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A soft knockcame at the door to my bedroom. I knew it was her. Something in the tentative double rap of her knuckles gave her away, and I shrunk into myself, resisting the urge to throw something at the door. Shout at her to fuck off and leave.
It was exactly what I’d been doing for the last two days, but even I knew I couldn’t stay in here much longer. It wasn’t that I wanted to hide from my past. It was the fact that I’d worked so fucking hard my entire life to push back those memories. To pretend what happened never happened.
To rid myself of the nightmares that left me in a tangle of sweaty sheets with bile climbing the back of my throat.
“Corvus,” Ava Jade whispered through the door. “You can tell me to fuck off if you want, but at least take some food and water. Please?”
I sighed heavily, lifting from my core to throw my legs off the edge of the bed and hang my head. “Come in.”
I’d eaten since Tuesday morning. Not much, but enough to keep me sustained. I’d crept downstairs during the early hours of the morning while everyone else in the Nest slept.
The only person I’d spoken to since I’d come home and thrown my door closed had been Diesel. He was the only one who already knew the truth of my heritage. The place and the people I’d come from. I didn’t know who told him about the email, but it didn’t matter. He’d called me right after putting in a vicious call to the principal, threatening to raze the academy to the earth if they didn’t get to the bottom of who had sent the unsanctioned newsletter to the entire student body.
The conversation between my adoptive father and me wasn’t a long one, and I’d said little more than yes or no to all the questions he had. A firm no to his offer to come by the Nest. Another no to his asking whether I knew why the guys and I seemed to be the ones under attack from the Aces.
We couldn’t hide the truth from him for much longer, because the truth was whether we had proof or not, I knew it in my bones that this was Ava Jade’s stalker. The Aces weren’t even capable of these types of attacks. Weren’t smart enough.
Whoever this was, they knew just where to stab us. How hard to twist the knife.
Diesel sent Pinkie and Axel since I’d declined his offer to put us up at Sanctum. Extra muscle packed with a small arsenal to back us up in case of an attack.
But it never came.
Tuesday blurred into Wednesday, and suddenly the sun was dawning on Thursday. Time seemed to have no bearing as I sat here, reliving the worst day of my fucking life.
Ava Jade knocked again.
I cleared my throat. “I said come in,” I called again, trying not to let my frustration creep into my voice.
She pushed into the room, a bowl clutched in one hand and a water bottle under her arm. Steam coiled off the mountain of breakfast hash in the bowl, and my stomach rumbled.
She offered a sheepish smile and came in, tip toeing across the carpet as though she was walking a tightrope.
“I’m not going to bite you,” I growled, accepting the bowl from her, suddenly aware of how terrible I smelled. I needed a fucking shower. Though if she cared, she didn’t show it, settling anxiously into a seat on the bed beside me, her palms pressing into her thighs.
“Could’ve fooled me,” she said with a half-hearted laugh, and I flinched at the reminder of all the angry things I’d shouted through that door over the past two days.
“I…”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“So, want to tell me what I’ve missed?”
She bit her lip. “Not much. We’ve confirmed the Aces have allied with the Dead Men and are on the move. Looks like further south, but Diesel has people keeping tabs on them for now. We’re planning an attack for the end of the week.”
“Friday?”
Shit, was that tomorrow already?
She shook her head. “No. The guys are throwing Diesel a birthday party tomorrow at his place and then we have the full moon party later in the night. We’ll hash out the plan at Dies’ place and roll out early Sunday morning for the attack.”
I grunted my understanding, able to tell she wanted to ask me about it. She wanted to divert the conversation back to what she’d seen in that email blast, but I wasn’t ready just yet.
“So soon?”
“My idea,” she admitted. “We weren’t ready last time. We need to strike first this time. Strike hard. Put an end to it all.”
She wasn’t wrong.
