Page 166 of Love Thy Brother
Maybe he didn’t care.
Either way, his presence reminded me of something I needed to do.
Rubi was already in deep conversation with Cam. He caught my hand as I rose. “Where are you going?”
“Not far.”
“You’re not leaving?”
I leaned down and brushed my lips over his cheek. “Not without you.”
It was a promise I’d demanded of him but never reciprocated, and I fucking should have. But the time for regret and heartache was over. I loved Rubi. He loved me. Now I just had to work on being a man worthy of it.
I left the chapel and made my way to the clubhouse. I knew the code for the residence, but I didn’t need it. Embry was already up and meandering to Cracker Delaney’s old office.
Liliana was with him. She gave me the same look she had in Rubi’s living room. “Sorry you nearly died.”
She didn’t sound all that sorry, but I took it.
“Thanks. Congrats on your new sister. She’s cute as hell.”
“Did you hold her?”
“No. Alexei did, though.”
Liliana giggled and wandered off. Embry laser-focused on her until she attached herself to Decoy as he left the chapel.
Then he turned to me. “Something on your mind?”
“What makes you say that?”
“You left Rubi to come and find me.” Embry opened a drawer in Cracker’s old desk and fished out a roll of Polos. “Want one?”
Of course. Ketamine was old news, but sugar? Sign me up.
I slipped the mint between my lips. “When I was a kid, my dad’s chaplain was this old geezer who smelt like cat food.”
“Is that why they called him Tuna?”
“Probably. He was a creepy cunt. I wasn’t sad when he came off his bobber on the A49. Or that no one replaced him until Cam found you.”
“Orla said that too. But you’re not here to talk about the past, man.”
This dude. He was younger than me. But the way he spoke made me feel like a boy and his priest. “I wanted to tell someone that I’m pretty sure I’d have sniffed all that K if carbon monoxide poisoning hadn’t knocked me out.”
“Pretty sure? Or scared of what might’ve been?”
“Same thing.”
“I don’t think they are.” Embry palmed another Polo and came around the desk to lean on it. “And the way I heard it, you’d already tossed the drugs before you went down.”
“Who told you that?”
“Rubi. He was worried he didn’t try and help you quick enough.”
“He was right to think what he thought.”
“And Locke was right to disregard it. No one was wrong in this situation. It was an accident.”
