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“What is that?”I asked Ava Jade, gesturing to the brown box in her hands as we made our way out of the Nest.
She shrugged. “A gift.”
“You bought Diesel a gift?” Corvus asked, incredulous.
I nodded to Pinkie and Axel as they pulled out of the driveway first, letting them know we were right behind them.
AJ pursed her lips. “It’s his birthday, isn’t it? Did you not get him anything?”
“What did you get him?” Corvus asked her, answering her question with one of his own, making her roll her eyes as she opened the door for Becca to slide into the backseat first. Her friend scooched all the way to one side, letting AJ sit in the middle between her and Rook.
“It’s really nice,” Becca said. “I think he’s going to like it.”
“So you told her what it was but you won’t tell us?” I asked, pulling the driver’s side door shut at the same time as Rook and Corvus closed theirs, sealing us all inside the Rover.
“It’s not that big a deal. If you think I shouldn’t give it to him, then I’ll just leave it in the car.”
She was getting frustrated now. We’d made her uncomfortable. Corvus and I shared a look in the front.
Rook patted the box on her lap with a smirk in the rearview. “Whatever it is, I’m sure he’ll love it, Ghost. We’d have gotten him something, but he has a strict no gifts policy for his own birthday.”
She lifted a brow in the rearview. “You could have told me that.”
Rook lifted a shoulder. “Didn’t think you’d be rushing out shopping.”
“I didn’t,” she argued. “I ordered it online.” A huff. “Fuck, I knew it was stupid. I’ll just leave it in the car. Maybe one of you will like it.”
“Sparrow, chill. Give him the gift. It might help soften the blow of…you know.”
I pivoted in my seat, watching her face darken as I looked out the back windshield, reversing out of the spot to drive us down the choppy gravel road. It was decided that tonight we’d tell Diesel about AJ’s stalker. How we suspected it was him who was to blame for the personal attacks against us and not the Aces.
Diesel was already made aware that we thought Becca’s boyfriend, the one who’d been acquiring dangerous intel about us, might be a King. He was working that shit out with the King leader, Maverick, who’d promised to turn Aries over as soon as he was found.
Either the man was a damn good fucking liar or Diesel was losing his touch because he believed they had no ill-intent toward us. And my father could sniff out a lie from a mile off.
But as good as he was, he didn’t know that AJ had a stalker. That we thought Aries and said stalker may be one and the same person.
Tonight, he’d find out.
I doubted AJ’s gift would soften his reaction, but it couldn’t hurt.
Becca squirmed in her seat, staring anxiously from the window. I tried not to be suspicious of her every action, word spoken, or tick of her face, but it was harder than I’d thought it would be.
I’d been on the voting side to drop her off at the Vandermark hotel on the way to Dies’, but she’d been insistent on coming to look out for AJ. Not just in the den of papa wolf, but later, at the Docks for the full moon party.
I didn’t know what she expected to be able to do if shit went south in any capacity, but AJ seemed content to have her with us at least for now. Tomorrow morning when we set off on the attack to obliviate the Aces and Dead Men, Becca would be deposited at the penthouse suite of the Vandermark hotel with hired security since we’d need all hands on deck for the fight.
At least she wasn’t foolish enough to think she could handle coming with us for that.
“He’s totally going to love it,” I heard Becca whisper to her friend before inching her window down to light a little pinner of a joint, blowing the smoke out into the slowly darkening evening.
“Want some?” she offered to AJ, who shook her head, but Rook reached over and took it from Becca’s fingers.
“Thanks, love,” he said, rolling his own window the whole way down, leaning his head back against the seat in the path of the wind as he inhaled deeply. Something was up with him lately. I couldn’t place what it was, but he was quieter than usual.
More reserved.
Less on edge.
