Page 32 of Crow
“I’ve never seen the bastard like this,” Ripper said as he came to join me at the bar. I grabbed another beer from the fridge and passed it to him.
“That Rose is a good influence on him,” I agreed. I pulled my phone out of the pocket of my jeans, checking for texts from Jade. My smile faltered a little when I saw my blank lock screen.
“Expecting something?” Ripper asked, sipping his beer.
I stuffed my phone back into my pocket. “No.”
“Okay.” He shrugged. We drank for a little while, and then Archer was back. He looked more frazzled than he had when he left, and he marched right up to us.
“Ripper! Rose has another aunt that needs picking up from the bus station.”
“Another one?” Ripper asked, eyebrows raised.
“Yes, a-goddamn-nother one. Be sure to drive slowly, she’s old. And you! Crow! Come tell me your wedding secrets before I end up losing my goddamn mind over fucking napkins.” Archer stalked away, running his hands through his hair. Ripper and I exchanged another look before shrugging at each other. I chuckled and followed Archer over to one of the tables where an array of fabric was displayed.
“Stupid fucking… fiddly ass things, why does it even matter they’re all gonna be unfolded immediately anyway…” he was muttering to himself. He looked up when I approached. “So, you’ve had a wedding, apparently, and we will be talking more about that by the fucking way, but right now, I need you to tell me. Swans or flowers?”
“Excuse you?”
Archer held up two napkins folded into complex shapes. “Swans, or flowers?”
“Uh… flowers?”
“Good, okay, excellent. Now…” He walked off again, still talking. I followed after him as we moved about the room, giving my opinion on everything from seating arrangements to whether the banners dipped too low where they hung above the bar.
“Archer, I had one wedding, years ago. I’m not the fucking all-knowing wedding guru,” I grunted as I carried a stack of chairs across the Tavern for the seventh time. Archer ignored me, still insisting that things didn’t look quite right. From the corner of my eye, I could see Tank and Wrench snickering and giving me a thumbs up. I took a couple of steps toward them, ready to knock them around the head, but then Archer was pulling me in another direction so I settled for flipping them off instead. They laughed louder then returned to the papers they were poring over.
Chapter Eighteen
Jade
Sneaking back into the house was easier than I thought; most of the Freeways were still sleeping off last night’s excitement. I had slipped my shoes off before even opening the front door, hoping my bare feet would help minimize the sound of my footsteps. I could hear someone moving about in the kitchen and crossed my fingers that it was Ray making something greasy to help his hangover and that he was not waiting for me in the bedroom. I crept past the doorway leading to the kitchen and up the stairs, stepping over and around the bodies of sleeping hookers and bikers that covered the floor. It was almost impressive how they looked peaceful even though they were passed out in some of the most uncomfortable positions I had ever seen. There was one girl upside down on the stairs, and I couldn’t understand how she was managing to stay put. I searched each face, hoping to see Jess alive and unshot, and each girl that wasn’t her made the nervous knot in my chest squeeze tighter around my lungs.
Lab Rat was stretched outside my bedroom door, which was slightly open, drooling onto the ratty carpet. I wrinkled my nose, and the only thing stopping me from kicking him as I stepped over him into the bedroom was that if he woke up and caught me, I was fucked. A quick glance around the room assured me that I was the only person in there, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Right,” I whispered to myself. “Quick and quiet. Only the essentials.”
I pulled a duffel bag from the back of the wardrobe and started shoving the first clothes I could get my hands on into it. Crumpled, empty baggies fell from pockets as I grabbed clothes from the floor. I barely looked at them, kicking them away in favor of snatching my favorite strappy black heels from under the bed, tossing them into the duffel as well. I couldn’t wait to see Crow’s expression when he saw me in them and was even more excited at the idea that maybe he would fuck me wearing only the shoes.
I heard a bang from below; a cupboard slamming shut. I froze, fear making the hair on my arms stand on end. I strained my ear to hear if anyone was approaching. After about a minute of silence, I started moving again, quicker this time. There was a surprising lack of things that were mine. I had been living here with Ray almost since coming to Mascid years ago, but as I moved around the bedroom, I realized that I could count on one hand the things that were mine that were not my stripper outfits. My chest felt heavy. I guess I had always been too high to realize that I was an outsider in my own bedroom. I wanted to fix that.
The jewelry box on the bedside table was too big to fit in the duffel, and I wasn’t as upset by this as I thought I would be. I flipped it open and saw a lot of gaudy, plasticky, rhinestone-encrusted jewelry that Ray had given me over the years. I searched through it to find my grandmother’s necklace, the last thing she had given to me before dying and leaving me alone with my parents. I fastened it around my neck, looked around the room once, and nodded. I was ready to go.
I stepped back over the snoring Lab Rat, dodged the bodies littering the floor, dodged the creaky step on the stairs, and made it to the hallway. I was almost free.
“—the guns from the safe,” Ray was saying in the kitchen. “We’re gonna teach ’em a lesson, make ’em fuckin’ regret comin’ onto our turf.”
I paused, frowning. If Ray wanted the guns, something big was going to go down soon. I stared at the door, torn between leaving quickly and staying to hear some of the plan so that I could warn Crow.
“You got it, Boss,” Breaker was saying. “We’re gonna give ’em a wedding they’ll never fuckin’ forget.”
There was a chorus of cruel laughter then the sounds of chair legs scraping against the floor. I had to get out of here now, or they were going to catch me. I reached for the handle of the front door, heart in my throat.
“Ah, there you are.”
My blood turned to ice as Ray’s voice came from behind me. I turned slowly to see him standing in the kitchen doorway, arms crossed over his chest.
“Where’ve you been, Jade?” he asked. I swallowed, throat dry, and scrambled for an excuse.
