Her head snapped around and she looked at me with shock. “What?”

I grinned. “I said, marry me.”

She stared in silence for a beat. And then my woman let loose on my ass. “That’s a shitty proposal, Nitro. If you want me to commit to you, you’re going to have to do about a hundred times better than that for a proposal.”

My grin grew, and I kissed her before she could push me away. “I was just testing the waters, Vegas.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You are so full of shit it isn’t funny.”

“And that right there is why I’m gonna marry your ass one day. Your fight gets me so fucking hard.” I said it loud enough so that only she could hear.

“God, you are so romantic sometimes,” she grumbled.

I kissed her again. “You wouldn’t know what to do with romance.”

“Maybe you should try it one day and we’ll see just how much further it gets you with me.”

“You’re telling me it’ll get me laid faster or more often?”

She smacked me, but I saw the laughter in her eyes. “I’m telling you that it might just blow your mind. Men have no fucking clue what the smallest romantic gesture is capable of achieving.”

I kept my gaze on her while I sucked back some beer. If she wanted romance, I’d fucking give it to her. But not because I wanted to get laid or because I wanted my ring on her finger. I’d give it to her because it would make her happy and that was all I cared about. A smile on Tatum’s face was like the sun shining on you when all you’d had was rain for weeks. And when she laughed… that shit was everything I lived for these days.

 

* * *

 

Tatum handed Devil a glass of Coke and said, “You wanna stay for dinner?”

Devil and I had been out in my shed for hours working on my bike. We were almost finished when Tatum arrived home from a day out shopping with Monroe.

“What you cooking, gorgeous?”

“I’m not cooking tonight. Nitro is.”

He grinned at me. “I like your style, brother. Keeping your woman happy by cooking. Smart move.”

Tatum knew that Devil and I always gave each other shit and clearly she decided she wanted in on that when she leant across and said to him, “It’s not his cooking that keeps me happy. It’s all in the way he uses that tongue of his when he l—”

Devil held up his hand and cut her off. “Nope, don’t need to know any more. But fuck, Tatum, you sure you don’t have a sister? I need a chick with a dirty mouth like yours.”

She laughed, but before she could reply, King entered my backyard and came our way. He had a woman with him. I squinted to get a better look at her and stood there stunned when I realised who it was.

“Is that Jen?” Devil asked just as I worked it out.

“Yeah, brother, that’s Jen.”

“Fuck, I never saw that coming.”

King had his arm around her as if they were together, which surprised me because they’d been apart for six years. The year after he’d become president had been turbulent for them, and she’d walked away to be with another man. It had shattered him.

“King,” I greeted him and then glanced at Jen and lifted my chin at her. “Jen.”

“Hey, Nitro,” she said, her voice shaky. She clung to King like she never wanted to let go.

Tension rolled off King’s body while he eyed Tatum. “Can you do me a favour, Tatum?”

“Sure.” She clearly sensed the tension too.

He let go of Jen and said, “Can you take Jen inside and make her some tea. Peppermint if you’ve got it by any chance. I need a minute with the boys.”

Tatum gave Jen a smile. “I’m not sure if we’ve got peppermint, but I’ll check.”

“Thank you,” Jen said softly. Something was very wrong with her. Jen wasn’t a soft woman. Hell, I recalled screaming matches between her and King that had lasted days.

Once they’d left us, King scrubbed his face and swore. “You got a beer, Nitro?”

“Yeah.” I grabbed one out of the fridge in the shed and came back to him. “What the fuck is going on, King? Because from what I can see, something bad is going down here.”

He drank over half the bottle in one go and then took a deep breath. “Only Kick knows this, but the guy Jen left me for used to beat her. Pretty badly. She finally left him and we found her a safe house in Broken Hill. Through Brian. Something got her spooked there so she left and moved in with a friend in Goulburn. The bastard tracked her down a few months ago, and she called me at midnight one night, scared out of her mind. I’ve been spending time with her the last couple of months trying to make sure she was safe. She refused to move back to Sydney, which pissed me off, but I couldn’t force her to come back. Then last night I got a call that he’s threatened her again, so I put my fucking foot down. She’s moving in with me until I can find this motherfucker and fix the problem.”

“So you want us to help with that?” Devil said.

“Yeah, but as well as that, Dragon just gave word that he’s ready to start the attacks on Gambarro.”

The last couple of months had been quiet on the Gambarro front. He’d been dealing with a police investigation into shit that involved his businesses and it had kept him busy, which worked out for Silver Hell and us. It had given us the time we needed to prepare ourselves to take him and his organisation down.

“We’re ready for this, King,” I said.

“Yeah, but not when I need to give my attention to Jen. I told Dragon I wanted to wait, but he’s not listening. He wants this shit to start on Monday.”

Two days.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked. “And what did Hyde say?”

“I can’t get hold of Hyde. That’s another problem we have.”

In my opinion, that was the worst news out of all this. Hyde had been off the radar a lot lately. Devil and I had been covering for him.

When neither Devil nor I said anything, King narrowed his eyes at us. “What the fuck is going on with Hyde and why the fuck don’t I know about it?”

“I honestly don’t know, brother,” I said. “There have been a few times where we’ve needed him and haven’t been able to reach him. Nothing major, though, so we didn’t want to bother you with it.”