“We can’t do it here, either.” I felt myself shift into the man who’d once had conversations like this every day. Everyhour. “My old regiment is based in Poole. I start rigging boats on their doorstep, chances are someone I know is gonna get called to take a look. Besides, this close to club turf and it’s going to be obvious who was responsible.”
Alexei took it all in, his strange eyes thoughtful and distant. “It cannot be obvious. Decisive, yes. But there needs to be enough doubt that is not worth a new war.”
“Then we need to find a different way.”
“That will take time, Veles. While we wait, Cam cannot know what we have found. He will act and it will be the end of everything.”
I didn’t want to contemplate what had brought Alexei to that conclusion. It was enough that I knew he was right. The Sambini family weren’t the sharpest tools in the underworld, but they had connections. Allies. Friends who wouldn’t appreciate losing the amount of product that was going to go down with that ship when we found a safe way to sink it. “That means you have to let the cargo already on that trawler pass.”
“I am aware.”
“And we can’t track them once they leave European waters. We don’t have the capacity to cross the Atlantic.”
“I am aware of that too. But another day for this conversation, no?”
Alexei’s attention drifted to the yard below, and I’d had enough intense engagements with him to know this one was over.
I followed his gaze to the riders climbing off their bikes. Saint. Mateo.Cam.
That gave me pause. I hadn’t seen much of the Rebel Kings’ president since he’d taken a leave of absence to get his head on straight.Brave dude. I didn’t know many men who could admit they weren’t okay, let alone walk away from an organisation as complex as the MC to make it right. But Cam had, and I admired him for that more than I could say. Respected his closest brothers for how tight they’d pulled together while he’d been gone. If he’d been a different man with a smaller heart, his absence would’ve been less painful.
I wondered what had brought him back now. As I watched him summon his council and point at the chapel, I knew it wasn’t Rubi’s barbecue skills.
Decoy was the club secretary and the general manager of the haulage firm and timber stores. Legitimate business. Some council meetings passed him by, especially when Ivy was with him, but he handed her to Orla and followed the others inside, glancing back a few times, guilt and anxiety clouding his face.
I’ll watch her, my friend.I always did when I had the chance. Liliana too. It was the first unofficial job Alexei had given me, to be an invisible bodyguard to anyone and everyone he cared about, and he cared about those kids a lot.
Today, though, he had other plans for me. “I will need you to bring Locke to church. What Cam wants to talk about is something you need to hear.”
I swung my full attention back to him. “Can’t you just tell me and I’ll tell Locke?”
Alexei narrowed his eyes. “What is this... reluctance you and Locke have for entering the chapel? It feels like superstition, but you will not say.”
He’d asked me this before and I’d never answered him, but months had passed since the last time, and our unique friendship had grown deeper roots.
I threw him a bone. “I’m not the one who spent a decade being dragged in front of Frank Crow and his council for their entertainment. Maybe you should talk to Locke.”
Alexei’s frown solidified. “He thinks we will hurt him?”
“It’s not that literal.”
“So, it is bad memories of a time that came before?”
“Probably.”Maybe. Another truth was that I didn’t know exactly what passed through Locke’s brain every time the summons came from the Rebel King’s chapel. Just that he’d grumble and make a thousand excuses why he couldn’t come. Then come anyway because he was as brave and strong as any man at that table. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get him there.”
Alexei tipped me a nod and left me on the roof. I didn’t see him cross the yard or have any idea where he went, but it didn’t bother me much. Alexei’s skills were less of a mystery to me than they seemed to be to everyone else, except maybe Saint. But all that meant was that I was glad to be his friend, not his enemy.
The chapel blinds were pulled shut. I took my cue and exited the roof lair, shimmying down the drainpipe. Locke was awake and still with River, Orla, and the kids. I beckoned him to my side and gave him the good news. “We have to go in.”
Locke didn’t scowl much. He was an easy-going bloke with a sunny grin on tap. But he scowled now and darted a glance to the chapel building across the yard. “Why? I talked to Cam on the phone yesterday. He wants me to take a couple of Mateo’s runs next month and I already said yes.”
“I don’t think it’s about that. I don’t do haulage runs and I’ve been summoned too.”
“Nothing they want you for is anything I want to know about.”
I’d have been offended, but it was true. Locke had dirty hands, but he was working as hard as anyone else to clean them up, and the council knew that. Respected it. “Look, Decoy’s in there, so it can’t be that bad.”
“Nash is in there too,” Orla murmured, fingers tangled in Ivy’s long blonde hair as she wove it into a complicated plait. “Even if you don’t trust my brother yet, you know Nash would never blindside you with anything shitty.”
