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Diesel remained like that, with his arm raised, the tail of smoke from the shot he fired still rising from the weapon gripped tight in his hand, until they were all gone.
“Now,” he said, holstering the gun. “Someone want to tell me what thefuckis going on?”
* * *
“I still sayyou shouldn’t have let him go.”
I paced the short span of floor as Grey finished explaining about the painting of Drake and what it meant.
Diesel gave me an exasperated glance before responding to something Grey was saying. “So, you’re telling me the Hart kid’s gang boyfriend—”
“Becca,” Grey corrected him.
Diesel sighed. “Becca’sgang boyfriend who was an Ace actually wasn’t an Ace at all but a King?” A pause. “A King who is also Ava Jade’s stalker?”
Grey pinched the bridge of his nose. “Basically, yes.”
“Well, that shit doesn’t make sense.”
As little sense as it made when we came to similar conclusions about Aries. But with Aries, it didn’t fit. His little pansy ass couldn’t have been Ava Jade’s stalker. This guy, though? He could be.
I saw his darkness. A different flavor from mine but it was there all along. I thought it meant he could run with us, a new wolf to join our murder of crows. My Ghost saw it too. It beckoned her. Reeled her in only to trap her.
Bristling on the inside, I shivered on the outside, feeling the drag of coming down from my high like fingernails pulling at the back of my skull.
Corvus stopped stewing, giving the inside of his cheek a break from his incessant chewing. “It only doesn’t because we don’t have all the information. But it fits. It’s him. It has to be.”
About time he fucking said something. My older brother had been a goddamned mute since we left the crossroads in Edgewood. I read between his lines now though, catching onto what he wasn’t saying.
If it wasn’t Drake, then that would mean we had exactly zilch to go on in helping us find my Ghost. But I was with him on this. It did fit.
And without Grey putting the pieces together we wouldn’t have this lead at all.
I flipped open my phone, scrolling to my old Lennox contact to fire him off another text.
Rook: What the fuck is taking so long? I need my shit.
“I don’t like this,” Diesel was saying. “Rook’s right.”
I scoffed.
“Maverick was lying. That much was obvious, but we don’t know what he was lying about. He might not have a clue what Drake is up to, if that’s even his name.”
“Doubtful,” Corvus muttered, gazing distantly toward the exit before checking something on his phone.
Diesel rubbed a knuckle over his chin, thinking. “Either way, it might come to a fight with the Kings and we’re weak. We lost a lot of men at the Docks and nearly half our fucking force are either down or at least badly injured.”
“Bring in the newer recruits,” Grey suggested.
“They aren’t ready. Haven’t even taken the trials.”
“Makethistheir trial. It’s better than being outmanned practically two to one.”
Diesel didn’t like that idea, but it was clear he was considering it.
“All right, we bring them into the fold, separate out the wheat from the chaff when this is through and run them through the trials. But we’re outgunned, too, and low on munitions. We’d need more weapons and can’t risk traveling through King territory to get what we need right now. And if we go the other route, to the dealers south of the border, it’ll cost twice as much and we can’t afford it.”
“I might be able to fix that problem,” I offered, remembering a certain someone’s very expensivevery fancyEaster eggs. Someone who deserved to have her mansion broken into, her precious gifts stolen. “You still have those art dealing contacts in the black market?”
