All Hail - J. Bree Page 0,97

it first.

I trust Aodhan completely, and he might have been voted into the family, but this isn’t just about Lips. It’s about Poe’s safety and she’s barely fifteen.

I shake my head just a little bit and murmur, “I’ll… I’ll have to tell you later.”

He frowns a little but nods, giving me one last kiss and then he pulls away from me to turn and glare at Atticus again.

I’m glad he doesn’t try to walk me over, I’m not a possession to be passed between them, and I walk toward the front door. Atticus looks down at me like he wants to strangle me and Luca’s lip is still curled at the sight of Illi grinning out on the driveway.

“Thank you for letting me stay even after I assaulted your best bodyguard. Luca, I hope I didn’t hurt you,” I say, in my sweetest voice that I’m sure is killing them both.

Atticus gestures at his front door with one hand. “My home is always open to you, Avery, I hope this time you value your life enough to stay here where you’re safe.”

I straighten my blazer and walk up the front steps, enjoying the looks each of Atticus’ staff give me as I pass them. All it took was one little maneuver and they’re all now completely aware that I’m not messing around.

As I get to the door, I hear Illi call out behind me, “Oh, and Luca? Make her feel shit about the Jackal again and I’ll feed you to the cannibals, piece by piece. Nothing would make me happier than knowing they were digesting you and shitting you out.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

The fortress that Atticus lives in is practically impenetrable.

It was built with that exact purpose thanks to the Jackal’s many attempts to assassinate his fellow member of the Twelve and on paper it is completely structurally impossible to get in or out of it without being seen and stopped, one way or another.

That problem is that I was raised in the Beaumont Manor.

I know exactly how filthy rich men think and I know a secret passage opening when I see one. Ash and I used to use the servants’ passages all the time growing up even though we risked death if Joey or Senior caught us.

Ash slept in my bed more often than his own after Mom died.

He was terrified that Senior would come to kill me next and even after we moved to boarding school he’d come and sleep in with me just to be sure I was safe.

He calls me most nights he’s gone now too.

I thought that the distance would be good for him, that it would help him to fully believe that we’re safe now, but he’s still borderline neurotic about my safety.

I love him for it and I think if he were traveling with anyone other than Lips Anderson, the Wolf of Mounts Bay and a girl who’s been obsessed with him for far longer than she’d ever care to admit, I’d be just as bad.

She walked into Senior’s murder room to die for us both.

I’d trust her with so much more than my twin’s life at this point. My life would’ve been so much easier if we’d both been lesbians and I could have married her by now.

I sometimes think we’re the real high school sweethearts of the family but I would never say that to any of the guys.

They whine too much.

So even after Atticus leaves me in the formal living room like some fainting, pathetic maiden I pull my phone out and text the only other person I’m sure would know about the passages.

Jackson.

Which service hall will get me out? I have somewhere I need to be.

I inspect the hemline of my skirt while I wait for the little cretin to get back to me. He’s not my favorite tool thanks to his betrayal of Lips to Nate. It doesn’t matter to me at all that Nate was looking for information to protect his sister, Jackson couldn’t have really known that he was on our side.

He didn’t breathe a word to us until after Nate saved Lips’ life.

Not once, even when the heads began cropping up and we’d called all of the meetings with the Twelve.

Lips and I agreed that it didn’t get him kicked out of the family but it definitely has him on my watch list. I’m not sure he realizes he has a strike against his name but all it’s going to take is the slightest thing and Illi