“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 just 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.”
I shake my head and step back, crossing my arms. “Why the hell should I believe you? You forced me to jump into a freezing river, and I almost died because of it.”
“Don’t be overdramatic. You didn’t almost die. You got a mild case of hypothermia. And we didn’t make you jump,” Jax says so matter-of-factly.
“You didn’t give me any other choice,” I point out. “It was either jump or end up like those other guys you hauled out to that bridge. And from what Zay said, I’m betting their frozen corpses are beneath that frozen ground surrounding that river.”
He gives me a tolerant look as he braces his hands on the doorframe. “Actually, we did give you another choice. You just didn’t want to take it.”
I glare at him. “That’s because freezing to death sounded way better than being your whore.”
“Sounded. As in the past tense?” he questions, his brow arching. When I make no effort to respond, he thrums his fingers against the doorframe. “Well, regardless of what you didn’t or did want to be, now you’re one of us, so …” He shrugs, lowering his hands to his sides.
“Yeah, no thanks,” I mutter.
“No thanks?” Jax looks livid. “You should be a bit more grateful about this.”