AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The truth? I wasn’t sure.
I wandered to the bathroom door, tapping on the wood pane lightly so it wouldn’t open under my touch. “AJ? We have to get moving.”
“What?”
The shower was off inside, but the exhaust fan likely made it difficult to hear.
“Time to go,” I called louder, and she growled inside. The only response I was likely to get.
I sat heavily on the small chest snugged up to the end of the bed Ava Jade and Becca shared. The loft wasn’t anything special, but it was enough for the two of them temporarily.
The bed was a queen, the mattress and bedding brand new. It had a small kitchenette in the farthest corner from the door and a sectional facing the wall in the opposite corner with a modest thirty-inch TV mounted on the wall. And the desk, of course, where Becca watched me warily as we waited for AJ.
The space was meant as a gift for Corvus. One Rook and I thought would help him get the peace and sleep he so desperately needed, but he never moved out here. Now that there was easier access to the rest of the Nest, I wondered if he would when the girls were gone.
I felt a pang in my chest, and I cleared my throat as Ava Jade exited the bathroom in ripped jeans and a tight-fitting, cropped tank top with no bra beneath. Her nipples like little Hershey’s kisses beneath the dark fabric.
Her makeup was done, but her hair was still damp from the shower, falling down her shoulders and back in soft, wet waves.
“You got a blow dryer?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No. No time, either. I think Corv is already waiting in the car.”
Right on cue, a long, blaring horn sounded outside.
“You going to be okay here alone, Becca?” I asked, and she opened her mouth to reply, but it was Ava Jade who spoke instead.
“You said it was safe,” she spat back accusingly.
“It is.”
“It better be. It’s definitely safer than getting her any more involved in my shit than she already is. The last thing I want to do is parade her in front of Diesel.”
I tipped my head to one side, pursing my lips. She had a point there.
“Besides she won’t be here all alone anyway. You have plans tonight, don’t you, Becks?”
Becca smiled at AJ meekly before shaking her head. “No. No, I’m just going to stay here.”
AJ crossed the floor to her friend, lowering her voice as if I couldn’t still hear her clear as day. “You haven’t been out at all this week. Did something happen between you and your mystery guy?”
Becca shrugged, sighing again. “Fuck if I know. I think he’s avoiding me. He does that sometimes,” she shrugged. “Gives me time to catch up on some BioChem homework though, so whatever. I don’t need him.”
AJ squeezed her friend’s shoulder. “You sure as shit don’t, babe, but nobody ghosts my bestie and gets away with it. Want me to track him down? Drag him over here for a little chat?”
Becca barked a laugh that quickly died in her throat when she saw AJ’s expression and realized her friend wasn’t joking in the slightest.
“Uh,” she said, laughing for a different reason now. “I’ll let you know, ’kay?”
AJ nodded. “Hopefully we won’t be long,” she turned to me. “We won’t be long, right?”
“Sorry. We haven’t been briefed. No idea what’s going on. Could be twenty minutes. Could be all night.”
I hated admitting it but there it was, we were carting Ava Jade to Sanctum with absofuckinglutely no idea what was going to be waiting for us when we got there. It wasn’t for a lack of trying to find out. We’d been snooping around Sanctum and the warehouse, and I’d even made an excuse to go andpick something upfrom Diesel’s house just to have a little snoop there, too. Straight up asking him had gotten us nowhere, either. So, here we were.
“Is it another trial?” Becca asked, and AJ visibly tensed.
She’d had no choice but to come clean to her friend after the shit that went down at Briar Hall. It was about time, really. And as much as we didn’t like it, it wouldn’t have been fair to leave her in the dark, especially not if she was going to continue to stay here with AJ, which seemed like it might be the case.
