Chapter 2 – Ava Jade
AVA JADE
“ A re you sure he’s coming?” I asked Becca for the second time, my fingers tightening on the wheel.
I squinted into the growing dawn light outside of her father’s Thorn Valley office building, trying to find signs of life.
We were sitting ducks here. It was possibly the worst fucking place Becca could have asked her father’s driver to pick her up, but she’d hung up my cell before I could tell her to make alternate arrangements.
“I’m sure.”
I vibrated in the seat, muttering to myself. “Come on. Come on. ”
“Aves…can we please talk about?—”
“ There! ” I interrupted her, jerking forward to point at the sleek black sedan pulling around the building. “Is that him? Do you know the plate number?”
I unsheathed a blade and sat up straighter, watching as the car inched closer.
“No, but…” Becca leaned forward from the back seat, her body fitting easily between the two front seats. “That’s definitely him.”
I relaxed, though not entirely. I could feel Becca’s eyes on me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at her. Didn’t want her to see how much her betrayal had shattered me.
“You need to go,” I said, swallowing past the lump in my throat. “Do exactly as I said. Your driver has your passport, right?”
I caught her slow nod from the corner of my eye. She’d asked him to bring it during their call.
“Good. Then you go straight to the airport. Go to your dad’s vacation home in Europe?—”
“It’s in Paris, you should come?—”
“ Shhh ,” I hushed her sharply, my body flushing with heat. “Don’t say anything else. I don’t want to know where it is.”
“Do you really think they’ll come after me?”
At the fear in her voice, I finally cracked, turning just enough to see the gleam of it in her brown eyes. “I don’t know,” I told her honestly.
She inhaled shakily and cleared her throat as the black sedan pulled up beside the Rover in the empty backlot of the building. “Are you going to be okay?” she asked in a watery voice.
“I don’t know that either,” I admitted. “But I’m done running. It’s time for these Saints to pay for their sins.”
Becca’s grip on the seat tightened until her knuckles were white. “I can’t talk you out of it?”
“No.”
She hung her head. “For what it’s worth…I really am sorry. I should’ve?—”
“ Should’ve doesn’t help me, Becks,” I snapped, completely unable to keep a leash on myself. She needed to leave now before I became the danger she needed to run from.
Hurt could turn to fury in the blink of an eye, and if I let myself go there…
“I need you to go. Now. Call me when you land, and again when you’re settled in the house, but don’t call from a landline. Get a burner at the airport.”
“Okay.”
I nodded, and she hesitated for only another few seconds before she pushed out the door and shut it behind her, climbing into the back of the sedan.
I waited until it left the lot and then followed it, trailing it to the edge of town.
Once it left the limits of Thorn Valley, I let the Rover’s engine slow and pulled onto the shoulder, my throat burning until my vision blurred with tears.
I slammed my open palms on the steering wheel, and when the sting settled something inside of me, I did it again. And again .
Until the tears were gone and my palms were red and throbbing.
Only then did I even bother trying to slow my breathing.
Only then did I do a quick sweep of the Rover for any GPS trackers and then ease off the shoulder and back onto the highway, pulling a tire-squealing U-turn to head down the side-road a few miles back the way I’d come.
Toward the Docks. Where Vick would no doubt already be awaiting my arrival.
I couldn’t let myself think about what I was going to do when I got there. Not about what I would say either. I’d lose my nerve.
I couldn’t lose my nerve.
Fresh, morning mountain air blew into my face from the open window, and I closed my eyes, thinking how easy it might be to just let the wheel go. Let the Rover drift…
The tires jerked, bumping onto the shoulder, and my eyes flew open, hands working to pull me back onto the road, my pulse thudding in my ears.
Fuck.
I jammed the radio button, twisting the volume dial to crank it. Needing to distract myself.
The host of The Edge came on, and I almost changed the station to something that was actually playing music when his next words made me pause.
“If you were lucky enough to catch their show in Lodi, then you might already know what all the fuss is about. Not only did The Bone Man feature a whole new song, but also a whole new voice . The mystery surrounding the man himself has doubled as we all try to figure out who she is.”
“That’s right, Randy,” the other host, a woman, added. “It’s such a unique voice, but one that complemented Primal Ethos so perfectly. A tall order if you ask me.”
Something in my chest tightened.
“And for him not to have even credited whoever it was…” Randy trailed off.
“Do you think we have another mystery singer?”
A laugh. “Definitely possible.”
“All right folks, here it is from Primal Ethos, the live version of his brand new song, Sparrow !”
The opening notes of the song flowed into the Rover, and I was thrust back in time. To that night in Lodi, and as his voice came over the air, that thing that’d been tight in my chest only a moment ago shriveled to dust.
Corvus’ brusque voice flowed through the speakers in surround sound, echoing inside of my skull. “This one’s called Sparrow.”
I jammed the off button before he could begin to sing, feeling sick and hot and freezing cold all at once.
He’d just stood there. Mute while Grey and Rook at least had the decency to speak.
To try to work through what had happened, but Corvus became statuesque.
A lump of useless muscle and flesh with a brooding aura.
He just stood aside and told them to let me leave.
I didn’t know what to think about that. The unfeeling, unflinching monster in his stare had shaken me to my core.
But Rook…
He’d wanted to come with me.
The weight of the hard black stone against my clavicle felt almost too much to bear, but still I couldn’t seem to make myself take it off.
I would later. When I was alone. And I would find a way to get it back to him.
I wanted Diesel to suffer. On some level, I wanted the Crows to as well, but I wouldn’t become the Ghost Rook named me for before returning this last memento of his mother to him.
The Docks came into view as I rounded a corner in the bending road, and I flinched as warm orange-hued light blinded me. The sun cleared the horizon, and its reflection glimmered off the rippling waters of Spirit Lake, practically burning out my fucking retinas.
My mouth went dry as I pulled into the lot, searching for another vehicle. A police vehicle. But there was nothing. Not even the standard issue undercover sedan I’d thought he might arrive in. He was smarter than I gave him credit for then, not parking anywhere near here.
I cursed myself for not having that same foresight.
This was Saint property, after all. I assured myself they wouldn’t be coming anywhere near here with weeks still until the next full moon party, and put the Rover in park, sitting there while it idled for a minute, letting the calm lake and the warmth of the sun on my itchy, blood-spattered skin bring me a measure of peace.
For a second, I could almost pretend the last twenty-four hours hadn’t happened at all. My best friend hadn’t been plotting behind my back. Diesel hadn’t tried to kill her and me . My guys…
No, not mine.
They were never mine.
Sighing, I stepped out of the Rover, realizing I was barefoot and trying to remember when I’d lost my shoes. Back in the warehouse, no doubt. The sharp gravel bit into the soft soles of my feet as I made my way to the dock, until it was replaced by the sharp prick of splinters instead.
I couldn’t bring myself to care about either. At least the sting with each step reminded me that I was still alive. And living girls could have their vengeance before they became dead girls.
The weathered barn-like door creaked and groaned as I pushed it to one side, old green paint flaking off the wood. Inside it smelled of stale liquor and regret. Across the floor stood the low stage. Atop it, discolored leather sofas languished in the shadows. Desolate. Thrones without their kings.
I could picture them there so clearly. I had been standing just over there when I noticed them watching me that night. How their dark eyes had glittered with malice and a hunger so deep it roiled in the pit of my own stomach.
Forcing myself to look away, my jaw ticked as I turned my attention to the narrow doorway at the back of the warehouse.
Standing ajar, it allowed the morning sunlight to filter into the space, along with a welcome breeze off the lake that carried with it scents much less assaulting than the ones currently cloying up my nose.
The shuffle of boots over wood outside and I knew that he was already here. Had likely been waiting a while. Why else venture out into the open unless it was to get away from this stink?
Just in case, I moved with quick, careful steps to the raised stage and snagged a broken bottle, careful not to let the glass ring against the wood.
I couldn’t bring myself to take the gun I’d stolen from one of Diesel’s men back in Nomansland.
If I were being honest, I hardly knew how to use one, anyway.
I’d left it in the Rover, wiped clean of my prints.
It was a small miracle I hadn’t accidentally shot Corvus when I was aiming for the pavement near his feet to show him I meant business.
My throat went dry, and I methodically tried to force a burning swallow, nearly coughing.
“Ava Jade?”
Officer Vick’s distinct tone filtered into the warehouse, and I managed to somehow both relax and stiffen anew at the sound of it.