Chapter 16 – Grey
GREY
D iazepam.
Sally from the twenty-four-hour pharmacy in town took longer than I’d requested, but at least she managed to ID what was in the syringe. Enough Diazepam to sedate someone for hours. It would have taken effect within fifteen seconds.
Rook had been pummeling the heavy bag non-stop since I told him and Corvus on Monday night after moving the girls into the loft.
Rook knew that drug better than most ever could.
It was what they used on him at the psychiatric hospital in Stockton.
The one Barrettes Home for Boys sent him to after they found one of the group leaders with a broomstick up his ass in the janitor’s closet.
The words Rook was here carved into the meaty flesh above his tailbone as he cried against a dirty rag in his mouth.
I never asked why he did it, and he never told me.
It was just one of those things I knew was off limits for discussion, but my imagination came up with the worst things.
Which was why after Diesel adopted us and made us what we were now, I paid a visit to that group leader.
I didn’t ask him what happened, either. I put two pieces of lead between his eyes and never said a word to a soul about it.
Helped me sleep better knowing that whatever he’d done to my brother, he would never be able to do again.
Rook was at the psych hospital for two months before they cleared him to return, and he was never quite the same after.
The brooding, angry Rook I knew came back from that place aloof.
Without a care in the world for anyone or anything except me.
And that made him more dangerous than he’d ever been prior to that.
He only told me about his time there once, when he was blind drunk and all his words were slurring.
For a month straight they injected him with Diazepam to put him down for not following orders like take your pills, or paint a picture of a tree, or wait your turn.
They were happy to jab him with that needle at even the smallest infraction.
“Rook,” I interrupted, stepping into the garage to a wave of warmth and the heady smell of sweat and aftershave. Heaving, he paused, blinking as his eyes focused on my face. He dropped his fists, shaking them out as he bounced from foot to foot.
He was getting super wound up. We were going to need to find the time to peel back his lid and let out some steam soon. Julia still had nothing for us, but I held onto the hope that she would soon.
We could always widen our net like Rook suggested several months back. Post the helpline fliers in the neighboring cities and towns, but then we might wind up with the opposite problem. Too much work to handle instead of not enough. If we left even one kid in a lethal situation…
If even one died because we didn’t get to them in time after they called the hotline…
It would be one too many.
“Yeah?” Rook asked, swiping the moisture from his upper lip.
“It’s almost time to go. You coming?” I asked, but it wasn’t really a question. Diesel had sent us all the group message on Monday night after the girls got settled in.
DIESEL
Saturday night. Sanctum. Bring the girl.
Well, it was Saturday now and getting dark. Dies hadn’t given a specific time, but nine was a safe bet and it was nearing eight thirty now.
Rook shucked off his gloves and methodically peeled some tape from his knuckles and fingers. “We still don’t know what this is about?” he asked, his slitted gaze finding my face.
I shook my head. “No. We have to assume it’s another trial.”
“So soon?”
I shrugged. “It’s not that soon if he had nothing to do with the attack last weekend.”
Rook’s lips pressed into a tight line.
We hadn’t found a single thing to indicate the attack was at Diesel’s request. None of the Saints were injured or unaccounted for. Diesel hadn’t come to ring Rook’s neck for interfering or given Ava Jade a fail.
There were no prints on the syringe.
None anywhere in Ava Jade’s room.
Rook was still skeptical, but I believe this wasn’t Diesel. This was her stalker. It had to be.
“Anything more on her phone, then?” Rook prodded, flexing his fingers before taking a long swallow from the glass of whiskey he had perched on top of a wooden stool by the wall.
“Nothing.”
He slammed the glass back down and a muscle in my jaw ticked.
Ava Jade’s stalker had been eerily silent since the attack last weekend. She hadn’t received a single message. Either we scared him off or he was biding his time. Or, maybe he was just recovering from the two story fall out the window of her room.
There was no way he’d escaped unscathed from that drop. We’d checked the hospitals though. Every one within fifty miles. Of the few patients admitted with injuries that would’ve been consistent with the fall, none fit his description.
Tall. The same height as Rook—give or take an inch. Strong with a slender frame packed solid with wiry muscle. Neither Rook nor AJ thought he was very old. Maybe older than them, but not by much. Certainly less than thirty-five.
Only one man fit that description. And he’d met the cold barrel of Corvus’ gun and wet himself two days ago when he was released from the hospital. It wasn’t the guy. He was paid enough for a new pair of designer pants and sent on his way with a warning.
Rook licked his lips, and I could see the spark of madness in his eyes as they flashed in the overhead lights.
“We’re going to find this fucker,” I assured him. “We’re going to find him and then you’re going to take him apart piece by piece. I’ll help you.”
His gaze narrowed on me, a curious furrow in his brow. The unspoken question on his lips. You will?
I nodded.
Rook nodded back.
“I’m going up to get the girls. Corv is nearly ready.”
As I said it, we both heard the front door close in the house beyond the door to the garage and the engine to the Rover start in the driveway. It was cold as fuck out there tonight, chances are he was just warming it up, but he wouldn’t want to be kept waiting long.
Rook finished his drink and went in, headed for the shower.
I took the old entrance up to the loft. The one that required the use of the narrow staircase at the back corner of the garage.
Corvus had one of Diesel’s contractors in on Monday while the rest of us were in classes. They finished the small renovation within six hours as requested and by the time we returned after last class, there was a new entrance to the loft, accessible through the other end of the upstairs bathroom.
Corv hadn’t liked my loft idea, but instead of arguing about it, for once he just shut his mouth and found a quiet solution. One I was angry I hadn’t thought of myself.
If he didn’t have the new entrance made, they would’ve been sealed off from us. It would take too long for us to get to them in case of an emergency, and would leave them with only one route in and out—which was why Ava Jade was keen on the idea, too.
I rapped twice on the door and waited a beat before hearing Becca call for me to come in.
The loft opened up before me as I crested the last few steps past the threshold and into the little studio we never used.
Becca was perched on the edge of an oversized desk chair, pausing in painting her nails to inspect them for imperfections before sliding her hand beneath a UV light dome.
“What? Sometimes they need a fix between appointments,” she explained. “And I haven’t been able to get to the salon all week.”
I wasn’t going to ask, and I wasn’t wondering, but I nodded all the same. “Where’s AJ?”
She jerked her head toward the other end of the loft. “Shower.”
I started into the loft but Becca’s next question stopped me. “Got an ETA on those door handles yet? As much as I love showering with an open door in a house full of dudes...oh no, wait...I don’t actually love that.”
Fair enough. “Corv says they’ll be here Monday.”
“Thank fuck for that.”
“Anything new we should be aware of?” I asked Becca, lowering my voice. “Messages, or…”
She looked at me like I’d sprouted another head. “Ask AJ,” she said with a heavy sigh. “You really think she’s still going to lie to you about it after that shit last weekend?”
The truth? I wasn’t sure.
I wandered to the bathroom door, tapping on the wood pane lightly so it wouldn’t open under my touch. “AJ? We have to get moving.”
“What?”
The shower was off inside, but the exhaust fan likely made it difficult to hear.
“Time to go,” I called louder, and she growled inside. The only response I was likely to get.
I sat heavily on the small chest snugged up to the end of the bed Ava Jade and Becca shared. The loft wasn’t anything special, but it was enough for the two of them temporarily.
The bed was a queen, the mattress and bedding brand new.
It had a small kitchenette in the farthest corner from the door and a sectional facing the wall in the opposite corner with a modest thirty-inch TV mounted on the wall.
And the desk, of course, where Becca watched me warily as we waited for AJ.
The space was meant as a gift for Corvus. One Rook and I thought would help him get the peace and sleep he so desperately needed, but he never moved out here. Now that there was easier access to the rest of the Nest, I wondered if he would when the girls were gone.
I felt a pang in my chest, and I cleared my throat as Ava Jade exited the bathroom in ripped jeans and a tight-fitting, cropped tank top with no bra beneath. Her nipples like little Hershey’s kisses beneath the dark fabric.
Her makeup was done, but her hair was still damp from the shower, falling down her shoulders and back in soft, wet waves.
“You got a blow dryer?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No. No time, either. I think Corv is already waiting in the car.”
Right on cue, a long, blaring horn sounded outside.
“You going to be okay here alone, Becca?” I asked, and she opened her mouth to reply, but it was Ava Jade who spoke instead.
“You said it was safe,” she spat back accusingly.
“It is.”