Chapter 19 #2
Breathe, Raven. Just breathe.
The door burst open, and she shot her gaze up to see Ward stepping into the small room.
“All right, we’re done.”
She straightened. “I can go home?”
“Unless you have something more to tell us?” He stared her down like he was trying to break her.
At this point, she was too exhausted to care about the judgment. She shook her head.
“Well, come on then,” he huffed.
She stood, and a wave of dizziness almost had her stumbling, but she locked her knees.
She followed Ward down a hall, and the second she saw Connor, air rushed from her lungs. She forgot about the headache. About the exhaustion. About the day from hell.
She barely glanced at his face before melting into his chest. “Thank God you’re here.”
“Are you okay?”
“I am now.”
When she stepped away, he studied her face. “Are you okay to drive?”
“I’m pretty tired. Can I just go with you, and we’ll pick up my car later?”
He nodded.
She signed some forms the receptionist put in front of her, then Connor took her hand and led her toward his truck.
The second she was in the passenger seat, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes.
Images of Lottie once again tried to fill her mind, tightening her chest, but she dug her nails into her thighs, the pain a good distraction.
The low rumble of Connor’s engine vibrated beneath her as he pulled out of the parking lot.
“Will you tell me what happened?” he asked quietly.
She turned to look at him. His jaw was set tight, like he was angry.
She was angry too, but the exhaustion was winning right now.
“There isn’t much to tell. I forgot about a Zumba session Lottie had organized, so I got there late.
Lottie’s bag was by the door, so I assumed she got there early and let herself in.
But then I opened the office door and…well, that’s where I found her. ”
“I’m sorry, Raven.”
“Me too.”
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes again. When they reached his house, she was already dreaming about bed. But first she needed to clean the smell of the station off her. “I might have a shower if that’s okay.”
“Of course.”
Her brows flickered, and for the first time she noticed something about his voice. It was too flat. Kind of distant. “Are you okay?”
“Just worried about you.”
She nodded, too tired to push.
Upstairs, she had the longest, hottest shower of her life. When she got out of the bathroom, toast and soup were sitting on the bedside table. She had half a piece of toast and a few sips of the soup, but that was all she could stomach.
All she wanted to do was fall into Connor’s arms and let him hold her.
She’d just stepped off the stairs when she heard his hushed voice from the kitchen.
“Yeah, she’s okay. They kept her there for questioning most of the day. Ward didn’t like the blood on her clothes and shoe, or that there was an hour of time last night when she was unaccounted for.”
He sounded as tired as she was.
“I haven’t asked. Ward said she was driving around but…”
Raven frowned. But? Did he not believe that was what she’d been doing?
“No, I’ve never heard of a Sampson. Who is he?”
She flinched at the name.
A second passed before Connor cursed. “And he’s missing?”
How was he getting this information? Ethan?
“I feel like I don’t know her at all. Like she has this entire life I’m not privy to.”
She inched backward, hurt cutting through her chest, even though it probably shouldn’t be. She hadn’t told him anything, so of course he’d found the information himself.
“I don’t know what the hell to think,” Connor growled quietly.
“You said yourself that her signature’s all over the business.
Lottie’s dead and there’s a missing mechanic connected to her, that we know of.
She hasn’t told me any details. Maybe she’s innocent.
Maybe she’s a victim. But there’s also the chance that, just like Margaret, she’s more involved than she’s admitting. ”
The flinch cut through Raven’s entire body.
For a long, drawn-out second, she couldn’t move.
Connor thought she could be involved in the stuff Xander had done. That she could be laundering money. Did he also think she could have had a hand in killing Lottie?
Tears pressed at her eyes, but before they could fall, she spun and raced back up the stairs, then immediately pulled her bag out from under the guest bed.
The weight of Connor’s words hurt so much she wanted to double over. To grab her chest as if that could somehow ease the pain. No, she hadn’t told him her story. But he should know her well enough to know that she’d never be a part of anything Xander was a part of.
Shouldn’t he?
Footsteps sounded on the stairs, then a knock. “Raven?”
She walked to the drawers and grabbed an armful of clothes before carrying them back to her bag.
The door creaked open. She didn’t look up. There were tears in her eyes. He’d see them regardless, but it didn’t mean she had to look at him.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving.”
From her peripheral vision, she saw him moving closer. “Why?”
“Why?” Finally, she looked up at him, emotion clogging her throat.
“I know I didn’t give you much about my past, but to say I could be a willing participant in a money-laundering business?
Do you think I had something do with Lottie’s death too?
In what happened to Sampson?” Even saying those words out loud hurt.
“You heard.” He stepped closer. “It just doesn’t make sense to me why you won’t tell me what’s going on.”
She dropped the clothes into the bag and spun back to face him. “You want to know why? Because the last time I confided in someone he ended up dead!”
Blood. It soaked her arms.
Sampson’s blood.
She shook her head. No. She wasn’t letting the darkness slip in now.
“I’d had suspicions about Xander’s business activity for months.
I even found documents in his office with my signature that I never signed.
I told Sampson about it because he was my best friend.
He told me it would all be okay. That he’d look into it.
I trusted him to help. And I found him dead in Xander’s workshop that same damn day. ”
Connor’s brows pulled together. “Raven—”
“You think I would risk anyone else? He put a tracking device on my car! He has reach and money and power, and you wanted me to tell you, the man I was falling in love with?”
“I can protect myself.”
“Are you bulletproof?”
He was silent.
She shook her head. “You’re not. No one is.
And even if you didn’t become the next target, he’s already threatened my parents.
And they have no protection except for a meager guard on the door at the residence.
All he needs is to suspect I’ve told someone.
Then he’ll hurt more people I love to punish me. Hell, he killed the PI I hired.”
“We’ll put one of the guys on your parents’ apartment. We can protect them and you.” He took another step forward.
“Stop.”
Her word was barely a whisper, but he listened. His feet slammed to a halt, frustration cutting into his features. “I can’t let you leave, Raven. It’s not safe.” He lowered his head. “I’m sorry about what I said.”
She swallowed, wiping a tear before it could hit her cheek. “You thought I was like him.”
Real pain etched his features. “I have trouble trusting after Margaret, but I should have known your heart well enough to know you’d have nothing to do with this.”
It was only when he pulled her into his chest that she let the first tear fall.
She thought she’d feel fear after telling him.
The kind that gripped her throat and prevented the next breath.
She didn’t. All she felt was relief. That she wasn’t carrying the weight of her past alone anymore.
That Connor was shouldering just a little bit of the load.