This man.
Urgency overtook the consuming love Cam and Saint left in their wake. Mateo led the way to the bikes. My Yamaha was twisted metal and ash in a disused quarry, but Nash had tuned up the Ninja and it was good to go.
I passed Mateo a silenced pistol. “It is our secret.”
“What if I use it to kill you?” Humour and darkness fought for dominance in Mateo’s amber eyes.
Curious. We’d worked well together in the past, but a hostility had grown in him in recent weeks, and I hadn’t cared enough to find out why.
Did I care now?
If it hindered my ability to help Cam, of course it did.
I shrugged. “Kill me if you like, but we have work to do first.”
The Ninja rumbled to life. I revved the engine and roared out of the compound, knowing he’d follow. To murder me or not remained to be seen, but I would worry about that later.
* * *
We lay in the dirt, rain, as ever, making life uncomfortable. At least, it was uncomfortable for me. Saint didn’t mind the rain. I often saw him standing out in it, face turned to the sky. And the last time we’d been together at the mercy of Perun, he’d fought like a lion, so perhaps he wasn’t as averse to water as he thought.
Beside me on the clifftop, Mateo shifted, keen gaze hooked on the Crows’ HQ, tracking stragglers as they exited the compound, the bar shuttered for the night, firepits burnt out. It was a quiet night for them, their men already on the road, but it was about to get loud.
Just as soon as the last idiot left the village.
I don’t care. Kill them.
But... no. Cam would not like it, and I was tired of his frown, becausehewas tired of it.Do not give him more to feel. It was a sentence that would’ve made little sense if I’d spoken it aloud, but in my head I latched onto it and kept my trigger finger dormant.
For now.
Mateo checked his phone. His hood was up, protecting his face from the drizzle, so I could not see his expression as it registered that no text had come through, but I felt his frustration, his impatience, and welcomed it. If I had to blow this early, I knew that he, of all Cam’s brothers on the ground tonight, would support me.
I still did not know why he had flipped his suspicion of me to DEFCON levels, though. And I was a bored, dangerous thing in need of distraction, so I poked the beast.Fight me, enforcer. I dare you.
“You do not like me anymore.”
Mateo flicked me a glance. “What makes you say that?”
“Lots of things. Do you need to hear them to believe it is true?”
“The fuck does that mean?”
“That it is unnecessary when we both know how you feel. You are not a subtle man.”
Mateo swung his deep glower back to the emptying compound. “You sound like Father Embry.”
At that, I smirked. The chaplain was a fascinating man. So young and volatile, and yet the voice of empathic reason for every soul but his own. “It is not a bad thing to sound like Embry.”
Mateo grunted, already retreating from the conversation. But as long as his phone screen and mine remained blank, he did not get to make that decision. His simmering discontent was my salvation. Without it—
“Your mother is dead... Pavel believed it would matter to you.”
“Hey.” Mateo’s growly voice was closer than it should’ve been. I blinked, vision clearing, and his face was in mine. “Shit the bed. Is everyone losing their fucking minds?”
“What?”
“Your knife, bro.”