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Good?
What?
“After you threatened Rick, I wasn’t sure you were with us.”
She’d done what? Rick was our tattoo guy, owned a local shop in town. Had Dies already sent him to her? And she’d clearly refused the ink. It wasn’t negotiable.
Ava Jade jutted out her chin, offering no explanation.
“You must’ve been very tired,” Diesel said, looking at her as though she were a wounded little girl in need of coddling. I wanted to tell him if he looked at her like that for even another second, she was going to attempt to gouge his eyeballs out but that would only make matters worse.
Instead, I covertly wound my fingers around her wrist, feeling her tendons taut as a whip with her hand balled into a fist.
“Not tired enough not to make good on what I promised him.”
Diesel’s jaw ticked. “You need to be inked next time, or you won’t be welcome.”
I squeezed her wrist tighter. Calm down.
“Anyway,” Diesel said, inhaling deeply, the moment past. Time for a subject change. He jerked his head at Pinkie, who stepped forward to hand Ava Jade a white cloth.
More like dumped it into her hands.
The clatter of metal told us what was inside.
She unwrapped her blades, the ones she’d lost back at the warehouse. “Thought you’d be wanting those back.”
Her fingers curled protectively around them. She offered Diesel nothing, just a strained nod by way of thanks even though they appeared to have been cleaned and sharpened by our blade guy.
I doubted the gesture would have the effect he hoped for with Ava Jade, though. I doubted she liked other people touching her blades, never mind honing them for her.
The others from the van exited now, forming a semi-circle of six behind Diesel and Tiny.
I didn’t like the way they were looking at Ava Jade. Like she was an outsider. Like they wanted to…
If Garrett hadn’t been a newer implant into the gang, Ava Jade would’ve been in for a lot more than some hateful stares for killing him.
It’s a truth universally known among us that people died during the trials, but usually it was the ones taking the trials, not the ones administering them. It wasn’t the first time it’d happened, but it definitely wasn’t common.
There was a reason we’d told Ava Jade to try not to kill anyone.
It would take her twice as long to earn their trust—their respect—now, if she ever got it. There was also the matter of her having a different set of parts to consider. There were only two female gang members I’d ever heard of besides Ava Jade and it’d taken them years to earn their places.
“What’s the plan?” I asked when the silence stretched on.
Diesel tipped his head to the cabin. “You four inside. Pinkie and Tiny, you’re with me inside, too. Axel, I want you in the driver’s seat of the van, don’t budge. Derrik, Crowley, Shane, and Lee, you’re in the woods. Watch their entry, warn us if they’re packing more than they should be. If Lenny Ace leaves the cabin before me, light him the fuck up.”
So it was like that.
Ava Jade snatched her wrist back from me while everyone’s attention was elsewhere, sending me a scathing glare.
“Everyone got it?”
A chorus of yeah boss, and let’s get it done rising up all around as the rain finally let up.
Four of our men dispersed into the tree line, vanishing into the shadows, careful of where they stepped to leave no boot prints in the muddy roadway. Axel went back to the van, seeming unhappy with his assignment, but they all respected Diesel. Each one knew that if they followed his orders as he spoke them with no room for interpretation, their chances of surviving until another sunrise were a lot fucking better than if they didn’t.
The graves of the outliers proved that, without the need for Dies to throw his weight around.
