The Raven Four Books 1-3 - Jessica Sorensen Page 0,87
think it’s extremely important that you do.” He dazes off a bit, seeming in pain.
“As appealing as moving out sounds, it’s not gonna happen. At least not until I’m eighteen. Even then, my uncle will put up a fuss if what Zay said yesterday is true, about my uncle getting money for taking care of me when I graduate.” No, the only way I’ll ever get out of that house before I graduate is if I can find something to basically blackmail my uncle with. “Plus, I’ve got, like, a total of a hundred bucks to my name. That’s not enough to rent an apartment. I could try to steal some from my aunt and uncle, but they don’t keep a lot of cash in the house. And getting a job is a pain in the ass since I have no car, don’t know how to drive, and there’s no real bus system in this town.”
“We can take care of all that,” he assures. “Jax has already been calculating a way for us to take care of your uncle like we promised. But this way we can take care of two problems at once. Your uncle loses his money, and you get to move out of that house. It’s a win, win.” He gives a short pause, his gaze dropping fleetingly to my side again. “Not that we’re not gonna make him hurt. We’re gonna make sure that asshole more than understands the pain he put you in.” A dark smile turns upward at his lips. “You can even help us if you want.”
“You want me to help you hurt my uncle?” I question. “For reals?”
He nods, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “You wanna do that? Hurt him like he hurt you?”
God, do I want to. But I’m also bit apprehensive over the idea, wondering if I unleash that kind of darkness inside me, will I end up killing someone?
“You don’t have to help us if you don’t want to,” Hunter adds when he notes my hesitancy.
“No … I want to. I’m just wondering how you guys plan on doing that without getting arrested. And, how are you going to help me move out of the house? Because, like I said, I have no money and no real way to earn money, so I can’t afford my own place. Unless you guys wanna be my own personal taxi and drive my ass to work and back.”
“It won’t be that difficult making your uncle pay. We just gotta be calculating and careful about it. Jax is really good at that shit, so I know he’ll figure something out. Plus, he’s really big on an eye for an eye … As for driving your ass to work and back, that’s what Zee’s for,” he explains, reminding me of the card Zee gave me last night. He had told me to call him if I needed anything, and I considered it while my uncle was carving me up, but I didn’t have my phone. “But it doesn’t even matter ’cause you don’t need to worry about money.”
“Dude, quit being crazy. If I’m gonna move out, I need to make earning some money my top priority.”
“No, you don’t. You belong to us now and vice versa, so all of what’s ours is yours, meaning our house.”
What the shit? Is he being serious right now? He sure as hell looks like he is.
I promptly shake my head. “No effing way.”
His lips spread into a grin. “Yes fucking way.”
“No. There’s no way in hell I’m moving in with you guys.”
He juts out his bottom lip. “Why the hell not?”
“Well, for starters, I’ve known you guys for less than twenty-four hours. And I’m not a charity case. I can take care of myself. I have been for quite a while now.”
“Oh, I know you can take care of yourself. You’re one of the most strong-willed people I’ve ever met, which is saying a lot. But, as far as you not knowing us for very long, that doesn’t mean anything. You can know people your entire life and still not really know them. While some people you’ve barely met, yet you feel like you’ve known them your entire life. It’s how I felt when I met Zay and Jax. It was like the stars aligned and all that shit.”
“How very romantic,” I joke in an attempt to change the subject.
His grin broadens. “Isn’t it?”
A soft laugh slips from my lips, a surprising noise after the