Chapter 42 – Ava Jade
AVA JADE
I pulled the blanket tighter around my shoulders, cozying up against Rook on the roof of Sanctum. He tugged the blanket corner, and I opened it for him to slide in next to me, shivering against the chill in the midnight air.
Corvus sat in front of the couch I’d asked them to drag up all three flights of stairs, pulling my calf over his shoulder to run his fingers over the skin there in lazy strokes.
The door behind us opened and I felt Corv jerk forward, his hand reaching behind him for his gun, but it was only Grey returning from the kitchens downstairs. Two black trays piled high with golden-fried goodness, sticky wings, and Corvus’ cobb salad balanced precariously in his hands.
My stomach rumbled loudly as he came to sit next to me on the other end of the couch, setting one of the trays down in my lap. My mouth watered at the feast, and I shivered as the warmth of the bottom of the tray soaked into my legs.
“This is all for me, right?” I joked, popping a fry in my mouth with a little moan.
“You fucking earned it, Ghost,” Rook said with a laugh, fingering his bottle of whiskey from the floor to take a swig before setting it back down, scooping up two fries between his fingers to feed me them one by one.
“Fuck, it’s cold up here. How long till the fireworks?” Corvus said in a low growl, and I dragged the other blanket from the arm of the couch beside Rook and dropped it on his head.
He pulled it off, turning to give me an unimpressed scowl that couldn’t touch the diamonds still shining in his eyes. “I said I’d watch the fireworks so we’re all watching the damn fireworks.”
Grey chuckled. “If Thorn Valley does one thing right, it’s the new years fireworks. I watch them every year.”
“Yeah, and you drag our asses out with you every damn time, too,” Corvus said, throwing the blanket over his lap.
I passed him his salad. “Here, eat something before your hangry ass gets you sent to the doghouse.”
He raised a brow like he’d love to see me try to put him there, and I let out a laugh, something crumpling in my gut. I didn’t know if I’d ever get used to this. Especially now that there was no immediate danger. Nothing to have to do. At least not for a while.
We could just be .
I didn’t know if I knew how to do that, but I was looking forward to giving it a try.
Two taps on the inside of the roof access door had Grey pausing before stuffing an entire cheeseburger into his face.
Diesel poked his head onto the roof. “Everyone decent?”
Decent? He was joking, right? Rook and I shared a conspiratorial look, and I grinned. We were about as far from decent as it got, clothed or not.
He cleared his throat as he came out onto the roof, checking a watch I rarely saw him wear. “Almost time.”
“You joining us?” Rook asked, but Diesel shook his head, and I noticed he was carrying a familiar box in his hands. A thick envelope lay atop it.
“Nah. Just came up to give these to Ava Jade.”
I cocked my head at him, and Rook moved the tray of food as Diesel came around to place the box and envelope in my lap.
“What is this?”
“A gift.”
“Christmas was a week ago.”
I peered at the guys. He hadn’t given them anything, but they did mention he usually just did a big family meal and handed them each a wad of cash. I wondered if he’d slipped them a little something on Christmas when we came down to Sanctum to start our work.
He’d been away since then. Combing Lennox for any rogue Kings.
Spreading the word that the Saints wouldn’t take kindly to anyone breaching their territory, which now stretched to encompass not just Thorn Valley, but Edgewood, and Lennox, too.
It was all Saint land now, and Diesel had to work double time to keep it all in check, hunting for new blood worthy of joining his ranks.
“Just open it,” he chided. “The box first. The envelope is… something else.”
I passed the thick envelope to Grey, trying to get a look at the seal on the front, but he tucked it away under the blanket, giving me a sly wink that told me he might know what was inside of it.
My stomach fluttered as I remembered where I recognized the box from. It was the one I’d put Diesel’s leather jacket in when I’d gifted it to him. But, he was wearing that now, so he wasn’t returning it in some fuck you move. Stupid to even think it.
The guys watched, just as curious as me as I pulled off the lid, which meant they had no idea what their father was giving me, either.
I remembered the last gift I’d gotten from my dad.
My blades. I only had one left now, another lost in the battle at the factory.
The last one stayed at the Nest where it was safe.
The last piece of him I had. At least there was a comfort in knowing now that no matter which King killed him, that person was long dead.
Who knew? Maybe I was the one that ended him.
A ball formed in my throat as I squinted down what looked like a pile of well worn, supple black leather. “What is this?”
I pulled it from the box and watched Diesel’s jaw clench and his eyes harden, betraying some emotion I didn’t understand. It was an old leather jacket. A woman’s. With a shining silver zipper and the Saint emblem over the right breast. “It’s been collecting dust for too long.”
Realization hit me like a sucker punch to the gut and my eyes stung. “Was this…”
“It was Jacqueline’s.”
My throat burned.
“It’s yours now,” he told me, and I made myself look him in the eyes even though mine were welling. He reached out and put a hand on my shoulder like he often did his sons, squeezing gently. “Welcome to the family, Ava Jade. I’m so glad my sons found you.”
I coughed to cover a sob, swallowing hard as Diesel retracted his hand.
“Help me up?” I croaked and stuck out my hand. Diesel took it, lifting me from the warmth of the couch onto my feet. I sniffed, no longer feeling the cold in the air as I pushed my arms through the sleeves of the jacket.
“Fits you like a glove,” Diesel said, his voice tight. “I thought it might.”
“I can’t accept this,” I said, even though I was already hugging it, feeling a warmth bloom in my belly where not so long ago there had only been ice.
“You can and you will,” Diesel said with a note of finality, holding a hand out to Grey. “Hand me that envelope, Son.”
Grey passed it over, and Diesel lifted the top, tugging out three identical form-like sheets. He passed one to each of the boys.
I looked over Rook’s shoulder, and my lips parted on a silent intake of my breath as the paper crumpled in his hard grasp. They were name change forms.
“If you boys still want the St. Crow name, it’s yours. I’ve already signed the forms.”
Grey dropped his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. I settled back on the couch next to him, feeling him shudder as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, tears pricking my eyes anew.
He pushed to his feet, slipping out of my grasp to give Diesel a rough embrace. “Thanks, Dad.”
“Of course, Son. Of course.”
“What happened to waiting until graduation?” Corvus asked, unable to conceal the traces of emotion leaking through in his voice.
Grey pulled away, falling back into his seat next to me, staring down at the piece of paper between his hands.
“Well, I still expect you to,” Diesel replied.
I barked a laugh. “I seriously doubt that’ll be happening this year.”
A smug smile spread on Diesel’s mouth. “I’ve taken care of it. You’ll all pass your classes from last term with whatever grade you had when shit hit the fan. So I’d get some sleep over the next couple days,” he said pointedly. “Classes start again Tuesday. Bright and fucking early.”
Diesel turned to leave, but Corvus stopped him, grabbing his good leg from where he sat on the floor, an elbow propped up on his knee as he looked over the form. “Thank you.”
Diesel nodded at his son, pausing to fix me with a cheeky smirk. “Ava Jade, there’s a little something else in that envelope that might interest you.”
He left without another word, and Grey set the still heavy envelope in my lap. Corvus turned around and Rook and Grey folded away their forms, tucking them into their jacket pockets.
“Should I be worried?” I asked, trying to figure out why they were looking at me like they were.
Corvus shook his head. “Just open it, Sparrow.”
I did, finding a hefty stack of pages with a legal seal glinting gold in the low lighting on the roof.
“What is this?”
I flipped through a few pages, finding my aunt’s name typed in several places along with mine… and some very large numbers.
“No,” I said to myself, shaking my head. “She wouldn’t have left me anything.”
“She didn’t have to,” Rook crooned, flipping the page for me, pointing to a line that said something about her estate passing to her last remaining blood relative. Her niece. A Miss Ava Jade Mason. “Under state law, you get everything.”
A tingle ran down my legs, and I inhaled a rickety breath.
“So I’m…” I trailed off, my mouth going dry.
“Rich as fuck,” Grey finished for me, smiling wide.
No. Fucking. Way.
My gut reaction was to refuse it. I didn’t want her fucking money. But we could use it. The gang could use it. To rebuild. To become even stronger than they ever were before. So nothing could ever hurt them—hurt us —again.
I found myself smiling.
“Happy New Year,” Corvus said, leaning in to press a kiss to my stunned lips. Rook roped me in with an arm, crushing me to him as he planted a kiss in my hair and Grey took my hand under the covers.
“Happy New Year,” they echoed.
“Oh shit!” I cursed, stuffing the papers back into the envelope to dig around the cushions for my phone. “I was supposed to call Becks when it was done.”
“Here,” Grey said, passing me my phone.
I pecked him on the cheek and got up off the couch, wandering to the edge of the roof as I tapped the new phone number she’d texted me sometime in the last week while we were busy in the basement.
I stared out over Thorn Valley as it rang, hugging the leather jacket tiger around me as the wind whipped my short hair away from my face.
“Aves?” she answered, her tone apprehensive. “Fuck, girl, it’s been a week. I thought?—”
“It’s done,” I told her. “He’s gone.”
I heard her reedy exhale blow down the line.
“Did you make it hurt?” she asked after a second, surprising me.
I nodded as though she could see me. “I don’t think anyone’s suffered more.”
She hesitated a second before saying, “Good.”
Vaguely, I heard music playing in the background of the call and remembered where she was. “How was dinner? Did he take it okay?”
Even though I’d been more than a little preoccupied this week, I did read the message she sent me this morning.
About how she’d decided to go against her father’s wishes and take the space at CalArts.
I was so fucking proud of her. Life was too damned short.
I just wished she didn’t have to learn that the hard way.
“Let’s just say I won’t be wearing Louboutin anytime in the immediate future.” She tried to laugh it off, but I could hear the stress in her voice, and I immediately wanted to go climb into the Rover, drive my ass down there, knock some sense into her father.
“What do you mean?”
“He freaked out,” she said. “We had a huge fight. He told me if I go to CalArts instead of MIT I’m cut off.”
“So, you aren’t going?”
“Fuck yes, I’m going. I told him to shove it. I’m actually packing my shit right now. Going back to Briar Hall. I figure I have until spring to figure my shit out. Get a job .”
I could practically hear the distaste in her tone.
“I can help you with money?—”
“Nope. I’m going to do this myself, Aves. I just… I feel like I have to, you know? And I can do it. I know I can.”
I smiled.
“Damn right, babe. I’m so happy for you.”
“You’re coming back to the academy tomorrow, right? Say you’ll be my roomie until I have to leave? And that we’ll stay in touch even while I’m all the way down in SoCal? You’ll visit, right?”
I could hear the note of panic in her voice and laughed. “I’ll be there, I’ll be there,” I assured her. “Whenever you need me.”
A pop and fizzle sounded behind me, and I whirled to watch a firework splatter the night sky in shades of pink and green.
“They’re starting!” Grey hollered.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow,” Becca echoed. “Love you, girl.”
“Love you, too.”
I hung up and raced back to the couch, knocking into Rook and Grey, making them snort and whine as I made a space between them, Corvus reaching his arm up to rest it on my thigh as the show started in earnest.
The sky burned bright above, painting colored light over their faces. I watched them watch the fireworks, letting their warmth sink into me. Letting it chase all the ice away until there was none left, and I knew this was it.
Rook was right. Family really was who you chose, not who you were born to. And this? This was mine.
Skip ahead for a preview from Kings of Kilborn University ! The complete companion duet to the Boys of Briar Hall series. Don’t miss it!