He rubbed his face. “I’m coming.”
Fair enough. I let him rest a little longer, then I helped him up and shadowed him across the frosty yard. Not that he needed my fuckin’ help. He entered the chapel and chose the chair furthest from the door. Just cos he could.
I claimed the seat next to him, noting there were a few extra. Keeping it to myself until Folk and Decoy showed up.
Folk sat beside me.
I tipped my head to the extra chairs. “What’s that all about?”
“No idea.”
I believed him and considered asking Rubi, but the chapel filled up fast, every brother taking their seat, even Alexei.
EvenRiver.
Then the door opened again and the queen walked in, Juana a heartbeat behind her. The extra chairs now made sense.
Juana dropped a baby in my arms as Orla folded her knockout body into the seat on Nash’s other side, taking his hand, tipping me a wink that didn’t match the apprehension in her eyes.
I frowned. Did something happen?
She shrugged and I scanned the room, noting that everyone had landed in their natural groups. Everyone touching. Everyone close, as if it meant more now than ever before.
I shifted Hope on my chest. She gazed up at me with big eyes, as drowsy as Nash had been earlier.
Instantly distracted, I booped her little nose. She giggled and fell asleep, and that wasn’t too dissimilar to Nash either, but he was awake now, shifting in his chair, uncomfortable.
I had a sleeping baby on my chest, but there was no shortage of brothers to help him. Saint found a box to prop up his leg. Folk passed him water. Embry slid a bag of lemon sherbets across the table.
Nash laughed, unused to being the centre of concern but letting it happen. Letting people do what they needed to do, cos this fucker was good to the bone.
Cam pounded his gavel. The room quieted and he looked around the table, taking everyone in, bruising from the crash still visible on his face. “It’s been a crazy week or so. I’m glad you’re all here to listen to me apologise for that. It means a lot. But fair warning: we’ve swept this place for bugs six times this morning, but I’m about to get deep. If you’re uncomfortable with that, you need to leave.”
He let that sink in.
No one left.
Cam exchanged a glance with Nash that I wasn’t privy to. Then he took a breath and it all came out.
Bear.
The feds.
The axe they’d held over Nash and Cam all this time.
The beginning of the story wasn’t new to me. Nor was the middle, though the details were harsher than Nash had shared with me.
But the ending? Fuckin’ hell. It knocked my head off my shoulders. “Jakovtook them out?”
“As a thank you for everything you did to help Viktor,” Cam confirmed. “But I want to make it clear that what happened to Bear and his sidekick isn’t something we asked that crazy bastard to do for us. You’re family, Locke. We’d never use your pain for fucking leverage.”
“You don’t have to explain that to me, brother.”
Cam held my gaze for a charged second. Then he shifted it to Nash. “You were right to thump that nonce.”
A murmur of agreement went round the table. Only River was quiet, but he wascalm. No shock creasing his face, and I realised Cam must’ve had the foresight to warn him this was coming.
“Why are they always pervs?” Rubi wondered, shaking his head. “Every time we butt heads with some arsehole, it always ends like this. Do you think that means something? Like we’re destined to be anti-pedo crusaders, whether we like it or not?”