Queen crow queen crow 3, p.1
Queen Crow: Queen Crow #3, page 1
Queen Crow
Queen Crow #3
J Bree
Queen Crow
Queen Crow #3
Copyright © 2021 J Bree
Cover Designer: Bellaluna Cover Designs
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.
This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it wasn’t purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products referred to in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorised, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Queen Crow/J Bree – 1st ed.
ISBN-13 - 9798541849028
To my codependent, noodle-loving friends.
Who are out here saving lives, and I don’t just mean my own.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Also by J Bree
About the Author
CONTINUE READING FOR AN EXCERPT FROM
Just Drop Out
Prologue
Prologue
Atticus - Two years ago
The second I meet the Wolf’s eyes across the hallway as the elevator doors shut, I know that this is the moment I’ve been waiting for since I’d heard from Luca that she was attending Hannaford.
This is the moment that I have to kill the girl to keep Avery safe.
I meet Luca’s eye from across the room where he’s been watching this entire evening unfold, nodding to him as I step forward to wait for the next elevator. I check the security cameras on my phone and watch as they all walk into their hotel room together. Avery looks upset and Ash is snarling at the Wolf, so clearly she’s let them know.
I wait until I get up to their floor before I call her, sure that she’ll leave me to go to voicemail but when she does actually answer, I don’t give her the chance to talk her way out of this. “Which room are you in? We need to talk.”
There’s a pause like she’s considering this but when she speaks, her voice is as steady as ever, the immovable Wolf of Mounts Bay. “We’re leaving. We’re going back to Hannaford. Avery is under my protection and if you want to discuss the parameters of that protection with me, we can do it at the next meeting.”
Like that would ever stop me. “Open the door, Wolf.”
She hangs up on me and it’s a full minute before the door opens, the Morrison kid staring me down with that moody arrogance he’s perfected. I step past him without acknowledging him, now isn’t the time for playing pretend, and the moment he has the door opened for me, he stalks back over to his friends, flanking the Wolf alongside Ash.
Avery is sitting on the living room chair, her back straight and a look of scowling betrayal on her face. I have to contain the snarl I want to let out at the little slum assassin for meddling in her life. I shouldn’t have let Luca talk me out of killing her.
I’ve never been able to see why he’s so soft on her.
All I see when I look at her is a threat.
No one should be able to get into the places she can without help or detection, and the trail of bodies she’s been able to leave behind her isn’t just impressive...
It’s disturbing.
Ash is staring at me with that same furious loathing he always has for me, except this time he’s practically vibrating with rage and bloodlust. Morrison is also ready to throw himself into a fight, rocking back on his heels as he shifts his stance in preparation.
I need to play this right.
Stepping forward and inclining my head at the Wolf respectfully is the right thing to do, but she’s too perceptive not to see what this is about. She’s always seen too much, always been a little too smart for everyone else in the Twelve to get a handle on her.
It still is astounding that she sides with the Jackal.
“I already told you we’re leaving,” she says, her voice pitched low and even, as though she’s projecting an older, more formidable version of herself.
She’s seventeen, for fuck’s sake.
I keep my eyes fixed on hers as I kick the door shut behind me, using my peripherals to check for the Butcher, because nothing would shock me less than that psychopath stalking out of the bathroom right now.
When it’s clear we’re alone, I get right to it. “I’m not leaving here without her. Name your price.”
It’s like a match to Ash’s temper, instant ignition as he snarls, “She’s not for fucking sale!”
It’s a calculated move for me, a test to see not only what they know about her, but how it is that she’ll treat them here. If she offers me Avery, she’s dead. If she doesn’t… Well, I’m leaving here with her, so she’s still dead.
Killing a seventeen-year-old girl from the slums isn’t even close to the worst thing I’ve done.
Except the Wolf holds up a hand to stop Ash from lunging at me and taking a swing, the shot he’s been waiting for years to take. Miraculously, his eyes break away from me for a second to glare at her. Even more interestingly, Morrison instantly stiffens like he’s getting ready to jump in between them and I’ve never seen him side with someone over Ash. Never, in over a decade of friendship.
There’s a staring contest for a second, everyone watching and taking bets in their heads over what the fuck is happening in the air between them, before Ash crosses his arms and swings back to seethe in my direction once more.
Avery and the Wolf share a look and I don’t like that at all. I don’t like that they have their own language, that Avery trusts her enough to establish that level of communication.
“How much? How much is she worth to you?” Lips says coolly.
It doesn’t make sense with how she’s acting, but I don’t have the time or patience to speculate right now. It’s all about the negotiation. “Three favors.”
She pauses, as close to a reaction as I’ll ever get from her, and then she slowly shakes her head at me. Her eyes are calm and steady on mine, and I want to strangle her for this moment.
Fuck it, she’s dead anyway, I might as well find out how deep her loyalties lie. “Six, but I’ll have your word that you will never tell the Jackal about her.”
She instantly freezes.
I’m expecting her to grab her phone and call her psychopath friend, the man who is singlehandedly attempting to murder me at every opportunity. The man who loves nothing more than being the Jackal, running all of the drugs and destroying as many lives as he possibly can.
I need to get Avery the fuck away from them all.
The Wolf looks me over in that slow, assessing way of hers and whatever she sees is enough to make her decision, taking a single step forward. I shift my own stance, just enough that I’m ready if she launches herself at me, and instantly her eyes narrow.
The mood in the room gets malevolent.
Her words, when they come, are a low rasp, saying the last thing I’m expecting from her, “You’re in love with her, aren’t you, Atticus?”
We never use our names, not ever.
“I told you, I’ll—“ I start, but she cuts me off.
“She’s not for sale. Not to you, not to Matteo, not to anyone. Either admit you’re here because you have real, genuine feelings for her, or leave. And to be perfectly clear, there is nothing I wouldn’t do to keep her safe. I’ll risk the Twelve if I have to.”
It’s a declaration of more than friendship, of a loyalty that runs deeper than just some schoolyard bullshit.
My eyes swing down to land on Avery because this has to be a play, some tactic to use her as a pawn against me, but again, that betrayal in her eyes cuts me to fucking ribbons.
I’m a second away from pulling a gun and killing the Wolf for messing with her head and turning her against me when Avery says, “The Wolf is my family, Atticus. I’m not leaving with you.”
Family.
Avery has never had family before.
From the moment Alice was murdered in that fucking mausoleum of Senior’s, she’s had Ash and no one else. Even I have had to keep myself at arm’s length from her for years, just to keep her safe from my family and her father.
Ash doesn’t react to her claiming the Wolf as her family, and he’s the most protective, possessive brother I’ve ever met.
Maybe I won’t kill the girl.
It’s a risk to Avery’s safety, but she’s already made her choice for now.
I turn to face the Wolf again. “You can’t let Matteo know about her, or what she means to me. He’ll
It’s as though all of the fight has been sucked out of me and I sink down in the armchair in the corner of the room, rubbing my hands over my face.
When will the mind games and careful moves end? When will I have Avery safe, alive, and mine?
“You don’t need to explain to me what that man does to innocent girls when he has an agenda,” the Wolf whispers, and it hits me once again that she’s Avery’s age. She’s a teenage girl, orphaned and alone and without someone like me watching over her.
All she’s had is the Jackal.
The self-loathing that happens when the black-hearted Crow slips away from me sets in, a dark chuckle slipping out of me. “I guess I should remember that better than anyone. I was there when he snapped your leg with his bare hands. What were you, twelve years old?”
Morrison takes her hand and tugs her into his body, trying to comfort her for trauma from long ago. His closeness to her is confusing because with the way Ash trusts her, I would’ve guessed they were dating.
She clears her throat. “Thirteen. I was thirteen and I had just won the Game. He told me he wanted to teach me how to deal with pain, but really, he was trying to break me in. Nothing he hates more than a female he can’t break.”
And yet he doesn’t hate her. “Well, he didn’t break you, did he? Here you stand with two Beaumonts and the richest kid in the country. You’ve inducted the heir to the O’Cronin family into your fold, and let’s not forget the Butcher. I’d wager this wasn’t Matteo’s plan.”
She chuckles and sits on the couch, pulling Morrison down with her, and Avery moves over to them immediately. Ash is slower to move over to them but when he does, he slips his hand to rest on the Wolf’s thigh.
I have no fucking clue what to make of them. “I was under the impression you were with the O’Cronin kid. That’s what Matteo thinks anyway. I heard a rumor of… more but I thought that was just his delusions.”
The Wolf starts to blush and Avery scoffs at her, irreverent to her status and infamy. “Seriously? We’re in a life-threatening situation and you’re getting all shy about your harem of obsessed boys?”
Morrison nudges Avery’s leg with his shoulder and cackles at her. “Leave her alone, she’s used to being a badass under pressure.”
The Wolf of Mounts Bay has a harem and Alexander Asher William Beaumont, the scowling and savage boy who can’t even handle sharing his sister with the world, is one of them.
This is incomprehensible.
So is Avery thinking that her life has ever been in danger from me. “This isn’t a life-threatening situation, Avery. As long as you are safe, I’m not going to do anything. The last time I saw the Wolf, I knew things had changed between her and the Jackal, but I couldn’t risk being wrong. I couldn’t leave your fate up to chance because the Jackal would do things to you that I’ve spent years making sure your father didn’t fucking do.”
My words mean nothing to her though, and she just stares over at me like I’ve lost her trust for good.
I won’t feel bad for this, not for coming here ready to kill for her, or for keeping her in the dark about who I’ve become. It’s saved her life over and over again, and that’s all that matters in the end.
Even if she hates me.
The Wolf cuts in to our staring competition. “It’s Lips, and I’m not Matteo’s protégé or girlfriend or whatever it is that the Twelve think. He sponsored me for the Game and he’s helped me out, but he’s also done things to me that I can’t ever forgive or forget. I went to Hannaford to figure a way out. That’s what we’re doing, we’re finding a way out of all of this.”
I nod and rub at my chin, thinking through a thousand new avenues this potential alliance could open up for me. For Avery. For building an empire so big and safe for her that she becomes untouchable.
Avery hesitates for a moment and then asks with her usual commanding tone, “You were at the meeting with Lips and Harley, do you think the Jackal is going to continue to send people to kill him?”
I shrug, easily able to slip into a business conversation with her. “He’s in less danger now that he’s under her protection. He was on very limited time with his grandfather before then, despite my efforts. Matteo can’t just kill him, he has to find some sort of betrayal or dishonesty to be able to take him out. He doesn’t just answer to the Wolf if he does, he answers to the Twelve. He’s a big player, but he’s not the biggest, and definitely not bigger than us all.”
“And what if he continues to try to kill him stealthily?” Avery continues. “I’m sure you’re aware he’s spiraling and recruiting.”
Well.
I guess the little Wolf hasn’t been so open with her family at just how far she went to stake a claim on Arbour. It was the first time I’ve seen her really throw around the reputation and power she’s cultivated over the years, and it was impressive, to say the least.
When I grin and cock an eyebrow at her, she blushes like a maiden, jarring me once again with how young she is, and I answer Avery with a drawl, “Oh, after the Wolf’s declaration at the meeting, the Jackal has been served a severe warning about touching her toys. The rest of the Twelve are much more aware of his… instability now. Those who have chosen his side are in as much danger as he is.”
I finish with a sharp look at Lips but she shrugs it off, leaning forward in her chair and saying, “If I induct these three as well, would you be willing to back me up in the meetings if Matteo starts with his shit?”
It’s simple and easy and exactly what I need from her.
It’s the way to give Avery a name that isn’t my own, isn’t one her father or mine can use against her, and no one in the streets of Mounts Bay would ever go against the Wolf. Never and certainly not now that the Butcher has been inducted by her.
I stand and run a hand down the front of my suit jacket, a slow smile forming on my lips at how simple it is. “If you cut yourself off from the Jackal and start calling me when you need help instead of him, then I will take him on with you. Induct them, keep Avery safe from the Jackal and her father, and I will offer my help with anything from this moment onward. Whatever the cost.”
That’s exactly what I need.
Lips glances up at Avery and I’m shocked to see that’s all she does. She doesn’t make an attempt to convince her or manipulate her into anything, she just stares up at her and waits for her to make her own mind up about this.
One by one, I watch as they all agree to these terms. Avery is the first, always weighing up her options and making the best choices she can. Morrison is quick to sign himself over to the girl, a lovesick idiot following her to his inevitable doom.
Ash takes a lot longer.
I’ve never seen him show any interest in girls before. He’s slept his way through Hannaford, sure, but he’s never looked as though he’s wanted to keep one around before.
He stares at Lips with the same type of obsession that the Jackal does. He stares at her like he would do anything to keep her tied to him, the same way Joey stares at him. If I wasn’t seeing it all with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it.
What magic has she cast over them all?
Finally, he squeezes her thigh with his eyes still cast away and Lips says firmly, “Done.”
I look to Avery with a tight smile, her presence always demanding my attention whether she knows it or not. She stares back at me like I’ve betrayed her so deeply that she may never forgive me.
If that’s the cost of keeping her alive, I’ll gladly pay it.
I hesitate at the door, but I turn back to Lips because this has to be said. “Don’t ever let her wear red again. She wears your color or mine.”
And then I walk out, praying I’m not wrong.
Chapter One
