ThatIowed him. At Orla’s long-ago birthday barbecue, Cam had been stupid enough to bet fifty.
The noise died down.
Decoy and Folk ventured further inside, and I caught Decoy’s bashful joy across the room.
Folk’s grin was broader, and I did not have to ask to know he had been the one to propose. Veles had wanted this a long time, only a lack of faith in himself had stopped him making it so.
I rose and moved to where he stood with Locke. Embracing him was easy, we had shared too much for it to be any other way. “You deserve to be as happy as you’ve made him.”
Russian words. Folk understood most, and even if he did not, he knew me well enough to gauge the sentiment.
“Thank you, brother.”
We parted. Folk glanced over my shoulder, to where Viktor stood alone while Ranger was caught up with the children he claimed not to like.
He watched them with an absent gaze.
Distant.
Folk gave me a pointed look.
I sighed. “You too?”
“It won’t kill you.”
“It might.”
Folk laughed, leaving Locke mystified by our Russian exchange, but there was not much I could do about that. I escaped to the kitchen and swiped a vodka bottle from the freezer, evading Rubi as he loomed behind me with food I did not want to eat.
“Go away, old one.”
“Have one of these then.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s Christmas and I know you like raisins and shit.”
“Raisins and shit? This is an Irish thing?”
“Oi.” Rubi scowled. “Less of that. You’ve been to Christmas before. Have a mince pie and stop being a cunt.”
In the spirit of following his advice, I grabbed an extra glass and went back to the living room. “Vitya, sit with me.”
Viktor glanced at me from where he loitered in a doorway. “Why?”
“So I don’t have to talk to anyone else.”
His flat stare turned unconvinced. “You love these people.”
“That does not change who I am.” I waved the vodka at him. “Come. Sit. Before the old one makes me eat something else.”
Viktor did not like being ordered around any more than I did, but he came to the couch and sat beside me, hiding his faint grimace with a smile for his faithful dog as she followed and wedged herself between us.
Lida was not a small dog, but she gave me grace of her front end, and I scratched her ears. “Do you ever wonder where you would be without her?”
“I know where I’d be without her.” Viktor’s humour faded, leaving the tightness in his face.
“You are in pain?”