Arthur fed me another forkful, and another, until the entire bowl was gone. The infamous dark lord feeding his queen. By the time I had swallowed the last bite, Arthur was hard in his trousers and his pupils were blown.
Growling, he yanked me to his chest and placed his hand possessively on the back of my neck. “You’re never leaving me. You understand? You’re fucking staying here forever.”
I felt my thighs clench at his harsh, unyielding tone. “The tea,” I said as he started biting at my lips, unbuttoning my jeans.
“Fuck the tea,” he hissed. “You’re going to ride my cock.” Arthur picked me up, wrapping my legs around his waist, and took us back to our bedroom.
The tea was completely forgotten.
Chapter Fifteen
ARTHUR
I checked my phone. Ronnie and Vera hadn’t called me. They were still with the hackers. No fucker knew apart from me. I wanted as few people as possible to know about what they were doing. Even my family. They thought the girls were at a meeting with the Scousers up north. And I was keeping it that way.
I had just got back from meeting with Old Sammy. The ex-boss still hadn’t heard anything about who’d attacked his old dock. They’d come for him too. Torched his betting shop in Millwall. The fucking Hangmen had been hit in Camden. The Irish and the Romani had been attacked too. Anyone who had ties to me. But last night they went for the Italians. There wasn’t a damn syndicate in all of London who wasn’t now after these pricks.
But I wanted at them. Me. I wanted to find them and destroy them. They had a fucking bounty on their heads, and only I was going to collect it. The rest of the families could get in fucking line.
I walked into the living room; the rest of my family had just returned from their duties. Cheska and Gene were sat together by the fire. Betsy was with Charlie and Vinnie. Eric and Freddie were talking at the bar.
I’d just opened my mouth to get them all to report when my old man’s nurse came flying into the room. “Mr Adley,” she said, breathless, and my fucking blood turned to ice at the panicked expression on her face.
“What?” I asked tightly. Every head in the room turned our way.
Cheska was immediately beside me; Freddie came closer too. “He’s woken up,” the nurse said, and she may as well have fucking slammed a crowbar into my face.
“What?”
“He’s woken up. I’ve removed some of his equipment from him—mainly his breathing tube. I’ve called for the doctor. He’s in and out of consciousness. He’s extremely weak.” She smiled, and it lit up her entire face. “But he’s awake.”
I didn’t move. Bloody couldn’t.
I felt a hand lace through mine, then a firm grip on my bicep. I blinked and fucking slammed back to earth. Freddie was in front of me, as shocked as I was. “Artie,” he said. “He’s fucking awake.”
Cheska squeezed my hand, and I looked into her green-brown eyes, seeing them bloody shining. My heart was pounding and my body still didn’t want to fucking move.
Charlie started to come over to me, then his phone rang. He frowned as he looked at the caller and answered. His mouth tightened. “We’re on our way.”
He hung up, and I felt adrenaline kick in as I stared at my cousin. Something was wrong. “What?” I asked, cutting through the raised energy in the room.
“Another attack,” Charlie said. “Fucking west dock this time.” He shook his head, disbelief in his dark expression.
“FUCK!” I shouted, knowing I had to get to that fucking dock and sort shit out.
Charlie was beside me in a second. “You’re not fucking going anywhere.” Charlie nudged his chin at Eric, Betsy and Vinnie. “We’ll go. You’ve got to stay and see Uncle Alfie. Freddie too. This isn’t getting in the fucking way of something this important.”
“I can go—” Freddie tried to say, but I shook my head.
“No, he’s your old man too,” I said, and Cheska leaned in and kissed my arm. I pointed at Charlie. “You report to me as soon as you find out what’s happened. I want to know, the minute you do, exactly what’s gone down and who the fuck did this.”
“You know it.” Charlie kissed me on the head. “He’s fucking woke up, mate.” He threw me a blinding smile. They all fucking came over and hugged me and Freddie. Then my cousins, Vinnie,