“No? I called you both in here to let you know we wouldn’t stand in your way if you wanted to fight with him. We’d hold your patches. Make sure you had a place to come home to.”
“That’s not necessary.” I glanced at Locke.
He nodded. “If Ranger wanted our help, he’d have called us before you. And I’d have said no in any case. I’ve got kids, man. And I’m too old to go looking for trouble.”
Cam smiled a little. “I know that feeling, and I’m glad to keep you both. But the offer to support you if you change your mind is open-ended. We can’t fight this war, and we won’t, but you’re family, and that’s not going to change.”
Those words had been said before, by Cam and other brothers, but they still washed over me a little. My heart knew Cam was a good man. Brave. Noble. Selfless. But he was still a man who’d spat in Rocco’s face time and time again, and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t forget it.
That I somehow trusted Alexei instead made no sense at all, but I’d grown tired of pondering that.
“That’s it.” Cam pounded his gavel. “You can all piss off. Apart from you two—” He pointed at Decoy and then at me. “I need a minute.”
Okay. That was new. Before Rubi’s drunken masterplan last week, no one had ever mentioned us in the same sentence. Couldn’t deny I liked it, even if logic told me it didn’t mean much.Maybe Cam wants you to go on haulage runs while Mateo’s gone.I didn’t have an HGV licence, but neither did Embry, and he’d been Mateo’s truck mate in the past...
My mind descended into the gutter. I’d been on that run too, shadowing Alexei as he’d watched over the convoy driving head-on into a fight. The Kings had won, naturally. They were good at what they did. But it was what had happened outside of the violence that set my brain on fire. Those moments when Embry and Mateo had been alone in the cramped lorry cab. In the hotel room, bloodied and full of adrenaline from a messy brawl. It had been my job to watch them. And I had, until the manners Jekka raised me with had outweighed my curiosity.
The room emptied out, leaving me with Cam on the opposite side of the table and Decoy radiating head-spinning heat beside me. Cam opened his mouth to speak, but Alexei appeared first, slipping into the room and ghosting into Saint’s vacant seat.
Cam eyed him. “You’re late.”
“On purpose. I did not want to come.”
It was hard to tell if Cam was irritated or amused, but he let it go, shifting his attention back to me and Decoy. “I heard about Operation Fake Boyfriend.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Decoy scrubbed a hand down his face. “That’s what you want to talk about?”
Cam laughed. “You don’t?”
“I’m sick of fucking talking about it.”
Decoy spoke without aggression, but the torture in his tone was real. If we hadn’t had the conversations we’d had in the last week or so, I’d have taken it personally.
As it was, I had enough to worry about schooling my features so Alexei didn’t see into my brain.
“Okay.” Cam spread his hands, coming in peace. “Hear me out, then I’ll never mention it again. How’s that?”
“A lie,” Alexei retorted. “You said that yesterday and we are still talking about it.”
“Because it matters. And I meant when Decoy has heard me out, not you.”
“What about Folk?” Decoy said. “Maybe he’s sick of it too.”
Cam glanced at me. “Are you?”
“I don’t mind,” I said honestly. “It’s not the worst conversation I’ve ever had.”
“It’s not the worst idea anyone’s ever had either,” Cam said.
Silence. In my peripheral, I knew Decoy was staring dead ahead, facing this head-on when it made him want to tip napalm into his ears.
Shoulders strict and tight.
Gaze stoic.
He wasn’t going to ask, so I did. “Why do you think it’s a good idea?”
“Practical reasons.” Cam darted a glance at Alexei. “We’re not fighting this war, but that doesn’t mean no one will try to make us. Decoy lives alone. That makes him vulnerable.”
