Chapter 5 – Rook #2
Maverick glanced at his men at the table once again before nodding to Diesel.
“I’d gladly give him up to you for your questioning,” Maverick said, sighing even though his body only grew more tense.
“But we haven’t seen Aries in a few days.
We thought he might’ve been spooked knowing it was going to come to a firefight with the Aces.
I told my men it would be all hands on deck for the fight.
Even his sorry ass. The kid’s better with corpses than he is with the living. ”
Diesel visibly tensed. He wasn’t all right with this answer.
“I don’t give a fuck where he is. He’s your man, and I want him. Find him and bring him here, or I’ll be forced to reconsider our position.”
Mav bit the inside of his cheek.
If he wanted to keep his fucking head, he should be saying yes fucking sir , right now.
“I think I can find him, Mav,” Drake said from down the table. “I know where he likes to hang out. Let me take a couple guys. We should be able to get a hold of him pretty quick.”
Mav nodded, visibly relieved. “Will that satisfy?” he asked Diesel.
“For now,” Diesel deadpanned, and I stubbed out my cigarette, glad to be done with this bullshit.
The thunder of steps rushing down the stairs from the street entrance interrupted the tepid silence and as one, Saint and King alike stood, guns out.
All except for my ass.
It was Corv.
Obviously.
But that didn’t mean I didn’t also hear the urgency in his hurried steps. Or that it didn’t coil something tightly in my gut, souring the meager snack I’d just managed to choke down.
My fist clenched beneath the table as he burst into the room, the door banging like a gunshot against the opposite wall as he stormed through. His eyes laser focused as they found Diesel. Us next to him.
“A word ,” Corvus snarled, his face a battlefield of barely contained rage. I’d never seen him this wound up. He didn’t let anyone see him like this. Control was his mountain, and he never gave up the climb.
“Thought you were too busy to join us, Son,” Diesel said smoothly, thumbing the safety back on his gun before tucking it away. The Kings opposite us sat, all except Drake, who looked like he was ready to go to war if only Corvus would give the order.
Maybe we’d keep him once this alliance came to its inevitable end.
“ Diesel ,” Corvus all but yelled, his teeth bared.
“Excuse me for just a moment, would you, gentlemen?” Diesel said, giving Corvus a warning look as he caught my ass when I tried to stand and dragged my arm over his shoulder.
Corvus stalked through the club to a barrage of whispers from our guests, not stopping until we were all through to the back room where our guys counted the cash from fight nights.
Grey closed the door behind us all once we were inside.
“Interrupting a sanctioned meeting, Corv—” Dies began but Corvus laid a glare on him so heavy it made our adopted father stop whatever he was about to say.
“What happened?” he demanded instead. “Are you hurt? Where’s the girl?”
Corvus paced the small space, throwing a fist through his hair. His face all sharp angles. “She’s fine,” he said. “She’s upstairs.”
“Then what the fuck—” I started but Corvus continued, talking over me.
“We found Julia,” he said, a hollow laugh on his lips. “Dead. Dead for fucking weeks.”
“She answered the phones, right? She had to know there would be risks with that job.”
The dark parts of me flickered within, aching for retribution for the taking of a life that was ours to protect.
“How?” I demanded.
“She died badly.”
Then so would the person who did it.
But that didn’t explain why Corv was so riled up. He didn’t give a fuck about anyone outside this room save for Ava Jade. Not really. Not in any way that would get him this fired up.
“That’s not the worst part, is it?” Grey asked, catching on only a second after I did.
Corv stopped pacing, his head bent as he shook it, still trying to regain control. “It was him,” he said, his voice so low I wondered if I heard him right.
“What?” Diesel pressed. “Who?”
“He left his fucking signature,” Corv replied. “ No more carrion for the Crows ,” he added with another dark laugh. Signed Crow Killer .”
Fire. Liquid fire raced through my veins, and I ached to spread it. Spread it so vastly that everything would burn. Every tree. Every car. Every motherfucking building. Leaving him no place to hide from me.
“Wait, this was the stalker?” Diesel asked, his gaze jerking back and forth, not really seeing anything as he thought it through.
I stood, unable to sit anymore as the animal inside awoke, on the prowl.
“Rook, sit the fuck down,” Diesel said, reaching for me, but I smacked his hand away.
“ Don’t ,” I warned at the same time Corvus growled, “ Leave him. ”
“ AJ ,” Grey’s soft whisper somehow managed to cut through all the shouting and my eldest brother and I froze in place.
I met Grey’s eye, and it was like all the breath was snatched from my lungs.
My Ghost.
What if…
“We need to find her,” Grey said in a rush. “We need to find her now .”
“Hold up, now,” Diesel started. “This doesn’t mean anything. You said yourself this happened weeks ago.”
“I don’t give a fuck what I said,” Corvus replied. “Grey is right. We can’t wait any more. Fuck! We shouldn’t have waited at all.”
Diesel thought through the problem, his one worry showing through the careful mask he always wore. “All right. We bring this to the table. Get the guys on it. All of them. Yeah?”
I didn’t like the idea of bringing the Kings into this, but it made sense to get as much help as we could. The more people looking, the faster we would be likely to find her.
Even if the dark beast within whispered that we didn’t need any help. That we would be the one to find her. To eviscerate this filth so slowly that he would be pushed to madness before he would finally die.
“Yeah,” Grey agreed.
“Yeah,” Corvus put in.
Diesel waited for my word. I gave him a nod.
“I’ll go with Drake,” Grey offered. “He was going to put together a small team to try to find Aries. That’s who AJ thought it was. It’s as good a place as any to start looking.”
“Fine,” Corv said. “Then Rook and I will lead two other teams.”
“Rook can’t lead anyone right now,” Diesel said. “I can?—”
“The fuck I can’t,” I barked. “Corv will lead a team to search all the locations she could be. I’ll lead a patrol team. You drive, I’ll ride shotty. I want at least five cars on the streets until she’s found. We’ll connect with the radios. Divide into wards for patrol.”
Diesel’s mouth tightened, but he nodded. “All right. That’ll work.” He sighed. “So much for fucking resting, huh boys?”
“Rest is for the weak,” Grey said.
“I’ll rest when I’m dead,” I added.
Corvus chewed his bottom lip, lifting his icy eyes to ours. “I’ll rest when our girl is home and not a fucking second sooner.”
We all moved to leave, the pain in my leg seeming to have leveled out to a static hum of discomfort after the crescendo of pain earlier. Good. I’d need to be able to walk. To run.
To fucking chase if I needed to.
“Ugh, fuck, wait,” Corv said, making us pause. “What about Rebecca?”
“What about her?” I asked.
“The fuck do we do with her if everyone’s out looking for Sparrow?”
She’d want to come, but judging by the look on Diesel’s face he wasn’t keen to involve her any more than we already had. We didn’t need to tango with Mr. Hart if anything happened to his precious daughter.
Although… I’d never sampled the fear of a blue blood.
“She can stay here for now if she wishes,” Diesel said finally. “But our protection ends there. She doesn’t need it anymore. The Aces are dead and with them her boyfriend. If she’s ready, send her home.”
“Who’s going to tell her?” Corvus asked, at his limit for patience.
Grey sighed behind me. “I’ll do it.”
I slapped a hand on his shoulder. He really was the best of us. In more ways than one.