“What?” I glanced between him and the brother he called Decoy. “You thought I’d eat her?”
“I thought she might eat you, actually,” Cam said. “Ivy is the queen around here. This is her dad, Decoy. He runs the timber distribution for me.”
“Timber?” I frowned, recalling the chaotic account books that had brought me to Kings Building Ltd in the first place. “You kept the records?”
Decoy nodded. “I write everything down. Habit.”
“A good habit. The timber section was the only part that made any sense.”
“That’s what I’m saying.” Cam propped his good shoulder on a nearby wall, fatigue beginning to line his handsome face. “It was the only part I understood too.”
I put it all together and matched it with the conversation we’d had on our way over here. “Have you recruited a new council member?”
“I’m trying. Decoy ain’t having it.”
“That’s not what I said.” Decoy spoke mildly, his tone almost flat, his gaze still guarded, though he seemed less alarmed that his daughter was attached to my leg.
I appraised him. “What did you say?”
“That I can’t get involved in shit that could take me away from my kids. They’ve been without me enough.”
“Decoy’s ex-military,” Cam supplied. “He patched in when he got out a couple of years ago.”
“Two years?”
Decoy nodded.
“So you’ve already seen much change here?”
“A fuckton of trouble too. My ex won’t let me bring my boy here in case he wants to be Cam when he grows up. Besides, I already told Cam I’m not an accountant.”
“You could be. It is not hard.”
“Or you could be secretary,” Cam said. “We’ve lasted this long without a treasurer, but Cracker did more for the MC than I can cope with right now. Christ, it’s fucking Christmas soon and I haven’t got a clue what shit needs doing to make that right for the membership.”
“I look like Father Christmas to you?” Decoy arched a sandy brow, but despite his best efforts, he had a kind face, one that suited the soft glance he sent to the tiny girl at my feet.
Cam sighed. “Will you at least think about it? I hear what you’re saying about trouble, but I need you, brother, and I know the extra cash would go a long way for you.”
The conversation was over. I picked Ivy up and handed her back to Decoy.
She patted my cheek.
I laughed.
Cam’s gaze, already fierce in my peripheral, intensified. “You surprise me every day.”
“It keeps me busy.”
We left Decoy to his work and tramped back across the yard that had grown muddy beneath the afternoon rain. Cam was tired, but he had a million things to do before he would rest. This I knew as if it were gospel, but there was more than one way to take man from reality, just for a moment.
I coaxed him upstairs without saying a word.
He followed me to his room and leaned on the closed door. “I think she saw me get shot.”
I sat on the edge of his bed, smelling Saint here too. He’d slept in these sheets last night, too caught up in club business to join me and Cam at the cottage. “Ivy?”
“I remember seeing her when I was looking for Saint out the window. Then I heard someone behind me.”