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I pressedthe 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.
