“Cam?” River appeared at my side. He pressed a toothbrush into my hand and rubbed my back. “Come on. You’ll feel better if you get cleaned up.”
I didn’t believe him, but I scrubbed the crappy taste from my mouth anyway and drank the sports drink he forced on me. “Cracker’s dead,” I blurted for no reason in particular.
River nodded. “Rubi told me. The masses don’t know yet, though, so you need to talk to them when you feel up to it.”
“We need church first.”
“No. Your brother is right.”
I jerked upright from where I’d slumped over the sink. Alexei was in the doorway, impeccable as always, the tightness in his slate-grey gaze the only sign of stress I could see.
Fuck, he was beautiful. “Where’s Saint?”
Somehow, it made sense to ask him before anyone else.
“He just called.” Alexei glanced over his shoulder before looking at me again. “Your chaplain is going to be okay, so he is coming home. The enforcer will stay at the hospital until someone can relieve him. But, like I said, your brother is right about your church. It can wait until your members are reassured. Your council is loyal. Lean on them.”
“You’re so wise.”
“Sarcasm, Cam?”
“I don’t know.”
Alexei smiled. Had we been alone, I believed he’d have come to me, but he stayed where he was, and so did I.
Eventually, he disappeared again.
I shivered.
River whistled. “He’s intense.”
“I know.”
“Orla said he saved you. And the club.”
“He—”
River shook his head. “I don’t want the details. I just need you to be okay.”
“I am.”
“You’re not. You’re fucking lucky, that’s what you are. That bullet went straight through the muscle. If it hadn’t, you’d have bled out while whatever shit they stabbed you with kept you down.”
“What?”
River rubbed a tender spot on my neck. “Nash said you were missing for ages. Alexei found the needle mark in your neck. Some cunt must’ve drugged you to keep you down.”
Disquiet flooded me, a grimy sensation that threatened the peace I’d forced on my stomach.
River drew back enough to find my gaze and hold it. “Hey, it’s okay. They didn’t do anything else to you. Saint checked the security footage before he wiped it.”
How my kid brother knew the depths my mind had sunk to, I had no idea. I pried his hands from me and held them in mine. “I’m glad you’re here. Will you come back when it ain’t world war three? Spend some time with us?”
“I don’t know, man. I mean, what’s changed? You’re still pres and the club is still toxic as hell.”
“I’m working on that. Have been this whole fucking time. What do you think this mess was all about?”
“I can’t think, Cam. I just. Fuck, I told you. I just need you to be okay.”
