Crowned Crows of Thorne Point: A Dark New Adult Romantic Suspense

by Veronica Eden

  The emptiness has its claws in me, but with my brothers by my side it can’t drag me under as easily as it does when I’m alone.

  Four

  Wren

  “Are we taking the missing person thing?” Levi asks a few nights later, gruff and all business while he examines a knife before strapping it to his boot. The reverence he reserves for his knife collection is this side of psychotic. Weapons are important to him, but we’re among the few who know the reason why.

  The darkness we all harbor brings us closer together as brothers. Binds us by our demons, the shadowy nightmares like living entities. Each of us have learned how many shades of gray paint this world, and those murky shades are where we’ve made our home.

  Tonight we’re in the sublevel beneath the Crow’s Nest donning black hoodies, baseball caps, and half face masks that will leave us unidentifiable to security for tonight’s agenda. We wouldn’t need the extra protection with Colt’s skills, but we’re nothing if not efficient. Jude checks a length of climbing rope and hands it to me while Colton syncs his signal scrambler. Our target won’t see us coming and won’t be able to call for help.

  Most of the rumors people whisper about us are true—the Crowned Crows never fuck around.

  “We’ve never done it.” Jude pushes his sleek hair back to fit the hat.

  “Doesn’t matter. We agreed to the payment.” I snap my fingers in Colt’s direction, slinging the coil of rope across my body. “We’re taking it. Did you finish the background check on the girl?”

  He crosses to his computers. The state of the art set up he built takes up most of one wall.

  After I bought the property, we had the basement level renovated to suit our needs. The walls are covered in dark soundproofing material. The large training gym is Levi’s domain. Several other rooms connect to the main area with Colton’s computer system and a lounge.

  “This is what came up with the doxx I ran on her, plus what I pulled from campus files.” Colt moves the window of his online poker game to a different monitor and leans back in his gamer chair, hands folded behind his head. “Rowan Hannigan, twenty-one, a grant student at the university, originally from a little beach town in Maryland. Lives off campus in an apartment building—kind of a shithole if you ask me, but whatever. She’s a senior majoring in communication with a focus on journalism. I’m in one of her classes. It’s my nap lecture when I need to be seen on campus.”

  Two monitors show photos of Rowan and her life on campus pulled from social media profiles along with personal information and her transcripts. In several she’s with a guy who looks like her, the same reddish brown hair, same almond-shaped eyes behind his thick black plastic framed glasses. His are more of a gray with hints of green, while her shade of mossy green is hypnotic. Where she’s all soft curves and long legs, he’s taller and gangly. They have an identical lopsided grin when they laugh, but on her it’s gorgeous. There’s no doubt he’s her brother.

  Colt sobers from his usual impish disposition, rubbing the back of his tattooed neck. That’s never a good sign coming from him.

  “What is it?” I demand.

  “Her brother. Ethan.” Colt taps a few keys on a wireless keyboard and the information shuffles on the screen. “I think I know him. Sort of.”

  “I don’t recognize him.” Jude’s head tilts as he studies Ethan’s photo. “Does he owe us or something?”

  “He’s a journalist that showed up in Ridgeview last year while Fox was there. This guy caught our boy and his flower girl snooping around at a warehouse. It was all part of a shell company’s front to cover up the drug ring.”

  Ridgeview. It’s not the first time our problems have been tangled up with the wealthy Colorado town. It’s where we traced Coleman two years ago after he ran from Thorne Point.

  Colt’s screen displays files from Nexus Lab. His foster brother returned to his hometown for revenge after spending a few years running with us. The punk of a kid ended up falling for his childhood best friend he was holding a grudge against.

  “Fox and Maisy were given everything on a drive Ethan had compiled while he was investigating undercover,” Colt says. “Want me to call Fox?”

  “Not yet.” I squint at the screen and fold my arms. “Who owns the shell company?”

  “Stalenko Corp. It’s a holdings company with Russian bratva ties. Hard to pin them down, there hasn’t been a peep of web chatter since their front was busted.” Colt tugs on his ear and ruffles his dark hair so it’s even more of a mess. “Their thugs kidnapped Maisy for digging too deep. If Ethan was still looking into them and he’s gone missing, the dude’s probably dead.”

  I make a rough noise in agreement. These types of businesses are cutthroat. We all know how much they’re willing to get their hands dirty, especially Levi.

  “This complicates things,” I mutter.

  “So,” Jude drawls, lifting a brow in question. “Tell her he’s probably sleeping with the fish in the cove for digging too deep?”

  It’s highly likely.

  Normally we’d consider it the obvious outcome and be done with it. If something isn’t worth our full effort, we won’t waste our time. The guys all look to me to make the final decision, expecting me to write this off. I should, but something stops me.

  If he wasn’t her brother, I wouldn’t have ignored my rules for Rowan. A broken part of me understands her desperation. Slipping a hand in my pocket, I smooth my thumb over Charlotte’s locket. I always carry it with me, ever since I retrieved it from that sick fuck Coleman. The metal is cool and unforgiving, as empty as the hole she carved out of my chest when she took her life.

  “No. We’ll still look into it,” I decide. “Colt and Levi, you both watch Rowan while I put feelers out with our guys.”

  She’s hiding something and I like to know all angles I’m working with.

  “Shouldn’t be a hard job,” Levi says.

  Colton kicks himself into a spin in his chair. “I’ll put it to my subjects.”

  Jude snorts and shoves the back of Colt’s head, stopping the endless twirling. “You and your nerd army.”

  Colton has a network of hackers that we utilize. He calls himself their king. To become part of his brood of computer geniuses, he tests them, leaving traps with his trojan methods. If they can code their way out of it, he recruits them. If not, he laughs about their digital demise, considering it a form of natural selection.

  “Didn’t your sweet nana teach you not to call anyone names, asshole?” Colton flips Jude off. “Don’t make me spam all your devices with obscure fetish porn and genital enhancement ads to prove a point.”

  “Leave my abuelita out of this, dick,” Jude shoots back. “Or I’ll tell her not to make you extra budín de pan anymore.”

  Colton utters a pained sound and launches from his chair. “You wouldn’t! You know how much I love that woman and her desserts.”

  “Enough,” I bark. “Let’s go. We’re behind schedule.”

  After last checks, we leave and climb into a blacked out SUV at the end of a row of cars and bikes. We pull away from the Crow’s Nest, weaving down the moonlit tree-lined drive to head toward campus. The only sounds in the car are the muted song playing on the radio and the methodic flick of Levi’s switchblade opening and closing.

  Colton taps my shoulder with the back of his hand from the driver’s seat, the corner of his mouth tugged up in a crooked grin. “What sort of favor will you call in?” His tone lilts with suggestiveness. “That chick is hot. We could have so much fun with it compared to our usual song and dance.”

  My muscles tense at the implication of we and what it entails. There will be no we.

  I shake my head to clear the irrational need to own her when I know she has secrets to hide. “Focus. We’ll deal with Rowan Hannigan later.”

  “Blessed with that big brain, and all you do is think with your cock,” Jude snarks from the back. “This is why you keep falling into bed with sorority chicks.”

&
nbsp; Colt grins at the rearview mirror. “You know which big part of me I prefer to think with. He makes all the best decisions. And don’t even fight me, you all have eyes.”

  The guys mutter their agreements from the back and I clench my jaw as jealousy slips over me like oil, drawing out a feral, possessive part of me that wants to fight my own brothers to lay claim to a girl. Another rule of mine I can’t break. Nothing will come between us. I won’t allow anything to destroy us.

  Colt studies me from the corner of his eye. I know that look. He thinks he’s uncovered a new point to prod at, too perceptive and far too clever for his own good sometimes. Idle hands and all that.

  “How far do you think you could push her if she thought it was payment? I’m envisioning her in a maid uniform waiting to take orders around the Nest.” His voice thickens and his gaze grows distant. “Or better yet, nothing. Keep her waiting by a bed to use that mouth. Shit, yeah. She could be our personal little doll. Let’s do that.”

  A deep growl rumbles in my throat. Hot arousal washes over me at the images he paints of Rowan.

  Picturing the messy braid and those full lips that caught my interest the other night, I imagine her on her knees before my wingback seat at the Crow’s Nest, hair wound around my fist while I drive my cock into her mouth at a controlling and punishing pace. The idea of how those green eyes would spark with fire makes my hand flex against my thigh. I hold my body in tight discipline, refusing to let Colt know he got to me by shifting to relieve the pressure of my fly against my swelling dick.

  “I don’t need favors and coercion to get a woman naked at my mercy. It would be pointless to waste a favor for that.” Some of my restraint slips, the hint of an ultimatum bleeding into my rough tone. “And I wouldn’t be sharing.”

  “You’re no fun, big guy.” Dropping the joking, Colton taps the screen of his phone mounted to the dash, then returns his hand to rest over the wheel. “Ten minutes before the security patrol changes shifts.”

  The drive to campus isn’t long. It sits near the heart of the city. Thorne Point University is a prestigious college housing elite students from all over the country—the best in their fields of study from wealthy families who have a long line of alumni. Much like everything else in this city, legacy is all that matters.

  During the day it’s beautiful with its historic stone buildings from a bygone era, wrought iron gates, and cobblestone walkways. Ivy climbs over many of the castle-like buildings, but unlike the state of the Crow’s Nest, it’s purely for aesthetic purposes, well maintained by the groundskeepers.

  At night, however, it feels like a liminal space, a pocket of time that makes peoples’ hearts race when they walk alone down the shadowed paths, unable to escape the tense unease that pervades the air. I live for the campus at night like it’s our own personal playground.

  The SUV slows to a stop on a circular drive at the end of Greek row and my heartbeat calms to a steady cadence. This moment right before we unleash our chaos is a sacred ritual for me. I breathe it in, basking in the anticipation of what’s to come.

  “Let mayhem reign,” Levi murmurs in the darkness.

  I flash an unhinged grin at my best friends. “Go.”

  With the order, we’re off, moving as one. We’ve done enough crazy shit like this and more to understand how we operate together. Levi pulls ahead to the campus patrol station near the dorms while Colton engages the scrambler to block anything in the radius from connecting to the nearby cell towers. A choked off noise slips away under the cover of night before Levi slinks out of the guard kiosk, the guy on shift passed out on the desk.

  Pi Kappa Alpha house looms before us. The fraternity is home to prestigious society legacies and heirs of families with names that carry weight. My father expected me to pledge. I wouldn’t, not when I had all the brothers I needed by my side.

  Jude and Levi follow me while Colton circles around the side of the building to wait for our signal. A small drone hovers above his head, only noticeable because I’m looking for it. He’ll keep our cover while we work.

  The door is unlocked thanks to an owed favor. No one is awake. The beginning of semester ragers have these guys by the balls. My mouth tilts up at the side. There was some help to make sure no 3 a.m. night owls would interrupt us.

  With a nod from me, we move up the staircase and take a left. The last door is where our target waits. Any one of these douchebags could be another serial rapist, but we’re here for this one.

  Jude props himself against the paneled wall, smirking while Levi carefully turns the doorknob. Heavy snoring greets us as we file inside like harbingers of death. Jude closes the door silently and we each take a position around the bed.

  Our frat boy is tangled in his sheets, sprawled on his back, one muscled arm flung over his head. The anticipation that’s been thrumming in my veins since we left the car reaches a snapping point and a ruthless thrill floods my system.

  “Now,” I command.

  Levi flashes a humorless smile and slaps his hand over the guy’s mouth while Jude leans close to his ear.

  “Boo,” Jude snaps.

  The guy jolts out of his sleep, fight-or-flight instinct kicking in hard the minute he spots three shadowy figures towering over his bed. He goes to yell, but Levi has a good hold on him. A pitiful muffled shriek is all that makes it out.

  “I love it when they scream.” Jude snorts and flicks the frat boy on the nose.

  He flinches, doing his best to force out another protest. It won’t save him. The rest of this house was dosed with enough tranquilizer to put them down through their afternoon classes tomorrow. Same with the neighboring houses on either side, all courtesy of a catering delivery to the Greek row block party yesterday.

  Bracing my hands on the foot of the bed, I level him with a cool stare. “You’ve been naughty. We’ve come to collect retribution.”

  Panicked, his beady eyes swing back and forth between the three of us. He attempts to shake his head, the motion more of a stuttered twitch when Levi’s grip tightens, digging into his jaw.

  I hand Jude the rope and cross my arms as the guys hogtie the frat boy while he blubbers. Bending down, I swipe a rank smelling sock from the floor and circle to Jude’s side. He cinches the knot and steps aside.

  The idiot in the bed turns away from Levi tying his ankles. “Please, whatever you want—I’ll get my dad to pay you, just, just don’t—”

  “Search the room.” I plant a hand on the pillow and lean over, letting him squirm. “Cry all you want. No one’s coming to bail you out. They can’t even hear you.” A light laugh slips out. “Tranqs work wonders.”

  The frat boy’s watery eyes bulge. He renews his struggle. I grab his jaw and pry it open wide enough to shove his sock inside. He gags, body curling in on itself.

  “Let’s go before he shits himself,” Levi growls. “I’m not dealing with that.”

  Jude snickers as he rifles through the desk for anything we can use. “It was one time, man. Once.”

  “Once is one time too many, asshole,” Levi complains as he drags the guy from his bed.

  He makes a pained sound when his head thumps on the floor. Levi nudges him with the tip of his heavy boot.

  “Fair.” Jude leaves the desk to open the window. “I’ve got nothing.”

  “Give Colt the signal,” I say.

  We rig the rope using furniture to support the weight. Jude leaves to join Colt outside beneath the window as we lower the frat boy down. He’s given up on squirming, quick to stop fighting the inevitable. Definitely on the flight side of things. Pathetic. I snort when Jude purposefully lets him drop to the ground.

  “Call Penn. Time for that deranged hermit to drag himself out of his cabin in the woods,” I say to Levi on our way out. We don’t trust many of our underlings, preferring to handle things ourselves, but Penn is like Fox Wilder, near enough to being one of us. “Have him clean up the dorm and take care of this guy’s car so no one looks for him.”

&nbs
p; “Got it.”

  We meet up with Colt and Jude, helping them hoist our trussed up target. The four of us carry him to the car. When Jude opens the trunk, the frantic wriggling starts up again. Levi grumbles and hauls him into the back, clamping a pressure point in the guy’s neck to knock him out.

  “What a crybaby.” Colt’s attention is on his tablet. He nods, confirming his sweep is good. “I took care of his status. Officially withdrawn, already filed with his transcripts.”

  “Good,” I say.

  He does an impression of Optimus Prime. “Roll out.”

  “You’re a fucking nerd,” Levi says.

  “You love it,” he shoots back as we climb in the SUV. “Without me, who would provide you with free entertainment?”

  “I can afford Netflix. So can you.”

  “It’s the principle, man.” Colton shakes his head and starts the car.

  We drive away as if we were never here.

  Five

  Rowan

  Every normal minute of my day feels like a betrayal to Ethan. I can’t focus on my Ethics professor’s dull voice at the bottom of the lecture hall. This is the last place I want to be right now. I’d rather be out looking for my brother. Unfortunately, none of my professors give a damn about excuses for missed assignments, and I can’t let my grades drop or I could put my grant status in jeopardy.

  If I lost it, there’s no way I could afford even half a semester here. I rely on the financial aid I get from my grants. Insurance money from Dad only covers so much of my tuition. It would mean going home to face Mom and I can’t. It’s better with distance between us.

  So I drag myself to classes and spend half my lectures neurotically checking my phone to see if Ethan’s answered any of my texts or calls, or posted something new to his social media accounts. I don’t know what hurts more, the disappointment when there’s never a change, or the dwindling flame of hope that seems smaller and smaller every passing day.