Page 108 of Love Thy Brother
Cam kept talking, but I couldn’t hear him over the roar of blood in my ears.
“Hey.” A gentle hand grazed the base of my spine. “No fighting in my gaff. Only lovers within these sacred walls.”
“We’re not fighting,” Cam said distantly.
Rubi’s low chuckle seemed a million times closer. “Remember who you’re talking to. I know an O’Brian mutiny when I see one.”
“It’s not a mutiny. It’s a conversation, and seeing as you’re here, I’m going to say this to both of you—”
“Leave it out, mate,” Rubi snapped. “You said you were over playing Cupid’s assassin—”
“Not about that,” Cam growled. “Fuck’s sake. Can you be serious for a fucking minute?”
“So this is where you all are.”
The new voice came from behind me.
Alexei.
Years ago, if someone had ever told me Cam would find a lover more enigmatic and weirder than Saint, I’d have given them better drugs. But as my limbs reconnected with my brain and I spun around, there he was. One shoulder propped on the doorframe, watching us with cool amusement. “Tell me you have a better reason for summoning me here than this?”
Cam swung his glare from Rubi to Alexei. “You have somewhere else to be?”
“Right now?” A faint smile played on Alexei’s lips. “Not if you are here, but still. This argument is old. Leave them alone.”
“I will when I’m done.”
Alexei shrugged, waiting.
The heat in Cam’s gaze morphed into something less ragey, but the respite was brief, and it was me he scowled at next. “I’m gonna say this once, then whatever answer you give me becomes fucking gospel.”
“You’re the preach, big brother.”
Cam threaded his arms over his chest, hiding his hands, and his gaze darted to Alexei. Hisjitterygaze. Fuck. I was messing this up too.
I stepped closer and made myself reach for him when all I wanted was the safety of Rubi’s arms. “What are you worried about?”
“Everything. Everyone. You want in on this, fine. We’re your people as long as you want us to be. But you need to leave everything else at the door. If you can’t do that, you can’t ride with us, and I ain’t budging on that. I can’t—fuck.” Cam squeezed his eyes shut and inhaled a sharp breath before he faced me again. “River, I can’t watch another brother bleed. It’ll fucking kill me, I swear to God.”
I believed him. Blocking Rubi out, I wrapped my arms around my big brother and held him tight. “I hear you. But it’s not going to happen, okay? We’ve fucked up a hundred dickhead crews like this before. I know it’s been a minute since I was on the road, but Nash was right. Whether I like it or not, I’m still a King, and this shit is in my blood.”
“Nothing else is in your blood?”
“Only weed and love, Cam. I promise.”
Cam laughed into my shoulder. “Trust me, love makes a man crazy as shit.”
“Still here, though, aren’t ya?”
“Just about.” Cam sighed and let me go.
Belatedly, I realised we were alone—that Rubi and Alexei had evaporated into thin air.
Or, you know, the kitchen, like everyone else. I was starting to wonder what Rubi had in there that I’d missed the four days we’d been here.
I retreated to the couch and watched Cam vacillate between wanting to join me and missing Saint and Alexei enough that he didn’t know what to do with himself. It was fucking hilarious, though that might’ve been the weed.
Eventually, he chose the kitchen, and for once I didn’t mind losing out to whatever else was pulling him in a dozen directions. The love he had for those weirdos was epic, and he deserved it. They all did. My only issue with his absence was the aversion I’d developed to being alone. The thump in my heart the moment the door closed behind him.
