I waved a hand for Jakov to crack on, and he surprised me by sighing and running a hand through his hair, messing it up. Maybe he was tired too.
“Viktor and I...” he said eventually. “We have a home overseas. In Europe. He has been recovering there, and we have family close by, but they are not soldiers. It concerns me that they are unprotected when I am away so much.”
I frowned. “Unprotected? You’ve got a fucking army.”
“Yes, buttheyare not family.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“I do not think I have.” Jakov took the water bottle I’d clutched in one hand since Cam had given it to me. “You have spent time with the men who work for me. Would you leave your family with them? Your grandmother?”
He knows about Jean.How? Had he paid more attention to me than I’d ever noticed? Or had Viktor told him? “No offence, mate. But take my nan out of your mouth.”
Wow. Okay. That sounded terrible, but I was all in,committed, scowling up a storm, not backing down, even asJakov’s lips twitched, fighting a smile as he tipped his stolen water down his throat.
“I think I know what you mean by that, and I apologise. I am just looking for common ground, no?”
One-handed, I dug my battered baccy pouch from my pocket, gathering the makings of a rollie with practised ease. “By asking me to morally evaluate your goon squad?”
“By asking you to travel to my home and protect Viktor while I cannot.”
The half-rolled cigarette slipped from my fingers, tobacco scattering. “Say what now?”
“Exactly what I said.” Jakov claimed my supplies and rolled me a fresh smoke with the same cool efficiency he’d used on my body, but it didn’t match the conflict raging in his gaze. The unguarded emotion he was letting me see. “Viktor is strong, and you are right—we have any number of men who can guard our home. But maybe the worst enemies we have do not come for us in the night with guns.”
He rose as he spoke, nodding to Cam, pausing only to spark a lighter under my cigarette. “I do not expect an answer now. Rest a few days. I will be in touch.”
I didn’t need to rest, but my skull chose that moment to vibrate with a discordant buzz, stealing my ability to string a sentence together. By the time it faded, Jakov had gone, leaving me with the grumpy president of the Rebel Kings MC.
Me and Cam. We’d never been close. But his steady presence comforted me now. His bulk as he filled Jakov’s vacant seat. “That shit was personal.”
I took a deep drag on my smoke, exhaling through my nose. Regretted it as the headache plaguing me ratcheted up a gear. “Did you know he was going to ask me that?”
“Not exactly.” Cam helped himself to my tobacco. “But he’s been asking after you for a while now.”
“How long?”
“Pretty much ever since Locke and Viktor came back and you did a bunk.”
“Vik did a bunk first.”
Cam’s dark brows ticked up. “Vik? And fuckingJakeyby the way? You have a death wish? That dude is dangerous.”
“Why are you so pally with him then?”
Cam glared.
I smoked some more, letting it all fester, knowing Cam was right, but struggling to see it. I’d seen Jakov in action. Seen him roll up on a raid and shoot a man in the head without blinking.
But I’d seen him in the dark days Viktor had been gone too—when we’d sought each other out, searching for clues. Seen the fear and desperation in his eyes. The grief as those days had turned into weeks, before I’d been called home to protect Locke from a rampaging Priest. That I hadn’t connected two of my friends being took would haunt me forever.
Cam got up and cleared away the med kit. He took the blood-stained cloth and water to the kitchen and returned with coffee, typing one-thumbed on his phone. “I’m sending all the dads home, unless you think you’re banged up enough to need Folk or Locke.”
“I’m good.”
“You sure? That was a heavy fight. You took some nasty hits.”
“Smashed it though, eh?”
