He stepped away from me, inclining his head in a silent order for Locke to do the same.
Shaking his head, Locke heaved a heavy sigh. “I want it on record that this shit is fuckin’ ridiculous.”
“Noted.” Nash jerked his head at Saint and Ranger. “But it don’t change the fact that no brother rides alone.”
“He can take my car.”
Nash ignored me. “Let’s go.”
He moved off, taking Saint and Ranger with him and leaving the dog with Folk.
I turned to Rubi for help, but he blanked me too, inserting himself into whatever Alexei was doing with his iPad, and it was all I could do not to hurl a chair at him. I was missing something, clearly, and I was used to that. But Lord, it never got any easier.
Locke leaned down and kissed my cheek. “Don’t be too hard on him. Whatever’s going on in that pretty head of his, it’s even less fun for him than it is for you.”
“Forus,” I corrected absently before I caught myself. “I mean—”
Locke tapped a finger to my lips. “Later, queenie.”
A shiver ran through me, at his words or his touch, who the hell knew? Then he left and his exit was gutting enough that I followed him out, joining Cam under the gathering storm clouds.
My brother was still smoking, leaning against the wall, watching Nash, Saint, and Ranger rev their bikes and roll closer to Willow’s car.
Locke threw a leg over his Dyna. He shot a last unreadable stare in Nash’s direction; then they were gone.
All of them.
I sagged against the wall.
Cam offered me his cigarette.
“Only if you want me to jam it up your nose.”
Cam shrugged, sending me a tough glare that had nothing to do with the empty threat of cigarette-fuelled violence and everything to do with whatever Nash wasn’t telling me.
I let Cam’s unspoken warning wash over me, closing my eyes, and the darkening sky above us felt like a prophecy.
18
NASH
Locke had a smile like the sunset on a late summer day. If we were apart, I always thought of him when the sky turned orange, the warm glow a reminder of how it felt when he slung his long arm around me.
His frown was something else. Annoyance.Disappointment. Frustration that I’d given him an order he thought was absolute bollocks, but he respected me enough to follow it.
It’s more than respect.
Maybe, but I still despised myself for making him do something he thought was absolute bullshit. Only terror for his safety kept me from soul-aching regret.
It’s a gift if he winds up hating me. At least he’s alive.
A fat raindrop hit my face. I rubbed it off, jamming a smoke in my mouth, and scowled across the murky woodland I’d taken shelter in with Ranger while Saint got wet for fun.
Biting wind blew in from the sea, signalling the end of summer for real this time. No more golden nights and sunset dreams, a reality that fitted my current situation as Ranger glowered back at me.
“It’s not my fault there was nothing there.”
I knew that. And I was grateful for every long night he’d ridden with us scouring old Crow haunts for any strays with a grudge, but the agitation binding my muscles had turned me into a raging arsehole. “You said that was the last place you could think of. Now what?”
