Cam eyed me a moment, then forced himself into my space, crowding out our brothers as they dispersed back to their bikes—Nash, Locke, and Folk. “Focus.” He grasped my shoulders. “We ain’t got a plan. Whatever happens, it’s gonna be carnage and I need to know you’re not gonna pop off when I need you to be fucking quiet.”
“I’m okay.”
“You don’t need to be okay, Em. Just steady. I’ve got too many brothers out there I can’t predict already.”
“You find Alexei yet?”
Cam’s gaze flickered. “He’s out there somewhere. That’s what I’m saying. I’ve got no clue what he’s gonna do, so I need to know where you are at all times. You understand?”
I didn’t understand how me and Mateo had made it to this point and one of us was still so close to death.
I couldn’t comprehend how he’d told me he loved me so many times and I’d never said it back.
And I didn’t fucking get how my heart could hurt so much and still beat in my chest.
But I understood the pain was barely a taster of what would come if we didn’t get Mateo out of this alive. And Iunderstoodthat I was riding into something I wasn’t built for. That maybe none of us were, and the best chance we had was to put our trust in a man who had saved us before.
Alexei.
Somehow, as Cam kept talking, it was his voice I heard.“When the time comes, chaplain. You will know what to do.”
He’d never said those words to me. Maybe I’d dreamt them. It didn’t matter.
I heard him.
I believed him.
The gun was heavy in my hand. I checked the silencer was fitted on tight, taking the ammo Cam dropped into my palm. “I never told him.”
“Told who what?”
“Mateo. That I love him.”
The rumble of bikes sounded around us. Cam ignored it, steadfast and solid, hands strong on my shoulders as if the tremor in his fingers wasn’t there. “You think he doesn’t know? You two have orbited around each other since day one.”
“But I never told him. He tells me all the time and I never said it back.”
“You don’t need to. It’s every night you’ve spent with him. Every hour of every day. You two—fuck me.” Cam pressed his forehead to mine. “He knows, brother, I promise. He fucking knows.”
Cam wasn’t a liar, but his certainty seemed unreachable.
He let me go and we climbed on our bikes again, following Saint inland to the sprawling countryside, hay bales in every field, barns and feed buildings the only civilisation for miles.
It was an hour before we stopped again on private land. I had no clue who it belonged to, but Cam and Saint seemed to know it well.
We hid our vehicles in an empty barn.
Saint pointed north. “Scrapyard’s over there. We should wait till it’s dark.”
“No.” Cam checked his gun. “You already told me they’re less on guard during the day. We move now, or we won’t get the chance.”
Saint didn’t fight him. They exchanged a look that spoke a thousand words; then we moved out, Saint up ahead while Cam stuck close to me.
We used hedgerows for cover, ditches and streams, wet through by the time Saint signalled to stop under the shade of broad-leafed woodland.
He beckoned me forward and pointed up. “Show me the way.”
Even in borrowed boots, I was the best climber. I ascended the tallest tree in the dense copse, Saint a heartbeat behind me. The foliage was thick. I lay on my stomach and dragged myself along a high branch, hacking a spy hole big enough for us both to see through.
