At the compound, we went our separate ways. Decoy to the timber store. Me to the chapel where Alexei, Saint, and Nash waited for me.
Church for the dark side.
Only Mateo was missing, and I sensed a problem before I reached my seat. “Where is he?”
Concern bled from Nash’s worried gaze. “Em’s sick as fuck. They’re keeping him at the hospital until they can operate in the morning.”
“It is the morning.”
“Surgeon’s seeing him at ten. If she agrees with the A&E doc, it’s all go.”
I absorbed that with a slow nod, not entirely shocked. “Anything we can do?”
Nash shook his head. “We gotta take care of business. The more we do that, the less the rest of them have to fret about. Though, I reckon Liliana’s gonna want to be with Ivy as much as she can, so you might find yourself with another kid to watch over when you go home to your fake boyfriend.”
He was going for much-needed levity, and nothing in what Nash said was untrue. But the literalness of his words riled me up. There was nothing fake about how I felt. About the warmth of Decoy’s touch still lingering on my skin. There was nothing fake about any of it except—
Alexei kicked my foot. “Skontsentrirovat’.”
Focus.Or thereabouts.He muttered it under his breath as if he was talking to himself. But I took the hint, conceding that he was as justified as Nash. These men weren’t cold, but Embry had plenty of people to worry about him, and if I had any chance of being around long enough to worry about Decoy, I had work to do. Lots of it, and none of it pleasant.
“All right.” Nash lit a cigarette and shoved the box at Alexei. “Let’s see where we’re at with this bullshit. How many sites were attacked overnight?”
“Six.” That came from Saint. “Three were staged as robberies. One was an ambush. They set the rest on fire.”
“Injuries?”
Saint nodded. “Enough that we won’t contain hits like this for long.”
That wasn’t news. The Rebel Kings were good fighters and they stood their ground, but they were losing men.Wewere losing men, and it was only a matter of time before a horrible choice reared its head. Fold, or seek an alliance that drew us into a bigger war.
Alexei took one of Nash’s smokes. Didn’t light it, just rolled it over his lips. “None of this is unexpected. You know the Sambinis want us to retaliate, no?”
“Youdon’t want to retaliate?” Nash frowned across the table. “They killed your friend.”
Alexei shrugged. “That is true of more men in this room than me. Folk, what do you think?”
Nothing that I wanted to say out loud, but I played my part. “I think the same as I have all along. If we retaliate, it brings us into direct conflict with the Albanians, and Viktor doesn’t have the numbers to protect us from that.”
“Yes.” Alexei finally lit his cigarette. “This. And Sambini knows it too. We have to wait, zolotoy mal’chik. And who knows? Perhaps Viktor will win and it will all be okay.”
Nash snorted. “That never happens. What if the Albanians win and Sambini comes for us properly? Or they fuck us with these little cracks before then? I get that you’re up to shit I don’t know about to make this right, but what if you run out of time? You’re not a fucking army, bro.”
Alexei didn’t need an army. He had me. But I kept quiet and checked in with Saint, a silent glance across the table. He didn’t know much more than Nash about what me and Alexei had been up to in between scrapping with Sambini raiding parties, and I couldn’t gauge how he felt about that. Instinct told me he was more concerned with keeping everyone alive than the gritty details, but these were wild times, even for me.
The meeting broke up with minimal resolution. Alexei was right. We had to wait. But I didn’t blame Nash for being unhappy about it. Inertia sucked. And so did the empty yard we emerged to.
No Rubi.
No Mateo.
NoEmbry.
From the garage, ferocious banging reached me.River. I wasn’t in the mood to be anyone’s sponsor right now, and there was every chance whatever he was working on required seven bells of hell to be smacked out of it, but the need to be sure had me crossing the yard instead of following my heart to the timber store.
The banging had stopped by the time I found River’s feet sticking out from beneath the van the club used for moving brothers between brawls. It had been on the road last night, but I’d lost track of it. Or stopped caring once I’d had Decoy beneath me.
I tapped on the bonnet.
