“Embry.”
I held up my hands in surrender, dodging as Joe chucked a handful of hay at me. “All right, all right. I came to tell you we just signed a supply contract with Scania for our haulage firm. So I can get you cheap parts for your horse box if you need them.”
Joe stopped hauling hay around. “How cheap?”
“Thirty percent lower than you’ll get them from any garage.”
“They dodgy?”
“Nope. Legit as fuck.”
Suspicion flared in Joe’s dark gaze. Didn’t blame him in the slightest—he’d known the club longer than I had—but for once it was easy to look him in the eye and tell him the truth.
“Honest. Cam started a haulage firm a while back. It’s straight money.”
“Keeps you out of trouble, eh?”
“Nah, but it could if I wanted it to.”
Joe’s harsh expression fell into a grin. “You’re such a fucking Carter.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Ten years ago, it was, but then I met Harry and saw how fucked up other families are. It made our lot seem not so bad, you know?”
A nice theory, and Joe was right about the Carters. Shame they hadn’t raised me. “Anyway, I’m gonna go. But call me if you need anything, yeah?”
I turned away.
Joe caught my arm, grip strong like Mateo’s.
Likemine.
“Hey.” He turned me back to him and held my gaze. “You don’t need a reason to come down here. I know I called your boss a cunt that one time, but I’m over it, I swear. You need that place as much as I need to be here. I understand that now. Don’t mean we have to be strangers.”
I knew that.
And I loved Joe. Him and his sister Emma were the only blood relatives I had any relationship with. But this land wasn’t mine. It was never meant to be, and where I came from, that was important.
I left Joe with a promise and walked back to where I’d left my bike. The route to the remote lay-by took me past the field containing the only beast on Joe’s farm I felt any connection to. Shadow, an ageing stallion with an attitude that made Mateo seem like sunshine on a stick. He tracked me as I passed him, tail flicking, showing his characteristic disdain for just about everything.
I was at the gate when he decided I was worth a look after all.
The big horse trotted to the reinforced fence that kept him in. He sniffed my head and huffed.
Then he danced away and didn’t look back.
“Git.”
I kept walking. Ten minutes later, I came up on Mateo and Alexei, guarding my bike in the quiet lay-by. They were lounging in the sun, Mateo smoking while Alexei tried to show him something on his phone.
Mateo growled before he saw me coming. Got up and stomped away as I stepped into Alexei’s peripheral.
“You are back,” Alexei said.
I dropped into the sun-warmed space Mateo had vacated. “Were you trying to get him to read something?”
Alexei turned his owlish gaze on me. He didn’t wear glasses, but I reckoned he’d rock them. “Only the manual for a weapon I think he’d find useful.”
