There was no way in hell I was going to watch her walk away from us a second time. The pit in the bottom of my stomach clenched tight, walling in the darkness growing like an electromagnetic fog there. Like fucking poison.
“Rook?” Grey asked cautiously, sensing the presence of the monster within.
I turned to meet his stare and shook my head.
No.
I wasn’t going to let her go. How could he? How could Corvus?
A muscle twitched above my lip, and I clenched my teeth, shouldering past Diesel.
“Son,” he called after me, but I was done listening. My brothers liked to joke that whatever internal meter that read what was wrong and right in my head was broken, but they were wrong. Maybe it was their meters that were broken, because letting her leave felt like the most wrong thing on the fucking planet.
Sure, she was talking to a cop. Or at least, she’d thought she was, but she didn’t tell him anything. And I knew that she never would’ve. No matter what. Didn’t they know that, too?
Wasn’t it us who backed her into the fucking corner?
This wasn’t something she wanted to do. It was something she felt like she had to do. Probably because of what happened to her father.
It didn’t mean I wasn’t angry with her, of course I was, but I was willing to bet she was ten times more pissed at us.
I rounded the corner of the old pier warehouse and followed her. She was already a solid fifty paces ahead of me, but by the slight tensing of her shoulders, I knew she was fully aware someone was following her.
In fact, I was willing to bet she already pegged it was me.
Just like I could peg any singular sound at the Crow’s Nest as either her or not her. The soft sure sound of her stealth silent footfalls. The way she opened cupboards, whip-quick like she expected to find a monster behind the panes of wood. Her soft sighing sounds in the shower, like she’d never had a proper one before in her life.
Ava Jade paused by where the Rover was parked looking out over the lake, but then continued, leaving it there. Her hands clenched at her sides as she started up the road, but she forced them to unclench, splaying her fingers wide. Forcing herself not to give in to what she was feeling inside.
I knew what that was like. Better than anyone.
“Ghost,” I called to her, but she didn’t stop, forcing me to hustle to catch up with her. She didn’t bother acknowledging me when I slowed to walk alongside her, pushing my dark hair away from my face.
Her face, usually so composed, betrayed a raging hurricane of pent up emotions. Pinched, her eyes hard and jaw muscles working.
I opened my mouth to begin, but something made me pause.
She wasn’t ready.
I swallowed deep and turned my attention back to the winding side road ahead, keeping pace with her. I didn’t say anything, we just walked like that for a time. She didn’t tell me to fuck off, and I was taking that as a good sign, it kept me going.
That and the intermittent glint of sunlight on the black diamond bobbing against her clavicle. She hadn’t taken it off.
The dead thing in my chest squeezed, almost painful. The best kind of pain.
“I should’ve left Thorn Valley when I had the chance.”
Her voice sent a shudder racing down my spine. So hopeless. I never wanted to hear it sound like that again. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”
“Was it really all bullshit?” she asked in a low voice, ignoring my question, biting her lower lip as she stared at the ground disappearing beneath our feet. “Was any of it real?”
“Hey.” I pulled her to a stop, and she let me, her cut glass eyes finding mine for only a fraction of a second before she looked away, disgust twisting her mouth. “I could ask you the same fucking thing. Talking to a cop…?”
“He wasn’t even a fucking cop,” she spat back.
“But you thought he was, didn’t you?”
She growled, tugging away from me but staying stationary. She wanted to have this out just as badly as I did, even if she wouldn’t admit it.
“I don’t get it. I looked him up. Found his address. He’s listed and everything. He’s on the force—”
“All a trick,” I interrupted her. “Dies has done this before. He went by Vick, right?”
Her lips pressed tight.
“It’s how he’s always smoked out rats. There is an Officer Vick who works for Thorn Valley PD. How else could the ruse hold up. All it would take is one call to the station or one online search to find out the name was bogus. The real Vick doesn’t use social media. He’s a total fucking recluse. Barely leaves his big house aside from taking his kid to the park down the street. No photos of him online.”
“The perfect identity.”
I nodded.
Her face darkened, and I could see how deeply this had all cut her. Ghost was someone who didn’t trust easily. Fuck, probably didn’t trust ever. But she’d trusted Becca and her friend had betrayed that trust. Lied to her. Plotted against her…whether she went through with it or not.
And Vick, he wasn’t even a real cop. Damn, I applauded Dies for implanting him so quickly. I had to wonder whose eyes noticed we were getting close to Ava Jade and told him. One of the pledges trying to earn brownie points? The fucking night security guy, Mick? It could’ve been anyone.
But worst of all was the hurt we’d caused. I could see it in the way she wouldn’t hold my stare.
In her own way, she had begun to trust us, and when we didn’t come to her defense against our father. When we didn’t defend Becca and reassure her. When we let her fucking go…
We never should have let her go.
“Did you know about Vick?”
“Hmm?”
“Did you know?” she pressed, and I came back to her from the dark place my mind had wandered.
“No.”
She looked doubtful.
“We didn’t know until about four hours ago when Diesel told us and led us here to listen in during your meeting.”
She waited. Wanting more.
“He was hoping you were going to give us up.”
“So that you would kill me yourselves?”
I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to say it, and frankly, I didn’t need to. She already knew the answer. She didn’t ask the most important question though…
Would we have done it?
I didn’t want to answer that either.
“What’s going to happen to Becca?” she asked instead of the questions we both knew the answers to, and at least this one, I could speak to.
I inclined my head. “Diesel won’t hurt her.”
“Pfft.” She shook her head.
“He won’t, I’ll make sure of it personally.”
“But?” she pressed, not fully satisfied with my response, knowing there was a catch.
I wouldn’t sugar coat it for her. “She’ll need to answer some questions. As long as she cooperates, nothing will happen to her. She can stay here.”
Though something told me Becca Hart was already long gone. Ava Jade would have seen to that.
She nodded, and even though I could see she didn’t believe me, maybe didn’t trust me, she wasn’t going to push it. Cementing my suspicions about Becca already being gone. Maybe that was for the best.
“It wasn’t all lies,” I added after a minute, answering her question from before. “It was all real between us. But you already knew that. I get that it’s easier to think we were all out to get you from the start.”
That struck a nerve, she flinched, and my stomach soured in response.
Yes.
I knew what that was like, too.
Not being able to accept that there were people out there who cared about you. Really cared. Searching for hidden meaning in every word they spoke, in every gesture. Trying to untangle imaginary lies from truths. Looking for ulterior motives always.
“I know what you’re thinking,” I continued and this time she looked at me, searching my eyes to see if I was right. “You’re going to leave.”
The truth was clear in her eyes as she held me there, captive in her burning stare.
“You’re going to disappear. Tell me I’m wrong.”
She couldn’t.
I let out a heavy breath. “Don’t.”
“Why shouldn’t I?”
“Dies…he shouldn’t have done what he did with Becca, but even you have to understand the reason wh—”
“I do!” she countered, her shoulders rising like a cat getting its back up. “I do fucking understand and that’s the problem. I want to hate you. Them. Him.”
She paced back three steps before returning, her chest heaving. “But I can’t. I can’t, and it’s fucking absurd.”
I shrugged. “Then don’t.”
She laughed darkly, shaking her head at the ground.
“We need you, Ghost. I need you. Tell me you’ll consider staying. Please.”
Ava Jade stiffened, her head snapping up, the laugh dying in her throat.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d used that word. Please. It tasted bitter on my tongue, full of hope that only she could smash.
“I…” she started, but didn’t finish, swallowing, her eyes glassy.
“Don’t answer now, just think about it. And…and if you decide to go, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure no one comes after you. But I’m telling you now—”
I stepped in close, sealing off the offensive gap between us to take her face into my hands. “If you leave, that’s it. You can’t come back. Not ever. I can’t do this twice.”
Her lower lip quivered, and on instinct, I pressed my mouth to hers, consuming her fear as if I could steal it from her and carry it as my own.
Her lips, soft and resistant at first, pressed harder against mine as she deepened the kiss, our tongues flicking out against each other. She tasted of salt and copper, and it made my body ignite with a need so strong my blood rushed in my ears, drained from my face to fill my cock as it thickened in my jeans.
She moaned against my mouth, and my fist found the hair at the back of her neck, twisting in and holding her hard against me as her fingers searched for something of mine to hold on to.
My Ghost ground her hips into me, and I shuddered at the contact, wanting this—her—right now, more than anything I’d ever wanted in my life. But she hadn’t chosen us. Not yet.
I yanked her head back with my grip on her hair, breathing heavily as my cock throbbed in my jeans. “If you decide to stay, you know where to find us,” I whispered against her mouth.
Before I could change my mind and strip her naked right there in the middle of the road, I released her and stepped back. Back again. Taking in the long shape of her body, every curve, every blemish on her skin, her face, the face of an avenging angel come to take my soul.
And then I turned and walked away, heading back in the direction I’d come, stuffing my fists deep into the pockets of my jeans.
