The Raven Four Books 1-3 - Jessica Sorensen Page 0,59

still have no association with them, and it's an unsaid rule that if you do, you'll be punished.

But all my worries about Raven dissipate as the gates open. They’re technically the gates to my father’s place, but for me, Hunter, and Zay, they feel more like the gates to Hell.

Fifteen

Hunter

Jax and his stupid rules. It’s driving me crazy. Yeah, I get that he’s always kind of been the “boss” of our group, but only because he likes to boss everyone around. We don’t technically have a leader, and it’s worked for us since none of us have ever been good at following rules.

When we were younger, we used to get in trouble all the time. We still do, but I’ve learned how to sweet-talk my way out of stuff, like this morning with Mrs. Elmford, the secretary at the high school. No matter how many times she acts like she’s going to turn down my request for a pass to get out of class, she always ends up giving me one. Every single time. It’s why I was so thrown off when I tried to flirt with Raven in the office and she basically turned me down. Not that I ever gave up. No, I’m pretty damn persistent, especially when I meet the most amusing, gorgeous girl I’ve ever seen.

For the most part, I like that I’m this way—can charm anyone—but when things get serious, I struggle to keep the darkness inside me. It happens occasionally, and I’ve had a few breakdowns. Jax and Zay have seen me at some of my worst moments, and it wasn’t pretty. But nothing about my life has been pretty.

Darkness has mostly surrounded me. The few exceptions were when I was around Zay and Jax. They’re the reason I escaped the darkness—escaped my father and and his games. And escaped her. My stepmother, who is still my stepmother, but I rarely see her. At least when I get my way. But tonight, things don’t seem to be going my way, something I realize as Jax, Zay, and I enter the spacious meeting room in his father’s house.

A long, mahogany table runs up the center of the room in front of a fireplace, surrounded by chairs and surveillance cameras. And sitting in one of the chairs is Diane, my wicked witch of a wench stepmother.

She’s wearing a red dress, a leather jacket, and a diamond necklace. If I didn’t know better, I’d guess she was going out clubbing, but this is how she always looks—overly dressed with sparkly things decorating her. She’s kind of a sparkly thing herself, being about fifteen years younger than my father. The only reason she married him was for his money and power. She doesn’t love him, doesn’t care that he sleeps around, doesn’t care about anything except what she wants. And she’ll do anything to get it.

Anything.

“Boys,” she greets us, her eyes lingering on me. My stomach churns when she smiles at me.

I hate when she looks at me. I often dream about a day when I can gouge out her eyes so she can never look at anyone again. But my father has made a rule that she’s off limits, and if we break any of our fathers’ rules right now, Jax, Zay, and I aren’t getting out of this hell at the end of our senior year. And we want out more than we want anything else.

I really should’ve done a line before we left, but we were in rush.

But fuck, I can’t deal with this—her—with a clear head.

“Why’re you here?” Zay glares at her as he sinks down into a chair.

She flips her red hair off her shoulder. “I’ve been summoned on behalf of your bosses. They wanted to speak to you themselves, but they had other things that needed to be taken care of tonight.”

The bosses are our dads, but we refer to Jax’s dad, the leader, as The Boss. They’re all straight-up crazy and not anyone you want to piss off.

“Whatever,” Zay mumbles while Jax takes a seat at the head of the table.

Me? I stay in the doorway.

When Diane notices, she crooks a manicured finger at me. “Come sit down, sweetie. There’s some things I need to discuss with all of you.”

My jaw ticks. “I fucking told you not to call me that.”

“Call you what?” she feigns dumb, tilting her head to the side.

“Oh, shut the hell up. You know exactly what I mean.” As anger sears under my skin, she grins, getting