let me sleep. He stands there, watching me. It’s freaky.

“What’s wrong?” Royal whispers, and I groan, opening my eyes and seeing it’s eight o’clock in the morning. We haven’t moved all night with me glued to Royal’s chest.

All of the kids climb into our bed and the girls help lift Donovan. “Remember, Donovan, what we practiced,” Penny whispers to him, and he nods his little head.

Royal and I look at each other then back to the kids, confused because they’re acting like Donovan flushed all their toys down the toilet.

Penny lets out a deep breath like she is about to tell us something serious, and I start to get concerned about what it could be.

Presley holds Penny’s hand like she is giving her strength to come out with it. “I will go first,” she says, and I want to hug them because I’m starting to worry.

Penny looks at me, her little eyes wet from unshed tears. “I asked Donovan this morning if I could share his mommy.”

Oh my God.