Rubi dragged his gaze from Viktor and settled it on me, searching for the untruth. But he found none. I’d been messing with him all trip long, but too lazy to lie, I’d owned it. Which meant either River had done it—unlikely—or someone had fucked with him before we’d left Devon.Orthe whole charade was in his fucking head.
“Did you check the dates on them?”
Rubi took a breath to respond, but River exiting Bertha derailed him. It was freezing cold out here and that sinuous fucker had no shirt on. And he was already grumpy if his glower was anything to go by.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Rubi, not me.
“Nothing.”
River’s gaze slid to the protein shake dripping down the Rattler. “Uh-huh. Well stop it. I wanna fucking go.”
To Berkshire. And thenhome.
He was getting no argument from me. We dispersed to get our shit together. Rubi and River wandered off to get showered and find breakfast.
Viktor started the Rattler, letting the wipers take care of most of Rubi’s mess. His kill mode simmered down, leaving... that fucking mischief in his Jelly-Tot eyes. Mischief I knew all too well. But how the fuck would he have got to Rubi’s stupid big boy shakes? Unless he’d ninja-ed into Bertha while Rubi and River had slept?—
Oh.
All right then.
So the real question waswhy, and it was a puzzle that kept me occupied all the way to Berkshire, where Rubi had his second meltdown of the day.
He swigged from a water bottle. Spat it straight out, narrowly missing a random loading bay operative at the site we’d delivered to. “Mother of Dragons, I’m going to fuckingmurdersomeone.”
The worker disappeared, taking Rubi’s general appearance at face value.
Rubi pinned me with his suspicion.
I sighed. “Really? Again?”
“It wasn’t Riv.”
“What wasn’t?”
I spoke as Viktor hopped down from the back of our rig, his lithe body flexing enough that I was as instantly distracted as Rubi had been by River earlier.
Rubi wasn’t as taken by him, and as Vik drew closer, something seemed to click for him. “It wasyou.”
Viktor reached my side and leaned against the Rattler, his shoulder pressing against mine, that pretty face relaxed in the kind of smirk that spelled trouble. “That is it? NododgyHercules reference this time?”
They were talking a different language, but whatever Vik meant seemed to make sense to Rubi. That tension blanketed the air again. Then helaughed, hooting and hollering at the top of his big fat voice. “Dodger, you fucking degenerate. How did you know?”
“I cannot reveal my sources.” Viktor grinned, all teeth and menace. “But if you want to dance, friend, you must only say.”
Still laughing, Rubi ambled off to take a piss before we finally headed home.
I turned to Viktor, drowning in the amused warmth in his eyes, realising he’d played me as much as Rubi. “Explain.”
“No.”
“Please?”
Viktor dragged his thumb over my lips. “I think the way you are looking at me now should be against the Geneva Convention.”
“The what?”