“Cam and me... we have a meet coming up. A big one. If it goes wrong, I might end up in the nick.”
Prison.“What the fuck for?”
Humourless laughter shook Nash’s shoulders. “Whatever DetectiveBearcan pin on me.”
It took me a shameful second to catch up. To join the dots. “Bear’s a fed?”
Nash nodded. “Yup. We found out after I’d thumped him that he’s been deep undercover for years. Reckons he’s chasing police corruption—he has a legit photo of me paying off that dirty CID bloke at Tap Lane.”
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.
Nash laughed again. “Wild, right?Youknew someone was out there that night and it turns out it was Bear McCuntface the whole time.”
“Shit.” I scrubbed a hand over my mouth, reeling. All the effort the Kings put into staying alive when stayingfreewas as big a threat as any they’d ever faced. “What’s he going to do with the photo?”
Nash’s fingers twitched for a smoke he didn’t have, reluctance binding his muscles. For a moment, I was left to contemplate that the conversation might’ve been over. That he’d said all he was going to say.
Then he took a breath and it all came tumbling out.
I listened in disbelief. “They want you to fuckin’rat?”
“Yup.” Nash leaned heavily on his bent knees. “And we had to think about it to protect the club—to protecteveryone—but Alexei’s right. Showing that weakness just exposes us more. Opens a door to fuck knows what else.”
Alexei knows. That made sense. Did Saint? Maybe not, but I didn’t have the head space to dwell on it much.
I rubbed Nash’s back, grounding myself in his warm skin. “This apology. You think it’s a trap? Get you to admit to twatting him so they have at least something to hold you for?”
“Could be.”
“Why can’t they just take you from the street? They have the power. Why the fuckin’ pantomime?”
“They like drama? I don’t fucking know.” Nash got up and moved to the window, stress still locking him tight. “Alexei thinks they’re rogue. That they’ve messed up somewhere and they need a scapegoat. He’s been digging, but he can’t find any record of this undercover op ever existing.”
“That would make sense if they’re chasing dodgy coppers. Keep it off the books.”
“I know, but it would besomewhere.”
“Then Alexei just hasn’t found it yet. He needs more time.”
“There isn’t any more time.” Nash swung to face me. “It’s close, I can feel it. I just can’t tell which way it’s going to go.”
Guilt squeezed my heart. Nash had decked Bear for Willow. Forme. Cos he protected everyone except his fuckin’ self. But who was protecting him? He was my person—one of them anyway. Surely, it should’ve been me.
“No.”Nash blurred across the room, beside me so fast it was hard to accept he’d ever been on the other side of the room. “Whatever you’re thinking, stop it. This shit is years old and it’s coming home to roost. There’s nothing you can do.”
“But—”
“No. I told you because I needed to. Because I love you and I need you to know that if I’m not here one day, it was never, ever because I chose it. Because Ineedto know that if the worst happens, you’re still here taking care of her.”
Orla.
Fuckin’ hell.
“Does she know?”
Nash shook his head. “No one except me and Cam. Alexei only knows because he caught us.”
That explained the fraught energy between the boss and the accountant, but I still couldn’t think about them. My head was a wreck—all I saw was Nash and the faces of every soul who’d have to live without him if this shit went pear-shaped. “I love you.”