I couldn’t tell if Embry’s opinion was based on knowledge or instinct—he had both in spades. But my fucked-up morning with Nash made my back ache, and the thought that Embryknewmade my blood fuckin’ curdle. Cos he’d want me to talk about it, and... I didn’t fuckin’ want to.
Not with him, anyway.
Then who?
My heart said Nash, but the truth was I didn’t want to do that either. Scars made a man, and they’d left meweak.They’d left me afraid. And I didn’t want to be that way around him. Nash spent enough of his time propping other people up. So much that his stress came out in his fuckin’ sleep. He didn’t need my nightmares too.
“You see that?”
I tuned back into the present. Embry was doubled over, reaching beneath his seat, his gaze glued to the wing mirror. “See what?”
“Bikes.” Embry came upright with a utility belt and tugged a hammer free, his wedding ring glinting in the sun, a reshaped Spanish coin that connected him tomemore than he likely knew. “They’re weaving around like they’re looking for an opening, then backing off again. It’s fucking weird.”
In our world, weird equalledbad. I fired a glare at the rear-view mirror. The dual carriageway was fast-flowing but busy, every twat with a campervan headed to the beach for some late summer sun. They were everywhere in varying sizes, and it took me a second to spot the hogs four vehicles back, dancing around the slow lane, keeping their tyres warm. “I count three. You see any more?”
Embry tapped out a text, twisting around to check. “Nope. Just them.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Lure them out and kick the shit out of them until we know who they are.”
“That’s your plan, father?”
Embry’s phone buzzed. He scowled at the screen. “Apparently not. Cam wants us home.”
“Roger that.” I stayed on course, keeping my attention on the road, leaving the rogue bikes to Embry. It was broad daylight and we were fifteen minutes from the compound. The chances of an ambush were low. Which meant these cunts were following us because theycould.
A warning, maybe—
Fuck. We were in Orla’s car. Did they think she was in the back? Behind the blacked-out windows whereWillowhad been ten minutes ago?
Fear-fuelled rage consumed me. “You answer Cam’s message?”
“Not yet.” Embry darted his gaze between the wing mirror and the rear windscreen. “Why? You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Depends what you’re thinking.”
Embry considered me for less than a second. “Speed up, brother. Let’s see where this goes.”
11
NASH
I got the call halfway to Porth Luck. Rode like a madman all the way home, but I was too fucking late.
“How many?”
Embry eyed me over the top of Saint’s head. He had the tiniest cut on his cheekbone. From the glass of the RAV4’s shattered windscreen. Nothing, really, but with Mateo hovering, Saint had the sense to treat it with all the care of an amputation. “Three bikes, four riders.”
“Harleys?”
“A Dyna and a couple of Sportsters. Nothing special. The plates were fake, though. We already checked.”
Made sense. We had a lock-up full of dodgy number plates for dodgy business. “Who the fuck are these cunts?”
I was thinking out loud. Just as well as no fucker had any answers for me.
Embry was fine.
