Chapter 15 – Ava Jade
AVA JADE
Unknown
I’ll admit I had my doubts you were the same girl I saw near the railway tracks years ago, but tonight those doubts were erased. You are perfect.
I read the message for what must’ve been the twentieth time since I woke up Saturday morning to see it staining my phone screen. And now, Monday morning, the feeling of dread still lingered.
Four years ago near the train tracks in Lennox, I went full dark.
It consumed me, and I let it.
Those repressed, terrifying, powerful feelings took the wheel...and I killed a man.
This wasn’t Bri. It couldn’t be.
She couldn’t know that.
No one knew about that. No one was there.
It had to be a coincidence. I could remember walking along the tracks a handful of times back from downtown, anyone could’ve seen me. This didn’t mean anything. Right?
But then who was it? Why the anonymity?
The number that sent this message late Friday night wasn’t the same one that sent the others on Thursday, but the feel of them was the same. If they were sent by the same person, then why use two different numbers?
I could reply. Ask who it was. But my gut told me that would only be inviting even more messages from someone who was giving off major stalker vibes.
Ignore it and whoever it is will get bored and stop.
“Are you waiting for it to sprout legs and run away?” Becca asked, sweeping out of her bedroom fully dressed for the school day. The smell of her earthy body spray filling the room with her.
I blinked, glancing up from my phone and realizing how tightly I’d been holding it. Any tighter and I might’ve cracked the screen even more than it already was. “Oh,” I swallowed. “No. It’s just...I got this weird message on Friday.”
She cocked her head at me, and I lost my nerve, not wanting to give whoever this creep was the attention he or she so clearly wanted.
Not wanting to give Becca even the tiniest clue as to the potential meaning of the message still trespassing on my phone’s drive.
What would she think if she found out what I’d done?
“Never mind,” I shook my head, stuffing my phone down deep into the pocket of my jeans.
Her eyes narrowed for an instant before she seemed to decide not to press. “So,” she said, dropping onto the soft leather beside me on the couch with a snicker. “How excited are you for homeroom?”
I groaned, letting my head fall against the backrest with a roll of my eyes.
All weekend I’d been waiting for the Bri hammer to drop.
Becca warned me that there would be retaliation, if not actual police involvement.
Apparently Mr. Moore, the poor fucker who sired the queen bitch, didn’t take kindly to people touching his precious girl.
Being more of a strait-laced sort of fellow, his retribution would likely come in the form of a lawsuit or some other legal bullshittery that I did not want to deal with.
Frankly, I’d rather he send a hired gun. I had a much better idea what to expect and how to handle that than I did a lawyer.
If he dragged police and shit into this there would be no way to keep it from getting back to Aunt Humphrey. Good-bye ticket to freedom.
“That excited, hey?”
“Why hasn’t she done anything yet?” I moaned.
Becca barked a laugh. “She must be cooking up something really special for you.”
I’d spent the weekend catching up on assignments for the most part, but I also spent a solid three hours doing recon on Bri.
I now knew where she went to get her nails and hair done.
Where she liked to shop and grab coffee.
What type of car she drove and her license plate number—what kind of dumbass doesn’t at least blur that out for a social media photo?
I felt pretty confident that if she retaliated in any way not legally driven that I’d be ready to beat her right back, even if just the idea of wasting that kind of time on her was exhausting.
“Bri can be a cantankerous bitch, there’s no doubt about that,” Becca added as she got back up to pillage a handful of peanut M&M’s from the kitchen counter for her breakfast. “But if I were you, I’d be more worried about the Crows.”
The mere mention of them made me sneer. I hadn’t been able to find the blade Corvus lost in the lake.
I searched for a solid fifteen minutes in the chilly lake water, digging through seaweed and litter, but it was gone.
I had three more from the set, but that wasn’t the point.
They were a gift from my dad. The last thing he ever bought me.
I now kept two on me at all times. If I’d learned anything from my run-ins with both Grey and Corvus last week, it was that one just wasn’t enough. At least, not for them.
“That asshole owes me a blade,” I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest.
Becca snorted. “Yeah, good luck with that. I can’t see Corvus James replacing your precious metals, babe.”
Oh, he’d replace it. Even if it wouldn’t be the same.
“Is that his last name?” I asked. “James? Why didn’t Diesel give him his last name when he adopted him?”
Becca shrugged. “None of them are St. Crows. They all kept their last names. People say it’s because Diesel only adopted them for his wife after she died. Because she always talked about wanting to give a few kids a better life.”
“What do you think?”
“I don’t think it’s that. I’ve only seen him with them a couple times, but he definitely considers them his sons. I’m sure there’s some other reason.”
“Like?”
“Like maybe a don’t forget where you came from kind of thing? Or maybe he wanted them to have a choice about joining the gang. If they took the St. Crow name, they’d have big ass red targets painted on their backs. Using their given surnames adds a layer of anonymity.”
I lifted a brow. This girl was smarter than I gave her credit for. Damn.
Becca hopped up with a sigh. “I’m going to grab a water, want one?”
I shook my head, mulling over everything I knew thus far. At least one thing was for certain: Monday morning felt like a point of no return.
Bri told me she didn’t want me here. Corvus told me I should run.
If I wasn’t a stubborn ass with an ax to grind, I’d already be long gone.
But their threats only made me dead set on staying.
Nothing was going to ruin my chance at a ticket out of here.
A ticket to a completely new life. One without gangs or worrying about casing the next job before I ran out of funds. Speaking of…
After a little jaunt into town with Becca to buy some new bedding and a couple incidentals, I was running dangerously low. I could ask Auntie dearest for an allowance, but honestly, I’d rather suck a goat.
I’d take the apartment in the city and college tuition when the time came, but for now, I’d do what I’d always done: take care of my damn self.
“Shit, we should head down,” Becca said, rushing to toss her phone back into her bedroom. “The bell’s going to ring any second.”
Sighing, I saw that she was right. At least I’d get to see the look on both Bri and Corvus’ faces when I deigned to show myself in homeroom this morning. It would be worth whatever came after.
I tossed my phone onto my bed and hurried to follow Becca out the door, making sure she locked it.
She split off from me as we reached the bottom of the stairs just in time for the bell. “See you at lunch!” she hollered, rushing to make it to her homeroom class before the tardy bell rang in three minutes.
I rushed across the atrium, knowing Mr. Harry Potter Glasses wouldn’t let me in if I was even a second late. And I was not missing my chance to rub it in their faces that I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Oh! Ava Jade, could you come here for a moment?”
My brows furrowed as I caught sight of a woman with a tight blonde bun sticking her head out of the office. She gestured for me to come to her, and I forced a face that wasn’t the death glare I wanted to give her.
“Sure,” I chimed as I hurried over, gauging how much time I had left to make it to class on time.
The woman held the door open, and I stepped into the quiet office, my nose wrinkling at a terrible vanilla musk scent that reminded me of something, but I couldn’t place it.
A secretary typed away on a computer behind the main desk, and a few staff members chatted lazily in the corridor beyond that.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” she said, catching me off guard.
“What?”
“Your, um , your father, was it? He recently passed?”
My jaw clenched. “What is this about?”
“I’m so sorry, I’m the Vice-Principal, Mrs. June. It seems our secretary misplaced your file?—”
“I told you, Caroline, I didn’t misplace it. I wouldn’t—” The secretary paused mid-typing to huff.
“Yes, yes.” Mrs. June interrupted the secretary, waving off her words and earning herself an ugly face from the woman behind the desk.
“Anyway, I seem to recall there being a request for you to see the counselor. I just wanted to let you know that she’s been away on vacation this week but that she should be back by next week to see you, all right?
If you need anything in the meantime, my door is open, just ask Janice here, and she can buzz you back. ”
Well, fuck me. I really hoped this wasn’t some hidden stipulation of Aunt Humphry’s because that was a hell fucking no from me, thank you very much.
“You must be mistaken,” I said with my best apologetic smile. “I see a private counselor online.”
The lie rolled off my tongue like butter and the VP lapped it up, looking relieved to be off the hook. “Oh, that’s great. Well, if you find you need any more support, just let us know and we can try to set something up.”
I nodded. “Sure thing. I should probably…”
“Oh, yes. Go on. Don’t want to be late.”
“Fucking counseling?” I muttered to myself as the door shut behind me, and I rushed down the vacant hallway, shaking my head.