Rubi’s decision.
Backed up by Saint.
Set in stone by Alexei who’d somehow messaged the group chat from Nash’s bedside.
The photo he’d sent—Nash’s tattooed hand curled in a thumbs up—was seared into my brain.He’s okay. I wasn’t. I had six hours to kill before I could see him for myself. Hold him. Touch him. Smell him. All the tea in the world wasn’t going to cut it.
I turned back to Remy. “What time are the boys coming home?”
More twins. Logan’s. Locke’s nephews. The prospect of meeting them was keeping me sane.
“Around eight. Bec drops them off before the school run.”
Four hours. Damn. “What’s she like?”
“Bec?”
“I don’t want to judge her, but every ex-wife I know is a pain in the arse.”
Kara.Lauren, the monster Decoy had married once upon a time.
Remy smiled, lighting up his ethereally pretty face. “She’s all right. I don’t miss her when she doesn’t call, though.”
I took his diplomacy at face value and moved to the kitchen doorway again, checking in on Cam. He was slumped in an armchair, staring into space. I pulled out my phone and messaged Alexei.
Orla:Cam’s not okay.
Alexei’s reply was lightning fast.
Alexei:I know. That’s why I’m here and Saint is outside. It’s what he needs us to do. We will take him home later.
Later. It made me contemplate when Nash would be allowed to leave. I’d hidden my face in Locke’s broad chest when the surgeon had described in detail the repair work he’d done to Nash’s already damaged knee and the broken bones around it. All I knew was that the operation had been extensive andlong, but I had no idea what that meant for Nash’s immediate future.
Days?
Weeks?
The prospect rattled me. I took the coffee Remy had made for Cam into the living room and offered it to him.
He roused himself, sitting up. “You okay?”
“Not yet. You?”
“I feel like I should have a headache, but I’m just fucking tired.”
“Then sleep. I’ll wake you up when it’s time to go back.”
“It’s not that easy.”
I knew that. I was hyperaware that my brother didn’t have his support system with him. Saint, Alexei, even Rubi.Nash. None of them were here, leaving him alone in the home of men he didn’t know while he was quietly falling apart.
Locke saw it too. He brought Cam a plate of food from the kitchen. “Eat a bit if you can. It’ll help.”
“With what?”
“Everything.”
“I keep hearing your kid scream as we hit her car. She didn’t know why we were doing it.”