“Everything connects to your sister. She was the president’s only daughter. Now she’s your only sister. That means something to anyone out there with a grudge.”
Folk shot me an apologetic look.
I shrugged it off. “It’s okay, babe. I’ve always been a target.”
Behind me, I heard the click of a lighter, the scent of a smouldering burning cigarette reaching me a second later.
Locke. He was a stress smoker, and there was never any shortage of that around here.
“It doesn’t make sense, though,” Folk continued. “Either Nash or Locke are always with Orla. But not last night. If she was the mark, why not make the hit then?”
Mateo’s expression darkened. “She wasprotectedlast night. I was with her, and her place is the easiest to defend.”
“It’s not unbreachable,” Folk countered.
“He is right.” Alexei’s voice startled me more than his abrupt appearance at Cam’s side. “Veles could reach anyone with a paperclip and a silenced weapon. But why are we talking about such things? What have I missed?”
Rubi filled him in.
Alexei’s gaze flashed to me and a deep frown creased his face. “This makes no sense. If it was business, you would know what you had done to warrant this level of attack. And unlessyouhave enemies I do not know about, koroleva, there is no one left alive with the capacity for such a hit.”
Saint tilted his head. “What about Jakov?”
“No.” Alexei dropped his elbows on Cam’s shoulders, using my brother’s head as a chin rest. “Orla would be dead if such a man wished her so.”
“What if they’re trying to take her?”
“That is Folk’s point if you are trying to connect the two incursions. I would’ve taken her last night.”
“Not everyone thinks like you,” Embry said. “We’re not all that clever.”
“Youwould not kidnap a woman regardless of your intelligence, chaplain. And this whole thing... to me, it feels like incompetence. Like,Crows, da? No offence.”
“Who are you talking to?” Nash snapped. “There are no Crows in here.”
It was rare enough for Nash to growl that silence blanketed the room.
And he had a point. Locke and Folk weren’t Crows anymore. In my mind—in my heart—they never had been. The Dog Crows were the silly boys who’d loitered outside my school, threatening to rape me every time they caught me without an escort. The raving idiots who’d thought they could take me down with just three of them.
Bless.
Cam cleared his throat. “Regardless, there are no Crows left to come after Orla. We’ve spent two years making sure of that.”
“We’ve spent two years running them off,” Nash corrected. “We didn’t kill them all, bro.”
My brother’s gaze blazed with conflict. For me, he’d murder the entire world, but he wasn’t a heartless killer. No one in this room was, not even Alexei.Especiallynot Alexei, and there was a special place in my soul for my one-of-a-kind brother-in-law.
“You are quiet, Mishka.” The man in question fired his sharp stare over my shoulder. “What are your thoughts?”
Another pause stretched out, and I didn’t have to look to know Locke was taking a second to decide if the person asking his opinion was serious about hearing it. Decoy used to do it too, because his ex had bullied and abused his self-esteem into the fucking floor. Locke was a different man, but it burned me up to know his awkward reticence likely came from a place just as horrific.
“I can’t speak for what Crows are still around,” he said eventually. “But Orla’s right about being a target. I was with the Crows a long time, and I heard her name more than anyone else’s.”
I whipped my head around. “What did they want to do to me?”
Locke was a brave man, but he turned his gaze to the ceiling, and a humourless laugh escaped me.
“Gang rape, right? You think I haven’t heard that a thousand times?” I faced Alexei again. “The last Crow who tried lost a kidney.”
