Page 25 of Love Thy Brother
“Answer the question,” I snapped. “Don’t just fucking stare at me.”
“You gotta coat, Riv? It’s brass knuckles out here, mate.”
“You have a brain in your thick skull? Or you need me to ask a third time?”
Rubi sighed, leaning forward. “You ain’t gonna like it.”
Again.“So? When has that ever affected anything?”
A low laugh rumbled from Rubi’s broad chest. “You’d be surprised.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, but I haven’t got the energy to get into all that. I’m here as a courtesy. To let you know I’m gonna be around for a while.”
“Around?”
Rubi nodded. “Hiding in plain sight. Keeping an eye on these cunts you don’t want us to fight on your behalf. You don’t want the club to intervene, that’s your right. But you ain’t facing them by yourself unprotected.”
Tired as shit and dazed from his abrupt arrival, it took a second for all the information to sink in. Even longer for the rage Rubi was clearly expecting to take the rest of the day off.
I had nothing but the barest grip on what he was saying.
“I’m gonna be around for a while.”
Damn.
My pulse had slowed in his mere presence, but it kicked up again now, buoyed by the hopeful, euphoric rush I chased so often with the wrong things. Having Rubi in my life for longer than ten painful minutes at a time was the ultimate dream. The irony that I constantly told him he wasn’t welcome was almost funny.
I took a shaky breath that I concealed with a cough. “Let me get this straight. You’re here to keep tabs on me while I handle my own shit? Or is that the lie?”
“The lie?”
“Yeah, cos you’re a liar, aren’t you? So why not this time?”
For once, I wasn’t shouting in his face, but my flat acceptance seemed to cut Rubi deeper. Unfettered pain flashed in his eyes. “I’m not a liar, Riv.”
I disagreed. And we both knew it. But I couldn’t fight him right now. Didn’t want to. “I’m just wondering if you’re here to distract me while Cam rolls a club steamroller over my life.”
“Cam’s not here.”
“That’s my point.”
“And that’s my answer. It’s just me, and it ain’t a club thing.”
“What is it then?”
Rubi dug in his pockets and produced a blunt. He lit it and sucked a deep drag down before ashing it again and putting it back in the box.
Weirdo.
“Cam was listening earlier,” he said. “When you told him what you’d do if he interfered. He ain’t happy about it, but he heard you. This is a compromise. I’m gonna hang around like a bad smell while you do whatever the fuck you want, but I won’t step in unless you want me to or those cunts go too fucking far.”
“Hate to break it to you, but that’s still interfering in my life.”
“No, it ain’t. It’s interfering in mine.”
“How d’you work that out?”
