Page 112 of Love Thy Brother
Dark thoughts, but we’d been living in dark times so long they made sickening sense.
River and Saint ran for their bikes. Cam and Nash charged after Locke, but I was slower. Primally unable to let River leave without... fuck. I didn’t know. Without something.
I doubled back, seizing his arm before he could jam his helmet down. “Be careful.”
“You too.”
“I mean it, Riv. Please.”
He shook me off. “It’s the people I love that get hurt and die, boo. Never me.”
God, he was so fucking wrong. But there was no time to argue with him. Decoy gunned the engine of his car and peeled off, taking Saint with him as River’s Softail rumbled to life.
I stepped back and he blazed away, leaving me in the dust.
Literally. It was everywhere. I smeared a hand down my face and took off down the street, chasing Cam and Nash down. I reached the exploded house, and the acrid fumes of smoke and gas filled my lungs.
Locke was already in the rubble, slinging bricks with his big hands. “Over here!” he yelled. “Do exactly what I fucking say.”
No one argued. We crawled into the mess and heaved every lump of concrete and timber he told us to, uncovering the elderly lady who lived in the house.
She was alive.
Battered and dusty, butalive.
Her cat was too.
I scooped it up and backed off as the emergency services arrived to take over.
Cam joined me in the chaos. He’d found a box. We tucked the cat inside and he gave me a look. “We’re not keeping it.”
“That’s your main concern right now?”
“It’s always my concern with you fuckers.”
“Where’s Alexei?”
“Not here.”
Blue lights swamped my street, validating Alexei’s disappearance. He had fake IDs for days, but it was still safer to be invisible.
Me? I didn’t give a shit. I flagged a copper down and gave her the catandmy address. “We’ll take her if she needs looking after for a bit.”
“Fucking won’t,” Cam grumbled. “You don’t even live here half the time.”
“Shut the fuck up. Can I go now?”
“Not alone.”
It was my turn to growl, but Cam took zero notice of me. He paced the street until Nash and Locke emerged from the wreckage unscathed, then decreed we’d hit the road together.
Locke didn’t want to leave. The sense of the past calling him home was strong in the air and it took a while to talk him down.
Fretting, I stayed back, texting River and Orla until one of them responded.
Orla:At the compound. River’s fine.
Rubi:I didn’t ask.
