They said nothing. Just taped me back together, cleaned my face, and brought me clothes and boots.
“You feel sick?” Locke asked. “Dizzy?”
“Not from this.”
“Sure? If you ride out concussed, you could hit the dirt before you get wherever you’re going.”
“I’m fine.” I stood on steady legs as Nash filled the space in front of me and put a hand to my face, staring hard, his easy demeanour swamped with hard lines of worry.
“You didn’t puke?”
“No.”
“Are you gonna?”
Mother of Christ, I was going to kick him in the nuts. “No.”
Nash nodded and spoke over his shoulder. “He doesn’t look like Rubi did when he got clobbered. His eyes are fine. Let him go.”
I hadn’t realised someone was holding me back until the restraints slipped away and Folk rounded me, an apology in his eyes.
“Sorry. Boss’s orders.”
I nodded and moved to where Cam was tucking a knife into his boot. “We’re going to get him?”
Cam straightened. “We’re going to try. Saint found their base a week ago: a disused scrapyard Sambini took over last year.”
“Is it accessible?”
“Yeah, but that’s the problem. We’ll be so exposed, chances are we’ll get slaughtered and Alexei will dig me up and kill me all over again for being so fucking stupid, but we can’t wait for him. Esteban... fuck.” Fear that matched mine clouded Cam’s dark gaze. “I’ve learned a lot about him while you’ve been gone, and if we want our brother in enough pieces to put him back together, we have to ride now.”
* * *
Saint met us on the road. He was driving a car I didn’t recognise and looked like he’d been in a swamp all night.
Cam took a sharp intake of breath. “What the fuck happened to you?”
Saint ignored him. Maybe. It was hard to tell.
Either way, he stepped around him and came to me. “You’re okay?”
I wasn’t, but I knew what he was really asking. Could I fight? For Mateo?
Forever and a fucking day.
“I’m fine.”
Saint nodded and went back to the car. We were hunkered down a lane on private land, the entrance to a farm providing cover for the weapons he had concealed in the boot of the SUV.
Firearms.
Lots of them. Shit I hadn’t known the club possessed. Because I’d never needed to until now. Guns were Mateo’s thing, not mine.
Cam stayed close to me, watching Saint decide who got what. “You remember how to use one of these?”
I didn’t want to. But I did. I remembered every second of the lessons Mateo had taught me so long ago. It was the first time we’d ever been alone together. The first time he’d been close enough that I’d smelt a man that didn’t frighten me.
That day, he’d lit a fire in my soul that was still burning. I took the gun Cam pressed into my hand and snorted a bitter laugh. “I remember.”
