Page 89 of Ruthless Reign

Everyone stood to leave except for KC and Hollywood, who both looked at me like they had more to say. I sensed this would be better done in private, so I patted Julia’s tight little ass and nodded toward the door.

“You too,mi amore.I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

She kissed me before rising to walk out, the click-clack of her heels echoing through the small space. Leave it to her to wear Jimmy Choos two weeks after being released from the hospital, despite her arm still being in a sling.

God, I fucking loved her.

“You two seem great,” Hollywood said. “I was worried I was gonna have to kick your ass for whatever you did at the Beacon that made her run away from you.”

I raised an eyebrow and smirked. “I told you already. I didn’tdoanything to her that she didn’t want.” I knew now that she’d been in the very early stages of pregnancy and her emotions had been justifiably all over the place. Telling her I loved her shouldn’t have been that big of a surprise, seeing as I killed anyone who touched her. “What’s going on? What is this?”

I glanced at KC, who smiled and shrugged. “We just wanted to check in on you. Sunshine tells me Julia was pregnant before she got shot.”

“I didn’t realize she’d mentioned it to anyone,” I said, pleased my wife had confided in her cousin about it. At least she had someone to talk to. “It’s sad. We’re grieving it, even if we didn’t know about it until it was already too late. Don’t worry, I’ll get her knocked up again soon. The terms of the contract will still be fulfilled.”

“That’s not what I’m concerned about,” KC said. “What will our enemies do when they realize the new president’s Caputi wife is carrying his kid?”

“Are you suggesting Inotfuck my wife?”

KC snorted and shook his head. “No fucking way. I’m saying you need more guards, more protection. You need to take better care of yourself.”

Once upon a time, I would have balked and told KC to mind his own business. But now…well…these two boneheads were my second and third for a reason. I trusted them more than anyone else in the club. I shifted at the advice and nodded. “Fine.”

“And you need to stop doing runs,” Hollywood added. “You’re too important, and we’re too vulnerable right now.”

I snapped my gaze up to him, my jaw clenching. “I’ll decide when I stop doing that.”

“See?” Hollywood glanced at KC. “Told ya.”

“Bear,” KC said. “Be reasonable. Your old man?—”

“My old man stopped doing runs because we were beefing with the Caputis,” I said. “Now that’s over, I can?—”

“Fine,” Hollywood cut me off. “I’m pulling rank. I’m the road captain and I say you need to keep your beautiful, entitled ass at home.”

“You can’t do that,” I said, my tone snappier than I’d meant it to be.

“Watch me.” He leaned in, his grin widening into that stupid Hollywood smile that made me want to punch his teeth out.

A tense moment passed between us where I dared him to say more and he dared me to do something about it. I launched out of my seat at the same time he did, and both of our chairs toppled over. He raced out of the back room, and I ran after him, dodging through brothers and sofas as I trailed him. We burst out into the humid night air, his shit-kickers thundering on the grass as we circled the clubhouse to the wooded area in the back.We had a bunch of sheds out here, housing all the shit the club had collected over the decades but didn’t fit inside the main building anymore. Hollywood threw his head back and howled as he sprinted, and I growled, knowing he had a point but unable to concede it without a fight.

Truthfully, Hollywood and I had been roughhousing with each other since we met. I couldn’t count the number of times I’d had to haul off and tackle him to keep him from doing or saying something stupid. It was part of the reason I loved the guy so damned much. We were brothers by choice, and in a world that kept trying to take my family away from me, I needed that more than ever.

I finally caught up to him toward the tree line a hundred yards away from the clubhouse, and I shoved my shoulder into his gut to take him down. He elbowed me in the chin, and I punched him in the stomach before he threw his weight around and rolled us so he was on top. And just when I would have kneed him in the groin to get the upper hand again, a feminine laugh got my attention, followed shortly by a deeper masculine one.

“Hollywood,” Julia said. “I would have shared him if you had only asked. But since you’ve got him in submission, I suppose I’ll let the slight go if I can watch.”

“Oh, these two have been inches away from fucking or fighting for years,” KC teased.

“Get off me!” I growled.

“You know, I normally like to be the bottom, but I think I can make an exception for you,” Hollywood said with a smile. “Maybe just this once.”

“You’ve gotta get him on the side,” Julia called. “He’s super ticklish.”

Hollywood dug his fingers into my ribs and I wilted, trying to scramble away but he had a good hold on me.

“Goddamn it, wife. I thought you had my back.”

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