Chapter 8 – Ava Jade #2
Diesel’s eyes found mine, and I stopped short, dragging Corvus to a stop with me.
“I’m following my sons back to the Nest,” Diesel told him. “I need to have a little chat with our newest member.”
The van door slammed and the engine turned.
Diesel held my stare for another moment before his eyes flicked to Corvus and then to Rook and Grey. “You make no stops. We don’t need to give them any advantage or opportunity. Got it?”
“Yeah,” Corvus replied gruffly. “I got it.”
There were no surprises on the route home, though I half expected an ambush, and by midnight, we were pulling up alongside the Nest with Diesel’s headlights bouncing behind us.
“He’s going to want the intel only Becca can give us,” Grey said solemnly as he shut off the engine. “He’ll want you to get it.”
“I know.”
Grey twisted in his seat to see me in the back, trying to gauge something from my stare. Perhaps whether or not I would comply. I wasn’t yet sure if I would either, so it was anyone’s guess.
Depended on how Diesel did the asking and whether or not he would agree to certain… stipulations .
I knew from the email Becca sent six hours ago that she landed, was safe, and had gotten rid of her phone like I told her to.
It put me at least moderately at ease to know she was so far away.
Out of his reach. Well, maybe not entirely, I didn’t know how large his web of contacts expanded, but I was counting on it not being large enough to reach her there. At least not this quickly.
Diesel’s headlights behind us blinked off, and we all stepped out of the Rover, meeting him outside.
“Here,” Grey said, going to Diesel’s side to try to take his arm, take some of the weight off his injured ankle. “Come on, I think we might have something you can use for a?—”
“I’m good.” Diesel waved him off, walking alone unassisted instead, though he was no longer trying to hide his limp. “It’s splinted.”
“You still shouldn’t be walking on it,” Corvus said, agreeing with Grey, but Diesel ignored both of them as he passed, making for the front door.
“You want to help? Stop yapping and let me in so I can sit down.”
Corvus opened the door for Diesel, and we all followed him through the dark house to the living room, flicking light switches as we went.
All of us on edge as the rooms each lit up in turn, as though there might be monsters waiting in the shadows.
Because…there might be. Not the kind with big scary teeth and claws, but the kind with guns, or in my case, syringes full of fucking sedatives.
I only allowed myself to partially relax once we were all seated in the living room. I thought about trying to get out of joining this little chat, but knew Diesel would only insist if I tried.
Awkward didn’t even begin to describe the atmosphere in the living room in the minute between sitting down and when someone decided to break the silence.
“Want a whiskey?” Grey offered Diesel, pushing the low coffee table nearer to him so that he could lift his leg to rest on its edge.
“No.”
“Fuck yes.”
Diesel and Rook said at the same time.
Grey’s face screwed up into a sneer at his brother. “Dude. Get it yourself.”
Rook huffed as he pushed off from the sofa next to me and went to the kitchen, the sound of rattling glass and tinkling ice the only thing to be heard until he returned.
“No need for small talk then,” Diesel said, his eyes roving over each of his boys with a flicker of disappointment before they settled on me.
“We need intel only Rebecca Hart can give us. I know she skipped town. I have a rough idea where she is and the area gets narrowed down by the hour. I have no interest in sending my people in to get her, but I need her back here. Now.”
I rolled around his words in my mouth, contemplating spitting each one back in his face.
“I won’t tell her to come back here, if that’s what you’re asking. Not without guarantees.”
Diesel sat back on his cushion, extending his arms wide over the back of the couch so his reach nearly touched Corvus and Grey spread out far at his sides near the edges of the sofa. “What kind of guarantees?”
“Her safety, for one.”
“Is that all?”
“No.”
He waited.
“You want to speak to her at all? You have questions for her? They go through me. You’ve traumatized her enough.”
A muscle in his temple bulged.
“And I can ask said questions on your behalf while she’s away. There’s no need for her to come back here.”
Not until I’m certain I can trust you, I wanted to add, but didn’t. We both knew that was unlikely to happen. Ever.
“And if I need her to ID a face?”
“I’ll send her a pic.”
Fucking obviously.
“When the heat’s died down and whoever this fucker is, is six feet under then I’ll tell Becca it’s safe to come back to Thorn Valley.
She shouldn’t be here right now. The man who was using her for intel knows just as well as we do that she is the only person who can ID him.
Who has information that could lead to us finding him. ”
I let him fill in the blanks. If Becca came back here, it wasn’t just Diesel she had to be afraid of but also him .
“I won’t bring her back here to die. You can’t ask me to do that. No matter the reason why.”
He held my stare for a long moment. “You care for this girl? Even after what she did to you? Could’ve done to them?”
He indicated his sons.
“I didn’t say I forgave her,” I corrected him. “But there’s a difference between making a mistake and a calculated move.”
He nodded quietly to himself, and I knew he had to see some reason in what I’d said. What good would Becca be to him if the man who was grooming her got to her before we did? Before she could ID him?
“All right.”
“All right?”
“We do it your way. She have good security where she is?”
A vivid image of the man whose voice played over the tapes in the warehouse attacking Becca in her European flat flashed in my mind. “I’ll make sure she does.”
Another nod. “I want an established line of contact between you and her by tomorrow, and I’ll have a list of questions by morning.”
Had we just come to an agreement without blood spilling?
Damn.
I’d be more surprised if it weren’t for knowing the ultimate—and mutual—goal here was the assured safety of his sons. It was the one thing I thought that could force us to work together.
“Want me to drive you back?” Grey asked, pushing up from his knees. “We can get rid of the truck for you.”
Grey’s face had remained impassive all night, and I got the distinct feeling that a war was waging beneath his carefully painted mask. He wasn’t just walking on eggshells with me. He was doing the same with his adoptive father.
It made my heart hurt to watch him.
“We aren’t finished,” Diesel said, staring at Grey until he sat back down. “There’s something else, and I wanted to bring it to you three before I put it to a vote with the others.”
Three.
So, not me then.
Noted.
This had Rook sitting up, his whiskey dangling from his fingers between his legs, forgotten for the moment. “Total annihilation?”
Diesel faced him with the smallest of smirks at the edge of his mouth. “No, Son, not yet.”
Rook grunted and sat back again. His excitement gone.
“I want to ally with the Kings.”
“What?” Corvus roared, his head whipping around to face his father. “Why the fuck would we do that? We’ve never allied with anyone and there’s a fucking reason for that.”
“We trust our own,” Rook added. “No one else.”
“That’s what you taught us,” Grey echoed their opinion.
Diesel’s light eyes found mine for an instant, and I wondered if he waited for my opinion. I couldn’t give it.
The Kings.
They were the reigning gang on the streets of Lennox, my hometown.
I suspected they were also to blame for the death of my father. He was borrowing money from someone. He’d told me as much in so many words. I knew he was in over his head. I just wished I’d acted sooner.
I wished I tried harder to break him of the habit that killed him.
Wishing never got me anywhere.
They continued to argue, and I felt the tension in my shoulders wind until it was close to snapping, every muscle across my back burning like I was standing on a pyre instead of sitting in a living room discussing a treaty with the enemy.
Huh.
Keep your enemies close…
If the Kings allied with the Saints then I might get the chance to find out what happened to my father. Who killed him. And return the favor.
I’d always known that vengeance would be mine someday, but this? This could be the opportunity I needed to follow through.
My stomach fluttered at the thought of King’s blood all over my hands.
“He’s right,” I interrupted something Grey was saying. “If the Saints don’t ally with the Kings then the Aces might.”
It was what Diesel was trying to tell them if what I heard in pieces while plotting my own revenge was any indication. But I needed to put it to them plainer.
This needed to happen.
“If the Aces and Kings join together it’ll be a lot worse for us. A much, much bigger mess to clean up if things go south, and I think we all know that’s exactly where this is headed. There will be more loss of life. It’s the logical move.”
I focused my attention squarely on Diesel now. “You should do it. Now. Before the Aces do.”
He considered me as though seeing me in a new light. Maybe one he didn’t particularly loathe. I had to wonder why he didn’t shut me up. He clearly had no desire to hear my take.
He’s learning, I thought. Watching and learning. Seeing how my addition to this threesome would affect his future with his sons. How he could use it to his advantage. Weighing the risk versus the potential rewards.
This man was far more cunning than I gave him credit for. He knew when to speak. When to throw his weight. And when to be quiet; a thing most men in positions of power never quite learned.
Diesel looked around the room at his sons. “Boys?”
“I don’t like it,” Rook said, sneering as he finished his whiskey. It wasn’t a clear cut opposition.
“Neither do I,” Corvus agreed, but he, too, was already nodding, his sights on me. “But they have a point.”
“Grey?” Diesel pushed. “I need the green light on this from all three of you before I’ll move on it.”
Grey’s brows knotted.
“We form the alliance,” Grey said, casting the deciding vote. “But as a means to prevent them from joining with the Aces. I don’t want to work with them. Not unless we have to.”
That would make my plans more difficult, but I’d still take the win.
“Agreed,” Diesel said, and winced as he brought his leg down from the table. The bandage poking out from beneath the hem of his jeans was soaked through with crimson.
I guess we really weren’t going to talk about that . Or the million other things still left unsaid between us over the past weeks. It was probably for the best. If we started talking, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep talking from becoming stabbing .
He hopped to his feet, and Grey got up to follow him.
“Stay,” he told Grey, and his son obediently sat back down.
Diesel paused in the doorway to the kitchen. “Oh. There was just one last thing.”
There was more?
“That business at Briar Hall this morning? What was that about?”
Of course he would know about that, though it didn’t keep me from wondering exactly how he knew.
“Just some cunt fucking around. Probably a prank. Doesn’t seem like the Ace’s style.”
Diesel shook his head. “No. Not their usual MO, but my guys are looking into it anyway.”
“I got this,” Corvus said, his shoulders flexing.
“Do you?” Diesel asked him. “Remember who runs those halls, son. Things like that can’t go unpunished. Clean it up.”
Corv nodded, and Diesel’s gaze strayed to me. To the blade I was unconsciously twirling between my fingers as I thought of brutal ways to use it against our mutual enemies and some of my own.
“And for the love of god, someone teach her how to use a fucking gun.”
Diesel left, but it did little to fix the knots in my stomach or the ones still burning across my back.
I stood.
“Where are you going?” Corvus demanded.
“Back to Briar Hall.”
“For what? It’ll be dawn in a couple hours. Not like you’re going to sleep.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“I have an idea,” Rook said, licking his lips as he rose from the couch, trying to dump the last few drops of his whiskey down his throat.
Corvus blanched, and I got the sense that when Rook had an idea it didn’t always end well.
“Let’s blow off some steam, yeah?”
He brushed past my shoulder on his way to the kitchen, his warmth and scent flooding all my senses.
“You coming?” he called from the front door, and the rest of us shared a look before following him from the Nest.
Anything was better than staring at the ceiling for the next four hours, right?