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Sparrow slept curledin a ball at the end of the couch where Rook was still passed out, their feet tangled together. I’d managed to convince her to go take a shower and change, but she’d refused food and sleep until exhaustion finally took her a few hours ago.
Grey was dozing in her bed and had been since he declared Rook completely out of the woods. Lucky bastard.
It’d been days since I’d slept more than a few minutes, maybe an hour, at a time. With the Ace’s deadline crawling nearer and Ava Jade’s stalker back on the scene, sleep wasn’t a priority.
And now…
Now that the Aces had made their move and vanished. Now that the stalker seemed to have gone eerily silent. Every minute was important. Every second. I could sense the tension stretching around all of us, flexing, tightening.
Something was coming, and I needed to be ready when it did.
I sighed heavily, my stomach aching with a hollow hunger, throat dry.
My tired bones creaked as I stood, head spinning as I made my way to the kitchen on quiet, shuffling feet, holding the counter to steady myself as I searched for a glass.
I drained two glasses of water before going to the fridge, seeing two of it for a second before I was able to realign myself with a sharp bite to the inside of my cheek. There.
There, that was better.
I grabbed some kind of premade salad and lifted some dressing from the door, rifling through the cupboard for some sort of protein. I found a bag of slivered almonds and dumped it on top of the salad with a bit of dressing, leaning heavily against the counter to eat.
Sparrow lifted her head sleepily from the couch and then snapped her head in my direction, wincing as the whiplash from the quick movement seared down her neck. She rubbed out the ache, groaning softly.
I lifted my fork in a silent good morning. “Sorry. Needed some food.”
She pushed her sleep-mussed hair from her face and swiped a palm over the corner of her mouth, sitting up to check on Rook. She leaned over him, gently pressing the back of her hand to his forehead.
“He’s really warm,” she whispered.
I nodded.
“The fever is low. He’s out of the woods, Sparrow. Don’t worry.”
She peeled the throw blanket from her shoulders and got to her feet, her spine popping as she stretched. “Did you sleep?” she asked when she was finished, her body sagging as she padded into the kitchen, going for the espresso machine.
When I didn’t answer she stopped, peering over at me with a harsh gleam in her eyes. “Corvus, when was the last time you slept?”
I shrugged. “I got a few hours the other night.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, setting down the portafilter. “You’re lying.”
My jaw tightened.
Fuck.
It had always been my tell, and if I wasn’t so damned tired, I’d have been able to keep from doing it.
“You are lying. Jesus, you look like garbage.”
I lifted a brow, shoveling another bite of salad into my mouth. “Thanks, Sparrow. Really laying on the compliments this morning.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Grey’s been in there for hours, go and wake him up and sleep in my bed for a while. Unless Diesel needs us for something, we don’t have anything we need to do today.”
I kept eating without replying.
“Corvus,” she pressed. “Did you hear me?”
