Fucking Viktor. If I ever saw him again, I was going to kill him myself for doing this to me. Why couldn’t he have kept his shiny smiles and bright eyes to himself? That soft-as-shit hair?
Those lips?—
A hulking body blocked my path. “Are you fucking deaf?”
I snapped to. Cam O’Brian stood in front of me, tall, hot, andannoyed. Then his lethal gaze settled on me, and whatever I’d done to piss him off seemed to fade. “Come with me.”
There were some people in this world even my contrary self had the sense not to argue with. Cam was definitely one of them. Besides, if anyone had answers on Jakov’s whereabouts, it was going to be him.
He’s not going to tell you shit.
The thought hit me like a stone. Course he wasn’t. Unless I gave him good reason to keep me in the loop of mob politics, and the only one I could think of was that if I didn’t get news on Viktor soon, I’d legitimately die.
Cam led me to the chapel. I followed him through the door, my brain spinning wild circles. I was colossally awake and foot-dragging exhausted rolled into one, and it was the most fucked-up combination.
The worst.
I missed the door swinging back. It hit me in the face and fresh blood dripped into my eye.
“Christ.” Cam seized my shoulder and propelled me to a chair. “You’re a fucking mess.”
Couldn’t deny that. I took the rag he held out and wiped my eye with it, but honestly, it was the least of my worries.
I examined my crooked ring finger while Cam levelled a glare at the slash wound on my ribs. “That might need stitches.”
“It does not.”
I jumped. Whipped my head around fast enough to almost roll my bleeding shambles of a body right off my chair. “You motherfucker.”
Jakov smiled. “I am not hiding, Ranger. You did not think to check the room before you walked into it?”
No. Because I’d been with Cam and I’d trusted him to do the checking for me. And honestly, it hadn’t occurred to me that an outsider would be lurking in the sacred chapel, even one as powerful as this smug wanker. “Where’s Viktor?”
It bubbled out of me before I could stop it.
Jakov stared, his brown eyes gleaming in the dim light of the room. “He is home.”
Home. It should’ve settled me. I had no fucking clue where that was, but Vik had mentioned it enough for me to know it was a place he liked to be when this life allowed it. A place where he wassafe. But it wasn’t enough. I was coming to learn that nothing was. That nothingcould shift this weight on me, not even the empathy that bled from the gaze of a ruthless Russian crime lord.
Jakov came closer and pulled out a chair. “You have a medical kit?”
The question was for Cam. A loaded silence passed before he pushed off the wall and retrieved a bag from the chapel kitchen.
He dropped it on the table.
Jakov unzipped it and pulled out all the shit Locke and Folk liked to brandish when brothers got messy. “Maybe some water?”
Cam grunted. “Don’t boss me about. This is my fucking house.”
Jakov was a weirdo. He was a level ten gangster. His life revolved around smoke screens and life or death blags. Manipulation. 5D chess matches that never fucking ended. But like Vik, he had this smile that never felt fake. Warm.Friendly. Even for Cam, who stared him down like he wished he was dead. “For Ranger,” Jakov elaborated. “And to clean him up.”
“I knew what you wanted it for.”
Cam returned to the kitchen and came back with a bowl of warm water in one hand, a bottle in the other.
He passed me the bottle and settled close enough that he loomed over me like a territorial wolf. It was kinda cute, but I couldn’t figure out if he was protecting or claiming me. If this was business or brotherhood.
Did I care?
