“She’s white as a fucking ghost and shaking like a leaf; where the hell am I taking her? Home?”
I can hear Illi’s voice in the background, snarling at someone, but now that Jack is here, I’ve become too numb to really focus on it. It’s as though the adrenaline has seeped out of me and now I’m a shaking shell of myself again.
How the hell has Lips lived like this all her life?
Aodhan covers the mouthpiece and answers something back, then says back down the line, “Take her back to my loft; the Butcher has backup heading to the city now. Put her on the phone.”
I need to keep myself together so they don’t go charging into Atticus’ fortress-like mansion before I can figure out what the hell is going on, so I swallow around the dryness in my mouth so my voice comes out without the panicked and breathy quality that I’d used before. “I’m here. Honestly, I’m fine to go home until you’re back.”
“No. No, whatever the fuck that asshole has done means he doesn’t get to fucking know where you are. No one knows about the loft so you’ll be safe there until I can get to you.”
His voice clear and vibrating with rage, Illi calls out, “Listen to him, kid. Get your ass somewhere safe because I’m ready to fucking bleed half the city out after this goddamn night. Whatever that fuck, the Crow, has done has moved him from my shit-list to my to-kill list.”
I swallow because those words should terrify me but… if that board really is his, and who else could it belong to, then I’ll have to vote on whether he lives or dies.
If he’s targeting Ash, he can’t live.
I might not be able to live with myself for voting against him, but I also couldn’t live knowing I’d saved his life for him to then kill my twin.
“I’ll go to the loft. I’ll stay there until we know what’s going on with… everything.”
Jack nods, his eyes still on the traffic in front of us, and Aodhan murmurs something reassuring down the line again. “Call the Wolf. Stay on the line with her while you wait for me; she’s been pissed and ready for an update for hours.”
I agree and Jack hangs up. My fingers are numb where they’re curled so tightly around my own phone, barely registering it buzzing in my hand with messages from my family. They have no idea what’s happened, only that Aodhan has had to remove me from Atticus’ care once again and they’re out for his blood.
Thank God they’re thousands of miles away in Texas dealing with bikers, blood and death.
“Did he hurt you?” Jack murmurs again, his eyes sliding off of the road to look me over again. I shake my head and he frowns at me, clearly thinking I’m lying.
“I didn’t see him. I didn’t see anyone, I just… found something. I wasn’t safe there, especially if he found out that I’d seen it.” My voice is too soft, too fucking fragile once again, but he finally looks as though he believes me.
We make it through the busy downtown and past all of the seedy bars that Lips spent her teenage years working her jobs in, collecting information and doing hits on unsuspecting criminals. I know nothing about what it means to frequent those places, but I know everything about what it takes to be the Wolf. Every scenario that Lips has ever run me through flicks through my head as if on a movie reel, the ways she was cornered and fought back, all of the times she took down men three times her size with nothing but her knife and an uncanny ability to read the situations she was in.
I’m constantly in awe of her.
“The loft is secure and private. Barely anyone knows it exists and only mo rí and I know he’s the one who owns it. I’ll stay with you.”
I nod and try to smile at him, but it’s stiff at best. We’re only a block away from Illi’s warehouse apartment when he turns into an old grocery store parking lot, parking the car in the darkest corner possible. It’s filthy and not at all what I was expecting, with a few cars parked closer to the store’s doors. It’s a twenty-four hour place, the type you expect to get shot in for a dollar, and I’m instantly uneasy.
“There is absolutely no way on this Earth that I’m going in there,” I say, my tone exactly that of a spoiled rich brat.
It makes complete sense.
“Relax, Queenie. This is just the hiding place for the entrance. Nobody comes here, no one except some old gang members marked by the Ox and working girls who’re desperately flirting with death. No one would ever guess the loft was here too.”
I grimace and nod because he’s correct, I would never guess that Aodhan would willingly sleep near this place. Jack gets out of the car and walks around to get my door, giving me an arm to hold like a gentleman. I almost stumble on my feet because I’ve forgotten that I’m wearing flat shoes, my outfit completely out of my usual attire.
No wonder Jack was so worried.
“It’s through here; we should move quickly so we’re not seen,” Jack murmurs quietly even though there’s no one around us, and I let him lead me past the grocery store building and down the alley to an old fire escape.
Never had I ever thought I’d be climbing one of these but tonight has been a nightmare so why the hell not?
Jack ushers me up first, following closely behind and promising he’ll catch me if I slip and fall. It’s sweet and everything, but I hadn’t even considered that I might slip and now my knees are shaking like a freaking leaf.
When I finally get to the top, there isn’t a door waiting for me at all, only a small platform to stand on and a window that is barred with a blackout curtain on the inside so I can’t see a thing. When Jack heaves himself onto the tiny platform with me, I start to panic a little that maybe he’s not such a good guy and he’s going to throw me off of the side of the building.
He grins at me and pulls a key out, sliding into a hole I hadn’t noticed in my freakout, and the window swings open like a mini door.
“After you, Queenie. Your tower awaits.”
Chapter Two
The loft is… something out of a dream.
Nothing in it is to my specific taste, I can’t imagine ever picking anything in here out for myself, but it’s all absolutely freaking perfect. The floors are all old wood, worn and warm, the kind of beauty that can’t be bought new but has to be broken in over decades.
There’s a new rug in dark greens and grays in the kitchen area, and the cupboards are a rich oak with a simple stone counter top. All of the appliances are brand new, though none of them are the top of the line which makes sense to me.
There’s a giant mirror with a beautiful gold leaf frame leaning against one of the walls, almost reaching the ceiling, and facing it is a mattress on the floor covered in pillows and blankets until it looks like a plush nest I want to climb into and never get out of.
There’s no TV, no computer, no front door, nothing of the outside world in here to disturb me. It takes me a second to find the bathroom door, slightly ajar and a claw-foot bathtub peeking out.
It’s perfect and everything I didn’t know that I so desperately need right now.
“There’s food in the fridge and everything is clean in here; mo rí said you’d be worried about that. Go eat and shower and… fucking relax. Whatever. He’ll be home soon. I’m going to go move the car so no one sees it and recognizes it. They’d never find this place but better safe than sorry. You gonna be okay to just wait here?”