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“It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done.”
“AJ...”
“Just stop, okay?” I stopped dead on the trail, forcing him to stop with me. “I don’t care if you’re sorry. Sorry doesn’t fucking help me.”
A muscle in his temple twitched and the sky above us rumbled, accentuating my anger. Beneath the shade of the trees, I hadn’t noticed how the sky had begun to darken. Storm clouds rolled overhead, casting Thorn Valley in a mottled darkness.
“Besides,” I continued, sighing, my runner’s high officially dead now. “I have a feeling it wasn’t you who locked me in that fucking room.”
He winced.
“Your brother has a control problem.”
He pressed his lips together.
“Or more like anassholeproblem,” I muttered, more to myself than to Grey.
He brushed a hand through his damp blond hair. “You just don’t know him like we do,” he said, his voice softer now. “He comes across like a controlling asshole, and, well, he sort of is, I guess, but he’s also fiercely protective of us. He’s—”
“I don’t care,” I cut him off, spinning on my heel to start the slow walk back toward Briar Hall, smelling rain in the air.
“Wait,” Grey started, snatching my wrist and pulling me to a stop. “Just give him a chance. Get to know him. I know he wants to get to know you.”
I laughed, a loud, howling thing.
“The bastard lost my blade,” I started, tugging my wrist away, but moving closer, letting him see the resolve in my eyes. “Which he still hasn’t replaced, by the way. He tried to blackmail me. Tried to own me. And that’s not even including the fact that he’s unbearably controllinganda rude dickface. I don’t give a fuck if he wants to know me. I don’t want to knowhim.”
It was a lie, I realized as the final words fell full of venom from my lips, and that only made me even more furious than I already was.
I threw my hands up, exasperated.
“It wasn’t just him,” Grey said quietly after a moment. “We...Rook and me, we did a lot of those things too.”
He was right, of course. The blame wasn’t all on Corvus, but for some reason he was the easiest one to hate, and I wasn’t ready to let go of that.
I tipped my head back, breathing deeply to soothe the waking darkness within. “You know what, let’s just get back.”
My phone buzzed audibly in my pocket, and I clenched my teeth. “Speak of the devil,” I snarled, anticipating another message from Corvus. Furious that I would have to be dealing with his bullshit text messages, and no doubt phone calls, for my foreseeable future.
But it wasn’t him.
Unknown: What a mess you’ve made, Ava Jade. I thought you were smarter than this.
My breath caught in my throat and immediately my head snapped up, scanning the forest on all sides, but there was nothing. Nothing save for overgrown weeds and trees.
My phone buzzed again in my hand.
Unknown: First the blond one. I knew that was just a mistake. But then you let that asshole touch you behind the curtain, and you even looked like you enjoyed it. Disgusting. And now you’re right where Diesel wants you and you have no one to blame but yourself.
“What is it?” Grey asked, moving closer.
I stepped back, turning away from him as another two messages popped up onto the screen.
Unknown: You’re just confused, I know, but that’s no excuse.
Unknown: Don’t worry, my love, I’ll help you...but if you let them touch you again, I’ll have no choice but to punish you.
Got you, you fucking ASSHOLE.
