I made myself follow him out of the chapel, across the yard, and into the bar. Decoy saw us coming and lined up beer with chasers of Cam’s favourite rum. I was more of a Jack Daniels bloke, but I didn’t care enough to argue.
Decoy eyed us, wiping the already spotless bar with the rag from his back pocket. “Which way did it go?”
“Sure you wanna know?” My question was fair. Decoy was as legit as he could be. Need to know. And I respected that. Protected it any moment I could.
Still, Decoy was his own man. He glanced around. The bar was quiet, by MC standards at least. Then leaned forward. “I want to know if it’s safe for my kid around here and if I need to worry about my brothers getting killed. That’s all, your honour.”
I grinned and necked my rum. “It didn’t go either way. Saint bailed before we could vote.”
“Just as well,” Cam grunted. “Embry’s on a mad one.”
“He never said he wanted to fight, boss. Just that your plan was stupid.”
Cam tipped beer down his throat and reached for his rum. “The plan you backed. That mean he’s gonna call you stupid too?”
“He’s called me worse.”
“No, he ain’t. You ever seen that kid if someone talks shit about you?”
Couldn’t say I had. No one talked shit to my face, and I didn’t much care what went on behind my back.
Embry, though? Yeah. I was curious.
Knowing it, Cam smirked over the rim of his glass.
Then the smug twat put me on hold while he talked to Decoy. “Whatever the plan turns out to be, chances are these cunts are gonna hit the haulage runs. Don’t want you coming home to Ivy with a fighting face, so I’m pulling you off the road till this dies down.”
Decoy nodded, pissed off but accepting. “You’ll have to send Saint in my place. No one else who isn’t already going has an HGV licence.”
Cam grimaced. Heknew. And perhaps he was feeling the same pain I was, cos there was no doubt in my heart that he loved Saint as much as I loved Embry. Difference was, he’d found a way to live that fucking life. To own it even though it had taken the world smashing them both to smithereens to get there.
I blew out a sigh.
Sensing a brood, Decoy refilled the shot glasses and left us to it.
I nursed my beer, eyeing Cam. We didn’t spend much time alone together, so I figured he had something to say.
Or something to ask.
Holy hell, I lived in fear of moments like these. Of when he’d finally fix me in place with his unyielding glare and demand my fucking truth.
It’s been four years. Why would he ask you now?
Maybe I’d slipped.
What happened to Embry.
To Saint.
Grief, anger, and love had been my motivation for more than a decade, but what if the overload of the last six months had made me careless? Cam had Alexei now, and that dude was laser.
What if he’d seen something?
What if he’d followed me on that crazy fast bike of his and I had no fucking idea?
Cam’s palm landed on my arm. It was as warm as Embry’s but twice the size. “I wanted to thank you.”
My brain quieted. “The fuck for?”
