Page 41 of Queen Crow
I would also like to monitor Atticus’ every move for the rest of our lives.
One of the many amazing things about having the Wolf of Mounts Bay as your best friend and partner in all nefarious things is that while I’m fussing with Atticus and his savage mood, Lips goes on the warpath for Amanda Donnelley. She locks herself down in my panic room with nothing but coffee and a variety of snacks until she’s read every little thing that Jackson gave us on the bitch. She texts me things as she finds them, little coded snippets of information that she thinks might be helpful, until finally she messages with with, ‘Got her.’
I’m busy trying to stop Atticus from going home when it comes through and when I squeal happily, he drops his sour attitude for a half a minute to ask, “What’s happened? Avery, what is it?”
I tug the blankets back up his chest, ignoring his snapping. “That was the sound of victory. If you promise to stay here for the rest of the week, I’ll tell you what we’ve won… when it’s done.”
He’s less happy about that option.
When I sneak back downstairs to put together a tray of lunch for us both, Lips meets me there, slapping Noah on the back of the head as we pass him when she sees the mess he’s made of my pastries drawer. I’m too happy aboutfinallydealing with Amanda to care too much.
“So? Tell me. I need to gloat over whatever you have on her.”
She chuckles under her breath and grabs a broom to sweep up her brother’s mess. “She’s a traitorous bitch. The big and bad she’s held over the Crawfords’ heads to keep herself safe? Yeah, the bitch has been selling out her own blood and we’re going to drown her in it.”
Victory has never tasted so sweet before.
“How’s grumpy-ass Crawford doing up there? Do you need me to kill him yet? Knock him out a little?”
I laugh at her. “A light stabbing, maybe? You always did say you could do it without permanent damage.”
She finishes up with the floors and then starts wiping down the countertops. “And I stand by that. I could definitely bleed him out some for you.”
I finish up with the cheese and meat selections on the tray, thanking Lips for cleaning up after her idiot brother, and then I go back up to my room to force feed Atticus.
“If this is about Amanda or my father, you need to tell me about it,” he says, accepting a plate from me with only a slight grimace as the movement pulls on his chest.
I take one of my own and start piling on all of my favorite cheeses. This is the perfect light lunch and while the heathens in my family might not appreciate it, there’s a very arrogant and spoiled part of Atticus that does.
“Your informants differ greatly from the Wolf’s, did you know that? Not just who they are, but what they know… their loyalty, what they have access to. There are many things that Lips can find out that you just can’t.”
He raises an eyebrow at me. “You’re really not going to tell me? Is this some sort of punishment for the times I’ve kept you out of business for your own safety?”
I roll my eyes and lean back in the seat I’m perched on, my phone is buzzing in my pocket and I answer as I dig it out, “I don’t believe in punishments, Atticus, but I do see some validity to your methods. You’re being kept out of this for your own safety. Your only job right now is to heal and be well enough to deal with your own interests again because if I have to listen to the Viper whine about his stupid fights one more time, I will have us running the Game again, andno onewants that.”
There’s a message from Lips waiting for me, just informing me that she’s already reached out to her contacts about getting a meeting with Santiago Arias set up. Efficient, effective, and with zero attitude. Eclipse Anderson is my soulmate, and it’s a tragedy that we’re stuck pining after all of these stupid men.
“If you don’t believe in punishments, then why are you sitting all the way over there? Is this the world you really wanted, one where you’re bossing me around and keeping yourself as far away from me as possible?”
I drop my phone back down into my lap as I look him over. His words are delivered in a very even tone, no signs of a sullen undertone, and his face is passive. I see through it now, it’s a whole new side of him I’ve never been allowed to witness.
The side where he wants me enough to let me in.
I stand up and move the chair back into the corner, ducking into my closet to find something more comfortable to lie around in. “Is that why you’re being a nightmare? I thought it was pride, but really it’s just… sulking? Lord have mercy.”
He scowls at me but when I climb up onto the bed with him, his arms open for me to lie with him. I try not to lean on his chest, which pisses him off, but when we’ve wrestled a little, we find a spot we’re both comfortable in, wrapped up in each other.
He mumbles into my hair, “I’ve spent a week with you trying to be as close to me as possible without actually touching me. It has definitely felt like torture, especially after you told me just how much you wanted me.”
I sigh back, burrowing deeper into his arms. “I thought you were dead. Luca had to yell at me to move off of you because I thought I was crying over your corpse. I’m trying not to coddle you, but you don’t know how that felt, what that did to me.”
He pulls me into his body tighter, gasping a little at the pulling against his chest again but I let him, mostly because I know there’s no use fighting him.
This is where I belong.
* * *
I decide to only take Ash with me on the cross-country flight to New York to meet with the Colombian cartel.