Chapter 11 – Ava Jade #2
“I have some things to take care of here and Dies needs the others tonight. If you wouldn’t mind.
” He gritted his teeth and I wondered how hard it was to ask me something rather than demand it, “could you stay here one more night? There’s a loft above the garage you can use.
It’s furnished and has windows and doors that I promise won’t be locked when you wake up.
Or you can have any bed in the house you want. No one will be using them tonight.”
This was...weird.
I opened my mouth to reply but shut it again. I wanted to argue for the sake of arguing. I liked the way his face soured when I told him no, but this was different.
He was giving me something. Trust. My freedom, even if it was for just a few hours. In return he asked for a small favor. In all honesty, I’d sleep just as shittily no matter where I laid my head tonight anyway.
“Fine,” I replied. “Just tonight.”
The ghost of a smile brushed over his lips before it was gone, and he nodded. “Good. I’ll text you when I’m on my way.”
“Okay,” I said, jumping from the stool and remembering what I was wearing. I wouldn’t be running anywhere in a fucking sheet.
“You wouldn’t happen to know where my clothes are, would you.”
He jerked his head toward the entryway. “They’re washed and in the dryer. The laundry room is through the door at the end of the hall, but I guess you already knew that since you removed the handle.”
I bit my tongue, rushing from the kitchen to go and get my fresh clothes before I said something that might ruin my chances at a few hours of freedom.
My spine went ramrod straight as I walked into the laundry room, finding my phone sitting atop the dryer. Fuck .
What was wrong with me?
A good prank and some good dick and I lost all fucking sense.
This was not me.
I’d told myself this once, and I’d keep saying it; these Crows were literally going to be the death of me one day. At least as long as they lived.
I snatched my phone and checked for any messages they might’ve somehow read. I had three missed messages, but I’d changed my settings so the lock screen wouldn’t show message previews anymore, only the sender.
One message was from my Aunt Humphrey, another was from Kit. The last said only unknown .
I stiffened, leaning back against the wall as I unlocked it and thumbed over to read them.
I scrolled to the one I dreaded the most first, reading only the first line of text before I swiped to delete the message without reading the rest.
UNKNOWN
I warned you…
Whoever it was could warn me all they liked. Whenever they wanted to stop talking shit and do something, I’d be ready for them. Come at me, fucker. I dare you.
Next on the list of messages I least wanted to read. Dear ol’ Aunt Humphrey.
AUNT HUMPHREY
If you don’t return my calls, I’ll have no choice but to revoke my offer. How you expect to finish the year with the grades necessary to get into a half decent college is beyond me. You have to actually attend class for?—
I stopped reading. That was enough of that.
KIT
Dom’s worried about you. If you aren’t going to call me back, you should at least call her. I miss you.
I ignored Kit’s message and thumbed over to my previous conversation with Dom, typing out a quick apology.
AVA JADE
Sorry girl. I’ll try to call this week. Shit’s been crazy. I’m fine so don’t worry, k?
I was a terrible fucking friend.
I dressed quickly, rushing to my five seconds of freedom. I peered into the kitchen to tell Corvus I was leaving, but he wasn’t there anymore when I walked past.
“Bye, dickface,” I muttered quietly to myself as I tugged on my shoes and went to slip my newest blade into the sheath on my ankle, but thought better of it, deciding to keep it on me instead.
My skin prickled as I stepped outside into the growing warmth of the early afternoon, and I scanned the trees surrounding the Nest as I stretched for my run. Searching for anything out of place. Eyes that shouldn’t be there.
There was someone watching me, that much was certain, but were they watching me right now? Were they out there at this very minute, waiting for an opportunity to pounce?
Did they see what Rook and I did last night? I glanced back, seeing through the window to the kitchen beyond it. A clear and unobstructed view of the kitchen island.
I shivered.
“ Fuck this, ” I hissed. If whoever it was wanted to attack me, let them. I had a new blade to break in, and I’d pledged to carve out their eyeballs. I couldn’t do that if I was hiding inside, now could I?
No music for my run today. I needed all my senses keen and sharp. Just in case.
A small pang surprised me as the unconscious thought that I wished Grey was running with me crossed my mind.
I shook it away and started at a slow pace down the gravel drive, picking up speed as the gravity of the hill pulled me down its slope. Soon, the wind whipped through my hair, lifting sweat slicked strands and cooling the sweat beginning to coat my chest.
But still my runner’s high didn’t come and my mood soured, hating a nameless faceless person. Hating Mr. Unknown for ruining the one thing I had that was mine.
In the distance, the sounds of the forest, my favorite sounds, became ominous things.
The snap of a twig could just as easily be a rabbit as it could be Mr. Unknown.
The rustle of leaves: a bird or a man?
It wasn’t fear, not exactly, it was the same self-preservation readiness that always took over when there was a threat. When my adrenaline knocked at the thresholds of my veins, waiting to be released.
Like the world had gone from low-fi to high-def in the blink of an eye.
Vision sharper. My ears picking up even the tiniest sounds.
I couldn’t enjoy the pounding of my feet on the earth or the sensation of flying as I soared over miles of woods and road.
Not with this itching feeling scratching at the back of my skull.
“Fucking damnit,” I groaned to myself through pants, slowing to a jog as I veered off the road and into the trees toward the trailhead at the back of Briar Hall.
If I stuck to the road, I’d have to go all the way around.
This way I could cut through and save myself fifteen minutes.
I’d have loved to have those fifteen minutes before, but now? What was the point?
I jumped over a low red-berry bush and onto the trail, seeing the lit opening in the trees ahead that would put me out at the back gardens of the Academy.
I saw him before he even moved. A dark shape lurking in the shade behind an old redwood.
My feet dug into the ground as he rounded the tree, and I readied my new blade to throw, cursing myself for not arming myself with one of my own blades.
My aim may not be perfect with this one yet.
We hadn’t been properly acquainted. I held it up all the same, the dirt underfoot bunching under the sides of my sneakers as I slid to a stop.
“ Whoa ,” a familiar voice spoke, raising his hands to carefully peel back the hood of his dark windbreaker jacket, revealing his face.
“Officer Vick?”
“Put the knife down, girl.”
Hesitantly, I lowered it, but didn’t put it away or move any closer.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
He snorted derisively. “Do you know how hard it’s been to get to you? You’ve been with at least one of them every bloody hour of the day and night.”
My face pinched. “What do you want?”
“What do I want? I thought we wanted the same thing...you haven’t called.”
“Because I didn’t have enough to give you yet.”
Officer Vick narrowed his eyes on me, stuffing his fists into his windbreaker pockets. “It’s true what I’ve heard then,” he said, a look of disgust twisting his features. “You are taking the trials. They’ve turned you, haven’t they?”
I frowned, a sneer curling my upper lip. “ Never .”
He snorted and my face flushed hot, hands clenching.
“I didn’t ask for this,” I all but snapped. “It was the trials or death.”
He cocked his head at me, interested now. “You saw something, didn’t you? Something you shouldn’t have. Tell me. Tell me and this can all be over.”
My breath caught in my throat. The videos had been erased from my hard drive, but there was still a body. The body of a dead Ace in the ground out behind that old warehouse with one of Diesel’s bullets in his skull. Would the body be enough?
“Would you need testimony?”
Officer Vick’s hard look faltered, he hadn’t expected that question. “Depends on what sort of evidence you’ve got.”
“And if I didn’t have any at all except my word and a body buried in the ground…”
He ground his teeth, considering the best way to reply, and I knew already what his answer would be.
If the court was going to be able to do anything with the evidence, my testimony would be paramount.
And a trial could take weeks. Months, even.
And no amount of police protection would be able to stop Diesel St. Crow from slitting my throat before it ever went as far as a conviction.
My stomach soured. Would the guys be implicated in that or just Diesel? Could I keep them out of it?
Did I want to?
“Like I said,” I continued before Officer Vick could say a word, wanting to cut this conversation short before I said something I couldn’t fucking take back. “I don’t have enough yet.”
“When?”
“I don’t fucking know.
He nodded. “The trials can be quite…”
“I know.”
“If you help us, there’s a possibility we’d be able to offer immunity for any crimes committed in the process of obtaining the information we need.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Vick ran a hand through his short hair, glancing between me and the end of the trail a good twenty feet behind him. My chest grew cold at the idea of someone seeing us here, like this. Officer Vick and I out in the open.
“We really need?—”
I held up a hand to stop him from pleading his case any more than he already had. “I’m working on it,” I gritted out. “But you can’t approach me again. Ever . If someone saw...”
I shuddered.
“But—”
“I can’t give you anything if I’m dead.”
I fixed him with a hard stare before starting back at a slow jog. “ Move ,” I growled and he stepped to the side as I pounded past him.
“We need you, Ava Jade,” he called as I emerged from the path. “Don’t disappoint me.”