I pressed the ice pack to AJ’s thigh, and she sucked a breath in through her teeth, snatching my forearm to squeeze tightly.
“Shit, does it hurt that bad?” I asked, pulling back, but she pressed the ice harder into her skin, her hot hand pushing down on the top of mine.
“Just fucking cold,” she said, the words whistled through clenched teeth.
I knelt, holding the ice there for her, trying to get a better look at her face.
Alpha got a few good shots in, but she looked like she’d get away without too much facial damage. The blow to her brow made it swell to cave-man proportions, but she was holding a smaller ice pack there, and I was sure the swelling would go down before the night was through. At least her eyes weren’t swollen shut.
The purple tint blooming on her jaw would hurt for a while, though. As though she knew what I was thinking, she opened her mouth to move her jaw in a slow circle, feeling out the injury.
“Anything that needs medical—”
She shook her head before I could finish.
“I’m fine, Grey. I’ve had worse.”
I didn’t doubt it, but I hated to imagine it. I hated seeing her hurt like this and the idea that she had ever been hurt worse than this made my stomach turn. Made my thoughts tint red as though my brain was soaking in poison.
Rook wasn’t the only one who’d wanted to hop those fucking bars and rip Alpha’s head off. I’d have done it happily if I didn’t think it would piss Ava Jade off to the point where she wanted to rip my head off. If any of us had interrupted the match she would have taken it to mean that we thought she couldn’t handle it.
She wouldn’t have liked that.
I mean, fuck, she’d given Rook a damn good clock to the jaw for trying to haul her off Alpha, but I had a feeling that was done more blindly than anything.
The curtain flapped behind us, and Corvus and Rook stepped back into the private area. The party still raged outside on the main floor, the Kings mingling with the Saints just like Diesel wanted. The lawyers and bankers spending more money on drinks and games of cards at the tables in the other room.
Diesel hadn’t opened that room in a while. We must have really needed the extra coin right now. Nothing worse than dealing with drunk gambling addicts who’ve just lost all their fucking money. Not worth the trouble, he used to say. Apparently, he’d changed his mind.
“How is she?” Corvus asked me.
“I’m fine,” AJ answered before I could, and my stomach twisted. As much as I tried to forget it, I couldn’t help the guilt still gnawing at me.
It was my fault Corvus’ cover was blown.
But I couldn’t do what that fucker wanted. I wouldn’t trade AJ’s life for my brother’s secret and he knew it. He just wanted to fucking toy with me. I’d tried every night for days to trace those messages, but I was still coming up empty handed. The only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that all it would take was one slip and I would have his dead ass in the palm of my hand.
There was no reason to tell the guys about the text messages if I didn’t have anything useful to offer. They were nothing but this guy trying to tear us apart from the inside.
Rook would have done the same.
Corvus would’ve done the same.
No matter how many times I told myself, it didn’t ease the hollowness picking away at my insides.
“Here,” Rook said, flopping down beside AJ on the bench with a glass of whiskey. “Have some, it’ll take the edge off.”
She eyed the whiskey like she might turn it down, but when Rook pushed it at her a second time, she took it, knocking it back in one swallow then grimacing and shaking her head.
Rook rubbed circles on her back. “There you go, Ghost. Better?”
She nodded.
He was going to turn her into a fucking alcoholic. We were going to need to talk about that.
Corvus scrutinized Ava Jade from where he stood, his light eyes roving over every mark, every scratch, every bruise, and getting darker with each one he found. “Dies wants to talk to us about—”
“Boys,” Diesel said at that moment as he stepped through the curtain, counting through a massive stack of bills, pausing to lick his fingertips as he speedily walked his fingers through them, double checking his winnings.
“You bet on me,” Ava Jade said, not a question, but it was clear she was surprised.
“You really think I’d bet against one of my own?”
AJ flinched at that but said nothing, her cut-glass eyes falling to cut the cement floor instead of our father.
Diesel pocketed the bills, and I moved the ice pack to Ava Jade’s other thigh.
“Don’t tell me you boys didn’t bet on your girl?”
“’Course we did,” Corvus said, patting his breast pocket. A tiny smirk tugged at the edge of AJ’s mouth.
Diesel nodded and drew out his phone, the skin between his brows creasing. He turned the phone to us, displaying the time. “Time’s officially up for the Aces,” he said, digging in his front jacket pocket for a cigar. He patted his jeans pockets, frowning.
“Dies,” Rook said and flipped him a lighter.
Dies caught it, a little off balance from his injury, and lit the cigar, blowing a cloud of sweet smelling gray smoke into the room.
“What’s the plan?” Corvus asked.
“We’ll meet at the warehouse to go over the plan. I’m going to need some time to round up the others and our new friends. You boys go ahead and open ’er up, but watch your asses. I’ll be sending Axel, Pinkie, and Crowley right after you in case you run into trouble.”
We all nodded and Diesel set his sights on Ava Jade. “Good fight,” he said. “Wish it could’ve gone to a third round, but… I’m impressed.”
She squinted at him, maybe trying to judge if he were fucking with her. He wasn’t, but she needed to figure that out for herself. Our father gave credit where it was due. Usually.
Diesel’s gaze snagged on Corvus before he spun to leave. He lifted a hand in the air making a circular motion. “Get a move on, boys, I want the Aces folded by this time tomorrow.”
Ava Jade sighed.
“We can take you back to the nest on the way,” I offered. “You should rest.”
Her face scrunched up at that and she looked at me like I had shit on my fucking face. “Fuck no. Your pops would love that.”
“It doesn’t matter what he thinks,” Corvus said, and I wished he would take his own advice.
But despite our protests AJ was still shaking her head. “I’m fine,” she all but growled. “I’m coming with you.”
She pushed my hands away and dropped the ice pack from her head to the bench, pushing to her feet to grab the clothes she came in, pulling them on right over top of her sweat-dampened shorts and sports bra. Her fingers fumbled to buckle on her knife belt and attach it to the garter on her thigh.
I put a hand atop hers, and though she stared daggers at me, she let me finish buckling it up for her, shivering when I brushed my fingertips up her thigh. I grinned at her, and she looked knowingly down at me.
“You are a fucking queen, you know that, right?” I found myself saying, wrapping my hands around her waist as I stood.
“About time you noticed,” she said, her voice laced with heavy sarcasm.
I pushed her hair away from her face and bent my head down to kiss the top of hers, smelling her cheap shampoo. I’d come to love that smell.
Corvus cleared his throat, and I pulled away.
“We should get moving,” Corv said. “We’re the only ones with the code to get in, and if Pinkie and the others get there before us they’re going to be pissed it isn’t open yet.”
Ava Jade nodded, doing her best to hide a slight limp as she walked up to Corvus and he fell into step beside her, an arm reflexively going up behind her, palm hovering protectively over her lower back without actually touching her.
“There you are,” the guy from earlier, Drake, said, lifting his glass to Ava Jade. “Nicely done up there.”
She tipped her head in thanks. I didn’t like the way she smiled at him.
“Back up, man,” I barked. “We have places to be.”
Drake lifted his hands, backing up a step. “Sorry, man. Just wanted to congratulate the winner. Glad I put my money on you, Ava Jade.”
Over his shoulder, I noticed the other guy, the one Ava Jade said gave her the creeps. The fucker who matched the description Becca gave of her booty-call boyfriend. He, too, seemed to have bet on Ava Jade and was lifting a stack of bills from an envelope with a wicked grin on his mouth.
His head jerked up, sensing my eyes on him, and he stuffed the money back in the envelope, flashing me a set of perfect teeth before turning away to head in the direction of the bar.
I boxed Ava Jade in on her other side and Rook trailed behind us, growling at anyone else who looked like they might interrupt our procession out of the club.
AJ’s knuckles turned white as she gripped the railing, hauling herself up the stairs and out of the noise and heat of the club. When the door opened, she couldn’t get through it fast enough, tipping her head up to breathe in deeply through her nose, staring up at the waning moon.
My ears rang in the sudden quiet, and I flipped up the collar of my jacket at the chill in the air. “You guys want to wait here? I’ll bring the Rover around.”
I didn’t want her to have to walk all the way around the lot if she didn’t have to.
Rook lit up a cigarette, nodding.
“Stop,” Ava Jade said and something in her tone made my skin prickle.
She stared up at the building across the street, tipping her head to one side. I followed her line of sight and cursed.
“Get the fuck down!” Corvus roared, slamming his body into Ava Jade’s, sending her down to the pavement just as the echo of the shot broke the sound barrier and the round embedded itself in the wall behind them.
My gun was out in an instant and Rook roared as a gang of men rounded the building and rushed us.
He sped straight ahead, zigzagging as the ten men fired at him, taking a bullet to his leg before he drew his own guns, firing wildly.
“Get her out of here!” I shouted at Corv who was hauling AJ to her feet.
I aimed and fired, hitting an Ace square in the chest before he could get another shot on Rook. The fucker crumpled to the pavement as Rook danced through the rest of them, a beast set loose on a herd of sheep.
“Fuck that,” Ava Jade said, gasping as Rook was hit again. Corvus didn’t try to stop her as she sprinted forward, following her instead, already firing.
The glint of the sniper’s rifle above reflected in the moonlight, and I took off after them, making an uneven path.
“Don’t stay still,” I hissed at them as the first of the Aces turned their attention away from my brother and toward us. Big fucking mistake.
Rook grabbed the Ace by the head and twisted, the crack of snapping bone resounding in the street.
Headlights flashed over us before jarring to a stop, turning around to flee the scene.
The Ace directly in front of me lifted his gun to aim at my face, and I sped the final step, knocking it from his hand. But before I could fire a shot of my own, the whisper of steel cutting through wind filtered into my ears.
He went down with a silver pommel embedded in his neck.
Ava Jade’s hard eyes found mine, and I nodded. “Keep moving!”
She nodded back, going to Rook as three more Aces began to surround him. She pressed her back to his and threw another knife. The gurgling cry of a dying Ace echoed through the night, telling me her aim was true.
Rook dropped his mag and refilled it, hooking an arm around AJ’s waist to bring her to the ground as someone shot at her. As they both rose, blades and bullets flew. I rushed up and kicked one Ace in the back of his knee, sending him to the ground before pumping two bullets into his skull.
The screech of tires cut through the sounds of fighting and gunfire and my pulse picked up, doubling its tempo as I whirled to see the white van. To see its door opening and the men pouring out. Armed with a lot more than fucking handguns. An icy cold slunk down my spine.
Fuck.
The Aces never planned to go quietly. And they never planned to try to weather the storm. They were out for blood. Live or die. I should’ve fucking known. We should’ve known. Lenny Ace was nothing like his uncle was. He had no honor.
“Three o’clock!” I shouted, already firing, rolling to dodge a few stray shots.
“The alley!” Corvus bellowed. “Rook! Sparrow! Move!”
Rook finished off the last Ace in front of him and grabbed Ava Jade, dragging her to the alley. She fought against his hold, fingers reaching to jerk one of her blades out of the body of a man at their feet. The only blade she had. The rest, she’d already thrown.
No. Bad idea. The alley would provide cover from the sniper, but it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Heat seared into my side, and I hissed, shouting as the realization that I’d been shot made the pain intensify.
“Grey!” Corvus was yelling, and I sensed Rook and Ava Jade had stopped.
A hail of gunfire sounded before I could move, and my eyes widened as I realized I was directly in its path, distracted.
A body knocked into mine and the pop! pop! of Corvus’ shots rang in my ears as he laid down cover fire, hauling me away. Grunting as a bullet grazed past his face, brilliant red streaming down to his chin.
The others had to be on their way out.
There was no way they couldn’t hear this. Right?
Even underground, with music pumping, Diesel would hear the pop of gunfire in the street outside, wouldn’t he?
And the camera, it would’ve picked up something. But was someone manning the cams right now?
God fucking damnit.
Corvus shoved me into the alley with Rook and AJ, and I stumbled back, hand clutching the gushing wound to my side.
“Fuck, Grey!” AJ was shouting, rushing to me, tearing my jacket back to see the blood seeping through my fingers.
“He’s hit!”
“We all are,” Corvus growled, hesitating in the mouth of the alley. His gaze flicked to Rook behind me, fixing him with a dark stare. “Get them out of here,” he muttered before turning back and running from the alley, drawing gunfire and the pounding of heavy booted feet after him.
“Corvus!” Ava Jade hollered, still clutching me. “He’s going to get himself killed.”
Her voice wobbled, and I didn’t dare look, couldn’t bear to see the pain I knew I would find in her eyes because she was right. And Corvus knew it.
“Fuck that,” Rook said, switching out his mag to the last one he had on him.
I did the same, extricating myself from Ava Jade, removing my hand from the seeping wound to my side. Getting up.
It didn’t seem to have hit anything important, and judging by the wetness leaking down my right ass cheek, the bullet had gone through and through. Blood loss would be my only issue. I’d survived worse.
“Stay here,” I tried, grabbing AJ by her wrist, knowing it was useless. “Find someplace to hide and call Diesel.”
She squinted at me, shaking her head once, slowly.
“Fuck, AJ.”
“Move.” Rook pushed between us, jogging out the mouth of the alley as the booted footsteps approached. It was too late now.
“You need to get a gun,” I told her, my voice hard. I lifted her hand to my mouth and kissed it, feeling the tacky wetness of blood smearing over my mouth.
She nodded, glancing down at her last blade clutched tightly in her fist. “We need to go.”
Outside, Rook roared as he engaged the half of them that didn’t take off after Corvus.
My brother needed me.
I let AJ’s hand go and swallowed, holding my breath against the pain as I raced from the alley.
I barely managed to dodge the hard side of a pistol as an Ace whipped it at my face, coming around the corner faster than a Mack truck. I fell to my ass to avoid the hit, and AJ sank her blade into the fucker’s jugular, not stopping at a single stab, but going at it three, four, five times before she was satisfied, reaching down to help haul me back to my feet just in time for me to shoot the next one and for her to throw her blade into the chest of the last one coming for us.
I nodded to her, and she nodded back, but something over my shoulder caught her attention, and her face went whiter than the ghost Rook named her for.
My guts twisted.
Corvus coughed, a sound of gruff pain, and I turned to find him ten feet from the entrance to the club, surrounded in Aces as they took turns stomping on him. Their heavy booted feet kicked and pushed down, making him jerk and cough, blood coating his lips.
I shot wildly, rushing past Rook, who’d disarmed the three remaining Aces near the alley and was going at them with vicious fists.
I felt AJ on my heels, but we weren’t going to make it there in time.
An Ace, one I recognized from the meet at the warehouse drew his gun and aimed it low, directly at my brother’s head.
I fired, but the gun clicked uselessly against my hand, out of bullets. I tossed it, and a fear unlike anything I’d ever felt before gripped my heart in a vise. No. No, no, no.
The door to the underbelly of Sanctum opened and a body stumbled through, grinning, his easy expression morphing the instant he saw the scene before him. Drake lifted his gun from the back of his waistband and fired.
The head of the man who’d been about to shoot my brother kicked back, and he crumpled to the ground. Ava Jade launched herself onto the back of the Ace next to him, and he cried out as she sank her teeth into his neck.
I nicked the gun from the one next to him and took aim, firing one shot after another, my bullets blasting from the barrel in perfect time with Drake’s as the Aces in the circle around my brother went down one by one, taken by surprise.
Drake refilled his mag just as the door behind him smashed against the cement wall outside and Diesel came swiftly out, the others on his heels.
He wasted no time raising his gun, firing two rounds to finish off the two still doing a death dance with Rook.
I heard his outcry of rage at his prey having been taken from him, but he’d get over it.
“Sniper!” I warned. “Twelve o’clock”
Axel darted ahead to check it out, but it seemed the sniper had fled. There was no glint of metal barrel on the roof opposite us anymore.
“What the fuck is going on out here?” Diesel demanded, his face a mosaic of rage as he came to us, stooping to help a coughing Corvus from the asphalt.
“Fan out,” he bellowed to the Saints at his back. “Clean this mess up. Bring me any still breathing.”
“Son,” he said, giving Corvus a slight shake. He gripped Corvus by the face, forcing his eldest son to look at him. “Look at me.”
Corvus’ blinked, coming back to himself with a grimace. He jerked out of Diesel’s hard grip to spit blood onto the ground.
“Hey,” Diesel said, slapping his cheek. “Look at me.”
Diesel checked his eyes before judging the rest of him. “Are you hit?”
He lifted the hem of Corvus’ t-shirt, checking for injury, his gaze snagging on me. On the dark red staining the front of my jeans. “Christ, Grey,” he cursed, releasing Corvus to push my jacket out of the way and assess my wound.
“The fuck did you do that for?” Rook growled as he stalked closer. “I had it.”
But when he saw Dies’ face and Corvus’ distant gaze and beaten body, he stopped talking, his gaze fixing on Ava Jade instead, assessing her.
“Good, Bro?” Rook asked, slapping Corvus on the back, making him cough again.
“Yeah,” Corvus said, his voice garbled as he tugged away from Ava Jade’s helping hands, standing on his own. “Good.”
“Get me a fucking kit,” Diesel hissed at no one in particular, pushing hard against the wound to my side, making air rush in through my clenched teeth.
“Fuck.”
“Rook, get over here,” Diesel demanded, and Rook came around. “Hold this.”
Rook knelt in front of me and pushed the wadded up fabric against my wound as Diesel accepted a first aid kit from Pinkie and used his teeth to tear open a plastic bag. I bit down as he knocked Rook’s hand out of the way and began packing the wound with clotting powder. Once he was finished, he looked up at me. “Good?”
I nodded. “Good.”
Rook stood, and Diesel cursed. “Rook.” He seethed, limping to grip the back of Rook’s jacket and tear it clean from his back. Two bullet wounds, one to his thigh and another to the dangerous area between his neck and shoulder seeped steadily. “Were you just not going to fucking say anything?”
“I’m good.”
“Like fuck,” Diesel said, muttering curses to himself as he grabbed more clotting powder, stuffing it into Rook’s wounds angrily.
“And you?” he asked, turning to Ava Jade with another bag of powder clutched between his fingers. “Are you hit?”
Ava Jade shook her head.
“I could use some of that,” came a voice from behind us. Drake struggled over, clutching his biceps, his gun dangling uselessly from his fingers. “If you don’t mind.”
Diesel tossed him the baggy, and he caught it, dropping to a knee to pack his own wound.
I went to him, wincing as I reached out a hand to help him up when he was finished. He stood, tossing his light hair away from his eyes. I shook his hand. “Thank you,” I said earnestly, catching sight of another shadow behind Drake. Someone peeking out from behind the building on the next street up. Not fighting, just watching. Something about his posture, his shape, and height seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
“Axel,” I shouted, since he was the nearest. I pointed and the shadow vanished. “There, one of those fuckers is hiding ’round the building.”
Drake took his hand from mine and air expelled in a gush from his lips as Ava Jade pulled him into a hard hug.
His hands hovered over her back awkwardly, like he wasn’t sure whether he should hug her back. Right now, I wouldn’t kill him for it. We owed him.
But before he could decide, AJ pulled away. “Thank you,” she said on a breath. “We owe you.”
Drake shook his head, a sad smile on his lips. “Nah,” he said. “You’re good, angel.”
AJ sighed, reaching out to twine her fingers with mine, unbothered that both of our hands were covered in blood.
“Got one,” someone shouted, leading an only mildly injured Ace out from the alley by his hair. Likely the sniper, trying to escape unnoticed.
Diesel took the motherfucker from Axel and threw him to the asphalt just as the rest of the people from inside of Sanctum’s underground began to pour out. The Kings looked on the carnage with a sort of awed surprise. The lawyers and bankers turned varying shades of green and red and white, but none could bring themselves to look away or leave.
This was what they came here for, after all. They wanted to see blood. Now, they could see what real death looked like. It wasn’t pretty. There wasn’t just blood staining these streets. Most men pissed themselves when they died and the smell of urine was just as strong in the air as the scents of blood and lead.
“Where’s Lenny?” Diesel asked, cocking his engraved Desert Eagle to press against the Ace’s temple.
The skinny fucker cringed away, but managed to keep from soiling himself.
“My father asked you a question,” Corvus growled, accepting a bottle of water from Pinkie to sip.
“Not here,” the guy said. “He only sent us. Said that it would be easy. That you’d all be here and we should pick you off as you exited.”
“Coward.”
“Where is Lenny now?” Diesel asked. “Where is the rest of your crew?”
The Ace lifted his hands higher, his fingers shaking like leaves in the wind. “I-I don’t know. I s-s-swear, man. They s-sent us and said they’d be right behind us.”
“You wouldn’t lie to me…” Diesel trailed off.
“N-no. No, man, p-please. I have family. I have a brother and—”
Diesel clocked him on the back of the head, just enough to stun him. “Shut the fuck up.”
The guy began to cry, and Diesel dragged him to his feet, hauling him by the back of his shirt toward Corvus. “Apologize,” Diesel demanded, and I recognized the manic gleam in his eyes. Diesel St. Crow rarely lost his control, but he liked to toe the line, and right now, he was fucking dancing on it.
“You fucking heard me, asshole!” Diesel shouted, shaking the Ace.
“S-sorry,” he choked out.
“Sorry, what?” Diesel prodded, and Corvus lifted his chin, waiting.
The Ace lifted his head to look Corvus in the eyes. “I-I’m sorry we tried to k-kill you.”
Diesel dragged him two feet to his left, placing him in front of me. “Apologize.”
My nose wrinkled at the smell of fresh urine, and I stepped back a step to avoid the growing puddle beneath the Ace’s feet.
“I-I’m so sorry,” the Ace said to me, his snot running down to his chin.
Diesel shoved the Ace away, making him fall to his knees in his own urine in front of Ava Jade and Rook.
“You aren’t finished,” Diesel roared, bending to grab a fistful of his hair to stop his whimpering, forcing him to look up at Rook and Ava Jade. Rook grinned down at him. AJ looked like she might carve his face into a jack-o-lantern and put it on her front porch.
“I’m sorry,” he cried. “I’m so, so, so sorry. Please. Please.”
Diesel let him go, and he slumped forward, fists against the pavement, shaking.
“Satisfied?” Diesel asked Corvus.
Corvus’ upper lip curled. “No.”
“Grey?” Diesel asked.
“Not in the slightest.”
“And you?” he asked Ava Jade.
She shook her head mutely.
“Rook? You satisfied?”
“Not yet,” Rook said with a wicked gleam in his eyes.
Diesel’s cheekbones flared, he nodded once, lifted his gun again and emptied the clip into the Ace’s skull to a riot of screams from the fine citizens of Thorn Valley watching at his back.
