“Vik, it’s okay. And it’s always going tobeokay.” He feathered that kiss to my lips again. “If this feels good, let’s go back out there and hold on to it a little while longer.”
[ 16 ]
RANGER
The satellite phone was smaller than my overactive imagination had pictured. It fit, concealed, in the palm of my hand. If I hadn’t told Vik I was stepping away to make a call, he’d probably think I had a fucking worm in my ear.
As it was, I had Cam O’Brian, and it wasn’t that bad. It was nice to talk to someone who didn’t arouse and devastate me in equal measure.
“You’re okay, though?” He questioned for the third time. Honest to god, it was almost like he gave a shit. “I haven’t heard from Jakov since he told me you’d reached the house in one piece, but if you ever want to leave, there’s a plan in place to make that happen.”
“I don’t want to leave. As long as my nanna’s good, so am I.”
Cam chuckled. “Your nanna is a shark. She had twenty quid off me yesterday. Fucking Braille cards.”
I laughed too, loud enough that Vik looked round from the tree he was helping his nephew pick over for ripe fruit to torment me with. “She’s a fucker for that. Don’t take a bet on dominos either.”
“Noted. How’s Viktor?”
I scrubbed a hand down my face, cursing the question. But I knew why he was asking. Cos Locke would want to know for the same reason Viktor asked about the big man every other day. They had a survivor bond.
Thinking about why had me turning my face to the sky and pinching my eyes. Vik’s backstory was a gift that kept kicking the shit out of me. And Locke? I loved that dude.
“You still there?”
I tuned back into Cam, reset my gaze on Viktor, tracking him as he used his arms to pull himself onto a low-hanging branch.
That’s new.And I liked it. “He’s all right,” I hedged. “Haven’t lost him yet.”
“No trouble?”
“Depends what you mean by trouble.”
Wind whistled at Cam’s end and I wondered where he was. If he was freezing in the bitter Devon breeze while I sunned myself on a five-star patio.
“I mean both kinds,” he growled in my ear. “It’s kicking off up north—the ports are on fire, man. And Jakov told me that island was a work in progress, so I’m asking if you’re safe, brother. That’s all.”
Depended on what he meant bysafetoo. From 1001 mobsters trying to kill Vik every night? Sometimes. From letting my heart be ground into smithereens?
Probably not.
“I’m all right,” I conceded eventually. “It’s not always easy here, but I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
“I’m a phone call away if that changes.”
“It won’t.”
“I hear you.” The whistling came again at Cam’s end and he cursed. “Damn weather.”
“Don’t know what you mean. I’m catching a tan here.”
“Prick.”
“Not my fault you’re calling me from a fucking cave or whatever.”
“Yeah, well. This fuckhole is the only place I can talk without nerds and unicorns knowing more about what I say than I do.”
Nerds and unicorns. Alexei and Saint, then. So much for not keeping nasty shit from each other. Shame. At least it would’ve been if I gave a fuck. “What about the others? Locke doing okay? Folk?”
