As it was, the gatepost held me hostage, and I wasn’t too alarmed about it. Save Rocco, I’d never seen a Crow protect anything but their own skin. If these were a different breed, it vindicated the olive branch burning a hole in my soft heart. “I mean all three of you,” I clarified. “And I’m sorry about Bishop. We weren’t mates for obvious reasons, but he was on Rocco’s list, and I came here for him as much as the rest of you.”
Ranger relaxed and stepped off.
Folk stayed where he was, but he was slim enough that Ranger’s retreat let me see Locke again.
He’d moved sideways to lean against a tree, his stance casual, but something about it made me look twice. Something abouthim.
I could stare at him all day.
And maybe I would’ve, but my phone went bananas again, reminding me that I had limited time to fuck around before my brothers decided me and my crocked knee had been MIA long enough.
I stood up straighter. “If I wasn’t clear the first time, Rocco vouched for all of you, and whether he comes back or not, I’m here to honour that.”
Ranger studied me through a thick curtain of rock-star hair. “How?”
“However you want.” I fired a glance at all three of them. “Work. Accommodation. A legit wage if you’re sick of the road.”
“Why?”
Locke.That meant I could look at him again, right?
Too late. Like God’s strongest magnet, my focus drilled beyond Folk and Ranger to where he stood. He wasn’t smoking anymore, but he still leaned against the tree, as if being upright weighed him down, and I felt that shit in places no Dog Crow had any business being.
But it didn’t feel wrong either, and I wondered if the weed Rubi had bought from the carnival dealers was stronger than we’d thought. Or maybe I’d just spent way too much time smoking it over the past few weeks to dull the ache in this damn-fucking knee.
“We need solid blokes,” I answered Locke’s question. “On the sites—security, construction. Take your pick. And we need drivers for the haulage firm too. Full time, part time. Whatever. As long as you’re cool with overnights.”
“That’s it?” Wariness cemented Locke’s frown, marring a gaze that was every bit as alluring as Rocco had claimed. “You want us to work for you?”
I spread my hands. “That’s what I’m offering. And I don’t know what your living situation is these days, but we can help with that too. We have bunks on the compound. Some property we can repurpose if you have families.”
Locke shook his head. Refusal or disbelief, I couldn’t tell, and it bothered me that I didn’t know him enough to work it out.
Then it bothered me that it bothered me, and I wrenched my focus to the stink eye Ranger was drilling into the side of my head. “You look like you want to shank me.”
Locke made an unintelligible sound.
Ranger grunted. “I don’t want to shank you, McGovern. Rocco told me you weren’t a bastard too, and I believed him. I’m just not here for the bullshit.”
“What bullshit is that?”
“Come on,” he scoffed. “You’re offering us work on your sites? Driving your fucking lorries? I know how that goes. You want cannon fodder, not grafters. Collateral damage to take the fall while half of you are too banged up to fight your own battles.”
Genuine offence rippled through me. “No one who works for us is collateral damage. It ain’t us who left our VP to burn.”
A low blow, but it had nearly cost us Saint, so I didn’t give a fuck. They didn’t trust me? Fine. However distractingly hot Locke was, I didn’t trust them either. I just...I don’t fucking know. Perhaps it was the same messed-up thought process that had driven Saint into that fiery warehouse to rescue Rocco in the first place, but leaving all these men without income and homes because their leadership were a cancerous bunch of cunts didn’t sit right with me, and these were the brothers Rocco had stood tall for. The brothers he’dbeggedme to look out for if anything happened to him.
I wondered if they knew how much he loved them. How much he cared. If they’d ever know it. He’d been gone a while now—since he’d scarpered from the hospital—and my gut told me he was dead. The only shit I didn’t know waswho, but that would come in time. It always did.
Speaking of time. My phone went off again, the burner too. I was out of rope for shooting the breeze with these stubborn fuckers.
I lit a smoke and looked each of them in the eye. “Okay, this is how it is. We’ve got work if you want it and a safe place to bed down while you’re waiting for Rocco to get his shit together. We’re not asking you to fight or take the patch, and we’re not about keeping men tied to a life they don’t want. Not saying there won’t be drama along the way, but we look after our own, and as long as you’re with us, that’s what you’ll be.”
Silence greeted my best attempt at a fucking monologue. All right. So I wasn’t Cam, and I couldn’t inspire a coliseum with a growl and the thump of my fist on a table older than all of us. But I meant what I said. It was up to them if they chose to believe me.
I tucked yet another cigarette butt into my box and stepped away from the gatepost.
Folk didn’t move.
