32. Zira
ZIRA
Waiting for news is sickening. As sickening as it felt thinking they’d take Raven to the hospital but instead brought her back to the Empire State Building for treatment. The medical wing here is better than any hospital, according to Bradley, and only the most trusted can tend to any of the Suits.
It makes sense, but it unsettles my stomach to wander the lounge and see the city of New York spread out beneath the window, like some kind of metropolitan blanket. I’ve never worried about being high up, but with worry churning my gut up like a blender, I have to avoid the window just in case.
Raven. When the garage door opened and Cassian was carrying her unconscious body, there was a terribly cold second when I feared she was dead. Bradley told me the Suits were the best of the best, but no one is untouchable, and Harris is insane.
Thankfully, she seemed okay, but I’ve chewed three nails to their beds waiting for news.
Raven in hospital and Valentina missing.
There’s no way Harris could get Valentina, right?
That woman moves like a snake and seems as strong as a horse, with wit to match.
Beautiful and deadly, I can’t imagine her ever letting Harris get close to her.
But something happened.
Because of me.
Because I couldn’t remember everything he told me because I was so wrapped up in Peter that nothing else mattered. I wear a pale patch into the floor with my frantic pacing back and forth until a knock at the door makes me jump right out of my skin.
“Oh, sweetie.” Ivy walks in with a large mug of tea clasped in her hands. “It’s just me, you’re okay.”
“Sorry,” I murmur, massaging my breastbone to calm my frantic heart. “Bit jumpy.”
“Understandable. Here, I made you some tea.”
“Oh.” I don’t have the stomach for anything right now, but I can’t bring myself to reject her gesture so I accept the mug and sit on the couch so the liquid doesn’t spill. “Is there any news?”
Ivy nods. “Raven took a really nasty blow to the head, but she’s going to be okay. Of course, Cassian is making sure they run every test imaginable on her to ensure she’s okay, but she is fine.”
“Oh thank God.” My shoulders sag deeply and the tea threatens to spill over the edge of the mug. “I was so worried.”
“We all were.” Ivy smiles tiredly. “Don’t get me wrong, everyone in the Suit is brilliant, but Raven is definitely the cheeky little sister. I’ve never seen Cassian heated before either, so that was a first.” She shakes her head. “And we found Valentina.”
“Is she okay?” My eyes dart up from the swirling bubbles atop my tea.
“I’m fine,” comes Valentina’s cool voice from the doorway. She walks inside, her arms crossed over her chest with Bradley behind her.
Like always, the room feels a bit smaller with Bradley here and his presence instantly comforts me. He’s followed by Ruslan who beelines for Ivy and slides an arm around her waist.
“Hi, Zira.”
“Hi.”
“I’m here to steal Ivy. Cassian needs some help, and no one has kinder hands than her.” Ruslan briefly nuzzles into Ivy’s hair as he starts to lead her away.
“Charmer,” Ivy mutters, sliding her hand into his. As she walks away, she glances back at me. “Drink the tea, Zira. You’ll feel better.”
I obey as she’s watching me, but as soon as she leaves the room with Ruslan, I set the drink down. “Is Raven really okay?”
Valentina stalks to the window as Bradley sits down next to me, picks up the tea, and places it back in my hands.
“Drink,” he says softly.
I can’t resist such a gentle command and bring the cup to my lips.
“Raven will be okay. She explained that she was working in her own world and had dismissed her guards to the perimeter because their presence was distracting her. With Valentina there, no one saw an issue.”
Valentine’s entire form is poker straight, like a spring flooded with tension and seconds away from snapping.
“But Valentina stepped out to grab dinner and Raven was attacked by Harris.”
“Was it definitely him?” I ask after a sip.
Bradley nods. “We also found the bodies of two of our guards.”
“He killed them?” I lower my cup. “Oh, Bradley, I’m sorry.”
“Best we can work out is he burst in fast and heavy. They were taken by surprise and killed. One…” His voice cracks slightly.
“One was shot in the neck and left to bleed out while he went inside and found Raven. He found the car, attacked Raven, and then seemingly left when he didn’t find any diamonds. ”
“I never should have left her,” Valentina mutters bitterly. “I should have insisted she come with me. Dragged her. Fucking hell.” Her head falls forward and her hair cascades like a wave around her shoulder. “I would have killed the cunt the second he set foot inside.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” Bradley says over the top of my head. “This isn’t your fault. We both know if Raven hadn’t been taken by surprise, she would have been okay.”
“But she wasn’t.” Valentina whips around. “You saw her. Any longer lying there bleeding out and we’d—” She cuts herself off. “I have to blame someone.”
“Blame me,” I murmur, meeting her heated gaze as much as it terrifies me to do so. “I’m the one who forgot about the GPS.”
For a single hot second, Valetina looks like she wants to gouge my eyes out but in the end, she sighs deeply and sinks down onto the opposite couch while running her hands up and down her thighs.
“No. Raven knew about the GPS. She was fiddling with it, trying to reverse the signal to see if she could find the link, and we guess those blips are what he followed. It’s not your fault, Zira. I’m mad at myself.”
Bradley’s hand suddenly closes over my thigh and squeezes lightly. “Not your fault, Zira.”
I look at him, and my heart squeezes painfully in my chest. There’s sadness lingering in his gaze, and even his soft smile doesn’t turn up at the corners. “Raven’s really going to be okay?”
“I promise,” he says, then his jaw tics slightly as he clenches down. “I’m ending this. I’m not allowing that fucker to exist in my city any longer.”
“We need to get him where we want him,” Valentina agrees. “If he’s growing this impatient and greedy, then we should use Zira. She can lure him out.”
“I can?”
“You’re who he wants. Bradley said earlier that Harris wanted you to crawl back to him? He wants the diamonds and he wants to humiliate you by making you hand over the very thing that your brother died for. So I say we do exactly that.”
“Give him the diamonds?” I ask.
“Not exactly,” Bradley interjects. “But we’ll make him think he’s getting them. Given his obsession, we can’t risk luring him with fakes, so we’ll have to use the real thing.”
My brow shoots up and I lower the cup. “I thought you were giving them back to the Irish?”
“A portion has gone back,” Valentina explains. “But we house the majority in one of our vaults. They’re scheduled to be handed back within a couple of days, which gives us time to use them to lure this fucking cockroach out and cut off his head.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Contact him,” Bradley says. “Better yet, call him. Hearing your voice might be better. Explain that Raven was a friend if you have to, lie with what you need to, but as long as he agrees to meet you, that's all we need.”
I mull it over and set the cup back on the table, then I turn to face Bradley. “Okay. I can do that, but on one condition.”
His brows twitch together. “Which is?”
“Let me come with you.”
“No. Absolutely not.” He answers without a single beat of hesitation.
“This is my fight as much as it is yours. He as good as got my brother killed. He made me shoot you and exist thinking I’d killed someone.
He forced me into horrible things and demanded sickening acts, and I can’t just sit back and let you handle this.
I want to be there. I want him to see that I’ve beaten him this time. Please.”
“Zira.” His grip tightens on my leg. “It’s far too dangerous.”
“I can teach her,” says Valentina from across the table. “A crash course, at least. It won’t be extravagant, but there’s enough time that I can teach her some decent basics.”
“Really?” I spin to face her. “I’d love that. In a want to protect myself kind of way.” Sounding eager surely works against me, but given everything I’ve seen and the world I’m embroiled in, it can’t hurt to learn how to shoot safely.
“Sure. Everyone should have that as a basic skill,” Valentina replies.
I turn back to Bradley and his eyes are narrow, likely as he searches for a reason to stop this. I cover his hand with both of mine. “I can do this. And you know I deserve to be there.”
Bradley’s lips part but in the end, he sighs deeply and nods. “I can’t hold you back from bettering yourself, at least. So if you can pass Valentina’s basic training, I’ll let you come.”
“Thank you!” I surge up and throw my arms around his shoulders, embracing him tightly. “I won’t let you down.”
Valentina immediately sweeps me away for weapons training while Bradley leaves to make some important calls.
As much as I’m doing this to help deal with my guilt, part of me grows excited.
Harris has dictated more of my life than I care to admit, and the thought of finally wiping that smug, disgusting smirk off his face is exhilarating.
Despite Valentina’s somewhat prickly demeanor, she spends four hours running me through the basics of weapon care and maintenance, how to hold a gun and fire (badly) at some targets, and how to position my hands on the grip to save my skin from getting pinched off after each shot.
There’s more to a gun than point and shoot, but she takes me through everything slowly and carefully, with a gentility I didn’t expect to feel from her.
By the end, I’m tired, but Valentina’s happy when I have the basics nailed, with a promise to make me train every day we have available.
Happier, I track Bradley down to his room and knock lightly on the door. He’s lounging on the bed, topless, with his phone in his hand when I enter.
“Sorry,” I murmur. “I know it’s late. I wasn’t sure where to sleep.”
“We never officially gave you a room, did we?” He pushes up into a seated position. “How was training?”
“Hard.” I puff out my cheeks. “But good. Valentina’s a good teacher. She’s pretty nice, too.”
“Once she knows where your heart lies, she’s the softest of all of us,” Bradley murmurs, then he holds out one hand. “Come here.”
“Are you okay?” Walking forward, I take his outstretched hand and lace our fingers together.
“I had to call the families of our deceased. It’s always hard.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s a necessary evil.” He sighs, then he brings our joined hands to his lips. “Stay here with me,” he murmurs against my knuckles. “You don’t need a room. You have this one.”
Our eyes meet, and my heart lifts as he speaks again.
“You have me.”