CAM

CAM

There was no way of approaching Orla's building with any semblance of stealth. I drove the faceless car onto her street and tossed it up the kerb praying Nash had picked up the barrage of panicked messages I'd hurled into the ether ten minutes ago, when I'd been a couple miles out. That he'd deciphered the garbled, typo-ridden disaster texts enough for two glaring urgencies to get through.

One: my location.

Two: I needed Locke or Folk and I needed them now .

I killed the engine and took a rapid glance around my surroundings, expecting the usual cohort of prospects and brothers to be guarding my sister's home. But as the dawn quiet of the deserted street sunk in, I realised no fucker was here, not even her.

Jesusfuck.

I rolled out of the car and lurched to the passenger side where Ranger lay, dazed and confused, on the seat. Blood on his face, eyes barely open, shivers wracking his lean frame.

Jesus fuck .

I got him out.

He objected, bewilderment clouding his pain-filled eyes. "Where are we?"

I squeezed his hand. "Somewhere safe. There's some steps, but once we're inside, you can chill, okay? Let us take care of you."

"Viktor."

"Soon, brother. Soon."

I propelled him to the entrance, punching in the code Alexei had last changed the night before we'd hit the road, crossing every appendage I could think of that my brothers hadn't locked this shit down the second they'd realised we'd gone.

In my arms, Ranger made a low, pained sound that clenched my gut. One I'd heard a dozen times on the wild drive from the dodgy clinic to home.

He was gonna puke.

"Godamnit, not here."

The door clicked open.

I hauled him to the second floor and tried another lock. Nothing happened. Then it did and I found myself terrified that it was all the luck I was getting, and every fucking thing I'd prayed for on the way here was already dead in the water.

Saint.

Alexei.

Jakov and Viktor.

My balance wavered. I staggered through the door of the empty flat, fighting exhaustion, emotional and physical, thankful it was Ranger relying on me to stay upright and not one of my bigger brothers.

I got him inside, but he didn't puke. He passed the fuck out in my arms, and it took every ounce of strength I had left to get him to a bed. To believe that the bike engines rattling the early morning quiet were real.

Ranger's eyes opened, vacant and staring. A beat passed. Then he moved again, almost tipping off the bed. I lunged for him and sank to my knees, bracing him with my shoulder as boots sounded on the stairs.

I couldn't remember if I'd shut the flat door behind me. If I'd even told Nash the right place, or left him to search the whole building to find us. I was so fucking tired, I could only hold onto Ranger and wait?—

A door burst open.

More boots pounded the floor.

Then Ranger was ripped away from me and strong arms—familiar arms—pulled me from the floor.

Rubi .

I wasn't expecting him. Or how his embrace fucking shattered me. He got me to the other side of the room, I slid down the wall, and for once in his life he didn't say a damn word.

" Cam ." Locke's deep voice got through to me. "I need to know what happened to him."

Ranger .

With no clue how long I'd been gone, I fought my way back, gripping the arm Rubi offered for no reason other than I needed him. "Whacked his head on concrete. I got him scanned at that clinic we took Mats to. No bleeds."

"Concussion?"

"Yeah. They said it's worse because he's had a load already."

"What else?"

"Nothing serious."

Locke ripped open a medical bag and turned his back on me, shutting the room out as he worked on Ranger.

Rubi got in my face, taking in the royal state of me. "What the fuck happened to you ?"

"Later."

"Anyone after you?"

"No."

"Where are the others?"

"I don't know."

"Why not?"

"Cos they're in the fucking wind! Leave me alone."

"All right, all right." Rubi raised his hands as fear choked me. "Come and get cleaned up. We'll figure it out."

Rooted to the floor, despite his helping hands, I couldn't move. "I promised Viktor I'd stay with him."

Ranger .

He fought his own battle with Locke, that moan rattling from him again. "He's gonna?—"

Too late. But Ranger had fuck all left in him, and Locke got him upright and out of the room with no drama.

They didn't come back for a while, and Rubi tried again to get me off the floor. "Just to the kitchen, Cammie. Get some space from this."

I didn't need space. I needed to stay right here and own the fact that Ranger was hurt because he'd followed my orders as much as his own fucking heart. That the love he had for Viktor didn't absolve me from blame. But I had a lot of shit to feel guilty about and it made my head spin enough that Rubi got his way.

He hustled me out of the room.

Dazed, I glanced around. "Where's Nash?"

"Waiting with Orla at Mateo's place. You asked for Locke and we didn't know what we were walking into."

He left the worst bit unsaid while he texted one-thumbed on his phone. That we couldn't risk them both, not now, or ever again. But I heard them all the same and a slow nod bobbed my head. "They're okay?"

"Still pregnant and loving it."

Thank fuck . For a while, surviving the night had seemed a distant dream, trumped only by the fear of coming home to the worst news in the world, and it took me a few minutes to process. Couldn't say how much time had passed when I spoke again. "The others?"

"Everyone's fine. Just worried about you."

Rubi treated me to a searching stare, but activity at the front door spared me. It opened and shut. Seconds later, my sister appeared, flanked by Nash. "Where the ever-loving fuck have you been?"

I had no answer for her, not yet. Not while Saint and Alexei were still in the wind. While Ranger was still wrecked in the next room and I had no fucking clue about Jakov and Viktor either.

And my sister, she knew it—she knew me . "You're a fucking idiot. Where's Saint? Where's Alexei?"

"I don't know." I repeated what I'd told Rubi, which was fuck all. Then I rose from the bar stool I'd fallen into and staggered back to the room where Ranger lay.

Locke had got him back to bed, stripped his filthy clothes, and dressed him in sweats, leaving his torso bare—his tanned torso, marred with bruises and the healed slash wound he'd taken from the Doherty fight.

His face was hidden in the pillow he instinctively held to his battered skull. He shivered, like he had in the car. "Is he cold?"

"No." Locke rubbed Ranger's arm. "He's in pain."

My brain jolted, reminding me of the syringes the shady quack had pressed into my hand as I'd carted Ranger out. "They gave me some shit at the clinic. I gave him a shot in the car."

"When?"

I tried to remember, all the while flaying myself for forgetting that I'd had something in my pocket this whole fucking time that could've helped Ranger feel better. "A few hours ago."

"How many hours?" Locke took the syringes I dug out of my pocket. "It's important."

I thought hard enough to give myself a stroke. "Two. I had to drive in the wrong fucking direction to change the car."

Locke ignored that, focussed on Ranger. He studied the syringes and pocketed them. "He can't have any more for a while. What about you?"

"I'm fine."

Locke glanced beyond me and I belatedly sensed Nash at my back, having an unseen and unheard conversation with his lover that led Locke to rise and leave the room, shutting the door behind him.

Nash took his place on the bed, stretching out his bad leg as he leaned over Ranger. "He asleep?"

"Hope so."

"Where are the others?"

I don't know . The answer throttled me again, but this was Nash. My right hand, my friend, my brother. My VP . As hard as I'd tried to shut him out over the past few months, my resilience evaporated in a snatched breath and the truth fell out of me instead. All of it, from the months of back and forth with Jakov, to the moment Alexei had screamed blue murder in my face.

Like he had so many things over the years, Nash absorbed it all, listening, taking it in, letting me talk until I was finally done.

Then he expelled a shocked breath. "You took out Aldea?"

"Yup."

"And the top level Albanians?"

"Yup."

"With six of you?"

"Yeah."

"On top of bullshitting Saint and Alexei to do it?"

I ran out of ways to confirm the fuckery me and Jakov had somehow pulled off. A deception I had zero regrets about unless I'd left Saint and Alexei to a fate worse than the one I'd been prepared to die to avoid.

Ranger was my only regret.

Viktor loves him.

Fucking hell.

Nash was quiet for a while, thinking it all over, the only thing missing from this picture the sight of him with at least one AirPod jammed in his ear while he figured shit out in his own way.

Eventually, he let out a low whistle. "You're gonna have trouble with Saint over this."

"I know."

"Alexei will get over it, though."

"You reckon?"

The door shoved open before he could answer. River glared around it. "Where the fuck have you been?"

"You really want to know?"

"No. You okay?"

"Yup."

"You lying?"

"Probably."

River's glower softened. He hugged me and it hurt, exposing the bullshit I'd doled out to myself as much as them.

Nash called Locke back and between the three of them, they found every hit and scrape I'd brought home from the raid.

"Your ribs are going to crumble to fucking dust one of these days."

That was my brother.

Locke was kinder. "Can you find some ice?"

River stomped out.

I relaxed a touch in time for Ranger to wake and lurch upright.

Locke caught him. "Easy. You're okay."

"Vik." Ranger swung his head too fast and his eyes rolled. "Where's Vik?"

"He's coming."

"Vik."

"I know, mate. Lie down. More you sleep, the quicker the time'll pass."

Ranger obeyed, but his eyes didn't close. He stared blankly at the ceiling, chest moving too fast as disorientation set in.

Locke rubbed his arm again. "Breathe slower."

"Cam?"

"I'm right here." I moved closer, but Ranger wasn't there. He couldn't fucking see me, and my heart fractured all over again.

I needed Alexei. I needed Saint.

But this brother…he needed someone else, and as I reclaimed my place by the wall, a question I never thought I'd give much of a fuck about joined the others spinning my mind.

Viktor, where are you?