Chapter 6 – Ava Jade
AVA JADE
G rey became my very own warden for the entire week. Nobody said it, but I suspected it was because Corvus was too angry to be around me for any length of time, and they didn’t trust Rook not to eat me.
That was the vibe I got, easily surmised from the fact that Corvus hadn’t spoken to me since Tuesday night over the phone, and when Rook offered to take over for Grey yesterday after class, Corvus and Grey replied a resounding no at the exact same time.
Rook shrugged it off with a roll of his eyes and a wink in my direction, but something told me it bothered him more than he was letting on.
“So, what now?” I asked after last period on Friday, barely looking up to check if Grey was waiting outside of class as I exited, heading for my room. His distinct footfalls padded along beside me. I’d grown accustomed to them over the last few days.
“Corv said we had….”
The hairs along the back of my neck pricked as the elevator down the hall pinged dully, the doors sliding open. Grey’s sentence trailed off as his brothers exited, scattering the students that still lingered in the corridor.
“We have a pick up out of town,” Corvus announced.
Grey stiffened. “ All of us?” he asked. “What about her?”
He jabbed a thumb in my direction, and I tried not to let the heat of my anger rise. I hated when they talked about me like I wasn’t even here. Like I was cargo. An obstacle. Like I didn’t have a choice.
Corvus’ cold blue eyes slid to me and then away. “She’s with us. Diesel wants all three of us on the job.”
“And he wants us to bring her?” Grey challenged, a doubtful note of sarcasm in his tone.
Corvus visibly tensed, annoyance in the knot between his brows. “He offered for us to drop her off at Sanctum with him,” he all but growled, watching Grey carefully for his reaction.
“That’s what I thought,” he continued. “So, she’s with us. When we’re close, we’ll blindfold her. And she can wait in the car.”
“Could you all stop talking about me like I’m not right fucking here?”
“Problem, Sparrow?”
“Yeah, actually. I have plans tonight.”
“Cancel them,” Corvus bit out, a muscle flexing in his jaw. “And in the future you might want to check with me first before making plans .”
“Asshole.”
Rook laughed, his teeth pulling lightly on his lip ring as he watched me. “Come on, Ghost,” he said. “I’ll buy you an ice cream.”
Ghost?
Corvus turned to raise a brow at him but said nothing.
“Better be one hell of an ice cream,” I sighed. “I’m missing movie night for this shit.”
“Trust me,” Rook replied, a gleam in his dark eyes. “It’ll be worth it.”
I drew out my phone and ignored the newest text from Aunt Humphrey while thumbing a quick text to Becca, telling her I was sorry but I didn’t know when I’d be back.
I could put my foot down. Refuse to go. But I figured that was exactly what Corvus wanted. He’d fucking love that. An opportunity to flex his control muscles. To try to throw me over his shoulder again, kicking and screaming through the halls of the academy as he dragged me to their car.
I wouldn’t give it to him.
Besides, this was exactly the sort of intel I’d need to be able to bring them down. And ice cream was just the cherry on top of the pie.
Corvus jammed the elevator button again and stepped in as the doors re-opened, Rook following, and Grey ushering me in behind them.
“Get those handles replaced?” I asked innocently, breaking the silence on the slow descent to the main floor, basking in my triumph for the first time. God, it felt good.
The air in the elevator seemed to heat in the split second before Corvus replied.
“No,” he growled. “They were imports. ”
“We have another two weeks of our new open-door policy before they’ll arrive,” Rook put in, looking nearly as smug as I felt, until his dark gaze fell back to Corvus and his smirk faded.
“Too bad,” I sighed, turning back to face the doors, injecting some drama into the words.
The ping of the elevator rang like a dinner bell in the hot silence, and I was dragged backward as the door opened, the fist in the back of my shirt tossing me against the wall.
The air knocked from my lungs as Corvus pressed me there, his forearm a bar against my throat.
But I was ready for him this time, my blade pressed firmly against his side, just below the ribs, angled up.
Unbothered by the blade, he pressed against my throat, his blue eyes burning with the heat of a thousand suns. The red veins bright as fresh blood against the whites.
“You think this is fucking funny?” he demanded. “ Hmm? ”
“Actually, yeah,” I spat back, my voice strained from his arm. “I do.”
Corvus choked on a reply as Grey gripped him by the shoulder and hauled him back with a grunt.
“ Stop .” Grey’s voice resounded in the elevator.
“Just stop,” he repeated as I gasped for a full breath, still keeping a wary eye on Corvus.
Grey was giving his brother the same look, though his was tainted with worry and something else I couldn’t name.
I got the feeling Corvus didn’t often show his anger in a physical way.
He reserved that level of animosity just for me. “When was the last time you slept?”
“Don’t fucking start,” Corvus sneered. “You try sleeping with no goddamned door handle, see how you like it.”
“Right, because the floor is so much more comfortable.”
Corvus glanced between Grey and me, his right brow lowering in question.
He hadn’t expected that. Did he really think I was letting Grey cuddle up to me every night?
Even after his apology Tuesday night, I wasn’t about to go soft.
It was a release I needed, and I could already feel that pressure building again, but it didn’t change anything.
They were still my enemies.
“Want to trade?” Grey pressed, challenging his brother. “I’ll take no door handle over rock solid floor any fucking day.”
Rook raised his hand, a sly smirk tugging up one corner of his mouth. “I’ll trade,” he crooned, eyeing me up and down. The path of his eyes leaving a scorching heat everywhere it touched, making my insides squeeze. “Anytime.”
Corvus scrubbed a shaky palm over his face as he sighed.
“Fuck it,” he said finally, dropping his head as he shook it, inhaling deeply.
It was as though I wasn’t even there anymore and I realized he’d just gone back to ignoring me.
Pretending I wasn’t there was easier than admitting I was getting to him. That I was always getting to him.
Under his skin.
Into his head.
I could see it.
And I fucking reveled in it.
“Let’s go get this pick up handled. The sooner it’s over the sooner she’s out of my sight.”
My chest squeezed, and I swallowed hard to squelch the unwelcome sensation, strutting from the elevator as though I didn’t have a care in the world when the doors opened.
“Sounds peachy to me.”
I thought I had some idea where we were headed, at least for the first hour of the drive.
But now, closing in on two hours of driving, I needed to admit I had no fucking clue where we were going.
The fact they hadn’t even blindfolded me yet told me there was still a decent amount of ground to cover.
So much for making it back in time for late night movies with Becca.
I grumbled wordlessly to myself, almost as loud as the growling in my belly, as I checked the map app on my phone again.
Still heading south. We were basically in the middle of butt fuck nowhere.
This county road seemed to lead to some tiny place called Eugine, but as far as I knew there was no Saint presence this far away from Thorn Valley.
And I’d been doing my research, a lot of it.
Grey’s gaze flicked to me in the rearview, his reflected eyes falling to the device in my hand before flitting away again. It wasn’t the first time I’d caught him watching me, or rather, watching my phone, and my reaction to what I’m looking at on its screen.
He wasn’t sold on the idea that my little outburst earlier in the week was nothing. I didn’t think any of them were, but Grey seemed the most suspicious. The others, at least at the surface level, seemed keen to just let the whole thing drop.
I thought I’d better send a quick reply to Becca’s earlier texts since they’d likely be taking my phone and putting it into airplane mode around the same time they blindfolded me.
BECCA
Hey girl, where are you?
BECCA
What time are you coming back later?
AVA JADE
Not sure and not sure. Sorry. I’ll let you know when we’re on our way, though.
Another text pinged through before I could repocket my phone.
BECCA
Are all the guys with you?
AVA JADE
Yeah. Why? Everything okay?
She took so long to reply this time that I almost called her, wondering why she’d want to know where they all were. If she was in some sort of trouble. Diesel-sized trouble. I wouldn’t put it past him to use her against me in the trials, but if he did, it would be a massive mistake.
My finger hovered over the dial button when her reply came in.
BECCA
Everything’s fine! Sorry, I just got a call from my beau. I’m off to see him. Don’t wait up for me, k?
AVA JADE
Have fun!
Rook shifted, stretching his leg out further as he lounged in the back seat next to me. A frown turned down the edges of his mouth as he, too, stared at the device in my hands. I shut it off and cleared my throat, pocketing it with a sigh.
I’d deleted every trace of the so-called stalker from it, but I knew there were ways to recover those messages.
Grey seemed like the type to know exactly how to do that, so I needed to make sure I didn’t give him an opportunity to.
I slept with it under my pillow all week, refusing to give him any opportunity to snatch it from my bedside table.
Other than that first night, I’d barely slept more than an hour at a time, every time he shifted against the hard floor, sighing, I woke, ready to smother him with a pillow in sleepless frustration. It was a wonder he still drew breath.