Chapter 4 – Ava Jade #2
My phone buzzed audibly in my pocket, and I clenched my teeth. “Speak of the devil,” I snarled, anticipating another message from Corvus. Furious that I would have to be dealing with his bullshit text messages, and no doubt phone calls, for my foreseeable future.
But it wasn’t him.
UNKNOWN
What a mess you’ve made, Ava Jade. I thought you were smarter than this.
My breath caught in my throat and immediately my head snapped up, scanning the forest on all sides, but there was nothing. Nothing save for overgrown weeds and trees.
My phone buzzed again in my hand.
UNKNOWN
First the blond one. I knew that was just a mistake. But then you let that asshole touch you behind the curtain, and you even looked like you enjoyed it. Disgusting. And now you’re right where Diesel wants you and you have no one to blame but yourself.
“What is it?” Grey asked, moving closer.
I stepped back, turning away from him as another two messages popped up onto the screen.
UNKNOWN
You’re just confused, I know, but that’s no excuse.
UNKNOWN
Don’t worry, my love, I’ll help you...but if you let them touch you again, I’ll have no choice but to punish you.
Got you, you fucking ASSHOLE.
It was him. It was him all along. Taunting me. Teasing me. Trying to scare me.
The bastard.
No one knew we were behind that curtain on fight night. No one would’ve been able to see us. The slit in the edge of the curtain was tiny. There was no way…
It was Corvus.
Had been from the start.
“I’m going to kill him,” I deadpanned, taking off at a sprint into the trees, carving a path directly toward the Crow’s Nest with Grey lagging behind, shouting for me to wait. To tell him what was going on.
Distantly, I heard a grunt as he fell. Good. Now there was no chance he would catch up.
The darkness I’d been working to suppress came rushing back, gushing up from deep within like a geyser.
From the start, I had a feeling it was him. I should have trusted my gut. Now there was no doubt.
It was funny how even though this wasn’t the regular route I took to the Crow’s Nest, I still knew exactly where I was going. Its location was anchored in my memory, a magnet to my compass. It drew me in as though I’d been going there my entire life.
My focus narrowed and the sound of Grey in the forest fell away, moving to nothing but a distant drone in my ears.
I couldn’t believe Corvus’ nerve.
This was a whole new low, even for Corvus. I understood icing me out. I could even understand trying to control me and attack me when he thought I was a threat. But this was just cruel. What was the purpose of it?
What was he trying to pull here? Did he want me to run? Was he trying to scare me away? So that Diesel would kill me? That way he wouldn’t have to get his hands dirty himself.
That had to be it. I could see no other reason why he would do this. Unless he just got a kick out of making girls feel uncomfortable. Which, from what I knew of him, was entirely possible.
Either way, he wasn’t going to get away with it. And if Rook and Grey were in on it with him they would go down, too. But something told me they weren’t. This had Corvus written all over it. My chest began to ache around the same time the burn in my legs rose to an all-time high.
Until I was just an inferno of aching, burning fury.
The truth of it stung like a betrayal. But that was ridiculous, how could I feel betrayed if there was never trust to begin with?
I burst through the trees onto the gravel drive leading up to the Crow’s Nest.
The front door stood ajar, and the Rover was parked in the driveway, the back hatch lifted to reveal several grocery bags and a flat of bottled water. It looked like they’d just returned home.
Corvus appeared in the doorway, exiting the house to retrieve the last of the groceries from the Rover.
I saw red.
My hands trembled as I stormed toward him.
“Motherfucker.”
His distant gaze found me, brows drawing together. His lips parted, caught off guard to see me.
“Sparrow?”
I rushed him. Surprise registered in his icy blue eyes, one second too late.
I shoved him back, with my phone still clutched in my fist, the other slapping flat against his wide chest.
He stumbled back three steps, lip twisting into a sneer.
“What the fuck is your problem?” I demanded.
“AJ!” Grey shouted, breathless as he jogged up the drive.
I ignored him.
A shadow moved behind Corvus inside of the Nest, and Rook appeared in the hall, casually leaning against the wall as though there wasn’t a seething dragon in his doorway.
“Suppose we have you to thank for our new open-door policy?” he asked with a crooked smile.
“What?” Corvus snapped at him, gaze jarring between Rook’s unruffled posture and my flaring nostrils, his own frustration rising to meet mine.
Triumph at my success with my little doorknob trick would have to wait. I had more pressing matters to attend to.
“How long have you been stalking me, asshole?”
Corvus feigned confusion.
That’s when it clicked.
A long fucking time.
The stalker saw me that night on the train tracks. The stalker knew my darkest, dirtiest secret.
Corvus knew what I did that night.
Shit.
No, no, no.
“I’ll ask you again,” Corvus said, inhaling deeply to rein in his control. “What in the actual fuck are you talking about?”
Cold dread filled my veins, dousing the fire that burned there only a moment before. I didn’t realize I was still gripping my phone in my hand until Grey snatched it away.
“Don’t!”
The fire roared back in an instant, and I launched myself at Grey to get it back.
“Hold her,” Grey growled, and Corvus was able to get his arms around my middle, fastening me to him as though we were welded together with steel.
“ What the fuck,” I gritted out, writhing. “Let go!”
“What are you doing?” Rook asked Grey so calmly that it just infuriated me even more.
“It was something on her phone,” Grey mused. “She read something and then just took off like a bat out of hell.”
“Shit,” he cursed. “It’s locked. What’s your password?”
I continued struggling against Corvus’ hold, but the way he had my arms tight against my sides, getting free was proving to be a chore and a fucking half.
The muscles in my biceps and forearms flared from the effort while he grunted through my attempts at escape, his scent overwhelming my senses, playing tricks on my mind.
“Fuck you!” I spat at Grey. “I’m not telling you shit.”
“ Sparrow… ” Corvus warned, his breath hot against my ear.
Fine. They wanted to play it like that? They could have it their way.
I stomped as hard as I could on Corvus’ instep. When his hold loosened, I swung my leg forward and launched my heel back into his kneecap.
His hold on me broke enough for me to squirm free as he dropped to his good knee on the gravel drive.
He cursed loud and long, thick fingers reaching to try to grab me again, but it was too late. I was already on top of Grey, fighting to get my phone out of his grasp.
I didn’t want to hurt him, well at least not that much, so I took him down gently. My version of gently.
My phone knocked from his hand as he fell. The wind gushed out through his lips from the impact with the gravel. I snatched my phone and stood, glaring at all of them. At Corvus on his knees. At Grey on his back. At Rook leaning against the door jamb with a prideful smirk on his mouth.
Smart fucker, not joining the fray. I wouldn’t have gone easy on him, and I doubt he’d have gone easy on me, either. It would’ve been glorious.
A lot of that hot, angry wind in my sails died down as the realization of what Corvus knew truly sank in. I was still pissed, but also very wary of him telling the others… That was, if they didn’t already know.
“AJ, can we stop for a second?” Grey asked, a note of impatience in his tone as he got to his feet and brushed the gravel dust off of his ass. “Could you just tell us what’s going on?”
I pointed an accusing finger at Corvus, my chest heaving.
“Why don’t you ask him?”
Grey’s eyes slipped to his adoptive brother.
“Don’t fucking look at me,” he said, raising his arm in a shrug. “I have no idea. Maybe it’s that time of the month.”
Fucking prick.
I chuckled darkly to myself, the sound bordering on mania as the muscles in my jaw tightened again. I hadn’t really realized how stressed and creeped out the messages had been making me with everything else that’d been happening, but now, at least, it was over.
With fingers rigor mortis stiff, I jabbed the phone screen until one of the newest messages from the unknown number appeared.
The one detailing what Corvus and I did behind that curtain on fight night.
I closed the small gap between us just as he finished getting to his feet, barely able to put any weight on his right leg.
I thrust the phone out, forcing him to look.
“So, you’re telling me this wasn’t you?”
Corvus’ nostrils flared, his face growing red as he squinted to read the message on the screen. Leaning in, his sneer turned quickly to a frown.
“Sparrow, I didn’t send that.”
“Oh, and I suppose you didn’t send any of the others, either?”
“Others? How many messages like this do you have?”
Concern pinched the skin between his eyes, and the muscles around his mouth. It certainly added to the effect of his claimed innocence. I had to say, I almost believed him.
“You’re so full of shit.”
“Ava Jade,” Corvus pressed, straightening to his full height, and for some reason, the look on his face combined with the succinct way he spoke my name gave me pause. “I did not send that.”
Rook, curious now, moved from his leaning stance against the door jamb to stand next to Corvus. “What is it?”
“But…” I trailed off, not breaking eye contact with Corvus even as my own began to burn from not blinking. There was no lie in his stare. He was either a damn good liar, or he wasn’t lying to me at all. “It has to be you.”
He shook his head once.
“Corv doesn’t lie,” Grey affirmed for his brother. “He owns his shit. If he does something, he does it with purpose. Without apology.”
Corv gave Grey a grateful nod, and I could see it.
It made sense.
If it were him, he wouldn’t have lied about it. He would have given me that infuriating smirk of his with a satisfied gotcha gleam in his bright eyes.
“Let me see the other messages,” Corvus said, not a request, but a demand.
I faltered back a step, swallowing hard. “No,” I muttered, blinking as I tucked my phone back away in my pocket. “No. It’s nothing.”
I cursed myself for not deleting all the other messages sooner. The one about what I’d done at the train tracks, especially. Now this stalker’s words felt as though they were burning a hole in my pocket.
My relief at knowing this wasn’t Corvus after all was overshadowed by a whole new brand of dread.
This person, whoever they were, had been watching me more closely than I’d thought. They were there, somehow, on fight night, and less than twenty-four hours ago, at that yard out behind the abandoned building.
The worst part was, I hadn’t sensed it. If I had a tail, I should’ve noticed by now. Why hadn’t I noticed?
Oh, yeah, probably because I’ve been fucking distracted by three vultures bent on making my life hell since the moment I got here.
Maybe Corvus wasn’t Mr. Unknown Number, but it was his fucking fault regardless.
“It’s not nothing, let me see,” Corvus continued.
“AJ, just give him the phone.”
“Just forget it,” I snapped, promising myself I’d delete every single message from this asshole as soon as I got back to Briar Hall and had a moment alone.
“I told Becca about fight night. I forgot. It was probably her being stupid,” I lied.
“What about fight night?” Rook asked, his teeth slipping across the silver loop of his lip ring.
Shit. Okay. Just shut up, Ava Jade.
By the way Corvus was eyeing Grey from his toes all the way up to his blond hair, I knew he was piecing that part of the message together right at this very moment.
This was not what I was after when I came here.
Steeling myself, I clenched my teeth and spun on my heel, snatching Grey’s wrist as I went. “Come on, I’m hungry. Let’s get out of here.”
Grey shrugged at his brothers, and I caught Rook saluting him from the corner of my eye before we began the slow walk back down the hill.
“Want to tell me what that was about?” Grey hedged, a dark aura around him, shadowing his light.
Behind us, I heard Corvus ask what Rook was saying about an open-door policy and stiffened.
“Keep up,” I told Grey, releasing him. I picked up my pace, pushing my aching legs into a quick jog to escape before the nuclear fallout hit.