Page 78 of Call It What You Want
I pull my phone out and text Andre.
Station someone at my bedroom door. No one in or out unless it’s me.
Copy that.
Ava’s face flashes in my mind. She’s probably sleeping, oblivious to the fact that someone inside Rush House is trying to hurt her. Inside.Fuck.The word gnaws at me as I type the next message to Lucas, Christian, and Ash.
Meet me in H323. Now. It’s urgent.
Roman’s grandfather’s office. He was a professor at ExU, and his old office across campus is still the most secure spot the Sacred Sons have. When I step into the elevator, my reflection stares back at me in the glass. There’s blood on my shirt, my jaw is locked, eyes too dark. I look too much like my father.
With a disgusted sound, I force the thought away and exit the elevator, unlocking and stepping into the office. It smells like weed and musty books, and it’s quiet except for the clock ticking on the far wall. I lean against the desk, staring at the faint redstains on my hands, wondering when I stopped feeling disgusted by it.
Lucas is the first to walk in, his gaze sweeping over me critically. “Are you bleeding? What the hell happened to you?”
Christian follows, hair damp like he was just dragged out of the ocean. He throws a deadly glare at his brother, then turns his attention to me. “What’s going on?”
Then Ash. When he walks in, his expression is cautious. “Damn. You look like shit, Jackson.”
Each one of them radiates tension, confusion, because they know, if I’m calling them here to this office, it can’t be good. There are no cameras here. No listening devices. This is where we come when we need to talk freely.
I look at each of them, dead-on.“What do you guys think about me marrying Ava?”
They glance at each other, confused.
“Does it matter?” Christian says. “It’s over and done with now.”
“Do you think it was a mistake? Me bringing her here?”
Did they have anything to do with the attack on Ava? I mean, damn, Lucas tried to kill Eve a few weeks ago because of her connection to Sin, and the threat she posed to the Burning Crown. That’s just how we operate in the Burning Crown. We tend to murder and maim first and ask questionsnever.
What if one of the other Sacred Sons decided Ava was a threat? What if they decided to eliminate what they saw as a liability?
My question lingers in the air, and I study each one of their faces. Thankfully, they all look confused as fuck, and a little annoyed.
“What the fuck is this about?” Lucas asks, suspicious.
“Yeah, what the fuck is up with the twenty questions?” Ash adds.
“I questioned the guy who attacked Ava yesterday,” I say.
Christian’s eyes narrow. “And? Did you get anything out of him?”
I meet his gaze. “It wasn’t Shadow and Ash.”
Silence.
Lucas crosses his arms over his chest. “Who else could it be?”
I take a slow breath and glance down at the floor, that guy’s last words running through my head:You think you know who your enemies are, but not all of them are outside these walls.
I look up. “He didn’t have a name, but he said it was one of us. Someone inside the Burning Crown.”
“Fuuuck,” the guys hiss in unison.
“I’ll find who came after my wife,” I continue. “And when I do, I’ll make them feel every second of the fear they put her through—up close, slow, and personal…”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
