The some shit part of that statement stuck in my mind, propped up by the stricken emotion I remembered in Viktor’s tired gaze when he’d begged me to keep Ranger on the road so he wouldn’t see how fucked up he was. Thedevastationin Ranger’s coal-dark eyes when we’d finally told him how bad Viktor had been hurt at Priest’s hand. Where Jakov landed in that, I had no idea, but my heart didn’t fear for Ranger, and it didn’t feel wrong.
Or maybe I’d run out of rope to fret about shit I couldn’t control.
Get home. Get home. Get home.
We both felt the pull. Cam moved to his hog while I scooped up the last of our electronics.
I tossed him his personal phone. He didn’t turn it on. Not yet. But if he was feeling anything like me, just having it close settled him.
He reactivated the tracker on his bike.
I threw a leg over my V-Rod, gunning the engine, stuffing phones in my pockets as urgency overwhelmed my heart. Despite Cam’s presence beside me, I felt like a wolf separated from the pack.
Get home. Get home. Get home.
The burner phone rang again.
I ripped it from my inside pocket and held it out.
Cam waved it away. “I need a fucking minute.”
I respected that.
Hated it.
Loved him enough to take the call and press the phone to my ear. “Yeah?”
I expected a Russian accent. But not the one that clipped urgently down the line.
“Mishka needs you.” Alexei spoke fast and urgent. “I will patch the call through now.”
Mishka.
Locke.
“What’s wrong?”
Alexei was already gone. The line crackled. Fell silent. Then buzzed again before the deep bass of Locke’s voice filtered through. “Nash? Where are you?”
The way he said my name plummeted my heart to the earth’s core. Blindsided me enough that I had no fucking clue how to answer his panic-laced question. Where the fuck were we? Gloucester? Bristol?
Cam stepped closer and barked out our location. “Why? What’s going on?”
I repeated the question to Locke. The line deadened. I thought we’d lost him. Then he spoke again. “Willow’s gone AWOL in her car. She’s not answering her phone, but we’ve tracked her to the route I’d take to Hereford. I think they’re trying to drive to my brother’s place.”
“They?”
“Nicky’s with her. At least I hope he is, or I’ve got a whole new problem.”
“He’s not answering his phone either?”
“It’s turned off. Listen, I’m in the Toyota with Orla, but Alexei said you’re an hour ahead of me. Can you get to them? Remy says it’s blowing a hoolie up that way, and Willow has zero experience driving on the motorway.”
For him? For Willow? For his teenage son I’d never met?Anything. “Send me the tracking information. What do you want us to do when we find them? Shadow them up that hill to Logan’s house?”
“Only if it comes up before the nearest service station. Brother, I just need them off the road.”
“Got it.” I started my hog and dug around for my personal phone, keeping the burner tucked under my ear, unwilling to lose Locke’s voice until I had the tracking information, half a mind on where the ever-loving fuck Alexei was if he’d deemed me and Cam to be closest to fuckingHereford. “If she asks, how much trouble is she in?”