Page 59 of Tyrant

“I’ll be back to get her soon,” I promise.

It’s a promise I’m eager to keep. I just want this night to be over. I want all the nights to be over until we’re free of Zale Grand and his threat over us. I don’t believe in this peace for a second and it would be nice to live without always feeling so on edge.

“Take your time. We’re fine here. It’s not that late yet.”

Even my dad knows this partying is going to go on until morning. As president, Gray has to be there and there’s no way I’m calling it a day to crawl into bed without him.

Gray doesn’t take me back to the party. He steers me to our room instead. Every door in the club is now thick steel. The codes are bulletproof. Literally, so are the windows in the place, but they’ve been that way for a long time. Within the club, planning for enemies from within, Wizard kicked up security measures. Every man in the club has been working hard to make changes to the club. It’s not just Gray, putting in impossible hours. I can’t see how any of us aren’t on the verge of utter collapse.

Odin stands near the door. He trailed Gray, I realize, his guard for the night, but kept well enough back that I didn’t notice him until now. He doubled back and beat us here, obviously knowing something I don’t.

Gray nods at him, puts in our code, and pulls me inside.

“Gray,” I hiss, looking at the door. “Odin is right outside.”

He lifts a brow “Don’t worry. He knows exactly what we’re going to be doing until we come out.”

I’m no prude and I’ve come a long way from my sheltered, good girl, people pleasing life, but I still blush. “That’s the problem.” I gulp. “What are we doing in here?”

“Gunner can hold things down for an hour. I wanted to talk to you.”

“That sounds ominous.”

I hate all of this. The knives in the night alliance, the new men we can’t trust, this woman who claims to be Gray’s sister marryingmybrother. She’ll probably have her blood red claws in him before the night is over, or into someone out there. She’s the perfect, most lethal of weapons. A power move if I’ve ever seen one—exactly how I’d expect Zale Grand to operate. I want to rebuild Gray’s house. It’s not that I don’t love the club or the renovations we’ve done in Gray’s room to make a private, small room for Penny here, but I want our lives tostart. I don’t want to keep waiting for a disaster. I’d like my man to fall into bed beside me at the end of the night and be able to sleep, but no matter how exhausted and ragged he is, there hasn’t been a lot of that. Gray’s mind won’t shut off. His body is supposed to be healing and I can there are so many days when he’s in pain.

Gray is my king and I’m his queen and that means standing beside him and putting my trust in him instead of voicing my endless concerns.

“Go get your property cut,” Gray instructs me, grinning deviously. He indicates our small closet on the far side of the room. “Want to see you wearing it while I take you and hard and rough.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re a total caveman sometimes and I love it.” The vest is my own badge of honor. Seer had it custom made for me when she got back to Hart. On the back is ‘Satan’sAngels MC’ and ‘Property of Tyrant’ patched along the top and bottom, with the bowing angel logo in the center. It’s my very own three-piece patch, marking me as part of the club, but more importantly, unmistakably as Gray’s.

Gray sits down in the big leather chair across from our bed. He pats his lap, a playful spark in his eyes. “Come here. I brought you here to punish you.” He can’t say that with a straight face. I gasp just to humor him, but the ache pounding between my legs is very real.

“What for?”

“You were scowling at the bride all day.”

I slip into the vest and cross my arms. I’m wearing a floral dress and flats, my hair curled and put up, looking the least bit like a biker babe of anyone in the place, but I’ve learned how to give good sass and take no shit.

“Fake or arranged or whatever, I don’t want my brother anywhere near that woman.” Saying bitch just goes against my nature of thinking of women as a sisterhood. I won’t do it, even if she probably deserves it. “Half the men forgot themselves and were ogling and drooling over her. The club’s women looked like they wanted to scratch her eyes out. They can’t wear their colors here, but she’s wearing her vest? She’s a siren and a demon. She knows exactly what she’s doing.”

“Your concern is noted and shared.”

“She looks at my brother wrong and she’ll lose her eyes, I promise.”

Gray’s lips curl up on the scarred side. “You’ve already vowed to kill my father. Do you want my sister too?”

“She harms one of my own and she’s as good as dead.”

“My, but what a bloodthirsty little bird you’ve become.”

“I’m serious!”

Gray pats his lap, studying me earnestly. “I know. But you have to trust me. do you trust that your king has a plan?”

I walk over and let out a huge sigh as I sit on his lap. I twine my arms around his neck and lean into him. It’s so easy to melt into his strength, to close my eyes and get transported by the familiarity of his body and his scent. “I do. It’s not you I question, it’s them. They’re unpredictable and dangerous.”

“Stop thinking about them for tonight. They’ll still be there in the morning. We have enough security in this place and the brothers won’t forget themselves. That’s a promise. Wouldn’t you like to know how I’m going to punish you?”

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