“What do you care?”
“I’ve known him since I was born.”
“You’ve known me that long too.”
“And you’re fucking bulletproof, right? So I don’t need to care.”
I had bruises on bruises that said different, but his concern for Rubi was genuine, so I swallowed his malevolence and gave him the truth. “He banged his head. Got a mild concussion. No riding for a couple of weeks.”
Silence.
I took a chance. “I need to talk to you about the yard.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the yard and your dirty money. How many times I gotta tell you?”
“It’s not dirty money,” I snapped. “I’ve toldyouthat a thousand fucking times.”
“Repetition doesn’t make something true.”
“Don’t make it a lie either.”
Alexei emerged from the bathroom as my epic growl rattled down the line to my brother. He gave me a steady look that I latched on to, his steely eyes warmer than I’d ever imagined when I met him. “Look,” I said around a sigh that threatened to send me back to sleep. “I did what you wanted and took you off the company records, and I stopped the club using the garage to service their damn bikes. What else do you want from me?”
River made an angry sound. “You’re a fucking prick, you know that? Don’t guilt trip me. You still own half my garage because I can’t afford to buy you out, and you took me off the yard books and replaced me with Orla so you could ruin her life instead of mine, so don’t come at me like you’re a fucking hero,bro.”
He hung up. I expected it as much as I expected his rage, but it hurt more in this moment than it ever had. I lowered my phone and rubbed my chest.
Alexei ventured closer, moisture making his creamy skin shine. “A family phone call, not business, no?”
He was so Russian right now. I flailed a clumsy hand out for him and found his bare hip. “My brother. He hates me.”
“Why?”
“Because he thinks I’m going to die like our dad did.”
“On the road?”
“Something like that.” On any other day, I’d have left it there, but I was still spinning from the horrific story Alexei had told me and I felt like I owed him something. “My dad was club president before me, and Whitness is one of the founding chapters of the Rebel Kings.”
Alexei finished towelling himself dry and pulled some expensive black sweats up his long legs. “He was well respected then? He had influence?”
“Not enough in the end. A few years back, a chapter up north went off-piste and started, uh, trafficking women from Romania. He shut it down, along with every route down south, and the cartel the rogue chapter were working with killed him for it.”And then my ma died of a broken heart.
Alexei rolled his damp towel into a complicated shape and tucked the ends in. Then seemed to realise what he’d done and unravelled it. “Did the routes open up again after your father’s death?”
“No, because—”
“You became president.” He sat next to me on the edge of the bed, his gaze distant a moment as his supercharged brain went into overdrive. “Do you think that is the root of your troubles now? The same cartel wants you out of the way and a leader more malleable in your place?”
“Maybe. We have other business partners who don’t like me, though.”
“Unless they’re all connected. Alliances you don’t know about.”
I’d already said too much. Confiding in him was a risk I couldn’t take. But at the same time, a strange trust had bloomed between us, a bond I was coming to rely on. If he was playing me, I’d put a bullet in my own head to save him the trouble.
Whoa.Light-headedness ploughed into me, my heart pounding with an emotion that was as painful as it was beautiful. The fuck was happening to me? Did I love this dude? Fuck.Howdid I love him? We’d fucked a handful of times and I barely knew his name. Loving him made no sense, and goddamn, I needed things to make sense right now.
Feeling his gaze on me, I gave him a vague shrug. “Doubt it. The other beef we have is with the Italian construction rackets and they don’t do business with the Romanians who killed my dad. If they’re both coming at me at once, it’s a shitastic coincidence. Hey, can I ask you something?”
