average human’s Reviews > All Hail > Status Update

Avery nods and then slips her hand in Ash’s. It’s just a little movement, something I wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t watching her so carefully, but it settles him down enough that he’s silent for the rest of the drive in.
When the car finally stops Ash climbs out and holds out a hand to help Avery out, all of the old world courtesy and charm that isn’t readily found anymore but it’s not just an act. He handles her like she’s made out of glass when I’m sure he’s the one covered in cracks.
He stays close to her side, like a guard expecting an attack, and I stay a full step away from them as if that will help settle him down a bit. He waits until Avery is busy signing into the visitors log before he speaks again.
“I don’t know why you’re helping us but I’d rather you fucking didn’t,” he hisses and I straighten my tie, acting as though I didn’t hear him. He doesn’t like having his own tricks used against him but, again, my hands are tied.
Thanks to my connections we don’t have to wait, one of the guards takes us straight through to the observation room with a curious glance. It makes sense. We’re in the worse institution in the country, the place all of the worst child offenders end up, and Avery has a Birkin bag in the crook of her arm.
She’s definitely out of place here.
The guard leaves us in there alone and Ash looks around the room like he’s waiting for the explosion to happen, all irritation and agitation.
“This is a bad idea, Floss,” he murmurs, and she shrugs.
“I don’t care. I have to know.”
The moment the door to the interview room opens his face falls, the change in him so abrupt I almost get whiplash.
We all watch in silence as the one of the guards bring their cousin into the room.
“He looks just like Mom,” Ash says, swallowing a little at the rasp in his tone.
Avery looks close to tears but her eyes are still sharp as they roam over his figure. “He’s been fighting, the black eye and messed up knuckles give it away.”
I shrug at her. “It’s a juvie in the worst city in the country, I’m sure he’s been in a lot of fights.”
Avery nods and steps closer to the glass, her gaze never moving away from the O’Cronin boy. It doesn’t matter that he’s big for his age or the sour look on his face, he looks too fucking young sitting there in an orange jumpsuit on.
The tattoo on his jaw is grotesque.
The guard in there with him snaps, “Sit your ass down, O’Cronin.”
The kid turns his head and smirks back at him, bravado he wears with ease. “You know how this goes, I’m not answering to that name.”
The guard grimaces and snaps again, “Fine, Arbour, sit your ass down.”
Avery jolts away from the glass.
I know the decision but I’m still shocked that Ash is the one to voice it out loud.
“Get him out.”

82%

Then I spend a few hours working on my dancing again because now that I stepped over that threshold with Aodhan’s prodding, I’m craving the burn again.
I go to bed that night with a text from Aodhan that he’s still working the shipment and not to wait up. I’m grumpy about it, who wouldn’t be when orgasms that good are on the line, but the fact that he’s letting me know where he is without ignoring me or making me feel guilty about wanting to know is another big point for him.
I’m woken by a phone call from Aodhan at stupid-o-clock. I haven’t been woken up at this time since school finished and I’ll admit I’m not in the best mood about it, especially because I went to bed alone.
“Someone had better be dying. If this is a booty call, I swear I will never touch your dick again.”
He huffs at my comment and then there’s a little pause before he speaks, just long enough that I sit up in my bed as I prepare myself for the worst. “Listen to me, Queenie, I don’t wanna do this. I really fucking don’t, but I need you to go with the Crow back to his place for a few days.”
I freeze and my tone goes icy cold without thought, “And why exactly would I want to do that? You know—“
He interrupts me, “I know exactly what that asshole did and I promise you, I’m not fucking happy about this. Something happened over here and I just need you safe for a few days while Illi and I sort it out. I called him before I called you but only because… fuck.”
There’s a beeping noise down the line and when I check my phone, I find Illi trying to call me too. My insecurities might make me doubt Aodhan’s intentions but I know Illi would rather bleed Atticus out than send me over there without backup so whatever is happening, it’s serious.
“Tell me everything while I pack a bag. You’d better promise me you’ll be back to pick me up the second you can, O’Cronin, or I’ll send the Wolf after you with a knife in the dark. We both know she’d do it for me.”
He huffs and I can hear talking in the background of the call, lots of female voices, young and old. He’s home, I can catch a few Gaelic words but I have no idea what they mean, I only recognize the intonation.
“I know she would and if it were for you, Queenie, I’d let her but… my house was shot up while I was working down at the docks. A spray of bullets over half the compound and no one saw a thing. The security cameras were cut so I have no fucking clue who was behind it. I assumed it was payback for Diarmuid because he did have a lot of friends but when I made it home to check out the damage, I found a photo tacked to my front door from your little stalker… you and me with our eyes crossed out.”
I curse under my breath and pull out one of my overnight bags, carefully folding my pajamas and underwear in there. Once it’s full I pull out another and pack away jeans, shirts, yoga pants, and a few light sweaters.
I pack a third with dresses.
You never know how many outfit choices you might need and I’m angry enough to want a lot of options here.
“So we’re being stalked and threatened together. Lovely. Did you tell Atticus about this yet or shall I call ahead to warn him I’m coming to stay? He’ll love this, you know? He’s going to chain me up, lock the doors, and never let me see sunlight again. Call Ash and Harley sooner rather than later about coming to rescue me.”
He doesn’t laugh about my dramatics like I expect. That’s more worrying than anything else he’s said so far tonight. “What else? What aren’t you telling me?”
I hear the crunching of his boots and the sounds of his family quieten down as he walks away from them. “The Crow is going to have a lot of questions about the photos. He’s had a guy snooping around after me for weeks and he got down here not long after I did. I’d taken down the photos and I was vague about them because… I needed to warn you first and find out what we’re going to say about them, to make sure our stories were the same.”
I sit back on my heels in my closet and stare at the dozens of shelves, all of them filled with shoes, as the dread pools in my gut. “Where was the photo taken?”
He heaves out a sigh. “Don’t panic. I’ve gotten all of the photos and I have them with me. If you don’t want anyone to see them, then I’ll burn them right now before Illi gets here but Avery… they’re from the Jackal’s lair. They’re screenshots from the video recording. Someone has a copy.”
I gag.
I need to vomit, I can’t contain the deep sense of shame that overtakes me and triggers my stomach to empty, but I choke it down. Aodhan grunts like he’s taken a hit and murmurs down the line to me all of the things he’d like to do to whoever the fuck has found that tape.
It doesn’t matter though.
If it’s out there it’s only a matter of time before it becomes our problem.
It takes me a minute to get myself under control but when I do there’s tears in my eyes and my voice comes out as a croak, “I told… I told Lips about it. She knows. Show Illi and tell him about what happened because I need that video gone, Aodhan. If Ash sees it… we can’t let that happen.”
Aodhan curses under his breath. “He’s just gotten here. I’ll take care of it, Queenie, just stay safe and I’ll check in when I have something. You know we won’t stop until this asshole is dead.”
That’s not as comforting as it should be because the fact of the matter is that Illi is going to know what happened now too. It’s a necessary evil, I’d rather it be him than Ash or Harley, but it’s just going to be another person picking over my decisions and seeing me in a different light.
I send Lips a text and for the first time since they left, I ask her to come home.
I immediately text her again and tell her not to, because if she comes home then so will Ash and also for the first time, I’m pissed my best friend is dating my brother because I need her but I can’t risk him coming home and seeing something.
She texts me back and those five little words give me the strength to get up, take a shower, and be the woman I need to be to face Atticus right now because the Wolf of Mounts Bay has never let me down, not once in our entire friendship.
I’ve called in a favor.

I’M WAITING on my front steps with my bags when the Rolls Royce arrives.
I’m shocked to see Atticus in the driver’s seat and no Luca in the car, and when I start picking up my bags he gets out and frowns at me until I leave them for him to pack away in the trunk. It’s still dark out, no signs in the sky yet of the sun coming up, and I pull the coat I’m wearing a little tighter around my body.
“Thank you for picking me up. I could have driven myself but I appreciate you taking the time for me.” I’ve collected myself enough to speak without choking on the words but my stomach is still a riot of panicked what if’s.
He stares at me like I’m testing him and says in a low voice, “You shouldn’t be driving if there’s someone threatening you. You shouldn’t be alone.”
I shrug and brush past him to open my own car door, ignoring the huffing he does in my direction. “You drove here alone. I imagine there are always threats on your life… especially when you consider the way you go about business. Why are you any different, Crow?”
He really doesn’t like it when I call him that.
I really don’t care.
“I wanted to have the opportunity to speak with you privately. Your recent… distaste for Luca meant that I thought it was a good idea to leave him back at my place until we’ve had this discussion.”
I slide into my seat and let him shut the car door behind me. The car is stunning, everything that you could possibly want in a luxury car, and I look around at every little one of the details while he gets in and starts the engine.
I might get one of my own.
“I need to apologize—”
I cut him off, “Don’t. I don’t want or need it. Thank you for letting me stay with you, I’ll stay out of your way if you stay out of mine.”
He sighs at me and I take a better look over at him. His sleeves are rolled up on the dress shirt he’s wearing and one of his arms has a trail of feathers down one side. I haven’t seen him in less than a three-piece suit for years… since he was nothing more than a child and I had no idea he even had tattoos.
I mean, obviously I knew he had to have his markings for being a member of the Twelve somewhere in my mind but to see it for myself is another thing.
I want to know if he has any more.
“Avery, I’m trying to fix things between us. This is the first chance I’ve had to speak to you privately in months… years, even. Other than at the gala, I lost my head.”
I look out of the window so I don’t obsess over the tattoos enough that he notices my interest. “What you do with your head is none of my concern. You had every opportunity to do the right thing, Atticus, you chose not to.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I think about ignoring it. Yet when he glares down at it, I can’t help but pull it out and scroll through my messages slowly just to piss him off some more.
“I need your full attention, Avery. I’m willing to discuss some things with you now if it will repair what is happening between us.”
I speak without looking up from my screen, “Is this because you know I’m seeing Aodhan? Is this your jealousy speaking?”
His jaw clamps shut and he speaks between his teeth. “If you want to play with Mounty trash then that’s your own issue to deal with. I’m talking about what happened with my family. I’m talking about the game you’re playing with Amanda Donnelley that is more dangerous than you know.”
My eyes narrow in his direction at his comment about Aodhan but I focus on the other issues for now. I can chew him out later about the absolute hypocrisy of talking down about Mounties when he himself is a member of the Twelve… a Mounts Bay institution.
“Give me one good reason to listen to you because everything you’ve given me so far has been veiled lies and half-truths for no reason other than keeping me out of your world. This isn’t about the sex, Atticus. I think I’m ready to walk away from you if this continues because I’m not going to be treated like this… not even by you.”
His hands tighten on the steering wheel until the leather creaks. I settle back in my seat, expecting that to be the conversation over with. There was a moment, after Luca had found me and Aodhan and walked me back out of the old and dilapidated bank, that I thought Atticus was going to finally open up to me. The look on his face when I walked out of there, covered in burns and bruises, wearing Aodhan’s shirt and Luca’s jacket… he looked at me like I was the sun. Like everything in his world revolved around me, like I was the most precious thing he’s ever encountered and he would live and die for me.
Something changed.
I don’t know what happened after that day, but his careful surveillance of my life went into overdrive and it was as though he no longer trusted me to keep myself safe. Still doesn’t trust me. Something very obviously has happened but I don’t know what it is.
If he can’t trust me with it then I’m done.
“Your father sold you at auction four times.”
I freeze, only my head moving slowly so I can stare over at him. He keeps his eyes on the road, his hands still tightly wrapped around the steering wheel and his jaw is working as he grinds his teeth. I always knew he’d been protecting me but he’d never told me the finer details.
He doesn’t sound tense though, he’s just firmly laying down the facts that I was completely unaware of. “The Devil was only the last time he auctioned you off at those skin markets. The buyer before him collected women for the pleasure of owning them, the one before that was one of his business associates. The type of man that enjoyed slapping women around and belittling them, and he enjoyed them a little too young. I took care of both of them and so your father just kept using you as a threat to Ash until he would grow bored and attempt to sell you again.”
“What about the first buyer?” I whisper, and he pulls into the driveway of his fortress-like mansion, the gates opening for him automatically.
“I bought you first. I bought you and I made arrangements for you to move into my apartments in Mounts Bay. You could live there happily, and safely, without ever having to see Joey or your father again. I would have taken care of you until you were eighteen and made your own decisions.”
My heart is beating too hard in my chest, loud in my ears. “You bought me… to keep me safe from Senior? Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t I get to stay with you?”
He stares at the gates but he doesn’t make a move to direct the car down the driveway. “Ash. I was very aware that there was no way to get you and him both out. If I had’ve just taken you both your father would have thrown everything at me and at eighteen, I wasn’t a match for him . I needed this empire to be able to get you both out and… I knew you’d never leave your twin behind. I knew you’d never be whole without him. It was always my back-up plan, to just take you and run, but until Joey attacked you, I thought you were safe enough in the house as long as I kept you from being bought.”
I take a deep breath. “Did you know they were hurting Ash?”
He groans and rubs a hand over his face. “I did. There was nothing I could do about it without risking everything. It was not a choice I would wish on anyone, Avery, but you know how far your father’s net reached… there’s still a lot of clean up going on thanks to his death. It’s never as simple as just killing an evil man. Dozens spring up in their place.”
It’s the answer I suspected but not exactly one I want to hear. “Tell me, then. Tell me who I need to neutralize and I’ll do it. He was my father, my problem, and his death was for me. Why shouldn’t I be the one cleaning up the mess?”
He straightens back up and finally moves the car forward. “I became the Crow for you, Avery. None of this will be worth it if anything happens to you.”
I don’t get the chance to argue with him, that same argument we always have, because the moment the car pulls up three men come stalking over to empty my bags out from the trunk, two more opening the car doors for us both and taking care of our every need before I have the chance to answer Atticus.
I feel instantly smothered.
This is exactly what life in the Beaumont Manor felt like. Dozens of faceless, emotionless maids and butlers who saw nothing and everything. Who would take care of everything to the point that life was unbearably boring. I didn’t even dress myself, bathe myself, I was thirteen and still had someone to buckle my shoes every day because to bend over and do it myself was unacceptable.
I didn’t realize just how much I hated it until I had my own house with no one but myself wandering around the spaces, cooking for myself and cleaning everything whenever I feel like it.
I don’t know how Atticus can stand it either.
“Have dinner with me. We can finish this discussion over good food,” Atticus says as he helps me out of the car.
I shrug at him. “I’m not sure there’s much more to say.”
He pulls me into him, ignoring his people around us shifting away from the display. “There’s always more, Avery. Between us, there will always be more.”