AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The butler, Jackson, looked to my aunt for guidance and she looked at Rook, assessing his suddenly drawn face. She gave Jackson a nod. “All right, dear,” she said to Rook, going over to pat him on his opposite shoulder. “Would you like some Vicodin?”
Rook perked up.
“No,” Corvus said for him. “Just a drink to take the edge off will be great, ma’am.”
My aunt gave Corvus a tight smile. “All right, well, I suppose there’s no sense in pretending eighteen-year-olds don’t drink these days.” She turned, hollering down the hall after Jackson. “Bring up a bottle of my late husband’s best, Jackson. And a few extra glasses.”
His muted voice called back that he’d heard, and Rook fought to hide a smile.
When I caught his eye, I shook my head at him, and he winked.
“Smells delicious,” Grey offered, indicating the aroma filling the room. Far off, I could hear the clatter of cookware from the staff kitchen and wondered how many staff she’d hired just to make a fucking dinner for five.
The fact that Dad and I were living in a run-down trailer for most of my life, with barely enough hot water to shower, while his sister had been living like this just a couple towns over made me feel so ill I had to swallow back the taste of bile in my throat. Had to remind myself that it was my dad’s choice to distance himself from his sister.
To not take her strings-attached handouts.
He was prideful and stubborn, but I didn’t fault him for denying her. Wouldn’t I have done the same thing on principle alone?
Besides, it wasn’t even her money. It was her dead husband’s.
My dad’s favorite theory was that she’d poisoned him to an early grave, but I couldn’t see it. The woman standing before us in a long silvery sheath of a dress with outdated blingy combs tucked in her ratty gray-brown hair wasn’t capable of murder. Not even a coward’s murder.
She didn’t even look like she could tie her own damned shoes. If anything, I pitied her. Alone out here surrounded by stuffed dead things and priceless art and a butler who pretty obviously loathed her.
“The staff has been cooking all day,” my aunt said, looking over our outfits now that she’d gotten used to the sight of our bruises. She smiled at each of my guys in turn, over-appreciative gaze finding tailored pants and brand name suit jackets left to hang open over crisp shirts. I had to admit they cleaned up good.
But they all grimed up good, so I wasn’t surprised. I liked them just as well covered in blood and leather as I did in the clean cut styles they wore now. Maybe more so.
Definitely more so.
My aunt’s smile turned into a frown as her milky eyes tracked over my attire, finding me in a thrifted skirt, black converse, and a tank top covered over in a soft black cardigan. That one wasn’t thrifted, it was lifted from the racks at Nordstrom and felt like real cashmere. It was the nicest thing I owned, but she sneered at it as if I was wearing the skin of a dead goat.
“Ava Jade, dear, would you be more comfortable in a dress? I took the liberty of purchasing a few. They’re upstairs in the spare bedroom if you’d like to—”
“I’m good.”
“AJ, don’t be rude,” Grey said, and I slowly craned my neck, leveling the full weight of my fury on him, but it only served to make him even more triumphant. The fucker. “She’d love to change.”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
Grey pouted, and I rolled my eyes.
Now was not the time for playing. We shouldn’t even be here. Goddammit.
“Come on, Ghost,” Rook said. “I’ll help you into your dress.”
He extended a hand to me, and my aunt gasped. It was her dismay that ultimately made me take his hand, slapping my fingers down onto his palm.
“H-how…how kind of your friend,” My aunt stumbled over her words just as Jackson re-entered the grand foyer with a tray containing a crystal decanter of amber liquid and five partially filled glasses.
Rook stopped before the bottom stair and reached over, snatching two glasses with his index and middle finger. “Cheers,” he said, winking at Jackson, who blanched.
Despite myself, my anger was fading fast, and I felt a traitorous grin worming onto my lips.
At least if the Aces somehow tracked us here, we’d have a veritable fortress to protect us. I knew for a fact my aunt had invested in a crazy system that locked down the entire place with metal shutters.
Silver lining.
