What would scare him, though? He’s the one who’s scary …
Fabric touches my back and more warmth spills across me.
Maybe he isn’t going to hurt me …
My eyelids lower as I breathe the feeling in, wanting to go to sleep.
“Just keep ahold of her until we get to the house,” Jax says. “Then we’ll figure out how to handle this.”
“I was planning on it,” Zay’s heartbeat echoes in my ear. It sounds like the flutter of a hummingbird’s wings, so fast, so panicky. “But she’s really fucking cold.”
“She’ll be fine,” Jax assures him. “We just need to get her to the house.”
They grow quiet after that, and I start to let sleepiness grab ahold of me.
“She jumped,” Zay suddenly mumbles, skimming his fingers up and down my spine. “I can’t believe she did it … I didn’t think she would … If I had …”
“I know,” Jax says. “I didn’t think she would either. No one ever has. Well, except for us.”
“But, even we didn’t do it during the brink of winter,” Hunter points out. “She made us look like pussies.”
“Yeah, I guess she did.” I can’t tell which one of them says this, their voices starting to blur together as exhaustion cocoons me.
“You know what this means, right?” one of them says.
Another skip of silence and then …
“Yeah, The Raven Three have just become The Raven Four.”
Raven
Warm blood covers my hands as I stare down at my parents. Blood is all over them, covering their clothes, their hair.
Why is there so much blood? And why is it all over my hands?
“Mom,” I whisper as I collapse to my knees.
I can’t remember how I got here. Can’t remember where the blood came from. All I can remember is the screaming. So much screaming.
“Raven! No!” my mom shouts a plea. “Please don’t do this, sweetie. You don’t want to do this. Just go. Run!”
But I can’t go. Not until I get to her.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m sorry I can’t forget.”
She screams—
My eyelids flutter open as I leave the hazy memory and return to … well, I’m not really sure where I am. From what I can tell, I’m in a large bed with lots of pillows and blankets around me.
Blinking, I peer around, my confusion deepening. The bedroom, if that's even what it is, looks almost as big as my house. It has a gothic ambiance with black walls, matching trimming, and a giant fireplace with a fire currently crackling in it. The ceiling is domed and painted a midnight blue with a thorny chandelier dangling from it. And the bed I’m in has four massive, ebony posts and is enclosed by black curtains.
“Is this Hell?” I mutter as I slowly sit up.
Everything is so dark, like I imagine Hell would be. But if I am in Hell, then that means I’m dead.
I press my hand to my chest, feeling my heart beat against my hand.
So I’m alive. I’m also wearing someone else’s shirt, and my body feels like it was run over by truck. Or like it slammed into a freezing cold river …
As memories of what happened gradually surface, I throw the blankets off me. Then I frown. My legs aren’t covered up by anything.
“Crap,” I breathe out, recalling how Hunter held me down while Zay tugged down my shorts. But then he had hugged me against his chest, which was confusing. After that, things become hazy and that sends a trickle of fear through me. The last time I blacked out …
Blood on my hands.
Murderer.
Scooting to the edge of the bed, I lower my feet to the floor, wanting to get up and get the hell out of here … wherever here is.
When I stand up, my legs wobble, but I put one leg in front of the other and gradually stumble over to the dresser. Then I open the drawers, hoping to find some pants. But all that’s inside are knives and a bunch of other weapons.
I need to get out of here.
Abandoning my plan to get some pants, I shuffle toward the door, where I pause for a second, listening for any sounds coming from the other side. When only silence graces my ears, I twist the knob, open the door, and step out …
Into the longest and widest hallway I’ve ever seen.
I glance left then right, both directions seeming endless. No windows are around either, so the only light is flowing from antique lanterns hanging up on the walls.
Great. How in the hell am I supposed to find my way out of here?
“Come on, Raven; think of a way to get out of this.” I pinch the brim of my nose as my head pounds.
I really need a painkiller.
What I need is a map of this house. Or my phone. But Jax threw that out the window, something my aunt is going to yell at me for. That is, if I ever get out of here.
No, I’m going to. I’ve made it through jumping off a bridge. Getting out of a house should be a piece of cake.
I take a deep breath then start down the right side of the hallway. Every one of my muscles screams in protest, but I force myself to keep going, to find my way out of here …
“Shit,” I mutter as I reach the end of the hallway that opens up into a very spacious room filled with leather couches, a pool table, a fireplace, and the biggest flat screen TV I’ve ever seen.
I glance around for another exit but can’t find one, so I start to turn around to head back in the direction I came from. Then I freeze when I hear voices floating from somewhere.
“Dude, I’m really getting tired of this crap.”
I tense at the sight of Hunter, Jax, and Zay wandering down the hallway toward me. Hunter is looking at Jax, who’s staring at his phone, and Zay is glancing over his shoulder in the opposite direction, so I see them before they see me.
As images of what happened earlier flash through my mind, I duck to the side before they can spot me. Then I frantically look around, searching for some sort of hidden way out. I spot a door in the far back corner, tucked away near a bookshelf. I’m unsure what’s on the other side but decide it’s got to be better than dealing with these a-holes again. I hurry over to it and duck inside.
Relief washes over me. It’s just a closet.
Quickly closing the door, I sink to the floor and rest back against the wall, figuring I’ll wait it out until they leave. Then I’ll make my escape.
“We only have to deal with it for a little bit longer.” Jax sounds close enough that I assume they’ve entered the room.
“I know, but …” Hunter sighs. “I just want to be on our own finally, you know?”
“I know. And I do, too,” Jax agrees. “But in order for us to get our freedom, we have to finish out our agreement with my father.”
“I know, I know,” Hunter mumbles. “Your dad really sucks.”
“Yeah, he does. But he’s also helped us out a lot,” Jax reminds him. “And when this is all over, we’re going to come out on top.”
“If we survive that long,” Hunter continues to gripe.
“We will,” Jax says with certainty.
A weighted sigh then Hunter says, “You’re being really quiet, Zay. And you seemed distracted earlier … Where’s your head at, man?”
“I’m not distracted,” Zay insists. “You just haven’t stopped talking for the last hour. Or, well, stopped bitching.”
“Dude, I don’t bitch.” Amusement glitters in Hunter’s tone. “I vent.”
“Bitchy vent,” Zay throws back at him.
Hunter chuckles. “All right, maybe I do bitch sometimes.”
Silence settles, and I begin to wonder if they left. But then Jax says, “Someone should go check on our caged raven and make sure she hasn’t woken up yet.”
The muscles in my jaw tick. Caged raven? Like I’m their pet?
“I’ll do it,” Hunter eagerly volunteers.
“Yeah, I’m thinking with how eager you just sounded that Zay better do it,” Jax tells him.
“What the heck,
Jax?” Hunter sounds sulky. “Why’re you so worried about me being around her?”
“At first, I wasn’t. You do what you do and we’ve always been fine with that,” Jax replies over the clanking of what sounds like pool balls being racked. “But if she’s going to be one of us, we’re going to have to set some rules, especially for you, before I can allow you to get close to her or else things could get complicated fast.”
“Allow me to get close to her?” Hunter scoffs. “Newsflash, Jax: you may act like our babysitter, but you’re not the boss of us. If I want to get close to our little raven, then I will. And I’m sure Zay agrees with me.”
Our raven?
Oh, hell no.
“I think I agree with Jax on this one,” Zay says. “If she’s gonna be a part of our group, it might be good to set some rules with her.”
“Seriously?” Hunter questions in bewilderment. “You want to set rules?”
“With this, I think it might be a good idea,” Jax says with indifference. “She’s … Well, she seems wild and—”
“Interesting. Gorgeous as hell,” Hunter offers.
“Yeah … maybe.” Zay pauses. “I think she’s got some deep issues, which could lead to an entire set of other problems … Did you see those scars on her side?”
“Yeah,” Hunter says softly. “Who do you think did that to her?”
I hug my knees against my chest, breathing in and out through my nose. I forgot they saw my scars, saw the third worst moment of my life carved on my flesh.
“I don’t know,” Zay replies. “Maybe she put them on herself.”
“I kind of doubt it,” Hunter disagrees. “Do you know how painful that’d be …? How much pain you’d have to be in to do that?”
“She jumped off the bridge,” Zay stresses. “She clearly doesn’t give a shit about pain … or herself.”
I’m not a fan of how closely they’re assessing me, or how close they are to the truth.
“What scars?” Jax asks.
“They’re all over her side,” Hunter explains. “They look like someone carved words into her flesh with a knife.”
“Freak, loser, murderer,” Zay mutters. “That’s the three I managed to read. There might be more, though.”
My fingers travel toward my scarred side. There are six in total. They apparently didn’t see the bottom three that are close to my hip.
Silence stretches between them until Jax finally breaks it. “Yeah, we really need to set some rules with her.”
Why me having scars on my body makes him more certain of this decision is beyond me. But it doesn’t really matter, because there’s not going to be any rules. Because I’m not going to join their little gang. I’m not even sure why they want me to when they made it pretty clear they don’t like me.
“I’ll go check on her and make sure she’s asleep,” Jax announces. “Get the game started while I do that.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Hunter jokes, the amusement returning to his voice.
I assume Jax leaves then to go check on me. I wonder what he’ll do when he realizes I’m gone. Panic? Be relieved? Get pissed off?
“So, what do you really think about our little bird?” Hunter asks and the name sears at something inside me.
“Little bird, come here,” the doctor whispers as the door to my padded room shuts…
I blink sharply from the memory, unsure of where it even came from.
Forget.
Why am I always forgetting?
“I think you need to stop calling her ours,” Zay replies over the clinking of pool balls crashing together.
“Would you rather I call her yours?” Hunter questions.
“Shut the fuck up,” Zay snaps. “That’s not what I meant, so stop implying shit. That girl means nothing to me.”
“That’s total bullshit, or else you wouldn’t have jumped into the river to save her,” Hunter quips. "I've known you for most of my life, so I know you don't do shit like that for people.”
“She would’ve died if I hadn’t,” Zay grumbles. “I didn’t do it because I want her to become our fourth member in this twisted fucking group of ours. Or become mine.”
“Again, I call bullshit. You didn’t even hesitate when she jumped. You just ran and jumped into that freezing cold water.”
“Yeah, well, you screamed like a little bitch.”
“Um, yeah, because I didn’t think she’d jump. She’s crazy. But I like crazy.”
“That’s because you are crazy,” Zay says, and I can practically hear the eye roll through his tone.
“Then that’d make you a straight-up psychopath,” Hunter retorts.
“Probably.” Zay gives a short pause. “She called me that. Raven, I mean.”
“I know,” Hunter says. “They say great minds think alike or some shit like that.”
The balls clank again.
“Why do you think she didn’t try to swim out of the water?” Zay asks. “I mean, do you think …?”
“I’m not sure.” Concern fills Hunter’s tone. “She did tell us she couldn’t swim. Maybe she wasn’t lying.”
“But, why would she choose to jump if she couldn’t swim?” Zay points out. “Why not pick the other option we gave her?”
“To piss you off? To be stubborn?” Hunter suggests. “Or maybe she’s a virgin like you guessed.” Amusement seeps into his tone. “Can you imagine if she is? A virgin in our circle? That’d be … interesting.”
“More like trouble,” Zay says. “And if she is, you definitely need to stay away from her—”
“We have a huge problem,” Jax announces, cutting off their conversation. “Our caged bird is gone.”
“Wait … What?” Hunter stammers. “How?”
“She must’ve walked out of the room while we were in the kitchen,” Jax tells him. “But the alarms haven’t gone off, so she hasn’t left the house.”
Alarms? Suddenly my plan just to take off is feeling out of reach.
“Did you check the security cameras?” Zay asks over the sound of a soft bang.
Security cameras? Shit.
“I’m working on it,” Jax says. “I’m still waiting for the system to load up on my phone.”
I cross my fingers that maybe his system won’t load.
“Wait … Okay, it’s on,” Jax mumbles, squashing my hope.
Silence briefly stretches amongst them.
“Wait. Go back to that other one,” Hunter mutters. “Look right there.” Another gap of silence and then, “And so we’ve been overheard.”
And so I’ve been caught.
I push to my feet then feel around the closet, searching for some sort of weapon. But the only items in here are coats hanging up on plastic hangers. Why do they have to be plastic? Why can’t they be like those old-school wire ones my parents had? Better yet, why didn’t I steal one of those knives from that dresser drawer?
I need to get my head in the game if I’m going to get out of here.
I need to leave the closet and try to run.
Fight until the end.
I wrap my fingers around the doorknob and start counting down from three—
The door swings open, and I step back, tugging on the hem of my shirt as Jax appears in the doorway.
He’s wearing a different outfit than he had on earlier; sporting a black, short-sleeved button-down shirt, dark jeans, and boots. Suspenders dangle from his belt loop and wisps of his dark hair hang in his eyes. Eyes that are sweeping up and down my body. Apparently, unlike Hunter, Jax isn’t too thrilled by my looks, a frown forming at his lips.
“Why the hell are you hiding in here?” He’s looking at me just as coldly as he did when he carried me to the SUV while I was freezing to death.
Crossing my arms, I carry his icy gaze. “I wasn’t hiding. I was trying to find my way out of here.”
He cocks a brow. “You do realize this is a closet and not a front door, right?”
“Really?” My tone oozes sarcasm. “I jus
t figured the outside shrank to the size of a closet and that it was nighttime. Stupid me.”
A series of emotions flicker across his expression, ranging from surprise to irritation.
Good. Let him be irritated. The feeling is mutual.
“And since I’m clearly so stupid,” I continue, “maybe you can show me where the front door is so I can get out of your hair? Does that sound like an awesome idea?” I try to sound enticing, although I’m not very confident it works.
A crease forms between his brows, and his lips part to say who knows what. I never do get to find out, since Hunter nudges him out of the way and steps into the doorway.
He’s wearing a different outfit, too; black pants with a lot of pockets, a grey shirt with stitching on the sleeves, and a vest decorated with chains.
Like with Jax, he deliberately looks me over; but unlike Jax, a grin plays at the corners of his mouth. “There’s our little raven. For a minute, we thought you tried to fly away and we were gonna have to hunt you down.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Stop calling me little raven and yours. And while I’m at it, stop using creepy bird analogies.”
Hunter grins. “No way. Your name makes it way too easily. And now that you’re one of us, you’re like a double raven.”
“Jesus, Hunter, how do you come up with this shit?” Zay grumbles from somewhere.
I can’t see him, but the sound of his voice does weird things to my stomach as I recall him pressing his bare chest against mine…
Warmth.
Connection.
Touch.
I’d forgotten what that felt like.
Hunter’s gaze remains locked on mine as he says to Zay, “Aw, brother, don’t be jealous of my awesomeness.”
Zay laughs dryly. “Awesome’s not the word I’d ever use when referring to your lame-ass lines.”
Hunter’s eyes glint with hilarity. “Charming?”
“Try annoying and full of himself,” Zay throws back, his tone laced with annoyance.
“All right, that’s enough.” Jax pushes Hunter out of the way and reaches for me.
I skitter back. “Don’t touch me.”
He freezes then lowers his hand. “I’m not gonna fucking hurt you.”
The Raven Four: Books 1-2 Page 8
