Chapter 16 – Ava Jade
AVA JADE
T he thrum of bass and loud conversation filtered through the heavy black steel door leading to the underbelly of Sanctum. Corvus thudded his closed fist on the door twice before Pinkie opened it for us, stepping aside to allow us through.
“Good luck tonight, Rook,” he said as we entered.
“As if he’ll need it,” I replied sweetly, throwing Rook a wink behind me.
I already figured as much, but it seemed the rules about being armed in Sanctum did not apply to Saints. We went down to the private fight club without so much as a second glance, never mind a pat down the likes of which I had endured last time.
Though if you had half a brain cell, you could see that we were all armed to the teeth.
Tonight was the night. In a precious few hours, the deadline Diesel gave the Aces would be up, and as far as we were aware, there had been no word from them.
The guys had contacts on Ace turf, though, and word was the streets of Edgewood were getting hella tense these past few days.
Arms passing hands.
Meetings held in private locations not usually used by the gang.
Security around Lenny Ace’s place tripled in the last forty-eight hours.
They weren’t running. They were getting ready to weather the storm.
Unless a miracle happened and they realized how very outmatched they were, there would be blood before the end of the night was through.
“Hey,” Corvus said, his fingers touching my wrist to prod me to stop once we reached the bottom of the stairs. He jerked his head for the others to go ahead, holding only me back with him in the shadows.
“What’s up?” I asked, trying not to let the tension I was feeling creep into my voice.
I was worried about him. About what happened on Monday. I could only imagine how it went with Diesel. He’d been ignoring all of Maxine’s attempts to get ahold of him. Refusing to so much as look at any of the online commentary. He wouldn’t talk to any of us about it. Or anyone else, either.
If anyone so much as looked at him funny at Briar Hall, he would growl in their direction like a poked bear, and they’d scatter. It didn’t stop the fangirls from attaching notes to the windshield of the Rover or in his desk at homeroom.
Most were smart enough not to include their names. The ones who weren’t… well two had already completely unenrolled from Briar Hall after barely five words from my mouth.
“Corv?” I hedged when he didn’t continue straight away. I knew he was worried about me, too, but for an entirely different reason.
His jaw flexed. “Look, I know you think it was the Kings who took out your dad?—”
“I won’t kill anyone,” I said before he could finish. “Not tonight, anyway.”
“Sparrow…” he warned.
“You can’t ask me not to nail the motherfucker to the wall and rip out his intestines if I find him. Tell me you wouldn’t do the same if it had been Dies who was taken out?”
It was still a sore spot, I could tell. But regardless of what happened between them, I could tell that Corvus would still raise the entire city of Edgewood to ash if an Ace took Diesel down.
He made a low sound of agreement in his throat, and I nodded. “Look, I know Diesel needs this alliance right now, but there will come a time when he no longer does. And when that time comes, I want to have a name. I want to be ready.”
He nodded quietly to himself.
“I’ll help you,” he said, surprising me. “When the time comes. But we keep this between us. I’m sure Grey and Rook know exactly what you’re doing too, but the others don’t need to know.”
“What? You think I don’t know how to not draw attention?”
That brought a small smirk to his mouth. “You? Draw attention? Never.”
I punched his arm. “Jackass.”
“Wait, Sparrow. One more thing.”
I rolled my eyes. “Come on, Corv, I want to get a look at the other fighter.”
He held my gaze for a few seconds before asking me for the one thing I couldn’t give him. “I don’t want you talking to Diesel.”
“About?” I asked innocently.
“You know exactly what about.”
I shrugged, adopting an innocent expression, batting my lashes. “Sorry, no idea what you’re talking about, Bones.”
“ Ava Jade ,” Corvus called after me, but I was already gone, weaving through the crowd toward the bar, where I knew Rook would be having one of the three ounces of whiskey he was ‘allowed’ before a fight.
I kept a vigilant eye on every face in attendance, easily discerning the Saints from the Kings, and the bloodthirsty rich citizens of NorCal from the gang members.
Soft hands, clean fingernails, unlined faces—definitely the bankers, lawyers, and corrupt high ranking officers.
Unarmed with callused hands and taut jaws—the Kings.
Armed, ready, and wary—our people.
I saw the guy whose eye I took during the hunt trial sneering at me from across the room. I gave him an apologetic shrug, and he looked away as I caught up with Grey and Rook.
“So,” I said, glancing around to the other side of the ring and the drawn curtain set into the wall beyond it. “Where’s the other guy?”
I had to shout to be heard over the din of conversation and music, the smell of whiskey rolling off Rook much stronger than three ounces worth. I didn’t worry about him fighting wasted, but I did worry about the survival of the other guy.
“Not here yet,” he muttered.
I took the shot glass poised between his fingers and slung it back, grimacing as it burned a path down to my stomach.
Rook lifted a brow at me. “Sorry, I needed that.”
He turned to the little bar window cut out, tapping the shot glass on the polished cement bar top to signal he wanted another.
“How much have you had?”
He lifted his replacement to his mouth, but paused to shoot me a dark glare. “Not nearly enough,” he said before slamming it back and I made myself shut up about it.
The guys hadn’t had a call from Julia in weeks, and I was beginning to see just how much Rook needed them to stay sane. His darkness was so close to the surface that in the right light I could almost see it. Surrounding him like an inky aura with claws and teeth. Demanding to be sated.
This fight wasn’t a good idea tonight, but there was nothing I could do to stop it now. Rook would never back down, and I’d never expect him to.
The Kings might’ve been in for more of a show than they bargained for…
I stepped past Rook to slap my palm on the bar, getting the bartender’s attention.
He was a slender guy with a shock of green hair in a black Sanctum t-shirt.
I didn’t think I’d seen him here the last time.
It had been one of the girls from upstairs bartending if I remembered correctly. His nametag read Johnny .
“A water,” I told him. “And a Guinness.”
“Who’s the Guinness for?” Grey asked as the bartender turned to get my order ready.
“Me.”
He looked at me askance, with a knot between his brows.
I took the frothy black gold from the bartender and pushed the water into Rook’s hand. “We were broke a lot,” I found myself telling him. “But Dad always kept a few Guinness stashed away from Mom in the kitchen. It’s filling and the taste isn’t half bad. It grew on me.”
Grey frowned, his brows drawing to cloak his eyes in shadow.
I hadn’t meant to trigger him.
I took a long swallow and passed it to him. “Want some?” I asked with the closest thing to a smile I could muster, trying to erase the sour mood I’d just brought on.
For as often as we didn’t have food, unlike Grey, I didn’t starve. Not much, anyway, and not often. We lived close enough to several stores with poor security, which meant that if it got bad enough, I could pretty easily lift a few Twinkies from the low shelves to keep us fed for a day or two.
I’d had options.
By the sound of it, Grey hadn’t.
Grey took the proffered beer and sipped it, still brooding. And shockingly, Rook was also sipping his water, even though the look on his face told me he thought it tasted more like donkey piss.
I laughed quietly to myself, still gauging our surroundings as Corvus finally made his way over to us, his cold stare passing over the faces in the private club.
“He’s in the back,” Grey told him. “On the phone. Sounds like there might be a problem with Rook’s opponent.”
Corvus nodded.
It would be the first time he’d seen Dies since Monday. The guys had been sent on a few errands and were still getting updates on shit with the Aces and what our game plan was, but as far as I knew they hadn’t spoken.
Grey passed me back my Guinness, and I wrapped both hands around it, gulping down another few mouthfuls to quell the hunger pangs in my stomach.
Rook had been with me at Briar Hall earlier, and we wound up doing some ‘light’ sparring in the living room to get ready for tonight.
Once we were both sweaty, eating was the furthest thing from our minds.
Besides, we had a huge fucking mess to clean up by the time we were done. It was a good thing Becca wasn’t around because I was sure she’d have something to say about the cracked TV screen and the half of the sofa that was now concave, the legs busted off.
I couldn’t even remember how it happened or whose fault it was.
“Whoa,” Grey warned, taking the Guinness back before I could finish it. “Slow down, babe.”
I licked my lips, knowing he was right. Tonight wasn’t the night to get tipsy. I didn’t think we had anything to worry about on our turf, but Diesel could give the order to attack the Aces any time after the deadline was up. And right now, I didn’t think he had a proclivity for patience.
My gaze hooked on a man hovering near the entrance, watching us.
I squinted at him, giving him an annoyed sneer until he looked away, crossing his arms over his chest.
The guys chatted about the fight, but I couldn’t seem to focus on the conversation anymore. Something about the guy was bugging me.
He was pale. Tall. Broad through the shoulders but lean, with brown hair and narrowed blue eyes.
“AJ?” I heard Grey say, realizing it wasn’t the first time.
“Hmm?”
“I was asking if you’d?—”