Crooked Crows by Elena Lawson

After Grey returned,they escorted me to the Rover and closed me inside. I could hear snippets of their heated conversation through the bulletproof glass, but not enough to piece together what was going on.

Grey sat with me in the car while Corvus and Rook cleaned up Carl’s body. The air permeated with anger and things unsaid.

It must’ve been hours before they finally returned from the dark of the trees, coated in dirt streaked sweat.

I thought of running again, but with my ankle still in bad shape, I knew I wouldn’t get far. The only other option I saw was to slit Grey’s throat and make a stealthy getaway instead of a rapid one while the others were busy disposing of the evidence of Diesel’s kill, but…

I couldn’t.

Just like I couldn’t let that greaseball shoot Corvus.

I stewed in silence, angry at myself and trying to work through the puzzle of my thoughts, only bothering to speak once Rook slid into the seat beside me and Corvus hopped into the front seat.

“I’ll fight back,” I warned, crossing my arms over my chest as icy dread pooled in my stomach. I could take one of them. Maybe, I could take two. But all three? I could fight, but I knew what the outcome would be.

Rook lifted a brow at me, and Grey swiveled in the front seat, his face drawn. Corvus didn’t bother to turn, sitting stoically in the passenger seat to stare out into the growing dawn.

“Just make it quick, would you?” I requested, sinking into the seat as Grey turned back to the front and started the engine, pulling slowly back onto the road.

They didn’t speak to me the entire drive back to the Crow’s Nest. Rook twisted his lip ring round and round with his teeth, his dark gaze slipping to me and away, only to return again a few moments later.

He kept his distance, lounging in the seat closest to the opposite window, knee bouncing behind Corvus’ seat.

Somewhere around the halfway point, Grey turned on the radio, drowning out the tense silence with the early morning show from the local radio station.

The reality of my situation didn’t seem to truly hit me until we bumped off smooth pavement and onto gravel and the Crow’s Nest came into view. But it wasn’t what I couldn’t stop staring at. The small shed at the edge of the property, half hidden by trees as the first rays of dawn lit the metal roof made my stomach plummet to my toes.

I was this close.

This close to freedom.

Why couldn’t I have just bowed like a good girl and done what I was told.

Oh yeah, because I wasn’t a good girl. I didn’t bow. And I did whatever the fuck I wanted whenever the fuck I wanted.

The real question was, why couldn’t I be someone else?

Someone else wouldn’t be about to die in a tiny ass woodshed, their body parts hacked up and hid over three different states.

Fuck.

I gripped my knives, letting the darkness come, beckoning it.

I could kill them.

Maybe not before, but this was different. It was kill or be killed.

“We need to talk,” Grey said as he shut off the engine, sighing.

Corvus muttered something I didn’t catch to himself as he shoved out the passenger side door and slammed it, stalking into the house.

Rook whistled low, a smirk playing at the edge of his lips as he opened his door. “Want a whiskey?” he offered. “You’re going to need it.”

What?

“We aren’t going to kill you, AJ,” came Grey’s exasperated voice from the front seat as he withdrew the keys and stepped out himself, shutting his door as he opened mine. I shied away, lifting a blade.

He looked between it and me, a tightness around his eyes. “And you aren’t going to kill us, either,” he challenged as I caught sight of Rook in my periphery, going into the house, too. “I think you made that pretty clear tonight.”

“If you aren’t going to kill me, then why the fuck am I here?”

He bent his head, pinching the bridge of his nose, making his dirty blond hair fall forward, shining with streaks of purest gold in the soft early morning light.

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be. Either you come willingly on my word that you won’t be harmed, or I call my brothers back out here and we drag you inside. Your choice.”

I rolled my eyes and stepped out, forcing Grey to move out of my way or be hit. He shut the door behind me. “Good choice.”

“The only reason I’m going in there is because Rook said there’s whiskey, and I’m hungry enough to eat a whole fucking turkey,” I grumbled, knowing how I must sound but unable to stop myself.

“If you say so.”

“Fuck you.”

His hand closed around my wrist, and I lashed out, slicing his forearm as he tossed me against the door of the Rover. Grey bared his teeth as he moved to box me in, the blade between us the only thing keeping him from closing the last few inches of the gap. Blood dripped in a slow stream from his arm, but he didn’t seem to mind. Didn’t even seem to feel it.

Fury burned in his eyes. A deep, pained thing that hurt to look at.

“Do you have any idea what I just risked to save you?” he demanded, his anger so hot that I could feel it soaking into my skin. Making the small hairs on the back of my neck raise. “What we’ll all risk to keep you alive?”

“What are you talking about?”

“And after you were trying to...to what? Blackmail us?” he continued, drawing back with a dark laugh. “I saw the videos, AJ. I know what you did. What you were doing—”

“You gave me no fucking choice!” I shouted, my own fury rising to meet his, the icy dream in my belly turning quickly to acid.

“Yeah, you gave me no choice, either,” he scoffed. “Just remember that.”

“What’s going on out there?” Rook called lazily from the front door, sipping a short glass of amber liquid. “Come inside so we can all join the fun.”

I growled in frustration, shouldering past Grey toward the front door. I snatched the whiskey right from Rook’s hand and tossed it back in one long burning swallow before shoving the glass back at him and going inside.

They wanted to talk. Fine. Let’s talk.

I knew the basic layout of the house since I’d been stalking it on and off for weeks, and I took an easy left from the hall in the entry, through to the kitchen, where there was a whiskey bottle open on the counter. I snatched it up and kept going, through the kitchen to the right into the living room.

Corvus was already there, sitting on the couch, the dirt streaks gone from his face and hands. His dirty jacket missing, leaving him in only a black shirt, dark wash jeans, and sock feet. It felt strange to see him so comfortable. I didn’t think there was a place on earth where he wouldn’t be ready for an attack at all times.

He lifted his head, and upon seeing me, threw the item he’d been twirling in his fingers at me. My lips parted in surprise as I caught it, the blade cutting into the pads of my thumb and forefinger. The blade that’d been embedded in Carl’s meaty hand.

“You’re welcome,” he grunted, fixing me with a deadly stare.

I tucked it into my ankle sheath with its brother, keeping one at the ready in my palm just in case. “Yeah, well you still owe me one.”

He shook his head.

Grey and Rook entered behind me. I fell into the only armchair in the room, forcing the others to all share the sofa on the other side of the long, narrow coffee table. It acted as a line in the sandy carpet, and I didn’t intend to cross it again until it was time to leave.

I took a swig of the whiskey, then leaned forward to set it down on the table, noticing Rook eyeing the bottle.

He grabbed it, taking a pull straight from the bottleneck, too, and licked his lips.

Grey leaned forward between his two brothers, elbows on knees as he regarded me coldly.

“I’ve told them what I found on your phone,” he began and already I was on edge, my fist tightening on the blade, regretting the whiskey already starting to nibble at my reflexes and senses.

“There are no secrets between us,” he continued, though already I knew that was a lie. Maybe they didn’t keep the important shit from each other, but I knew damn well that Corvus had no idea Grey and I fucked. I didn’t think he’d like that after his possessive touch and words on fight night.

I waited for him to go on, and when he didn’t, my irritability skyrocketed, fueled by whiskey and exhaustion. “How nice for you,” I said with a false smile, my voice dripping sarcasm. “Do you also pick daisies on Saturdays and wish upon shooting stars?”

A tick in Grey’s jaw was the only giveaway that my comment annoyed him, but I’d take it.

“This isn’t a fucking joke,” Corvus butt in, his eyes on fire. “Do you know what would’ve happened if Grey didn’t stick his neck out for you?”

“Do you know what would’ve happened if I didn’t throw that blade?” I countered, my voice rising in volume.

“Would you shut the fuck up for one second and listen?”

“Corv,” Grey warned, and earned himself a snarl from his brother.

Corvus got to his feet and paced down to the edge of the coffee table. I thought he might leave, but he turned around, his jaw flexing, and sat back down.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him this worked up. I didn’t think he got this worked up. It made me want to poke him some more, see how long it took before he snapped.

“What does he mean?” I asked Grey, instead, tabling the idea of provoking Corvus, at least for the moment. I didn’t like the way they were looking at me. How they seemed to be hesitating to tell me something. “About you sticking your neck out for me?”

“Diesel wanted you dead, AJ,” he said. “The instant you threw that blade, you became a liability. A threat.”

“But I also saved his precious son,” I pointed out. “WhoI wouldn’t have needed to save if he was paying any attention at all.”

“Maybe I could’ve paid more attention if I didn’t see your ass creeping out of the back of the Rover.”

“Enough,” Grey hissed, and Rook snorted, taking another swig of his drink, seeming to be having way too much fun just sitting there watching this conversation happen.

Corvus’ nostrils flared, but he fell silent, content to sit there and glare at the carpet.

“AJ,” Grey hedged, drawing my attention back to him. “I asked Diesel to bring you in.”

“You did what?!”

“I asked him to let you take the trial.”

I was on my feet, the burst of shock hauling me up like marionette strings, making me move. “He didn’t agree to that.”

Diesel St. Crow wouldn’t agree to that, would he?

Grey’s eyes slid from my face. “He did. I’ve never asked him for anything. Not ever. I asked him to spare you and let you take the trial. If you pass, you’ll be in so deep there’s nothing you could do to hurt him, or us, without also burying yourself.”

I barked a laugh at the ludicrousness of what he was saying. This wasn’t happening.

“And if I fail?” I asked, my tone light, joking. As if I were really going to take the trial to become a motherfucking Saint.

“You die,” Corvus said, detached, his hard stare seeming to penetrate deep into my soul.

I flinched as though slapped. A trap door opened beneath my feet, and I was plummeting, searching for anything to hold on to. To pull myself out.

“I won’t do it.”

“Then you’ll die, anyway,” Rook interjected, finally speaking up, unlike the others, there was no apology in his eyes, no ire, either. Just amusement. Fucking bastard.

“Then I’ll run.”

“Diesel won’t let you get away.”

My heart beat out a discordant rhythm in my chest, fluttering like a caged bird. I worked to catch my breath, cursing myself for the hundredth time for not being able to be that someone else. A girl who could be controlled.

“Sparrow,” Corvus urged and something in his stature changed. It made the lead in my bones turn to quicksand, melt into glass. Shatter. “You don’t have a choice.”

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