“It’s more than that.” Fresh nerves coloured Rocco’s stare, though to his credit, he held it steady. “Butch never had any intention of coming down here. He’s spent the last year or so building his nomad crew into a real chapter. They were going to restart the trafficking up north while Frank handled things down here. With you gone and Delaney taking over, they were counting on no more resistance.”
A low growl rumbled from Saint’s chest. “Doesn’t matter if you knew about the trafficking. You sanctioned the hit on Cam.”
Rocco heaved a weary sigh. “I told you already, I didn’t vote for it. None of us did. Far as me and my closest brothers knew, the hit was the Sambinis trying to run you off the roads for pulling out of the construction racket. It was nothing to do with us, we were just—”
“Taking advantage of his murder? How resourceful of you.” Alexei stepped out of the shadows.
His abrupt presence shouldn’t have surprised me, but my heart jumped all the same, heat and adrenaline zipping through my blood as beams from the security lights hit his face. To me, Alexei was beautiful. To my enemies, he was a nightmare.
Rocco paled. He knew. He’d been on the compound when Nash and Saint had been gassed. When Embry had been shanked and I’d taken a bullet.
When Alexei’s old life had caught up with us all.
He knows what he could do to him.
As if he’d heard my thoughts, Alexei ghosted closer to Rocco and crouched in front of him, his face twisted in the cold leer that made him a stranger to me. “How many children do you have?”
Rocco blanched again. “Why?”
Alexei smiled his hideous smile. “Why do you think?”
No. My heart clenched, propelling me upright to stand between Alexei and Rocco, but Saint intercepted me, holding me back. Out of sight, he tapped his finger to his lips.Trust him.
I wanted to, but I fought his grip anyway, horror rippling through me. We didn’t do this shit. Not to anyone. Wecouldn’t, or everything we stood for, everything we’d lost, meant nothing.
On a good day, me and Saint were evenly matched. Sometimes I let him win because I loved the sensation of his strong body holding me down.
I didn’t have the choice today. My weak points were too obvious. Saint held firm, digging his fingers into my injured shoulder, and I grounded myself in the pain.
Ignoring us, Alexei leaned closer to Rocco. “Your story is interesting, but of no use to the Kings unless you show your hand. What do you want? And why? Do not be economical with your truth, Crow, and answereveryquestion I ask. You have too much to lose to risk upsetting me.”
Nausea rose in my throat, but I stopped fighting Saint, and he let me go, trusting me to stay quiet as Rocco shivered, fists clenched, eyes tight.
“I have two kids. Twins. They live with my mum in Bridgewater while Crow life doesn’t let me give them a stable home.”
“Where is their mother?”
“Dead.”
“How?”
“Blood clot. They saved the boys, but not her.”
Alexei tilted his head. “If you are the only parent they have left, why are you risking your life by coming here?”
“Why do you think?”
“I do not think anything, Crow. It is why I ask.”
Despite the foreboding lancing my nerves, the Russian edge thickening Alexei’s accent shot heat to my groin. I took a deep breath of Saint to calm myself down, but the combination of the pair of them left me fucking dizzy.
Idiot.
I returned to the pallet stack and forced my focus back to Rocco. We were running out of time. The longer he was here, the more chance there was that someone would notice. “You came to us because you know we’d light ourselves on fire before we gave up our turf for trafficking routes. It means something to you because you’re not like the rest of them. I get that. But it’s a big risk, Rocco. You get caught playing double agent, you’re a dead man.”
“And that is if you are telling us the truth. It will be much worse for you if you are not.”
Alexei’s words made my mouth dry, but he was right. I didn’t want to kill Rocco—hell, I didn’t want to kill anyone—but if his bullshit put my family in more danger?