Page 24 of Ruthless Reign

“Verona, I…” I choked back my tears. She’d lost family to his war, so had I. Where did it end? Could Leo and I really put a stop to it? “I don’t know what to say.”

“Bear wanted to go to college. He wanted out of this life, and he never got it,” she said. “Now he’s under the pressure of taking over the mess my father left him, this fractured kingdom. He’s the king.” She took another long drag on her cigarette before stabbing it out. “And you, darling, you’re the queen, even if you don’t like it, even if you don’t know what to do with it.”

She could have smacked me and it would have shocked me less. I had never known any of this about him, but nor had I asked. I’d been too focused on my plight to consider exactly what type of mess I’d stepped in. But she was right. Roman was holding things together by his fingernails, praying Leo would come through in the end. But my brother wasn’t the one who had the information, the one who had a plan, the one who was supposed to be his partner.

Roman needed me. And begrudgingly, I needed him.

“Take it from one princess to another,” Verona said. “If you can make Bear respect you, the others will, too. From what I’ve heard from my boyfriend, you’ve got enough spirit to have all of them eating out of the palm of your hand.”

I tried not to blush, but couldn’t help it. I could only imagine the stories Hollywood had told Verona.

“My brother loves a woman who will stand up to him,” Verona said. “So keep doing that and things will get better.”

“Thank you,” I said. “Truly.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome.” She gave me another friendly smile. “You know, it may be the four beers talking, but I’ve always wanted a sister, and if you’re what fate’s gonna give me, then I guess I can find a way to make my peace with it, no matter what our families did to each other.”

“Yeah, me too,” I told her.

Then, she stood, grabbed my hand to haul me up, and threw her arm over my shoulder, guiding me back inside.

7

BEAR

Watching her watch me in the shower made me come harder than I ever had, and when she stood there to finish, it took everything in me not to stalk across the house, throw her on the floor, and make her scream my name. Her smirk when she licked her fingers had me half hard just thinking about it. But two weeks passed, and she mostly ignored me. Other than the one day I’d brought her to the garage, she continued to plan our wedding, and I went about my life like nothing had changed.

By the time I got home at the end of the day, she’d already gone to her room, and when I brought her to the clubhouse, she hung out with the other old ladies until it was time to leave.

It couldn’t go on like this.

Living together was one thing, but being a true marriage, one born out of partnership and trust, needed cooperation on both sides. Knowing that did not stop me from remembering her family had been responsible for the deaths of so many of mine. She was beautiful, yes, and fucking her wouldn’t be a hardship, but the cognitive dissonance of our situation kept us in a stalemate.

To top it off, Leo hadn’t made it very far in his mission with the underbosses or his uncles.

“Rancone is in,” he explained, shifting his weight while he held his cane in front of him. “But that means nothing without Davila. He controls the southeast. If we don’t have his territory, we don’t have the ports.”

I sighed and rubbed my tired eyes, leaning back in the president’s chair at the Steel Roses’ head table. We had an officer meeting this afternoon, so I’d come right from the garage without stopping to pick up Julia. Perhaps that was a mistake, but I needed some breathing room.

“What can we do to get him on our side?” I asked.

Leo took a deep breath. “I don’t know what Gabriella has offered him. He won’t budge.”

I nodded. “What about taking him out of the equation? Is there anyone who works for him that might be loyal to you?”

He shrugged. “Hard to say. I’d need to talk to Julia and a few people on the inside.”

It had occurred to me before now that my wife had been our main source of information for the last several years. She had every right to be at these conversations. But at the same time, we were fighting dissent among my own club members, and I didn’t want to put her in any more danger. Leaving her with the prospects all day already set my panic to high alert. Bringing her here, letting the guys have frequent access to her, it opened doors to things I didn’t want to contemplate. That chapped my ass more than anything else. This was supposed to be our safe space where I didn’t have to worry about shit like that. But Stallion, Reaper, and their buddies had been talking together in hushed corners, even after Doc and Thor made it clear the shit wouldn’t be tolerated. My suspicion had run so high I’d put my brother, Castor, on investigating them. He could do things withcomputers that boggled my mind. After this conversation with Leo, I’d check in to see what he found.

“Let me know what you need,” I said. “I’ll make it happen.”

Leo nodded, twisting his lips into a grin. “How are things at home?”

I purposely held myself still to keep from shifting uncomfortably. “What about it?”

He eyed me with a look that said I knew what he meant. Of course, I did. He wanted me to knock his sister up already. The sooner we had a child, the sooner both families would see us as a combined unit.

“Is Julia treating you okay?” He raised a brow.

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