He was so wrong and so right. Saint could’ve handled the Crow beatdown by himself—literally—but I’d never been a leader who could sit at the table knowing my boys were out there grafting while I got fat on the profits they brought home. Fuck that. “It was nothing. Just a dust-up to keep me sharp.”
“Nothing out of the ordinary?”
I shrugged and filled him in on what Saint and I had discussed on our way home.
Nash nodded. “Makes sense. We just have to figure out what went down overnight while they kept us busy. Maybe we should lift a couple more Crows from the street. Shake them down. One of them’s gotta know something.”
“They didn’t two days ago. And anyway, that’s a short-term option. We need to be smarter.”
“Shame. Mateo is gunning for fresh blood. He’s pissed he got nothing out of them the first time.”
“Keep him fucking tamed. For now. I don’t want to waste him on petty shit.”
“But you’ll waste yourself?
“Enough.”
I shot Nash a dark look and walked away. As my VP, it was his job to question my decisions and challenge them if he thought I was wrong—I was an MC president, not the fucking Messiah—but I wouldn’t let him cage me. No fucker was ever gonna do that to me.
Not even myself.
Breakfast and a nap called my name. We’d regroup at church later, but for now, I was done with anything that didn’t involve filling my belly and getting my head down to dream about a silky Russian accent and a wicked tongue. I headed into the compound and to the stairs, too tired to ride home without nodding off on the coastal roads but nowhere near tired enough to stop thinking about Alexei.
It had been three days since I’d barged into his building and kissed him, and I couldn’t deny I was waiting on his call. That I checked my phone like a teenager when no one was looking.
But he hadn’t called. And neither had I. No texts either, and I was running out of rope. A painful craving had settled in my soul. Iwantedhim. And I didn’t know how long I could wait.
“Morning.”
Fuck’s sake.I slowed my pace to meet my sister as she popped up beside me. “What do you want?”
“You’re talking to me like that already today?”
“It’s still last night for me, girl. I need to get my head down.”
Orla reached up and ruffled my hair, the only soul on this planet who possessed the damn nerve. “Bless you. I guess you don’t want to know about the Jaguar-driving visitor you had this morning then?”
I stopped walking. Like, stone dead in the hallway as if the puppet master pulling my strings had yanked me backwards. “Al—Teddy Jones was here?”
It was strange how quickly my brain had adapted toAlexei. Teddy Jones was a stranger, but Alexei—for whatever fucked-up reason—I felt like I knew him. We werefriends, after all.
Orla treated me to an evil leer. “Yes, youraccountantwas here. I don’t know why that flusters you so much.”
“I’m not flustered, I’m knackered. Did he leave already?”
“He left before you got here,” Orla said, eyeing me with obvious amusement. “And he didn’t give me any indication that he needed to see you. Just left the books and an envelope I’m assuming is the bill for his time, seeing as he’s an accountant. You’re paying him actual money, right? Not in sexual favours—”
I slammed my hand over her mouth. “Stop talking.”
Orla danced out of my grip, laughing, the grin splitting her face in half too beautiful and too like our mother for me to hate her. “Okay, okay. I’m just saying, he’s hot, so if you are tapping that, I don’t blame you. I left the books and the envelope in your room with a bacon sandwich. You can thank me later.”
She melted away, leaving me to contemplate the hell that Alexei had been here and I’d missed him, and the absolute heaven that I didn’t have to go searching for my goddamn breakfast.
I climbed the stairs with heavy legs, passing the open doors of other rooms most of my brothers already occupied, blowing off steam with whoever they’d found willing and wanting. I’d usually be doing the same, but for once, getting my dick wet before I passed the fuck out held little appeal. There was only one place I wanted to slide my cock right now and he’d already left the fucking building.
As promised, I found my room blessedly empty, the accounts piled on my bed and breakfast waiting on the dresser by the window. My stomach was so empty it was going to motherfucking eat itself, but the manila envelope on my pillow called to me more than the loaded bacon sandwich Orla had left.
I rounded the bed, already tugging my clothes off, and picked up the envelope. My name was on the back, written in artful calligraphy, and I swore down, I smelt him,Alexei, on the paper, that expensive, musky scent. It gave me goosebumps and I shivered, glad I was alone. Saint and Orla had already snaked me, I didn’t need anyone else up in my shit about this.
