Page 145 of Love Thy Brother
I slipped into the kitchen, shutting the door behind me.
Cam was at the stove, stress cooking. “You hungry?”
“Nah.”
“Will you eat anyway? For me?”
“If it makes you happy. Where’s Alexei?”
Cam emptied a bag of pasta into a pot. “He’ll be here soon. You need him for something?”
“Maybe.” I took a seat at the table. “It’s nothing dodgy, though, so he might not be interested.”
“Alexei likes boring things. I’m living proof.”
“True that.” I fell silent, studying the land deeds in front of me, drifting.
Cam dropped into the seat beside me. “What’s up?”
“Apart from the obvious?”
“You don’t need to fret about the garage. Even without the insurance money, we can rebuild it in six months. You know this. Just put us to work.”
“It’s not that.”
“Okay.” Cam frowned at the land deeds. “Then what? You wanna sell?”
“Something like that.”
His frown deepened as bikes sounded around the back of the house.
“Who are you expecting?”
“Just Orla,” Cam said. “She’s been riding more since Locke took her detail.”
The back door opened before I could answer. My sister slipped through, shutting it quietly behind her, removing her boots before they hit the tiled floor.
She pointed a taloned finger at Cam. “Only for Saint. You can go fuck yourself.”
“Any particular reason?”
“Give it ten minutes. I’m sure you’ll give me one.”
Cam sighed and got up to return to the stove.
Orla stole his seat and studied the paperwork on the table. “What’s all this?”
“Deeds for the garage site.” I glanced at Cam, checking he was still tuned in. “I want to donate the land to a housing trust.”
Cam abandoned his pasta pot and returned to the table, big arms already threaded across his chest. “Say what now?”
“You heard me.”
“Say it again. Make it make sense.”
“I don’t want it.” I pushed the deeds away. “Even if the insurance pays out, it won’t cover the rebuild of what I lost without Alexei hacking it, and I don’t want that either. It’s wrong.”
“It’s not—”
