My phone was pressed to my ear. A conversation that mattered, but I’d tuned out as Decoy had caught my attention. “Hmm?”
“Folk.” There was humour in Jekka’s voice. Wisdom. “Are you even listening to me?”
Was I?
Jekka was my mum. I loved her more than I could say. But she talked a lot, and I was tired.
“I’m listening,” I promised. “Are they okay?”
“Of course they are. Dad took them crabbing at Cromer at the weekend. Then your brother had them out with the sheep all day today. But it’s you they asked for when I put them to bed.”
Grief throbbed in my heart. “I’ll FaceTime tomorrow. Can you tell them I love them in the morning?”
“Son, we tell them every morning.”
I knew that as much as I knew Jekka loved me.
We said our goodbyes. I stared at my blank phone screen a moment, but it wasn’t long before my gaze returned to the bar.
Decoy’s pain did something to me I couldn’t explain. It drew me forward when most nights I’d have hit the road already to make the five-hour trip home to check up on my family.
It’s what kept me in this life when I should’ve got out when Rocco died.
Not true. You’d never leave Locke.
Not yet, maybe. But that was a dance in my brain for another day. Now, despite the fact that I rarely drank, I needed in that bar more than anything.
I left my bike and crossed the yard.
Alexei met me at the steps, hands damp from the six cycles of washing he’d completed in the time it had taken me to get this far. I spent a lot of time with Alexei. I knew his nuances too. They just didn’t affect me so much. Also, he had other people to worry about him.
So does Decoy. And yet, here I was, ascending the steps with a dude who probably didn’t want a drink in the noisy clubhouse bar any more than I did.
Life was strange.
At the top, I reached around Alexei and opened the bar door for him.
He flashed me a wry look, but it died as his gaze found what he really needed after the long night we’d spent chest-deep in cold water.
Saint was waiting for him, and Alexei was as drawn to him as I was to the man who stood at the end of the bar, lost in bad thoughts as our brothers talked over him.
Alexei slipped between Saint and Rubi, his smaller build instantly engulfed by their towering frames. Nash and River were beside them, and I sensed mischief in the air as much as Decoy’s hushed misery.
“Folksie.” Rubi shot me a laddish grin. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
“You want an update before Alexei comes to church in the morning?”
Rubi snorted and waved the notion away. “If you’d seen anything important, Mr Flipper, I’d know it by now.”
Alexei reappeared from Saint’s embrace. “Mr Flipper? That is the best you can do?”
Rubi blinked. “Huh?”
“Veles.”
Alexei swept his gaze over me as if his words made complete sense. But the Slavic term was lost on Rubi. On me? I spoke better Russian than Rubi would ever know, and if Alexei wanted to deign me a god, I wasn’t going to complain.
Alexei went back to his quiet conversation with his lover.
Rubi shook off his bemusement and beckoned me closer. “We need to talk to you.”
“No, we don’t.” Nash reached around River and grasped Rubi’s thick arm, tugging him back.
But Rubi was a big fella. And he was drunk. Determined. Whatever was on his mind was gonna come out.
Nash let him go and slid a glance at Decoy. An instinctive gesture he was less aware of than I was. But Nash was like that. Easy to read because he cared, and it didn’t bother him to let people know.
Decoy cared too, but he wasn’t in the room right now, still lost in thought as he wiped the bar down, gaze so distant my heart gave a little lurch I wasn’t prepared for. It pushed me into getting lost in his profile. His strict shoulders and scruffy jaw. The newer ink on his muscular arms that hadn’t been there the first time he’d caught my attention in a smoky bar.
The older ink that had been there, but I’d failed to notice because I’d been too enchanted by everything about him.
Rubi poked me.
I made myself look at him. “What’s on your mind?”
“Deeks needs a boyfriend.”
I was good at concealing my emotions. Playing the grey man while I watched and waited for the world around me to catch up. But Rubi would’ve surprised me less if he’d asked me to marry him. My obsession with Decoy—with Seth—was years old, but it was my best kept secret. I’d told no one. Not even Rocco. And until this moment, I’d have bet what was left of my body that Decoy hadn’t told anyone either.
There was an unopened bottle of pop on the bar. Fizzy junk wasn’t my bag, but I swiped it to buy some time and opened it, tipping a mouthful of liquid sugar down my throat. “You need help finding him one?”
Rubi shook his head. “Nah, it needs to be you.”
As the words left Rubi’s mouth, Decoy tuned back into the room and whatever the hell Rubi was talking about. Uncharacteristic impatience clouded his face and he made a low sound in his throat. A violent sound that drew the attention of the others before he wheeled around and stormed out of the bar.
River winced and wound his arms around Rubi from behind. “Come on, boo. Making a joke out of this isn’t helping him.”
For a moment, Rubi was lost in the touch of his one true love. Then he shook him off. “It’s not a joke. Folk’s got a clean record and a DBS check. He’s a goddamn teacher. Even Miss Bitch Tits can’t argue with that.”
Okay. This was looking less like Decoy had spilled our history and more like something messier. Rubi didn’t talk trash about women. No one in the upper echelons of the Rebel Kings did, and the only female I could think of who deserved Rubi’s sharp mouth was Decoy’s ex-wife.
I screwed the lid back on the pop bottle. “I’m not a teacher.”
“Yes, you are. I heard you talking to Locke about teaching weans to swim after you left the army.”
“I was never in the army.”
“No?” A frown marred Rubi’s features. “I thought you were?”
“Marines. That’s the navy.”
“Same thing.” Rubi waved it away and leaned closer. “And you taught kids when you left, right?”
“It was a while after, but yeah. For a couple of months.”
“Then what?”
I lost my mind and Rocco saved me. “I bought a bike and joined the worst club in the world.”
At that, Rubi smirked. “Can’t argue with that. But you still had all the checks? To work with kids?”
“I think so. But it was years ago. Those things expire. And what’s that got to do with Decoy?” I felt safer saying his name now I couldn’t see him. My grey man powers were strong, but Saint and Alexei were as intuitive as I was, and their perception was natural. Untamed. If anyone was going to sniff me out, it was them. “Is his ex messing him around again?”
“Ain’t she just.” Real distress flared in Rubi’s gaze. “She took Ivy from school today and won’t give her back, and honestly, I don’t know how much more of this our boy can take. You see his face tonight?”