The Raven Four Books 1-3 - Jessica Sorensen Page 0,98

you think it entails?” Hunter observes me with amusement.

I give a shrug. “I don’t know. Letting you guys shove me off a bridge? Torturing me? Cutting me? The list of ideas filling my head is pretty endless.”

“But they all share one trait.” Hunter thrums his black-painted fingers against the table. “They’re all morbid, which means you think we’re morbid.”

I shrug again, not bothering to even try to deny it. “From the first time I met you, you’ve threatened to hit me, push me off a bridge, make me your sex slave, and told me you were gonna kill me, tie me up, and torture me. So, why wouldn’t I think that?”

“And yet, you’re still here.” Zay stretches his arm along the back of the booth, his fingers brushing my hair. “So, either you don’t scare very easily or you like to be tortured.”

“Wouldn’t that be funny if she did?” Hunter muses, his gaze flitting to Jax.

Jax pins him with a threatening look, to which Hunter retorts with an impish grin.

Jax opens and flexes his hands, focusing back on me. “We’re not going to do any of those things to you. In fact, I think we’ve stressed that we won’t let anyone hurt you once you join our circle.”

“Which includes you guys?” I ask dubiously, fiddling with a saltshaker on the table, feeling really restless about the situation I just got myself into.

When Jax hesitates, Hunter chuckles under his breath and mutters something incoherently. Jax must hear him, though, because he gives Hunter a chilling look.

“Stop with the jokes,” he warns harshly.

Hunter just rolls his eyes then shoves the sleeves of his shirt up, rests his arms on the table, and looks at me in all seriousness. “Jax is right. We’re not going to hurt you. The oath is actually pretty simple. We’re all just gonna tell you some rules and you agree to abide by them.”

“There’s also a task,” Jax adds, causing Hunter to forcefully smash his lips together.

I eye them over apprehensively. “What kind of task?”

They’ve all grown a bit tense. Or, well, Hunter has. Zay isn’t even looking at me, dazing off toward the counter. Jax just appears as indifferent as always.

Jax’s lips part, but then the woman that Hunter spoke to earlier approaches our table with a round tray balanced in her hand and interrupts him.

She has grey hair that’s pulled back in a braid and is wearing square-framed glasses, jeans, and a T-shirt. If she wasn’t carrying food, I’d assume it was just someone here to talk to the guys, but because she is, I’m guessing she’s the waitress. I just don’t get why she’s not wearing a uniform.

“Here ya go, bosses,” she greets them as she sets the tray on the table beside ours. On the tray are several plates with various breakfast foods. She proceeds to put them on the table in front of us, humming along with the old school tune faintly playing from the jukebox.

“Thanks, Mable,” Hunter tells her with a charming grin.

She grins back as she slides a plate containing a chocolate chip waffle in front of him. “You’re welcome, honey. I put a little extra chocolate chips in there for ya, just the way you like it.”

Hunter rubs his hands together as he grins at the plate. “You’re seriously the best.”

“You just say that ’cause I bring you food,” Mable remarks as she places a plate of eggs and bacon in front of Jax. “And for you, Mr. Grumpy Pants, I put extra cheese in your eggs. Maybe that’ll get you to smile. Probably not, though.”

Jax glances up at her then does something completely wild.

He smiles. Like a real fucking smile.

“Thanks,” he tells her as he picks up a fork.

I gape at the scene, literally having no idea what to do with the exchange.

Mable notices my reaction and laughs. “Jax smiling is a crazy sight to behold, isn’t it?”

I give an exaggerated nod. “It’s like seeing a unicorn or something.”

Hunter smiles cleverly at me as he reaches for the syrup. “Look, I did make that happen for you.”

I roll my eyes, ignoring the grumbling of my stomach. “Unless Jax has a horn hidden somewhere on his body, he’s not an actual unicorn.”

A wicked grin spreads across Hunter’s face. “Well, he doesn’t technically have a horn, but he has a c—”

“That’s enough.” Jax’s smile is no longer visible as he picks up his fork. “That’ll be all, Mable.”

Mable rolls her eyes as she sets down a plate of pancakes in front