He pointed at a cupboard door. “Hinges are bent. Swap ’em out for me this week?”
I nodded. “Still want white bricks?”
“I don’t care what colour the bricks are. It was you and Embry who dreamed up a fucking tapas bar out here.”
“Was it?”
“Yeah, when you drank the rum stash dry last summer.”
“Where were you?”
“Doing what you do when shit gets on top of you—fucking my way around Devon.”
I let the inaccurate bullshit wash over me. Had to, even though the thought of it reaching Embry’s ears made me want to murder the first man to ever offer me a home. Also, the sensation that my esteemed president was testing me was too sharp to ignore.Act normal. Be the shallow piece of shit he expects you to be.
Cam went back to oiling the worktops. He had stained hands and sweat on his inked skin, like he’d been at it a while.
I glanced around. “Where’s everyone else?”
“Anyone in particular?”
Cracks appeared in my forced patience. I swallowed them down. Embry was home—I’d seen his Tiger parked alongside everyone else’s bikes. If I looked hard enough, I’d find every brother around here somewhere, which begged the question: why was Cam out here alone instead of cosying up with his lovers, or giving Nash and Rubi a hard time instead of me?
Cam wasn’t freakishly psychic, but perhaps the question in my gaze was obvious. “Saint’s asleep. I didn’t want to disturb him. Pretty sure Nash is doing something I don’t want to think about with my sister, and Rubi ain’t speaking to me. All good reasons to make myself useful, eh?”
“Where’s Alexei?”
“No idea.”
Tired, I leaned against the low wall built by Embry’s bare hands. “That don’t bother you?”
“Ain’t his mother.”
“You keep tabs on the rest of us.”
“If I did, I’d know where you’d been the last two days.”
“Stayed away for a reason, boss.”
Cam hoisted the worktop, biceps popping, and set it on the wall behind him before looking at me again, his dark eyes half shadowed by the night sky above us. “I know. And I appreciate it. Last thing we need is you growing space on a white board somewhere. My point was I got no clue where you’ve been. That makes for some pretty shitty micromanagement, wouldn’t you say?”
My president was an honest dude. Straightforward in his motivations. Hisvernacular, a word Embry had taught me a long time ago. But it still felt like he was playing with me, like Alexei did sometimes, and I was not here for that fuckery. Man wanted two fellas in his bed, who gave a shit? Not me. But if Cam was gonna morph into the worst combination of both his lovers, he could fuck all the way off.
In my head, at least. Dumb old me just nodded. “Decoy okay?”
After a beat, Cam tipped me a nod of his own. “Lauren reported him for swiping her bank cards. Said he was on the road and wasn’t coming back till he’d cleaned her out. Took the feds all night to figure it was bollocks, but the damage was done by then. We got fined for leaving the lorry on the road and lost man hours retrieving the fucking thing.”
“Bitch.”
“She’s something, all right. Though I s’pose we’re lucky only one of us has a crazy ex giving us grief. You want something to eat? You missed dinner, but there’s chicken in the pot.”
The typical Cam question reminded me of something I’d brought home, both to put a smile on my brothers’ faces and to explain away some of the time I’d been gone.
I held up a paper bag. “I’m good. Saw my old dear and she gave me a shed load of bocadillos to bring back. You want one?”
Cam grinned and slapped his abs. “Probably shouldn’t, but I’m weak for your ma’s butties, man. She put the spicy meat in? And the egg?”
“Of course.” I handed Cam a giant sandwich. “Want one for Saint?”
