The middle one was fucking massive.On a par with Rubi, but without the athleticism that made the Rebel Kings’ road captain so dangerous. This dude was ’roid central—arms too big for his jacked-up body, little chicken legs floating underneath.
Twat.
I moved on, appraising the third brother who was already staring me down, confirming Alexei’s prophecy that he would be the real fight. All for the sake of his pisshead idiot of a father. Why were the dads that lived forever always the shit ones?
Melancholy squeezed my heart. I tried to think of Decoy, Folk, and Locke. Mateo and Embry. They were good dads and they were still here, but it had been close, for all of them, and their faces gave way to my father’s. To his bloodied, boot-stomped?—
“Hey.” A fresh brother popped up in front of me, and by chance, or maybe not, it was Embry—the only King who had any clue what had happened to my dad all those years ago. Cos he’d caught me at a bad moment once upon a time, and I’d told himsome dark shit so he wouldn’t make me talk about Rocco. “You okay?”
I tuned back into the present. “Yup.”
“Need a smoke?”
“Yup.”
Embry stuck a cigarette between my lips, a Marlboro Light, all posh and shit, as the wind picked up, whistling through the packed yard. I cupped my hands around it and lit up, anchoring myself in a burn that held half the potency of the rollies I’d grown hooked on in the past year.
It’d do, though. Most things did.
Embry finished what Saint had started, warming me up, using his speed to kick-start mine. This brother was quick. I only ever got the best of him cos my legs were longer.
I bounced on the balls of my feet, fists raised, muscles bunched, but chill. My limbs fluid.Ready.
Embry caught my gaze and nodded. “Rinse those cunts, but don’t murder anyone.”
Always with the murder. I grinned. “Consider it done.”
He melted away, leaving me with my thoughts for the brief moment it took Locke to call order. I turned my face to the sprinkle of rain hazing down from the clouds above, eyes open, taking it all in, my brain, despite Embry’s best efforts, still clinging to the past. The sky looked different when someone you loved was up there. Lots of people round here knew that, but for a heartbeat in time, I was alone with it.
“Step up.” Locke’s deep voice broke the quiet I’d imagined. He beckoned me forward. Doherty Number One too. “Corner toss. Call it.”
“Heads,” Doherty growled before I could speak.
I let it happen. Let himlose, and I called north side solely to let him think I didn’t know that the south corner had better odds.
Smirking, Doherty strutted to his harem. “Thick-as-shit Crow bitch.”
Bitch.Man, I was getting sick of that word. I moved to my corner where Saint waited, silent and still. No pep talk or final words of advice. “Can I ask you something?”
He tilted his head.
I faced him, turning my back on the ring. “Who killed Priest? Was it you?”
Cos I knew Locke, and it wasn’t him. And Nash and Cam had been hit by that lorry just a few weeks later, and there’s no way anyone who’d done the world that big of a favour got karma served to them like that. So who was it, Alexei? Mateo?Saint? Couldn’t say why it mattered—or why it matterednow, but I asked the question all the same, and all I got for my trouble was a slow blink.
“Time.”
Locke called the bout. I spun away from Saint and met Locke in the middle, making eye contact with Doherty, dancing on the balls of my feet.
Buzzing.
Restless.
Eager.
The ring had rules.
Locke rattled through them and Doherty spared him a sneer.
