“Why?”
“Because this story must end where it started.”
Knowing what I did about the history of the Rebel Kings MC, Alexei’s cryptic answer tallied with what I’d told Ranger. That he’d only brought the people he cared for most made lesssense. Until I considered it properly, and by that time, Jake had arrived, putting me in a situation too similar for me to think about too hard.
Alexei disappeared.
The bikers huddled in the living room, Cam and Ranger on the couch, Malone loitering by the window.
In the kitchen, Jake embraced me, his skin cold from wherever he’d come from, the English summer doing nothing to heat his Spanish-Russian blood.
“You feel... more.” He pulled back to look at me, a rare language fail tripping him up as emotion got to him. “I thought you would die.”
I let him consume me with his familiar stare. “So I hear. Was there anyone you did not tell?”
“I told Cam because I needed his help. I told Ranger because he cared. No one else.”
Truly, I didn’t mind that much. But making fun of Jake was my favourite occupation when Ranger was not in the room, so I kept the scowl on my face and elbowed him. “Discretion, brother. I know you learned it as a child.”
Jake allowed the dig to his ribs. Then he ran a muddy hand through his hair, fatigue lining his face. “Is there food?”
“I do not know.”
“Why not?”
“I have been here an hour.”
“What kept you?”
“The wind. Traffic. The tides. Where haveyoubeen?”
Jake opened the fridge and braced his arm on the door, peering inside, ignoring the question I asked in Spanish. Buying time until Cam O’Brian saved him.
Cam tossed Jake a bag, then embraced him in much the same way I had.
I could not lie, the friendly affection between them surprised me. The last time I had been around enough to notice, they had barely met.
“Weird, ain’t it.” Ranger appeared beside me and lounged against the counter like he had lived in this strange house his whole life. “Like watching chimps make friends at the zoo.”
I laughed into a cough.
“Shut your face.” Cam shot Ranger a tough glare, but it lacked heat. He didn’t mind Ranger making fun of him any more than Jake did. “Mine,” he said of the clean and dry clothes Jake unearthed from the bag. “You’re closer to Saint in size, but he doesn’t have anything he’s not fucking wearing.”
Jake nodded his thanks and made way for Cam to take his place at the fridge.
Another strange sight—for me, at least. My brother was a good leader, but a reluctant one. Cam O’Brian had been born to do it. He pulled all of three items from the fridge and produced enough hot food to feed six men.
Five, actually. Alexei did not eat. But he was present enough that the meal felt like a last supper, and I found myself tuning into Ranger more than the inevitable talk of what was to come.
He was quiet as he disregarded the vegetables Cam dryly offered him, eating only the chicken and potatoes, overtly gravitating towards Saint more than me. But he was beside me at the table, his thigh pressed to mine, and we were surrounded by too many observant men to believe no one noticed. Cam, Saint, and Alexei were more subtle. An hour or so passed before something seemed to give in Ivanov and he moved closer to his lovers, standing between them, leaning against Saint while Cam reached an absent, instinctive hand for him.
Only Jake was alone, and he was too preoccupied with technology to notice, two laptops open in front of him, both provided by Alexei, leading me to wonder how hard he’d hadto lean on the Kings while I’d been gone. How toxic our organisation had become if there had been no one else he could trust.
I thought of the men who’d served under me when I’d operated in the Kings’ backyard. Out of a dozen, I could only name a few I was certain of. The rest had been Sambinis. Hired killers and double agents. No one I called brother.
Ranger nudged me.
I blinked to find the whole room waiting on me for something. I did not know what.
