Nash set his phone down. “That’s if we’re classing Butch’s crew as nomads, but it sounds more like they were a certified charter. ACrowcharter. What if Ranger riding with our nomads starts a war up there?”
Cam drilled his VP with a hard stare. “You really think that could happen?”
“You think it’s impossible?”
“I reckon it’s a shit-covered bridge I can’t contemplate crossing right now, but thanks for giving me something else to worry about.” Cam stubbed out his stolen cigarette and met Saint’s gaze. “Can you feel it out without putting ideas in any thick fucker’s head?”
Saint nodded. That was it. But I wasn’t immune to the heat that passed between them.
No one was.
Cam disappeared into the small kitchen at the back of the chapel. A few minutes later, he came back with dinner and our fearless leader could fucking cook, but as church broke off around me, the sick sensation in my bones returned. I needed out, right now, so I could get to the hidden compartment in my bike before—
“Here.” Rubi slid a bowl of chilli across the table to me. “You want rice?”
I snapped a glare at him, reflex more than anything. “Fuck off.”
“Suit yourself.”
He went back to dishing up. No one else noticed me growling at him save Embry—of course—and Saint,damnit.His gaze was unreadable, but Embry’s was loud and clear:what the hell is wrong with you?
Everything.
But nothing I could ever tell him.
I flattened my expression and reached for the chilli. Rubi came around the table and dumped rice into my bowl without comment and I couldn’t for the fucking life of me understand why he chose now, of all moments, not to run his smart mouth.
Focusing on him gave me a moment to calm the fuck down. Then I turned back to Embry and he was eating for the first time since I’d got back from fake fucking that girl in Porth Luck. Which meant he wasn’t agitated or in pain. He washappy.
He was safe.
But it wasn’t enough.
I tore my gaze from him and found Cam, Alexei, and Saint instead. Alexei wasn’t eating, but it wasn’t my job to worry about that. And Cam didn’t seem worried either. He was smiling, curling his leg around Saint’s under the table as Alexei stood behind him, absently playing with Cam’s hair.
It was the sweetest thing I’d ever seen Alexei do, but I found no joy in it, and the need to be somewhere else started to drown me.
Nash asked Embry a question. It distracted him and I took my chance, rising and ghosting from the chapel without looking back.
Outside, it was just starting to get dark. The yard was busy with drinkers and firepits, but no one bothered me. Like Saint, I had a rep for rarely inviting conversation and I’d never appreciated it more than I did right now.
I made it to my bike and crouched by the hidden compartment in the Dyna. It faced the exit. Only the stray Crows could see, and I doubted they were looking. As much as I rode them for existing, I couldn’t deny they were sharp as fuck on the gate.
Sharper than me. Nash had clued me in an hour ago and it had taken me this long to get here. Fuck. What if—
Don’t.I’d learned the hard way that picturing the worst things I could think of slowed my brain to a tortured crawl.
I fumbled the compartment and found the phone inside, identical to the one I carried in my pocket, except this one was an untraceable burner, the black case marked with the tiniest speck of sparkly pink nail varnish.
Shoving it in my jacket, I started across the yard again, aiming for the clubhouse under the guise of packing a bag for the haulage run.
Rubi blocked my path. “Can we talk?”
I wanted to throat punch him.
Badly.
I settled for pushing past him with an impatient grunt. “I got shit to do.”
