Love Thy Brother; Rubi & River

LOVE THY BROTHER REBEL KINGS MC GARRETT LEIGH Copyright © 2023 by Garrett Leigh All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. CONTENTS Foreword Playlist The Rebel Kings MC 1. River 2. Rubi 3. River 4. River 5. Rubi 6. River 7. Rubi 8. River 9. Rubi 10. River 11. Rubi 12. River 13. Rubi 14. Rubi 15. River 16. Rubi 17. River 18. Rubi 19. River 20. Rubi 21. River 22. Rubi 23. River 24. Rubi 25. River 26. Rubi 27. Rubi 28. River 29. River Epilogue About the Author Also by Garrett Leigh FOREWORD This is a dark romance, featuring characters caught up in the world of MC gangs and all that comes with it. These characters are not always nice and they do things that are not nice. It is a romance, so the sweet moments we crave do come, but bear these words in mind before you dive in. This is the fourth book in the Rebel Kings MC series. Unending thanks to Packy, my sensitivity reader, and my husband for sharing his family history with me. And to Pipey, who I’m still trying to persuade to let me fall off the back of his Harley sometime. Also, because this came up in the wake of Devil’s Dance and I forgot to include it then: the same fluid principles of street language I explained in my Darkest Skies series apply here. In particular, the word fed is a well-known term in the UK underworld used to describe the police/authorities of any kind. It has nothing to do the American FBI, I promise. Content warnings: violence, drug use, past sexual trauma/abuse, historical and implied self-harm and suicidal ideation, historical death of a parent. PLAYLIST Cemetery Gates - Pantera Open Your Eyes - Guano Apes Rebel Yell - Billy Idol No More Tears - Amyl and The Sniffers If You Could Read My Mind - Gordon Lightfoot Child in Time - Deep Purple Battle of the Beanfield - the Levellers Leaving Blues - Bombay Bicycle Club A Pair of Brown Eyes - The Pogues Sonny The Strong - Gas Coombes Ever Fallen in Love (with someone you shouldn’t have) - Buzzcocks LISTEN ON SPOTIFY THE REBEL KINGS MC The Rebel Kings MC President: Cam O’Brian (33) Vice President: Nash McGovern (32) Sergeant-at-Arms: Saint Malone (30) Enforcer: Mateo Romano (28) Treasurer: Alexei Ivanov (30) Secretary: Seth “Decoy” Greene (31) Chaplain: “Father” Embry Carter (25) Road Captain: Rubi Matherson (32) Brothers Locke Halliwell (39) Folk Whitlock (34) Nomads Ranger Crows Rocco St John (deceased) Frank Crow (deceased) Butch Crow (deceased) McGif (deceased) Club associates Orla O’Brian (Cam’s sister) - 29 River O’Brian (Cam’s brother) - 27 Skylar Buchanan (A&E nurse) Sol Bosanko (Porth Luck fisherman) Ivy Greene (Decoy’s daughter) Viktor Petrenko Bear Axel Sambini Family Mario Sambini (boss) Gianni Sambini (son) Lorenzo Sambini (deceased) There was a rolled-up bank note on the floor. Powder on the counter. My gaze fell on his white face and blue lips and I sank to my fucking knees. 1 RIVER Seventeen months ago I expected the bed to be too small for him. In my head, he was the biggest dude who’d ever lived. Sometimes I forgot he’d started off just a boy, like the rest of us. It had been a long time since either of us had been a child, and these days, trust me, Rubi Hummingbird Matherson was all fucking man. He was all heart too. That’s why it hurt so much to see him like this, hunched on a hospital bed, face hidden in his arms, every tendon rigid. A certified mess because of the bullshit life we’d been born into. Fuck the Rebel Kings. Fuck them to hell and back. Unless they were already there. Looking at Rubi, at Cam’s face when he’d left him here, even Saint’s as he’d protected them, it wasn’t hard to imagine. Skylar came up behind me, the Vans on his feet keeping his footsteps quiet. I kept my gaze on Rubi. “What drugs did you give him?” Skylar spared me a complex frown. He hated this as much as I did, but for different reasons. “Good ones. He’ll be asleep for a while.” “How long’s a while? He’s been out three hours already.” “Depends on his tolerance. He’s a big dude, but Cam told me he’s a lightweight with everything except weed.” “All night then?” Skylar shrugged, humouring me, and I leaned harder on Rubi’s bed, scrubbing a hand down my face. “You can sit down, you know.” Skylar nudged a chair towards me. “You won’t miss anything.” I already missed Rubi, and I had no right to. He had no right to make me feel it. It wasn’t fair that I couldn’t live through another tortured groan tearing from his chest. Another glimpse at his face so stricken and broken. I’d survived a lot of shit, but I’d never seen someone I cared about in so much physical pain. Someone I loved. And fucking hell, I loved this arsehole more than anything. Ignoring Skylar and his chair, I leaned over the bed and rubbed Rubi’s tattooed forearm, ignoring the years-old rush that rocked me from that simple touch alone— “I need you, Riv. Come home with me, please?” I’d never know if he’d meant where we’d ended up—naked in my Porth Luck bed. Or if the spine-tingling dreams I’d had since had any bearing on reality. Shouldn’t have banged a gram of ket up your nose. Story of my life. And now it was his too, as much as he wanted it to be. And given that I hadn’t seen him since, that he’d goddamn-fucking left me, I guessed it wasn’t all that much. I tried not to care, but a grief-addled shudder rocked me all