yanking me from my thoughts.
I shrug. “I’m not sure if we should do anything yet. Not unless one of us actually remembers why the hell she looks familiar.”
Zay’s brows knit. “You think we should tell Jax?”
“Tell me what?” Jax appears in the doorway. As always, his expression is neutral.
He’s a scary motherfucker. At least to people outside our group. Zay and I, though, know how to handle him. We also know that, despite the fact that he comes off as a psychopath most of the time, there’s more to Jax. Don’t get me wrong; he’s a crazy bastard. He tries really hard to be that way, though. Deep down, I know he feels things. He just buries them with alcohol, like I bury my past with drugs and sex, just like Zay buries his rage and loss of control issues with fighting and cutting.
Yeah, we’re a really messed-up circle, The Raven Three. And I have a feeling we’re about to become even more messed up when we officially become The Raven Four, because I don’t believe for a second that someone like Raven, who’s beautiful and wild but just as crazy and unstable as the rest of us, is somehow going to balance out all of our issues and make us a stable group. Besides, in our own way, we have stability. It just lies in drugs, alcohol, fighting, pain, and sex.
“It’s nothing really,” I tell Jax with a shrug. “Zay and I were just talking about how there’s a familiarity to our Raven, but neither of us can actually remember meeting her, so it’s probably nothing.”
He puts his thinking face on, which honestly isn’t that much different than all his other expressions. I just know him well enough that I can see the difference.
He remains silent for a second before straightening from the doorway and entering the room. “We’ll look into it more.” He stops in the middle of the room. “Right now, we need to focus on getting her into our circle so we can find out what she’s hiding in there.” He briefly hesitates, which is weird for him. “I also think it might be a good idea to have her move in with us.”
Zay gapes at him. “You want her to move in with us? Are you fucking crazy?”
“You know I am,” Jax replies. “And while I’m not thrilled about the idea of having some crazy, broken girl living with us, I think it’s the best way to learn more about her. And not just for our bosses, but because we need her help with something.”
“With what?” Zay and I ask at the same time, both of us looking totally confused. Then again, we never get help from anyone but each other, so this is really strange.
He wavers for a second. “With getting dirt on Porter Aversonly.”
Porter Aversonly is a nephew of one of our bosses’ rivals. He’s also in the same grade as us. The bosses gave us an order about a month ago to make friends with him so we can find out more about what the Aversonlys have been up to, since they’ve been really quiet over the last handful of months. And a mafia family being quiet is never a good thing.
The problem is Porter is an asshole and making friends with him is complicated since rival families don’t really associate with each other. Still, we’ve been trying. It’s why I joined the basketball team—because Porter is on it and we thought maybe I could try to make friends with him that way. I hate playing, although I’m good at it. However, it’s gotten me nowhere closer to becoming friends with Porter the douchebag.
Zay’s brows furrow. “How the hell is Raven supposed to help us with that?”
“Because she’s good-looking enough, and Porter likes good-looking,” Jax says in a bored tone, as if we’re talking about the weather. “Plus, Raven isn’t technically part of any family, so he won’t be breaking any rules by getting close to her.”
“She’s good-looking enough,” I mimic Jax’s tone and roll my eyes. “She’s fucking gorgeous, and you know it.”
He stares at me without blinking, which might unnerve a lot of people, but I relax back in the chair.
Finally, Jax takes a seat in an empty chair. “Fine, she’s gorgeous, but that only proves my point more. And we’ve been trying to get in with Porter for over a month. This way will be quicker and get us closer to our freedom, which is what we all want