“The explosion at the compound would help, though?” Embry questioned. “A distraction? They might make a mistake that helps us or split their soldiers to double back.”
“Agreed.” Alexei gripped the back of Saint’s chair. “I will go now and lay the final charge. The rest of you need to find the truck.”
“Wait—” Rubi held up a hand, signalling for quiet. He listened hard, nodding. “Fucking bingo. It’s in Bedfordshire. ETA in Portsmouth, 0200.”
“That’s fucking miles away,” Nash said. “How are we gonna find this truck when we don’t even know the route of it? The reg? The fucking paint colour?”
Saint grinned, lighting the whole room with his rare show of obvious mirth. He produced a cracked iPhone and slid it across the table. “A few nights back, me and Mateo dropped trackers on a bunch of Crow bikes we could reach without being seen. They’ve been zipping around Crow HQ ever since, but three of these fuckers headed north an hour ago.”
Fuckingyes. I banged my fist on the table as a low cheer went round the room. Then it dawned on me that we still didn’t have a solution. If Saint’s theory that they expected our attack was correct, we were riding into a trap and there wasn’t an obvious solution.
One option was to let this shipment go. Close our eyes to it and pretend it hadn’t happened. Hit the next one and convince myself it was enough. Another was to simply call the feds, an anonymous tip. But it wouldn’t stay anonymous for long, and the consequences of being a club with that kind of rep were catastrophic. “We need help,” I admitted reluctantly. I pointed my spent smoke at Nash. “Get Gianni Sambini on the line.”
Nash nodded and ducked out to make the call.
“There’s something else,” Rubi said when the murmuring died down. “Rocco is missing. Like, disappeared into thin air, and the chatter I heard this afternoon makes me think they’ve offed him.”
Mateo dropped his elbows on the table. “Because they know he talked to us?”
“More that they knew he had friends that would follow him if he staged a rebellion against the trafficking. They were scared of his influence, so they got rid of it.”
“Seen that before.” I ignored the empathy my brothers gifted me and lit another smoke. “And there ain’t much we can do if he’s already dead. We’ll keep eyes on his kids, though.” I looked to Saint.Make it happen.
He nodded.
Nash came back. “Sambini wasn’t available. Got the Russian instead. He wants to talk to Alexei.”
My hackles rose. I knew the Russian. Had seen him accost Alexei at the last Sambini meet. Seen how every word out of his mouth had done something to Alexei I couldn’t explain. “Who the fuck does he think he is?”
Nash blinked, phone in his hand, and darted a gaze at Saint and Alexei. I didn’t, so I couldn’t see their reaction. Only Alexei’s pale hand as he pried the phone from Nash’s grip.
He left the chapel.
My glare hardened and Nash spread his hands. “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.”
I growled, needing a solid surface to drive my fist into.
Instead, I swung my glower to Mateo. “I don’t give a fuck what he says, you’re going with him to Crow Land.”
Mateo dipped his chin, accepting the order, but his gaze flitted to Embry. Of course it did. Whatever happened tonight, Embry couldn’t ride. Couldn’t fight. We’d be leaving him behind.
And he knew it. He offered Mateo the sweetest smile I’d seen from him in forever before he turned to me. “I’m going to take Orla to my grandpa’s old place in Newquay.”
“The horse farm? With the caravans?”
“Vardos, but yeah. I haven’t seen my cousins in a while and it’ll distract me from murder jealousy.”
What a fucking sentence. It should’ve been funny, but it wasn’t. Embry washurt, and despite everything he preached to the rest of us—for our own good—he was the kind of human who needed the old-fashioned remedies. An eye for an eye. Revenge. “I’m sorry, brother. We’ll make it right, I promise.”
“You can’t promise me shit, Cam. Just don’t get killed. Any of you. For now, that’s got to be enough.”
“Take a guard with you.”
“I’ll take them as far as the lane. After that, it’s just us and the horses. Don’t worry, brother. Your blood is safe with mine.”
Embry rose and came to embrace me before he shot a last heated stare at Mateo and left.
Beside me, Nash shifted, hands tight on the arms of his shitty plastic chair.