We were a walking, kissing horror show.
“Bloody hell, Harry,” Rubi deadpanned. “You can’t drive that fucked up truck looking like this. Feds will be all over us.”
Nash gripped my chin and peered at my face. “They’re gonna be all over us anyway, with a shattered windshield. At least if he’s banged up, the story about kids dropping rocks from the bridge makes sense.”
Rubi said something else, then Nash and so on. I heard none of it, too transfixed by Embry, watching him return to earth, his chest rising and falling too fast at first, then slowing as he met my gaze, and whatever he saw calmed him down.
Was that how this worked? That two crazy people, two live wires, when joined together made peace?
I’d thought about this before, perhaps more than I’d ever thought about fucking him, and never come up with a sensible conclusion.
Didn’t find one now either. Just enough distraction that I only caught the tail end of Nash’s instructions.
“...Embry with Rubi.”
“What?” It came out harsher than I’d intended, considering I hadn’t meant to speak at all.
Nash swivelled his gaze back to me. “You can’t drive, not until we know you’re okay after that bang to the head, and Em doesn’t have an HGV licence. I’m gonna drive your crocked rig back to the services we just came from. Em’s gonna ride with Rubes. It’s twenty minutes, brother. Then we can touch base and sort our shit out.”
It wasn’t a negotiation. I let it happen and felt absolutely dandy until Embry was out of sight and Nash got in my face.
“Come on.” He took my elbow. “Get in.”
“Hmm?”
“The truck, dude. Can’t drive us anywhere if you’re not in it.”
Nash helped me up. Unnecessary, until it wasn’t and my arms shook, hauling myself onto Embry’s seat.
It smelt of him, in my head, at least, and that helped the dazed feeling rip-roaring through me. Then sharp pain lanced my chest, deep in the muscle, and I doubled over.
“Hey.” Nash gripped my shoulder. “You okay?”
“Yup.”
“Sure about that? You look like you’re having a fucking stroke.”
“Hilarious.” It really wasn’t. I came upright, slowly, rubbing my chest. The weird pain faded but an anxious throb remained. Something undone. Something I’d forgotten. I searched my battered brain, listing my priorities in order, but Alexei, of all people, invaded my thoughts before I got past the first two.
“You’ve been tailing them the whole time?” I rumbled.
Alexei pocketed his phone and gave me his full attention. “Most of it, enforcer. Why do you ask?”
Fuck.
Cold dread washed over me and pulled me back in time to the service station where I’d taken a leak and refuelled on caffeine. By the Costa machine, I’d taken advantage of Rubi’s distraction and checked my second phone. A microscopic moment to absorb the blank screen and trust the ancient adage that silence was golden.
A splitsecondthat was all a man like Alexei needed to see the entire truth of a situation, and I’d walked back to the truck to find him crouched in the back, freaking Embry out and leering at me.
He always leered at me.
He leered at everyone.
But it had felt different that time. Ominous and exposing, and I felt it now in the deep,deepache that settled in my chest. Paranoia was my middle name, butAlexei, man. He was anyone’s worst nightmare on a good day.
“Mats.”
I startled, forgetting Nash was with me. “Huh? What?”
