“You don’thaveto do anything.”
Honestly, I didn’t think Vik would mind if Embry got in his face about addiction. Where he came from, telling the truth was a privilege he didn’t take for granted. And that was the point I was clumsily trying to make—it was his truth, not mine. I knew from Folk and River that being happy sometimes made this shit harder, but all I could say for certain was that Vik was clean and he laughed a lot.
Viktor came back and gave Embry the sleeping toddler. He leaned into me, not shy with his affection, grinning as I breathed him in.
“You smell like Jelly Tots.”
He opened his hand, revealing a palmful of sweets. “Ivy does not like the green ones.”
I did. I stole two, but halfway to my mouth, something clicked in my brain. Loud and profound, as if it had been missing my whole life and only now occurred to me. “That’s what colour your eyes are—Jelly Tot green. Shitting hell.” I laughed, pleased with my own joke that wasn’t a fucking joke. I held the sweet up to Vik’s face and got Rubi over to back me up.
“It’s true, Vicky.” Rubi draped a brotherly arm around him. “You’re made by Rowntree.”
Viktor said something Russian. Made himself laugh enough that I decided him and Rubi weren’t a good mix and hustled him outside. Billy Ocean blared from the outdoor speakers and I didn’t have to look far to find my nanna dancing with Willow while Locke kept watch from a deckchair.
It was her favourite song. She’d played it on repeat for ten years straight, and I was pretty sure I’d had my first wank to it blaring through my bedroom walls.
She’d have played it at dad’s funeral if my mum had let her come.
“Asher.” Viktor nudged me. “You would like to dance with your grandmother?”
“Me? No. I only dance with you cos you’re fit, luv.”
“You are lying.”
I was. Mostly. I did dance with him cos he was fit as fuck. Naked music nights were my favourite thing. We had fuck-all furniture in the house, but somehow, we’d banged in every room, and I liked sleeping on the floor with Vik. Nothing around us but a mattress and a shared pillow. I’d never needed things tobe happy. I needed cigarettes, my tiny bag of crap, and the few people I cared about to be safe and well.
And I needed Viktor. I loved him. And as I kissed him in the middle of the record fair before wheeling away to boogie with my nanna, I didn’t give a fuck who knew it.
[ 35 ]
VIKTOR
Folk’s sister was as beautiful as I’d assumed. She arrived in the afternoon, taking her brother by surprise.
Not Ranger, though. He’d known she was coming, which explained why he had endured the record fair for so long when it was obvious to everyone and anyone that he did not care for such things.
Me... I did not mind it. Orla had a nineties house music collection that intrigued me, and it was her that alerted me to the pink-haired woman stepping out of her electric car and striding across the yard.
“Damn.” Orla rubbed her stomach. “I think I just turned lesbian.”
Alexei peered out of the chapel windows where we had both come to hide from the masses, less enamoured with the record fair than even Ranger. “That is your type, koroleva?”
Queen.
“It isn’t yours?” Orla elbowed him out of the way to take a better look.
Alexei retreated to the vodka bottle Mateo had given me and poured another glass. For him, not for me. I had to driveRanger’s grandmother home and I liked how that felt. Especially now Lida was with us again.
I replaced the vinyl I’d been studying, feeling Alexei’s gaze on me as I observed Ranger’s tall frame cutting through the crowded yard to intercept his onetime lover.
He swept her off her feet, making her shriek with laughter, and I contemplated if his life would have been easier if they had loved each other the right way.
“Wondering if we are worthy wastes the time we are lucky to have.”
Alexei spoke Russian, like he aways did to me. We were still not overtly friends, but he called me Vitka more often than not, and he had heeded my request that he would not murder my brother for putting Cam in mortal danger. So far, anyway. He’d also given me the location of the Doherty family, but I was saving that for a time when I needed a distraction, and that would not happen here, around these people who poked fun at me almost as much as Ranger did.
Nash rolled into the chapel, drawn to his pregnant woman. “Where’s Locke?”
