Page 86 of Breaking His Exile

River pressed his lips together. X made a sound he converted into a cough with approximately zero success. Jonah developed a sudden intense interest in sorting his chips.

“She walked across the whole yard to collect her man,” X said pleasantly. “That’s dedication. That’s⁠—”

“X,” Boone said.

“Romantic,” he finished.

“I’m not her—” Evander started.

“We’re not,” Rainey said at the same moment.

The room took a collective breath and leaned slightly toward them.

River looked at the ceiling.

“I’m going to be honest,” Rainey said. She looked at Evander, and her expression was dry. “I object to settling the status of our relationship in front of a bunkhouse full of idiots.”

“Relationship,” River repeated, delighted.

“River,” she said, warning in her tone.

He held both hands up, still grinning, but he stopped.

Evander looked at Rainey. She looked back, and her face broke into a grin that matched her brother’s. He would have told her they weren’t wrong—she was his woman, absolutely—except that saying it here, in front of all of them, to her face…

No, he hadn’t gotten there yet. He wasn’t sure what getting there looked like.

He knew what walking away from it looked like, and he wasn’t doing that either.

“Get some sleep,” he said.

Her chin came up slightly. “When you come back with me.”

“I’ll be there in a bit.”

She studied him. Decided he meant it. “One hour,” she said. “Bear’s words, not mine.” She looked at the room one more time, took in River’s expression, and pointed at him. “Do not.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“You absolutely were.”

She left. The door swung shut.

River grinned. “You better listen to her.”

Evander scowled and picked up his cards.

The room emptied in stages. X took Kavik out around ten, carrying the conversation with him in the way that X carried everything — at volume. Bear followed with King, pausing at the door to give Evander a look that communicated the same thing Rainey had communicated, except that Bear’s version was backed by the implicit possibility of physical enforcement. River stayed the longest, cleaning up the card table with a particular thoroughness that was either genuine tidiness or an excuse to remain in the room. He finally left with a hand briefly dropped on Evander’s shoulder — no words, just the touch, brief and unannounced — and then it was quiet.

Jonah was gone. Boone had slipped out sometime after the ten-thirty mark without Evander registering the moment of his leaving.

Jax stayed.

He’d been quiet all evening, present but not pressing. He sat across the empty table now with his coffee and the same unhurried patience he’d brought to every minute of the night, and he said, “Walker thought you might want to talk to someone who wasn’t going to make it easy.”

“I don’t need Walker managing my conversations.”

“He didn’t manage it. He mentioned it. I decided.” Jax looked at him over the coffee cup. “I’d have left it alone if you’d been fine tonight. You’re not fine.”