Chapter 17 – Ava Jade #2
I noticed he hadn’t bothered to clean the blood splatter from his jacket, wearing it as a badge of honor instead. The color suited him.
Corvus and Diesel’s game was over in a matter of minutes, Diesel coming out the victor.
He went to his adopted son and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “You’re distracted,” I barely heard him tell Corvus. “Let’s have another round later, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Corvus muttered.
“Good.” He clapped Corv on the back. “Let’s get this over and done with. Grab the girl and meet us in the back room. Her second trial is tonight.”
Corvus stiffened.
Diesel’s eyes cut into me like shards of ice before they flicked away and he turned his attention to Tiny and another man behind him. Together, they vanished into the crowd.
“Any idea what it is?” I asked Corvus when he got close enough that I wouldn’t have to raise my voice.
He shook his head. “A couple of ideas, but no.”
I looked at the others. Rook and Grey sat stone faced and silent in the booth.
Great.
“The trials are always different for each person. There are a few that get repeated, sort of like tradition, but they’re almost never given in the exact same way,” Corvus explained.
He held out his hand for me and I stood up without his help, the little bit of rum I’d just slammed going to my head. I ignored his hand and he dropped it, seemingly unbothered. “If you need a minute,” he offered but I was already shaking my head.
“No. I want to get back. Come on, let’s just go do this.”
Rook and Grey slid from the booth and fell in behind Corvus and me as we wove through the pub, making for a set of double doors around the quieter side of the bar in the back of the building.
We stepped through them into a dark antechamber.
Ahead were swinging doors with windows in their tops that showed a gleaming kitchen.
To the right was a sign for bathrooms and to the left a long hallway that led to a single black painted door with a polished silver handle.
That was where we headed.
I steeled myself, cooing to my darkness as it began to swell, coming to life in my gut.
Corvus held the door open and Grey stepped ahead of me to go in first. Rook followed right behind me. The lighting inside the large room was dim, casting an eerie glow over the space.
To my left, a bank of expensive looking sectional couches held a few Saints, lounging quietly, drinks perched between their fingers.
To my right sat a large rectangular table made of what looked like polished black glass at first. But as we neared, I saw it wasn’t glass at all, but some kind of dyed epoxy, a golden fleur-de-lis turned dagger embedded down the middle.
Diesel St. Crow sat at the opposite end closest to the wall, and only one other chair waited at the other end of the table. It wasn’t rocket science to figure out who it was meant for.
Without being told, I stalked past Grey and folded myself into the chair, sitting up straight as I pushed myself into the table ledge.
With my lower body concealed, it was easy to stealth a blade from my thigh through the wide tear in the denim.
Style and accessibility. These were my favorite jeans.
I laid the blade on my thigh and lifted my hands to the top of the table, feeling more confident knowing it was only inches away if I needed it.
Diesel’s biting gaze watched me carefully, his line of sight flitting low before rising back to my face. Either he knew what I’d just done or he guessed. I didn’t give a fuck either way. He didn’t really expect me to go anywhere unarmed, did he?
I knew he was packing a piece. I’d seen it in the pub. And I also knew all of his sons were packing heat, too. What was a blade compared to guns? In the hands of someone less skilled, nothing. But in my hands…
Maybe one day Diesel would find out.
“Is this a staring contest?” I asked after another minute of terse silence. “Because if it is?—”
Just then the door opened again and Tiny stepped through with two silver chalices on a serving tray. He went straight to Diesel and bent, whispering something in his ear before setting the tray down and leaving the room.
Corvus cursed and Rook let out a growl so low I wondered if I imagined it.
This wasn’t good.
“May we have the room,” Diesel said, his shining eyes flicking over the many faces eager to watch whatever the fuck was about to go down.
The Saints left one by one, and I turned my head to see Grey, Rook, and Corvus still standing just a few feet behind my chair.
“Do I need to repeat myself?”
Diesel’s jaw flexed.
“You can wait outside,” he offered them. “I’ll let you know when you can come back in. I’d like a word with our new initiate in private.”
“Is this really necessary?” Corvus asked, and Diesel narrowed his stare on him. “It’s an antiquated tradition. We should?—”
“This isn’t up for discussion.”
Slowly, I turned back to face Diesel, saying nothing.
A prickle of unease skated down my spine, making my stomach sour with dread, but I didn’t show it. Not even as Diesel’s sons dutifully left the room as they were asked.
Something I don’t think they would have done if any of them truly believed he was the one responsible for the man who tried to inject me with fucking Diazepam.
That was enough to quell the rising dark within at least a little bit.
Though we all knew Diesel wasn’t interested in making me a Saint.
That he didn’t trust me and would do anything in his power to see to it that I failed.
So, maybe the darkness could hang around just a little longer, in case I should need it.
“Ava Jade Mason,” Diesel intoned, leaning back in his leather high back chair like a king on his throne. “Eighteen years old. Deceased father. Addict mother. Lived in Lennox your entire life until recently coming into the care of your aunt and moving here to Thorn Valley. Right so far?”
I didn’t answer, but my fingers itched to reach for the blade in my lap.
“It was difficult to find very much information aside from that, however, given your street smarts and skill with a blade, I’d wager you had a difficult childhood. Is that right?”
“What does this have to do with anything?”
He shrugged. “I like to know what sort of snakes I’m inviting into my house.”
“And?”
He tapped his fingers absently on the table. “And I like to know who my sons have invited into theirs.”
“Well, now you know.”
He pursed his lips. “Not nearly enough.”
“If there’s something you want to ask, just ask.”
He cocked his head to one side, considering me in a new light. “I don’t trust you, Ava Jade. I think you’re a viper. All shining scales and alluring eyes. Lulling my boys into a sense of false security while you await your perfect moment to strike.”
Officer Vick crossed my thoughts, but I pushed him away, afraid Diesel would be able to see the truth hiding just below flesh and bone.
“Then why agree to let me take the trials at all?” I asked instead.
He didn’t like that question. It was clear in the way his expression soured. “My son asked me for this favor,” he told me, surprising me with the truth. “Greyson has never asked me for anything. Not since the day I took him in. Not a single thing .”
His eyes found mine, holding me there with a warm intensity. “He asked me for you .”
“And you think he made a mistake?”
“I know he did. I just hope they all see that before it’s too late. There are some lessons I can’t teach them. Ones they’ll have to learn themselves.”
Something in my chest cracked at his admission and in the haunted look darkening his eyes.
He snapped out of it after a second, sitting up straighter in his chair to fold his hands atop the table.
“I want you to know, Ava Jade, if you betray my boys—if you harm them—I will hunt you to the ends of the earth. You may think you know the meaning of pain, but you’re wrong. You will hurt and you will bleed. And when I’m finished with you...you will die.”
I let that sink in, his promise etching into my bones.
It was violent and a clear threat and yet…
I respected him for it.
An ache formed behind my breastbone, and I swallowed back a burning in my throat. The memory of my own father dredged back up from the depths where I’d banished it. I had to admire Diesel for his willingness to do whatever it took to protect his sons.
I loved my Dad, but if I’d had a parent as viciously protective as Diesel, I might not have turned out the way I did.
“I understand,” I replied with a nod.
“Good.”
He rose from the table and lifted the two chalices from the tray at his side, carrying them both over to me.
He set them down in front of me on the table, one next to the other.
“Both have two ounces of good whiskey,” he paused. “In one of them is a fast-acting poison.”
My pulse quickened.
“You decide which one you want to drink. I will drink the other.”
“You would poison yourself?” I asked dubiously, my mind racing.
He regarded me with cat-like eyes. “Yes. If you choose correctly. The poison is strong. The side-effects...unpleasant. But the likelihood of it being lethal is low.”
Low , but not zero. Fucking awesome.
“What the fuck is this supposed to prove?” I asked, unable to help myself. “Blind obedience?”
“Sometimes obedience is necessary, even if it poses great risk to yourself. If you pass these trials, I need to know you’ll do what is asked of you no matter if you don’t agree. Even knowing it could cause you bodily harm. For the good of the many.”
“And how is this for the good of the many? It’s poison . This is some idiotic Princess Bride shit.”
He smirked at that, but I wasn’t joking.
“It’s tradition,” he added before indicating the chalices again. “Choose.”
I narrowed my gaze on the chalices, grinding my teeth.
This is fucking stupid .
But...I realized a little belatedly, he’d just told me what this trial was meant to prove. If I didn’t drink, I failed the trial. My refusal would prove my inability to follow an order.
If I didn’t drink, Diesel would win .
Couldn’t fucking have that now, could we?
I settled myself knowing that if Diesel killed me his sons would never forgive him. At least, Grey wouldn’t. I didn’t think Rook would be too happy, either. Corvus would probably get over it.
I could handle a little stomach cramping, right?
“Can I check them?” I asked and Diesel nodded.
I lifted each to my nose, smelling the bite of strong whiskey in each, but nothing else. I swirled them, angling the chalices to the light to check for swirls of a liquid that might have a different viscosity, or powder residue on the bottom. Both seemed clean.
Maybe there was no poison at all.
Maybe it was just a test of obedience and all I needed to do was drink to pass.
Too many maybes. Too little time.
I sighed, deciding on the chalice to my left, the one furthest from Diesel. I held it up, the cold silver damp with condensation. “To your health,” I said with a wry smile, and he smiled back, all teeth as he lifted the other chalice and knocked it against mine.
I swallowed down the drink in two burning gulps and swiped the back of my hand over my lips, knocking the heavy metal chalice back onto the table.
“Boys,” Diesel called loudly, giving me a knowing grin as he made his way back down the length of the table to his seat at the opposite end. With him gone from my side, I tucked my blade back into its sheath.
The guys came back in a second later, their faces shadowed as they took in the empty chalices in front of me.
A sharp pain lanced through my stomach, and I fought the urge to double over, clutching the underside of the table. Fuck .
“Go on, boys. Get her out of here. I don’t want her making a mess on my floor.”