Revenge. It was nothing but avoidance dressed in violence, but fuck, I wanted it. “What about Viktor?”
Locke shut the water off, hissing through his teeth at the movement. “Honestly? I bottled out of asking him, but I want to believe that they didn’t fuck with him like that either. Priest’s a rapey bastard, but not with dudes.”
“That’s, uh, good? I guess?”
Locke hummed, a shudder wracking him, a reminder that I’d failed in my mission to get him warm.
I stepped away to grab towels.
He pulled me back and kissed me.
* * *
I kissed him back. With everything I had while being mindful of the fact that he was dead on his ripped-up feet. Then I got him out of the shower and into the clothes Orla had left for us both.
She was nowhere in sight. Which panned out as Locke was dressed for all of six seconds before Folk made him strip again, took one look at Locke’s arm, and came as close to losing his shit as I’d ever seen. “This needs a doctor.”
Locke sighed. “It’s fine. Just tape it up.”
“It’s gonna take more than tape.”
“Stitches then. Saint can do it if you don’t want to.”
“Saint isn’t a fucking surgeon.”
It was the second time I’d heard Folk curse in the space of an hour, and it scared the daylights out of me.
I forced myself to move closer and face the injury to Locke’s arm. Regretted it as nausea threatened the black coffee I’d tipped down my throat. “Does he need a hospital?”
Locke rubbed the side of his head, tilting it as if he had water in his ear. “No fuckin’ way.”
“Yes,” Folk countered. “Unless you want to risk losing the use of your hand. And that perf needs looking at too.”
Perf?Locke’s exhausted gaze turned murderous before I could puzzle that out. Folk faced him down, and it would’ve been funny if circumstances had beenwildlyfucking different.
Circumstances that were underlined as Rubi used their distraction to catch my eye. He shook his head, the message as clear and unwelcome as Locke’s fatigued agitation.No hospitals. Not while we still had brothers on the road disposing of the bodies in the prefab. Because that was happening—it had to now we knew it was Locke and Viktor who’d left them behind.
Viktor.
My gaze darted to the bed where he slept under the guard of his loyal canine friend. At some point, I’d care about his fate, but right now, I felt only relief that Locke hadn’t had to kill five Crows by himself and a pressing need to make use of the burner weighing heavy in my pocket.
Make the call.
And I would. Just as soon as I knew Locke was as okay as he could be without the luxury of time.
Locke and Folk were still having a silent stand-off, a sight that unnerved me, given that they were usually a solid wall of unity.Intervene. But I was torn. What if Folk’s dire warning came true? I had to protect the club, but Locke’s well-being was everything to me.
“Oi.” Rubi poked my ribs and jabbed his thumb at the door. “Timeout.”
I followed him outside, squinting in the newfound sunlight that had become so rare these days. “Don’t bitch at me. I don’t have any fucking answers for you.”
“Me? Bitch?” Genuine offence cinched Rubi’s brows. “Wash your mouth out. You think I don’t get the dilemma here? That it ain’t the same damn shite we’ve had to navigate eighty-four times in the last few years?”
And then some. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m here for you. Maybe we can take him to that quack who helped Mats last year.”
“That’s fifty miles away. He’s not going to do that.”
