“Good man.”
“He is.”
Rubi pursed his lips.
I narrowed my gaze. “What?”
“Nothing.”
I didn’t believe him, but the mischievous glint in his eye stopped me from hyperventilating. “Is this one of those things you’re going to give yourself hiccups by not saying?”
“Hiccups?” Rubi snorted. “That was one time. And I swore Ivy to secrecy.”
“You also told her she was too young to keep secrets and she should tell me absolutely everything that ever happened to her.”
“Was I wrong?”
“She took you literally. I had chapter and verse every time she blinked for a week and a half.”
“Sorry, not sorry.” Rubi stretched, rolling his neck the way Folk sometimes did when he’d been awake too long. “Could’ve been worse.”
“How?”
“She could’ve learned something from the O’Brian handbook of tantrums and sarcasm.”
“That a real thing?”
Rubi sent me a dry look. “Are you fucking serious? This place is an asylum now there’s three of them kicking around again.”
I hadn’t noticed. But I wasn’t as schooled in club dynamics as Rubi. He’d been here his whole life.
So has Ivy.That she could remember, at any rate. It was the one battle with Lauren I hadn’t lost yet. My need to be here, among friends—amongbrothers—to survive.
Maybe that was her plan. If she couldn’t take Ivy, she’d take everything else.
“I want loads of kids.”
For a minute, I’d believed Folk’s dream could be mine too, but in the draughty loading bay, reality hit hard.
“Oi.” Rubi nudged me again, before he stood and passed me his empty mug. “Don’t fret about shit that hasn’t happened yet. If we got bellyache every time Saint was weird about something we’d never eat dinner.”
He gave me a one-armed bro hug and ambled away.
Changed his mind and came back.
“Look, Lord Nashie told me to keep my gob shut, but throw me a bone, brother. Am I or am I not a motherfucking genius?”
“About what?”
“Don’t be a cunt.”
I found a laugh from somewhere, and it hit me almost as sweet as thinking about Folk. Because it wasabout Folk. Of course it was. “I’m not throwing you anything, but if you’re asking me if the house guest you forced on me has made my life a million times better, I can’t deny it.”
Rubi’s smile was the size of the moon. “Fuckingknewit. Goddam genius, that’s me. I’m off to tell Riv.”
“What?No. Don’t do that.”
“I meant the genius part, Deeky. Don’t have a cow. My lips are sealed.”
