Reign A Romance Anthology - Nina Levine Page 0,18

the consequences right beside me. Those were the sacrifices we made for our family, and not only had I made a promise to protect Zoey and Blair like they were our own, but I also had no intentions of letting them leave.

Paul moved, slinking along the counter and out into the living area. He could run all he liked, but the rush of adrenaline I was suddenly feeling was like taking a shot straight into my veins, my heart rate climbing. I lurched forward before he could escape, grasping the front of his fucking shirt with my left hand and driving my right fist directly into his nose. His back hit the sliding glass door with a heavy thud, the force of my fist jerking his head back.

The crack of the glass was loud.

Tiny veins moving outward like shock waves, though the large pane managed to hold together without shattering.

“You should have gotten out of jail, got yourself a little job, and stayed the fuck away from her,” I warned him, leaning into his space. “You could have moved on with your life. But now, because you decided to come back for her, well… now you’re in my world. And here, not only am I god, but I’m also the executioner.”

I grabbed the runner above the door and leaned back, at the same time, raising my shit-kicker and driving the flat bottom of it straight into the bastard’s stomach. The glass door shattered, Paul screaming as he flew backward through the raining glass before slamming into the metal banister of the small patio.

“Grab him and throw him in the van.”

“Van?” He groaned, struggling to get to his feet, the glass slicing at his hands.

I crouched down in front of him, making sure he was looking me right in the eye as I spoke, “We’re going to take a little road trip out to the forest,” I explained gently like I was talking to a child. Because I wanted him to know exactly what was about to happen. “And you’re going to learn first-hand why I’m called Huntsman.”

His eyes shot open wide while his head shook furiously back and forth. The boys grabbed him from the ground and dragged him through the apartment screaming for help.

“Hope he can run fast.” Drake snorted while shaking his head.

“Or hide well,” Junior added.

I shrugged. “Either way doesn’t matter. I never lose.”

10

Huntsman

This was a bad fucking idea.

I hadn’t had a woman on the back of my bike since Josie was alive. And even then, a lot of the time she simply refused. But within seconds of having Zoey pressed to my fucking back, my cock was already straining at my jeans. The ride from the construction site to the house was only five fucking minutes, and I was almost sure we weren’t going to make it without me having to pull over and do something about it.

We pulled up to the curb outside the old house. I’d kept it pretty well, replacing things, making sure the paint job looked new. But as I watched Zoey climb off the back of my ride and walk toward it, her eyes wide with wonder, I couldn’t help but think this was why I’d waited so fucking long to come back to her finally.

She was why I’d waited so long.

If I was ever going to make this place home again, it needed the kind of life that I just couldn’t give it and seeing her face light up, I was suddenly starting to wonder whether Ripley was right. Whether there was something about this woman that I couldn’t fucking understand or explain if I wanted to, but that was just so goddamn perfect.

“This place is beautiful,” she whispered as we walked up the porch stairs, and I pushed the door open. She stepped in before me, her body beginning to twirl in the middle of the entranceway, her eyes focused on the two-story ceiling above us. “Whose is it? Why is it empty?”

“It’s mine.”

She jerked to a halt, almost catching her foot and landing on her ass.

I said nothing else as I walked through to the kitchen, her eager footsteps following behind me.

“And it’s been sitting here empty like this? Um… why?”

Leaning back against the kitchen counter, I folded my arms across my chest, feeling that familiar ache begin to build. “My granddad built it. My dad grew up here, I grew up here, my boys did, too,” I explained, feeling my throat tighten. “Their mom committed suicide in