Chapter 28 – Ava Jade
AVA JADE
I forced the air to enter and exit my lungs in slow, quiet breaths, clinging to the base of an old redwood for cover as I watched the exchange unfold.
Four against seven.
I didn’t like their odds, but Diesel St. Crow and his sons didn’t seem bothered by them in the slightest. In fact, with the exclusion of Corvus who looked wound tighter than a top, they all looked calmer than they had right to be.
Rook especially. I eyed him suspiciously.
The fucker had draped his arm over the seat and his fingers brushed into my hair.
Like an idiot, I shied away, moving away from his touch.
Unless he was more drunk than he was letting on, there was no way he hadn’t figured out there was something back there that shouldn’t have been.
But if he’d known, then why not say something?
Why not call the whole thing off?
Turn around and take care of their unwanted passenger?
It didn’t make any sense to me.
He didn’t make any sense to me...and yet, he didn’t have to. I felt like I knew him on a level where sense didn’t have to play any part at all.
“Welcome,” Diesel called into the chasm of devoid space between their two gangs. “I think we all know why we’re here, so let’s get to it, shall we?”
I dug out my phone and flicked to the video screen, tapping record.
I hadn’t had a chance to spot the man himself last night at the fight and now, seeing him for the first time, I could see why he was their leader.
Formidable. Tall and thick through the shoulders with hooded eyes that cut like a shard of ice.
A tapered beard and strong jaw. But it wasn’t his looks alone that made him exude power.
It was something in his stance. A relaxed power.
A predator’s grace. The unfeeling, unflinching mask of his expression gave not even an inkling of what he might be thinking beneath it.
If I was a weaker person, I’d cower at the mere sight of him. It was said many had, but he only served to pique my interest further, and I watched him closely, trying to figure him out.
A man across the yard stepped forward, putting himself a few paces ahead of the others. It was clear this was their leader, though he didn’t have the same atmosphere about him as Diesel.
I’d done a bit of digging, well, as much as I could without drawing unwanted attention, to know that his name was Leonard Boniface. Aka Lenny Ace.
Shorter than I thought he would be. Younger, too. With coiffed brown hair and a clean-shaven, gaunt face. In a black t-shirt, bulky with what was unmistakably a bulletproof vest beneath, with two silver-handled pistols proudly strapped over his chest, lying flat against his ribcage.
He was the original Aces leader’s nephew.
Took up the position when his uncle died a couple years back under suspicious circumstances.
As an outsider, it was easy to see how the death wasn’t an accident.
That it was very likely Lenny Ace himself that did it, but his gang brothers didn’t seem to mind.
They all stood in a neat row behind him, ready to give their lives for whatever their leader deemed a fair price.
“We heard about your man,” Lenny replied. “Sorry for your loss.”
Diesel cocked his head at Lenny, and a moment of silence stretched on between them. Long enough to make me squirm internally, my pulse picking up speed with anticipation.
“Appreciate it,” Diesel replied finally. “Though I’ll admit we were under the impression you might’ve had a hand in it.”
A tick made Lenny’s jaw jump. From my vantage point set a ways back from mid-field, I could see it easily, but I wondered if Diesel could. If his sons were paying close enough attention because that man was definitely lying.
He may not have pulled the trigger himself, but he knew something. I was certain of it.
I glanced to the Crows, finding Grey and Rook watching intently, studying Lenny and his entourage as closely as Diesel seemed to be.
But Corvus...Corvus’ eyes skimmed their faces.
Unseeing. His brows were pinched tight and there was a distance in his eyes like he was a million miles from here.
It wasn’t what I expected from him and made my insides chill.
What was he doing?
Why wasn’t he paying attention?
“Us?” Lenny asked, a brow lifting. “What made you?—”
“The ‘A’ carved into Randy’s chest. Your gang tag. The same one you paint over your territory.”
Lenny’s jaw ticked again.
This wasn’t good.
“Now,” Diesel continued, raising a hand in a calm gesture, not allowing Lenny to rebuke him.
“I’m not saying it was by your command, but perhaps one of your men went a little rogue.
It happens. You understand, Lenny, that blood must be paid for the life that was taken.
Think carefully before you speak again.”
The thinly veiled threat hung in the air like a promise and a thrill went through me, making me shiver despite the warm black pullover I wore.
The thrill quickly morphing to something else as I spotted one of the Aces slip a gun from the back of his jeans and press it to the side of his thigh. His black hair was slicked back, giving a fully unobstructed view of his face. The way his upper lip was twitching into a snarl.
He was at the very end, closest to me. The light from the battery-powered spotlight hung off the back of the rusted metal warehouse wall didn’t quite reach him.
The only one who might’ve been able to catch his movement, or the glint of his gun in the moonlight, was Corvus, and he was clearly distracted as fuck.
Look, I wanted to shout. Pay attention, you fucking idiot.
I had to reposition my phone, having lowered it while I, myself, was distracted by everything they seemed to be missing.
“I can assure you, Diesel,” Lenny replied after a moment. “None of my men would have acted so recklessly. They wouldn’t dare go against my orders.”
Unlike yours... Lenny seemed to be implying and a small fissure formed in Diesel’s perfectly crafted facade. That struck a nerve. So the king didn’t have full control over all of his men, then. Though I doubted any gang leader did. It came with the territory, didn’t it?
There was clearly a history between these two, one I wasn’t privy to.
The man with the greasy black hair fixed his sights on Corvus and my lips parted in wordless alarm as his thumb pushed the safety off.
Oh god.
Why wasn’t anyone noticing?
I raced to check all the other Aces, checking to see if they were readying weapons, too, but none seemed to be. Just this one. The one at the end looking like he had an ax to grind.
Fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. Fucking fuck.
“You wouldn’t lie to me would you, Lenny?” Diesel asked, his tone one he might use on a child who’d misbehaved. Trying to tease out the truth with the promise of accepting it without punishment.
Something told me Diesel would, too. If Lenny admitted one of his men had acted without his permission, Diesel would have demanded that life in exchange for Randy’s and no others.
A fair trade if you asked me.
People had to pay for their mistakes or else they’d just keep making them.
Blood for blood.
It was the one adage of theirs I could get behind.
But Lenny wasn’t going to budge, I could tell by the way he was standing. Defensively. Chin raised.
It had to be this clown at the end, the one still looking at Corvus like he might want to carve out his eyes. Maybe?
Ugh.
If Corvus would just fucking look then...
The Ace’s hand moved to rest beside the trigger and I could feel his readiness from here. Like a strain in the air I was breathing. Making it harder to inhale. Thicker.
He’s going to shoot him.
“No,” Lenny told Diesel. “I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“You know I don’t like being lied to.”
“And you know the Aces own their shit. I’m telling you we had nothing to do with it.”
Diesel bristled. “Very well. If you had nothing to do with it, then might you know who does ?”
Lenny opened his mouth to reply, but I wasn’t paying attention to him anymore. My body flooded with heat, flushing my cheeks as a fresh wave of adrenaline pulsed through me, narrowing my focus.
Don ’t do it, I mouthed, eyes fixed on the guy with his sights set on Corvus.
I slipped a blade from my ankle and held it loosely in my palm, turning to flatten my back against the rough bark of the tree, positioning myself.
My phone was forgotten, slipped into my pocket with the video still recording.
I hesitated, my hand jerking with my own indecision.
If Corvus was killed, there was a good chance my problems would be over.
With Corvus killed, the remaining three Saints would stand even less of a chance against the seven Aces.
Once the first shot was fired, and the first man fell, I had no doubt it would be a bloodbath.
If I let that greasy motherfucker shoot him, I could be kissing my problems goodbye. I could delete the videos, slip out of here and go back to a boring life of books and a future of freedom.
I tested the weight of my blade, lifting it over my shoulder, pinching the edge of it, at war with myself. My pulse pounded in my temples until all I could hear was the rush of blood in my ears, making every other sound distant and garbled.
I couldn’t hear what Diesel and Lenny were saying, not really. I couldn’t even hear my own breathing, though I knew it would be shallow and slow, measured as I lifted from my knees, my sweater catching on the bark as I uncurled to my full height.
Sweat beaded at my brow.
All you have to do is let it happen, I told myself. Just close your eyes and let nature take its course.
My stomach turned, and I swallowed back acid, my teeth grinding.
The man with the black hair bared his teeth, and Grey noticed, squinting at him, but he couldn’t see what was hidden at the guy’s side. It was too late.
I saw the moment the Ace made his decision, jerking forward, his arm snapping up like a whip, his gun trained on Corvus.
My heart stopped.
I threw.