I stood, effectively cutting Mateo off. We all knew the heart of the simmering current between Rubi and Cam’s youngest sibling, but hashing it out was hassle we didn’t need. Not now.
Focus.
In the dark corner I’d vacated, Cam had Alexei against the wall. They weren’t touching, but their body language was dynamite. Unmissable to anyone watching, and people were.
Especially the discontented Swindon clique.
I zeroed in on them. I wasn’t much of a lip reader, but one word stood out. The word that had been thrown at the Kings ever since it had got out that Cam didn’t give a fuck who he banged as long as the consent was mutual.
The word that haddrawn meto the Whitness charter all those years ago.
I watched it leave Wheeler’s mouth. Watched Eric’s mouth twist into a smirk. I should’ve been raging, but somehow all I felt was the thrill of anticipation. The drumbeat of violence hot beneath my skin. Alexei wasn’t superhuman, but he had instincts that made me feel like a fucking dormouse.
My gaze flicked back to him. He was still against the wall, heated stare all over Cam, but his posture had changed.
He knows.
I caught Mateo’s eye. He had his back to the action but knew me well enough to catch on that a storm was brewing.
He nodded, rose, and broke away to reach Nash.
I hauled Rubi to his feet. “Embry’s right. Whatever’s gonna happen, we gotta let it.”
“Could mean you’ve got another cadaver to shift.”
“He’ll clean up his own mess.”He did last time.But I kept that shit to myself. When it came to the darker side of club life, Rubi was a need-to-know operation.
He sighed. “Where did Cam go?”
I glanced beyond Rubi. Alexei was propped against the bar, but Cam had vanished. “Probably checking on Embry. We need to disappear.”
“Why?”
“So they don’t know we’re watching.”
“He’s gonna give ’em the rope, ain’t he?”
“If they’re lucky.” I grinned with enough humour to make Rubi cringe. Showing teeth. Showing heart. “Brother, these motherfuckers are gonna dig their own graves.”
* * *
Alexei
I liked a lot of things about Saint, but perhaps most of all, it was his ability to read me in ways no one else, not even Cam, ever had.
He disappeared, taking Rubi, Mateo, Nash, and Orla with him.Good boys.With Cam upstairs with Embry, I had the space to breathe fire.
I leaned over the bar. Ivy’s father, the brother who spoke even less than Saint, was filling a fridge with bottled beer. “May I have one of those?”
Decoy rose and handed me a bottle. He eyed me with a healthy mix of curiosity and suspicion. “What are you going to do with it?”
“You think I will not drink it?”
Decoy glanced beyond me to the group of brothers who had gifted me their attention the moment I had emerged from the shadows. “Wheeler just called you a faggot whore, so I’m wondering if you’re going to smash it over his head.”
“Would you do that, if you were me?”
Decoy shrugged. “I’d have to care what he thought first.”
