Cam pointed at Mateo. “What happened this afternoon?”
To me? I fucked Cam in the back of my van. I wondered if Alexei knew. Then my blood warmed and I knew that he did. That the first thing Cam would’ve done when we came back was seek him out and tell him.He doesn’t tell you every time he fucks Alexei.
No. But he would if I asked him to. And in any case, he didn’t need to.
I saw it.
I smelt it on his skin.
I fuckingknew.
Mateo stopped pacing. “We bugged the whole place, from the chapel to the fucking garage. Vehicles and old ladies too. Unless they start holding church on a fishing boat, we’ll hear everything they’re saying until the batteries run out on the mics.”
Cam nodded. “How long is that?”
“Six weeks. Then we’ll need to go in and change them.”
“What if they find the mics before then? With so many planted, that’s gotta be a risk.”
“We used many different types,” Alexei said, “all of them covert. In the garage, we painted them into grease stains on the walls. That the Crows live like pigs worked in your favour.”
“They aren’t as clever as pigs.” My hand and Alexei’s were hidden between us. I squeezed his fingers again. “Crows either.”
He smirked like a ghost. “Is a shame they didn’t call themselves something more fitting, no?”
“They’re a bunch of cunts,” Mateo grumbled. “And there’s fucking loads of them. Where have they all come from?”
“And where have they been all this time?” Nash rolled an unlit cigarette across his lips. “Why get in bed with mafia cartels if you already have an army to call on?”
Alexei straightened his legs, revealing our clasped hands. No one seemed to notice, distracted by the fact he was about to speak. “An army of what, Nash? You could double your membership and still not possess the resources to run an international trafficking operation.”
Nash grinned. “That’s mean.”
“It’sdeliberate,” Cam growled. “None of us want that.”
“You want legitimacy?”
Cam turned to Alexei and gave him his full attention—that dark, liquid stare that stole my fucking breath. I wondered what it did to Alexei. I pressed my thumb over his pulse point to see if his heart thundered like mine.
It did.
“Eventually,” Cam said around a sigh the whole room felt. “But we need more than the yard to facilitate that. And we have old scores to settle first.”
This shit wasn’t new, but it roused Embry from his coma. He opened his eyes and dragged himself upright, still leaning on Rubi while Mateo twitched in the corner. “It’s more than an old score with the Sambinis. Those fuckers came to our compound and nearly killed us all. We can’t let that die.”
Cam’s gaze flickered to me and Alexei, dancing across us, before he exchanged a meaningful glance with Nash. “You don’t remember who was with the cartel hitman when they attacked you. It could’ve been a Crow.”
Embry’s hazy eyes flared. Of us all, he had the worst temper. “You think a Crow could hold me down long enough for me to get shanked?”
“I’m saying we don’t know who did,” Cam said. “It could’ve been another cartel dude.”
“It wasn’t,” Alexei said. “They told Sidorov they only had one man on the ground by the end, and they would not lie to him. The others were Sambini, at face value, at least.”
“How many Russian plants were there?”
“One that I know of. I do not know if he is still here.”
“Can you find out?”