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You didn’t touch Corvus James, not unless he wanted you to.
But this wasn’t the first time, and I had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last.
“She’s not completely wrong,” I said, earning myself a wicked stare from my brother. “And I think you know that.”
“You know, it’s funny,” Ava Jade said, flopping onto the longer of the two black couches with a laugh that told me she definitely didn’t think whatever she was about to say was funny. Not even a little bit. “For a split second I thought maybe you were here to apologize. But how could a Saint ever be wrong? Why would a Saint apologize for their sins?”
“It’s why I came,” I said. “Or at least, it’s part of the reason.”
She stared at me incredulously, her lips popping open in surprise. An emotion I couldn’t name swimming in her eyes.
She watched me as I made my way to the couch opposite her, discarding my untouched latte on the coffee table between us. “Diesel went too far,” I started, trying to remember everything I’d planned to say on the way over here if we found she hadn’t skipped town.
“But he was trying to protect us.”
Her lips twisted.
“And…a part of me gets that you probably felt backed into a corner. Colin is good. He probably pulled all the right strings.”
“She almost fucking destroyed us,” Corvus argued, standing a few feet behind AJ, halfway into the living room still.
“But she didn’t,” Rook said, sitting next to AJ, laying his arm over the back of the couch, not quite touching her but close enough that he could if he wanted to. “Did you, Ghost?”
She shivered, gray eyes snagging on the empty space between them before she pressed her hands together between her knees.
“I couldn’t,” she admitted. “It’s not…” She trailed off, unable to find the right words.
“It’s not what you do,” I finished for her. “You aren’t a rat. I know you. You don’t trust law enforcement.”
She didn’t reply, and I knew I was right.
“It doesn’t mean I’m not pissed,” she clarified. “I’m still considering cutting all your balls off and keeping them in a little trophy jar on my nightstand.”
This earned her a laugh from Rook as he lifted his ass from the couch seat and drew out a blade, flipping it over in his fingers so the handle was facing her. “Here you go, love. Carve away.”
She eyed the blade, but didn’t take it, rolling her eyes at him.
“I’d like to keep my balls, Rook,” Corvus said, finally coming to sit with us, putting himself next to me on the couch. He was tight as a nun’s asshole. Every muscle jacked, the vein in his neck popping as he leaned over his knees, steepling his fingers. Looking at the coffee table like he wanted to hack it to kindling.
“You didn’t leave,” I pointed out, trying to get us back on track. I needed to know what she was doing. I needed to prepare myself for the worst. “Does that mean you’re staying?”
She bit her lip. “I don’t know yet.”
“Stay,” Corvus said, breaking a momentary silence. The one word drawing all of our attention to him.
AJ’s chin quivered, just once, before she got control of herself. I wondered if I was the only one who noticed just how much we’d hurt her. How much she was hurting.
“Why should I?”
“Because,” Corvus breathed, some of the tension leaking from his shoulders. “I want you to.”
“So do I,” I agreed.
“You know what I want,” Rook intoned, grazing the back of her neck with his knuckle, making her glare at him before inching farther from him on the couch.
She considered us all for a minute, pulling her hands from between her knees to clench them into little fists. “I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she said in a low voice, and the urge to go and pull her into my arms almost dragged me from my seat. But I didn’t think she wanted that right now.
“You belong here,” Corvus said. “With us.”
