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Ava Jade launchedto her feet, her breaths long and heavy as she watched the woman follow her aunt into the living room.
I didn’t like the look on my Ghost’s face. She didn’t like this.
She was… she was fucking panicking.
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked, putting myself between the woman and my Ghost.
“Oh!” Ava Jade’s aunt exclaimed, her hand flying to her mouth, but I couldn’t be bothered to play nice anymore, not until I knew exactly what had just walked into the room.
“Sparrow, who is this?” Corvus asked, a vein in his temple throbbing as he made himself stand, too. Grey watched the woman, and I got the sense he already knew who she was. His expression was dark, and I didn’t like it. My fingers twitched toward my gun, and maybe I shouldn’t have had that last bourbon because it roiled in my stomach now like a poison.
“Her mother,” Grey said for Ava Jade. “Right?” he asked her.
The woman clasped her hands in front of her, lowering her head.
And I could see it now.
Even though this woman looked like she’d been fed through a fucking wood planer, there were similarities. The long, dark hair, hers shot through with silver, coarse. The light colored eyes, her mother’s bloodshot and surrounded in hollow flesh. The frame… it was hard to tell beneath the clothes hanging from her body, but it looked like Ava Jade’s mother might’ve once had curves much like her daughter’s. But drugs had eaten the meat right off her bones.
I knew the look of her better than anyone else could. She was strung out. Probably just coming down from a weeklong bender. Her shoulders were hunched. Her fingertips shaking. A slight twitch to her right shoulder.
She was trying to hide it, but even the expert makeup she’d hastily applied to her face couldn’t hide the truth.
This woman was an addict, and my Ghost did not seem happy to see her.
It was enough for me.
“What are you doing here?” Ava Jade asked, her voice abrasive as she stared at her mother.
“I… I heard you were staying with—”
“Oh,” Ava Jade interrupted, smacking an open palm to her forehead like she was the idiot here. “I get it,” she said with a poisonous smile. “You heard that dear ol’ Aunt Humphrey took me in after Dad was murdered and you thought wow, what a great opportunity to wring some cash out of the old hag. How far off am I?”
“Ava Jade!” her aunt exclaimed, turning to the woman. “I’m so sorry, Valerie. I don’t know what’s gotten into her.”
“Violet, would you give me a moment alone with my daughter?”
Ghost’s aunt hesitated but left like she was asked.
Valerie turned her attention to the three of us, but none of us budged. At least the bitch was smart enough to know not to even bother asking. We weren’t leaving.
“What is it this year, Ma?” Ava Jade demanded, taking two purposeful steps forward, making her mother cringe. “Blow? Smack? Fucking meth? How long since your last fix?”
Valerie lifted her chin, staring her daughter in the eyes, chin quivering. “I’m clean, baby,” she said, and Ava Jade looked like she was going to vomit. “I came tonight because your aunt invited me. I wanted to see you. I wanted to… to apologize for—”
“Oh, Jesus fucking Christ,” Ava Jade said, throwing up her hands. “We’re out of here.”
“Please,” Valerie pleaded, and when she made to step closer to Ava Jade, I intercepted her, holding out a palm to stop her. I shook my head. No.
That was far enough.
Valerie looked between me and Ava Jade, clearly distraught, but not for the reasons she wanted Ava Jade to think she was.
“It’s part of my recovery, baby. I need to apologize for the things the drugs made me do. I should’ve never…”
She stopped, unable to continue, and I felt my darkness rising like smoke through my veins.
What the fuck did this bitch do to my Ghost?
