Chapter 5
“I’ll be right there. I just need to make a call.”
Raven wasn’t sure if the women heard. Still, she took her drink to the corner of the bar—a drink Maggie had insisted on purchasing, regardless of her insistence that she didn’t need it.
Some woman nearby had been arguing with her partner. His name was Tim…and the second she heard it, it reminded Raven that she hadn’t heard from her PI, another Tim, in, well…she wasn’t sure how long. Weeks. Maybe over a month?
When she reached the quieter pocket of the bar, she hit his number.
Come on, Tim. Pick up.
She’d paid him. He shouldn’t be ignoring her calls. She needed his help. She needed someone to find something on Xander, free her from the mental and emotional prison he’d trapped her in.
But he didn’t answer.
Dammit.
“What the hell are you doing back here?”
She jumped and spun at the sound of the angry voice, her stomach dropping when she saw Nathaniel.
Not good.
He was friends with Xander. Not just friends—best friends. Had been best friends since high school. She hadn’t liked him then and she didn’t like him now. Although, that had everything to do with him heckling her at town meetings and barely serving her at the bar.
“Hi, Nathaniel.”
He inched closer. “You gonna answer my question?”
Why the hell did he think he could speak to her like that? “I’m making a call—”
“No. Not back here in the bar. Why are you back in Deep River?”
“You know why I’m back. Xander and I are over and this is my hometown. It’s where my parents are. I have every right to move back. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” She went to step around him, but he stepped in front of her, blocking her way.
He lifted a brow. “You think Xander didn’t tell me what you did?”
His words felt like fingers around her throat, squeezing.
No. Xander wouldn’t have told Nathaniel what happened in North Dakota. He wouldn’t have told anyone, because that would hurt them both. “What exactly did he say?”
“The truth.” Another step closer. “That you tried to ruin him. That you—”
“What the hell’s going on?”
Connor’s voice exploded from behind Nathaniel a second before he stepped beside them.
“Does he know?” Nathaniel asked, not taking his gaze from her.
Raven frowned, wanting to ask, “Know what?” Wanting to know exactly what lies Xander had told his best friend.
But the words never came out. Because what if Connor believed those lies?
Zac and Ryan came into view behind Nathaniel. The men surrounded them, a silent signal that they had Connor’s back.
Connor inched in between them. He stood close enough that his heat permeated her skin. “Time to walk away.”
“Or what?” Nathaniel spat.
“You really have to ask?”
There was a pause before a new voice sounded. “Nathaniel.”
Raven was the only one who looked to the right at Dusty.
The old man stopped a foot away. “What’s going on here?”
“Just having a little conversation,” Nathaniel said through gritted teeth.
Dusty’s eyes shifted between each of them, weighing the situation, before returning to Nathaniel. “Get back to work.”
A muscle in Nathaniel’s jaw clenched. He gave her one last glare before heading back to the bar.
Dusty watched Nathaniel leave before turning to her and Connor. “What was that?”
Her mouth opened and closed. She had no idea what to say. My ex told him lies about me and now Nathaniel hates me?
“He’s friends with Xander.” That was it. It was all she had in the way of explanation.
She shot a glance at Nathaniel behind the bar one more time. He was serving now, but he still looked hard and angry, like the muscles in his tattooed arms were a second away from splitting.
She jumped at the touch to her arm and turned back to look at Connor.
“I’m fine.” The words were like muscle reflex, said to diffuse the situation, but not entirely true. She felt off-balance and shaky, but then, anything to do with Xander had that effect on her.
“Come on.” He held out his hand.
Without too much thought, she placed her palm in his and let him lead her back to the table.
The rest of the night was a blur. The hum of talk around her, the clatter of glasses on tables. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t recapture the contentment from earlier. Her chest felt too tight, her skin hot. And every time she sipped her drink, the alcohol coiled in her belly.
She finished a quarter of it before finally stepping back. “I’m going to head home.”
Connor straightened. “I’ll drive you.”
“I have my car here.”
“Okay, I’ll walk you out.”
“You don’t—”
“I’m walking you out, Raven.”
A little bit of that tightness eased. At his protectiveness. His conviction. “Thank you.”
After a quick goodbye to everyone, she headed out, Connor’s warm hand on the center of her back as they walked. She liked his closeness. It felt grounding and safe…two things she hadn’t had a lot of lately.
Outside, the cool breeze ran over her skin, making her shiver. Connor inched closer, his entire side touching hers, that palm on her back still bringing warmth to her body.
“So that jerk at the bar is friends with your ex?” Connor asked, an edge to his voice.
“Yeah. I never liked him.”
“What’s to like?”
“I think Xander lied to him about me.” It was all she could think of to explain the disgust and blatant hate. Nothing else made sense.
“Why would he do that?”
They stopped at her blue Subaru, and she unlocked the doors before turning back to Connor. “To turn him against me. To make my life hard. Maybe there are other reasons too, I don’t know. I’ve discovered I didn’t know Xander as well as I thought. Something I learned the hard way.”
She shouldn’t be sharing so much. But Connor was easy to talk to. And God, she wanted someone to talk to.
His green gaze beamed into her. “He’s an idiot.”
“You don’t even know him.”
“I don’t need to. He let you go.”
Heat bloomed in her cheeks. “You don’t know me either. Not well.”
One side of his mouth kicked up. “We should change that, shouldn’t we?”
Go. She needed to go. Get away. Before she did something completely stupid, like fall for this guy. “I’m kind of a mess, Connor. And when I say kind of, I mean, I’m one gigantic ball of problems.”
His smile widened. “Good. I didn’t want to be the only mess in this relationship.”
Relationship?
Connor’s lips twitched at the flare of Raven’s eyes.
He wanted to kiss her. Fuck, he wanted to kiss her so bad he found himself leaning in with absolutely no conscious thought of doing so.
Raven’s pink lips parted, like she wanted to kiss him too. Her eyes darkened, reminding him of tides beneath pale skies.
They were almost touching, when she whispered, “I should go.”
It was like a bucket of cold water on his head. But he forced his feet back. It went against every instinct inside him, but he managed. “Drive safe, Raven.”
One quick nod, and she slipped behind the wheel and drove out of the lot. The second she was out of his sight, his gaze went back to the bar, that familiar rage curling in his gut once again. At the memory of that asshole cornering her. Looming over her. At the fear in Raven’s eyes.
Inside the bar, he went back to the guys, but his attention was partially on the asshole. What had his name been? Nathaniel?
“What’s the story?” Ryan asked, his gaze also on the bar.
“He was friends with her ex. Apparently still is.”
“You know why she and the ex broke up yet?”
Connor shook his head, and when Nathaniel finally looked up, his gaze was only on Connor for a second before scanning the rest of their group…like he was searching. For Raven? Why? So he could harass her some more?
Polly held out her hand from the other side of the table. “Phone.”
“What?”
“Give me your cell phone, Blackwood.”
“Don’t argue with her, man,” Joel said, sipping his beer. “You won’t win.”
Connor pulled his phone from his pocket, unlocked it, and handed it to Polly.
She typed something in before handing it back. “There you go.”
“You gonna tell me what you did?”
She smiled. “Check on her tonight. I think she’ll appreciate it. Now, we’re going home. Saint doesn’t like it when we’re out too late.”
Joel growled. “We’re cutting our night short for a cat. Unbelievable.”
As the two of them left, Connor opened his contacts and saw it.
Raven Price.
He had her number. He should have asked for it himself, but he’d been too distracted by her blue eyes. Her pretty pink lips.
One by one, the team started to leave.
Connor didn’t go anywhere. His attention was partially on the guys and partially on the bar. He tapped his phone, the number on his mind. Raven on his mind.
Fuck it. He typed out a text before he could think better of it.
Connor: Hey. It’s Connor. Just checking that you got home okay.
Ryan, the last of his friends remaining, drained his beer. “I’m going to head off too. You leaving?”
Connor glanced at the bar, then back at Ryan. “Soon.”
Ryan followed his gaze before looking back at him. “Connor—”
“I just want to talk to him.”
“So I should stick around as backup.”
“I don’t need backup.”
“I’m not talking about that kind of backup.”
Connor lifted a brow. “You think I’m gonna do something stupid?”
“No. But I know you feel protective of Raven.”
“I’ll be fine. And so will he.” Although, hitting the jerk would feel good.
“Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow. No fists.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
As Ryan left, Connor’s phone vibrated.
Raven: Hey. I didn’t know you had my number. I’m home safe and sound. Thank you for tonight. It was great chatting. And thanks for the help with Nathaniel.
Connor: Has he done that before?
Raven: He hasn’t approached me one-on-one since getting back, just been a jerk from afar. I think he’s just trying to intimidate me as a way to show he’s on Xander’s side. I don’t think he’d actually hurt me.
Connor’s jaw locked. He wasn’t so sure about that. The guy looked like a bully. Like someone who liked to throw his weight around to prove he was in control.
When Nathaniel headed down the back hallway, Connor stepped away from the bar. He passed the bathrooms and watched Nathniel push out the back door of the bar. Connor followed quietly as he closed the door behind him. He crossed the distance between the building and the dumpster.
Nathaniel turned—and jumped at the sight of Connor before cursing. “Fuck, man, what the hell? Are you trying to scare me?”
“Yeah. I am, actually.” One more step to bring them nose to nose. “You leave Raven Price alone.”
The guy laughed. “Or what? You’ll come to the bar and stare me down like you’ve been doing for the last hour?”
Connor didn’t raise his voice. He’d come to learn over the years that sometimes, a deadly quiet got the point across better. “If you don’t, we’ll have a problem. And I’m really fucking good at sorting out problems.”
“You gonna hit me, tough guy?”
“Nah, that would be too easy. You know what isn’t easy? Finding people. I do it because not many people have my skills. But going missing? That’s really fucking easy in this town.”
His smile dropped. “You’re threatening me?”
“I’m telling you to leave Raven alone.”
“You have no idea who she is.”
“And you do?”
Nathaniel laughed again, but it was more of a scoff. “Yes. And her hands aren’t as clean as she wants people to believe. But I think you’ll figure that out soon enough.”
Then the asshole re-entered the bar.
Connor watched him go. He didn’t want to believe anything the jerk said. But Nathaniel had known Raven for longer than him. Was there any truth to his words? If there was, then Raven might have more in common with his ex than he’d thought. The idea sat like a rock in his gut.