Cam crushed his cigarette, his gaze turning speculative. “It isn’t anything you haven’t done for us six times over. I’ve just never known why.”
“Why?” Viktor was fast running out of steam, a heavy nap on his horizon. “You are asking about Alexei.”
Cam glowered. “Am I?”
Viktor considered him for a long moment. Then he murmured something Russian and dragged himself more upright. “Perhaps. But let me tell you instead about the man who took me from my home when I was young. Towork, yes? And that was my life for five years until a ghost came through the hatch in the ceiling and shot the man in the face.”
Cam swallowed. “That saved you?”
“It did not. In the end, I found myself in another place that Alexei had been before me, and now here I am with you. But what happened that night saved my sister from the same fate, and for that—forher—I will give my life a thousand times, and this is something you understand, no?”
The question was rhetorical. Just as well, considering digesting that particular nugget of Alexei’s history had rendered Cam mute. So I asked another question of my own. “How old are you now?”
Viktor shot me a dry glance. “How old do I look?”
“Eighty-two.” Rubi spoke from the doorway, dog bowl in hand, a zoot jammed in his mouth. Lida got down to investigate the bowl. Rubi relinquished her dinner and came to sit on Viktor’s other side, as if they were actual real-life pals. “No offence.”
“Is not an emotion that afflicts me.”
Viktor spared Rubi a faint smirk. As he turned back to Cam, the burner in my pocket buzzed to life.
I withdrew it to read the message Viktor had been waiting on far longer than he’d been holed up in our bunkhouse. “Jakov’s thirty minutes out.”
Rubi stood. “I’ll see him in.”
He left. Cam leaned forward and gripped Viktor’s hand again, the tension from the second-hand trip down memory lane all but gone. “Can we do anything for you before you go?”
“I told you already. Somewhere to sleep with both eyes shut has been enough.” Viktor grinned a little. Then real emotion flared in his weary gaze. “But I would appreciate it if you could get me out before your nomad comes back. I do not want him to see me like this.”
With Saint, Alexei, and Ranger still off-grid, it was an easy request to grant.
Viktor limped off our turf half an hour later. From the back wall, I watched him step into Jakov’s arms and it left me pondering their relationship and where Viktor’s obvious affection for Ranger fit into that.
“They’re not banging, but they have vibes, brother.” Rubi came up beside me, apparently reading my mind. “Like you and me.”
“We did bang.”
“Not well.”
“Finally admitting you’re a shit shag?”
“How very dare you.” Rubi took a breath to retaliate further, but Cam appeared and gave him the fuck-off stare.
Rubi sighed and wandered off.
Cam dropped his forearms on the wall and treated me to a searching frown. “You okay?”
“Me?”
“There’s no one else here.”
“Yeah, well. I’m not the one who got took. Save your concern for Locke. Or your sister who nearly lost him.”
“That happened to you too.”
As if I needed reminding. I also needed to smoke another cigarette like I needed a hole in the head, so I dug in my pockets for something else. For the sweets Embry and River had kept forcing on me while Locke had been gone. As if lemon sherbets cured a shattered heart.
“All right,” Cam conceded. “If you don’t want to have that conversation, there’s other shit we need to talk about. Unfinished business that needs handling before we can stand down.”