The way he said it sounded like he fully expected to get what he came for. There was a cold and calculated tone to what he said that iced my veins. I clenched my fists, remembering I’d been strong enough to escape him once before and that I would remain strong against him again. He didn’t own me anymore. “There is nothing you can say or do that would ever make me say yes to that.”

He regarded that statement and slowly placed his glass on the coffee table next to him. Looking back up at me, he said, “Oh, I will find a way, Rhys. I’m surprised at your lack of memory.”

“What memory?” Fuck, I knew he was leading me down a path I didn’t want to go, but the question fell out before I could stop it.

“Don’t you remember how I always found ways to bend you? To force you to do what I wanted. That brain of yours is wired to respond to me after all the time I put into your training. Don’t think for a minute that I won’t get what I want again. I’ve been patient all these years you’ve been gone. I’ve been building the empire I always said I would and now we are ready for your return.”

Bile rose in my throat, burning. I swallowed it down hard and clenched my fists again. The desire to knock him out was overwhelming, but I refused to give Joseph the satisfaction of knowing he’d affected me. “You’re as psycho as I remember, believing your own bullshit.”

As I took a step towards the door to leave, he said, “I’m a patient man, Rhys, but even I have my limits. If you don’t come around soon, I will find a way to change your mind.”

With one last glance at him, I exited the room. Stalking down the corridor to the lift, I focused on getting my breathing under control and my thoughts back on track. Joseph had messed with them to the point they weren’t straight. Memories from the past flashed in and out, bringing up images of my training that made me want to vomit. By the time I hit the elevator, sweat had beaded on my forehead, and my breathing was as far from being under control as it fucking could be.

I stepped into the elevator. Dizziness took over as the tiny space closed in on me, and I thought for sure I would pass out. My phone rang, but it sounded far away. Fumbling, I pulled it out of my pocket. “Yeah?”

Tatum’s voice came through the line. “Nitro, are you okay? You sound off.”

“Keep talking.” I needed something to take my mind off what was happening.

“Huh?”

“Tell me anything, Vegas. I need the distraction.” I focused my gaze on the numbers counting down the floors.

She paused for only a moment more. And then—“Something I detest doing more than almost anything else is grocery shopping. It’s boring as fuck and a waste of time. Online shopping is where it’s at these days. But, when you run out of things in the pantry that you love, when you thought you had a good supply… I detest that, too—”

The elevator reached the ground floor and I stepped out of it. Tatum’s voice filtered in and out of my mind as I walked the distance to the hotel exit.

“—Milo. That is the absolute worst. I really don’t wanna go shopping on my way home from work. I don’t suppose you have any in your pantry?”

I walked through the exit and breathed in the fresh air. My lungs expanded, taking much-needed oxygen in. The feeling that I was going to faint passed and I relaxed a little.

“Nitro? Are you still there?”

I gripped the phone harder as I made my way to my bike. “Yeah. Sorry about that. What were you saying about me having some shit in my pantry?”

“Milo. Do you have any?”

“How the hell did you get onto the topic of Milo?”

“Well, you did tell me to talk about anything, and that was the thing I was thinking about at that moment,” she grumbled. And then softly, “Are you okay now?”

“Yeah,” I said gruffly. I hadn’t been prepared for that reaction at all. I needed to be better prepared mentally the next time I saw Joseph.

“Good,” she said, and I waited for her to ask me what happened, but she didn’t. Tatum knew how to push my buttons, but she also knew when to let shit be. And that was something I really fucking liked about her.

* * *

“Where are we at with the guns?” I asked King late that afternoon while we sat drinking together in the clubhouse bar.

He eyed me over his beer. “I want a decision by the end of this week. We’ll take a vote at Church.”

“Which way are you leaning?”

“With Joseph.”

Not the answer I wanted to hear, but the one I figured I’d get. “I saw him this morning. He’s a fucking psychopath, King. You don’t want anything to do with him.”

“What did he do to you to make you hate him so much?”

Showing weakness was something Joseph had taught me never to do. Sharing what he’d done to me with Tatum had been one thing, but blurting that shit out to my club president was a whole other matter. “He fucked my family up, King. In every way you can imagine. I’m loyal to this club, and have been for fifteen years, but that will be tested if we get into bed with Joseph.”

His jaw clenched. “What are you telling me, Nitro? That you’d want out of the club?”

“I don’t know. Storm is in my blood. It’s my family now, and I would do anything to protect my family. The thing is, though, that when you invite outsiders into your home, you have to have a level of trust there that they won’t fuck you over. Otherwise you’ve got nothing. I’m telling you that I will never trust Joseph, so if he’s invited to work with our family, shit’s gonna get fucked up for me.”

King listened and then nodded. “I hear you, brother, and I will take that into consideration. But you’ve gotta understand that our family has been threatened, and I will do anything I need to do to make sure we don’t go down. If it turns out that Joseph is the best decision for us, I won’t hesitate to make it.”

A commotion in the hallway drew our attention, and I turned to find Devil and Hyde entering the bar with the Silver Hell president in front of them. Dragon’s gaze met King’s and he made his way over to where we sat.

King shoved his chair back, furious. “What the fuck?” he demanded.

Dragon raised his hands at the same time that Hyde said, “He wants to talk to you about the shit that’s been going down.”