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“It doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done. Diesel might’ve had a hand in creating this monster, but now it’s all of us that have to deal with him. Grey?”
My brother was already nodding, lifting his phone from his pocket. With this new intel, there had to be more we could find on this guy. Hopefully, it would lead us straight to him. “I’m on it. We need to get back to the Nest. I need my fucking computer.”
We all stood, ready to leave. To get to work.
“I’m going to make this right, boys,” Diesel promised, making us all hesitate before leaving. His guilty eyes found mine, holding fast. “I’m sorry.”
I knew he meant it, but an apology wasn’t going to fix this.
Blood and lead would.
One by one,our surveillance cameras went online. Two for every one of Drake’s we removed based on Ava Jade’s direction. It was a condition of being able to return to the nest. Not only would we bring half our remaining force with us, but also surround the place in tiny glass eyes where we couldn’t watch.
That and trigger alert systems all along the road leading up to the Crow’s Nest. Along with a handful speckled through the forest just in case the surveillance cameras became compromised.
The three land mines lovingly laid to rest six inches beneath the dirt by Rook around the house felt a touch overboard, but I wasn’t about to argue. Not when it came to her safety.
If it was up to me, I’d have put her on the first flight to our cousin gang in Arizona under an alias. Have Uncle Ransom bury her so deep there that no one could find her. Not even us. Until this was over.
But I knew there was absolutely nothing I could say that would coerce her into leaving. She may have been finished with me, but she wouldn’t leave my brothers. And as long as she stayed, there was a chance I could win her back. Missing eye and all.
I tabbed through each camera, flipping from a view of the woods to one of the road. The parking lot. Behind the Nest, toward the thinning wood that led to the cliff side. I watched the Saints Diesel sent with us skirting the buried mines on their way back inside. It was about to get real fucking cozy in here with all of them crammed in with us.
AJ gave up the loft Becca and she shared for a few of the more injured ones to sleep in proper beds. The rest would camp out in the living room or the garage.
Once I was satisfied that every cam was up and running, I grabbed the radio walkie from the desk. “All good up here,” I told Pinkie. “Let Dies know we’re set and then settle in, yeah? It’s late.”
“Roger.”
I let the walkie clatter back onto the desk, rubbing my burning eye. Strange, even though the other one wasn’t there, it somehow burned with exhaustion, and I pressed against the black eyepatch covering the place it used to be all the same.
“Grey?” AJ’s voice came muffled through my bedroom door.
I pushed my hair back, sliding out from the desk to smooth the front of my shirt. “Come in.”
AJ hesitantly opened the door, a mug of something steaming in her grip. “I,uh,thought you might like some tea. Figured you’d be up for a while, so it’s that green blend you have in the cupboard, with a bit of honey.”
She cringed when our eyes met and something in me deflated and I felt my shoulders slump with it.
“You don’t like honey in your tea, do you?” she asked, staring down at the mug like she might shatter it against the nearest solid surface. “That’s okay. I can make you one without. I’ll drink this one. Be right back.”
“Don’t,” I blurted before I could stop myself, my mouth going dry. “I like honey.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, I was just—just surprised to see you is all. I figured you’d be with one of the others. Getting things ready for Sunday.”
There was still the issue of a lack of funds to purchase our new firearms and ammunition from down south. Which we would desperately need if we were going to stand a chance against the Kings who outmanned almost two to one.
Surprisingly, it was Rook who came up with the solution for that problem. With Diesel’s contacts in the black market, all we needed to do was pay a little unsolicited visit to Viola Humphrey.
Unsurprisingly, AJ didn’t so much as balk at the idea of breaking into her aunt’s mansion at the edge of Thorn Valley. In fact, she was ready to lead the charge, almost giddily eager for the heist. She’d said each one of those Fabergé eggs were worth tens of thousands of dollars. Those combined with anything else we could find would fetch more than enough for all the munitions we needed.
And the old bag fucking deserved it.
She nodded. “I was. But they can handle getting the rest of it together without me. I thought maybe I might be able to help up here.”
AJ padded across the carpet, settling the mug down carefully away from the monitors, but within my reach. She hunched down, squinting at the three screens now showing a myriad of surveillance angles.
