“Your brother needs to get laid.”
Viktor didn’t argue, but his gaze flickered, letting me know there was something he wasn’t telling me.
“What is it?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. I might be wrong.”
“Is it bad?”
“I do not think so. Difficult, maybe. For everyone.”
The rush of his sudden appearance began to fade. I sank into his stare, searching for answers, but he gave me none, and I knew there was only one reason he’d do that—to protect me. But from what?
“Jean—”
“She is fine. You know this.”
I did. I’d spoken to my nanna two hours ago, confessing that I was pretty sure missing Viktor this hard was gonna kill me. She’d laughed. Then she’d told me that even the worst things didn’t last, and of course she’d been right. She always was.
Viktor’s sharp jaw called to me, those wise eyes and high cheekbones. His pillowy lips. My stomach growled, but I didn’t care about eating. Didn’t care about smoking or that barely a sip of water had passed my mouth since wank o’clock this afternoon. I just wanted to hold Viktor’s face and stare at him all night long.
“Asher, it is okay.”
I believed him. Viktor was a retired mobster with a lifetime of secrets, but he never lied to me. “I know.”
“I need to load my bike onto your truck.”
“What?”
Viktor gripped my wrists, prying my hands from him. “The bike. The truck. Unless you do not want me to travel with you?”
It took me a second to catch up. “You’re going to ride with me? In the cab? Not buzz about on the road where I can’t see you?”
Viktor grinned. “What would be the point in that? Lyubeemiy, I did not come to protect you. I came tobewith you.”
* * *
He came to be with me.
My heart ached for a whole new reason.
A better one. Having Viktor with me when I had eight hours to kill before we got back on the road was pretty much the happiest I’d ever been. Or at least in the last month. I didn’t care that we were stuck at a shitty truck stop. Or that we had nothing to eat but the fried chicken and chips I was finally sick of. I cared that Viktor currently stood on top of the Bone Rattler, surveying the truck park or whatever, and this fucker would not get down.
Also, I wasn’t entirely sure how he’d gotup. I’d turned my back to take a piss and now Vik was a mountain goat. “What are you even looking for? What if a sniper gets you?”
Viktor paced the roof of the cab, shooting me a droll look, the glow of a nearby downlight making his eyes gleam. “In Northampton? This is King territory. Is why you stop here.”
Facts. But I still wanted him down and he didn’t give a shit. Heleaptfrom the Bone Rattler to Bertha, rousing Rubi from inside.
“Oi. The fuck are you parkouring around for?”
Viktor crouched, grinning down at him in a manner I knew spelled mischief, but no one else did. “You need to reposition your vehicle.”
Rubi narrowed his gaze. “And why’s that, Sir Jump-a-Lot?”
“You’ve left a blind spot on your flank. Also, it looks as though a drunk person parked it the first time.”
“Dick. And to think I baked you that orange cake just to fix your sad little face. What about—oh. When did Roo move the Rattler?”