Page 79 of Love Thy Brother
Saint shrugged. “I had to train myself to stop thinking all the time. Sometimes I just stare at them and wait for it to be okay again.”
“That’s your advice? To stop thinking?”
Silence. Of course. Any other brother, I’d have poked him for more, but when Saint was done, he was done.
I let it go and pointed the way I’d come. “You need to come back. If Embry and him haven’t killed each other, River’s coming to church.”
15
RIVER
Orla’s job was boring. And she was annoying. It didn’t matter how many times she insinuated I was banging Rubi and I told her I wasn’t, somehow we still found ourselves in the same place.
I lasted ten minutes before I stropped off to Nash’s garage.
He wasn’t there. The big Crow was swapping out old fire extinguishers.
“Expired,” he explained for no reason whatsoever.
“I didn’t ask.”
The Crow, Locke—the one my sister had talked about almost as much as Nash and Rubi—gave an easy shrug and went back to his work.
Last-week me thought about asking him what in the fucking hell he was doing here. A Dog Crow turned Rebel King was a phenomenon my dad would never have imagined. But I had Rubi to think about.
Nothing else seemed to matter.
I let Locke be and poked around Nash’s makeshift garage. It was basic because I’d stolen most of the club’s gear when I’d left, but there was still enough around to keep me occupied. I found a dismantled Triumph Tiger and picked through the parts while surreptitiously spying on Locke.
He wasbig. Taller than Rubi, though not as wide. Messy blond hair, scruffy beard. Sea-green eyes that seemed as kind as they’d been when I’d peeped on him five years ago in Porth Luck.
He’s a Crow.A man I was pathologically destined to hate. But Orla didn’t hate him. Neither did my brother. Or Rubi.
“What are you doing with those spark plugs?”
I jerked my head to the left. Embry stood in the doorway of the garage, gaze narrowed on the bike parts in my idle hands. “Putting them back and trying to figure out why Nash took them out in the first place. There’s nothing wrong with this bike.”
“Correct.” Embry came closer. “Don’t tell him that, though. I was trying to keep him busy.”
“This is your bike?”
“For my sins.” Embry opened the saddle bag and retrieved a small brown bottle. “Nash is lost without Rubi, so we told him the Tiger was playing up. Taking it apart gave him something to do when he wasn’t knee-deep in other things.”
“You lied to him?”
“For the greater good. You’ve never done that?”
I’d lied for far worse reasons, though it had been a while since I’d had the patience.
In my peripheral, Locke rose from his crouch and disappeared. I watched him go, then turned my attention back to Embry. “Is he fucking my sister?”
Embry blinked hard. “I don’t think so. Why?”
“Vibes, man.”
“From Locke?”
“From her.”
