Chapter 30
“What did you do?” Raven gasped, as she dropped to her knees beside Herbert and touched his pulse.
A steady beat thudded beneath her fingertips. Thank God. But there was so much blood.
“Stand up, Raven.”
The coldness in Briar’s voice had her freezing. A small click sounded, like the safety on a gun disengaging. Slowly, she looked up.
Air froze in her lungs at the sight of the pistol aimed at her face. “Briar…what are you doing?”
“I said, stand up.”
Slowly, she pushed to her feet. The motion was clumsy, exhaustion from the drugs still trying to tug her down. But she fought it. “He needs help.”
“He’s a crazy old man who won’t be missed.”
Who was this woman? She wasn’t the Briar who Raven knew. Not that she’d ever known her well. She looked at the gun again before glancing at Briar. “Why do you have a gun?”
“I need you to do something for me.”
A sick feeling churned in her belly, because the last person who’d said those words to her had been Xander. But Briar had nothing to do with him…right? “What?”
“I’m going to ask you a few questions, and I’m going to record your answers.”
“Bank questions?”
“Bingo.”
She stumbled back a step. “You were working with them?”
“I’ve dated Nathaniel on and off since high school.
Well, dating’s a reach. We fucked. Then one day, I saw financial statements left open on his laptop.
I saw the layered LLC structures that screamed shell entities.
But even before that, I’d heard phone calls here and there, with Nathaniel saying things that didn’t add up.
I eventually pieced it together. When I told him what I knew, he looked like he was going to kill me.
Until I told him I wanted in. That I could help. ”
“Because of your accounting background.”
“Right again.” Keeping the gun raised and pointed with one hand, she pulled out her cell with the other. “Ready?”
“If I give you what you want, you’ll just kill me after.”
“If you don’t, I’ll kill you right now.”
“Then you’ll never get the money.”
A sneer curled Briar’s lip. “You think I’ll stop at your death? I won’t. I’ll go back to that little care facility, and I’ll kill those parents of yours too.”
Dread filled Raven’s gut. But also anger. So much anger. She’d trusted Briar to care for her parents. And this entire time, she was a terrible person.
“This isn’t personal, Raven. It’s business.”
The hell it was.
Raven’s phone vibrated from her back pocket. It had to be Connor. She hadn’t shown up at Trap when she was supposed to.
He’d come looking for her. She just had to stay alive until he got here.
Briar looked down at the phone in her hand to unlock it, and the second her gaze was off Raven, she charged forward. She grabbed the wrist holding the gun with both hands and shoved it up.
Briar cried out and fell backward, Raven dropping on top of her. When the side of Briar’s head slammed into the base of a tree, she groaned.
Raven scrambled to the nearest tree and used it to drag herself to her feet. The forest swayed, her knees threatening to buckle, but she didn’t let them. She didn’t have time to do anything but run.
She took off, slipped through the woods, falling into trees while trying to lose herself. She was faster than when she’d run from Herbert but still far from a hundred percent. She pushed through the exhaustion.
The sound of the river whooshed beside her, the current so strong that one glance almost tilted her off-balance.
“Raven!”
Her foot hit a tree stump, and she stumbled, only just catching herself.
“Get the hell back here!” Briar yelled.
She ran faster, pulling out her cell as she moved and glancing at the screen. Low signal. Shit.
Still, she hit his number.
It barely rang before he answered. “Raven? Where are you?”
“Connor! Thank God. Briar’s trying to kill me.”
“Where…” Static crackled over the line. “Please…” More static. “Now.”
She ran faster, her legs feeling so heavy it took every ounce of strength she had to remain on her feet. “We’re in the forest beside the residence. Connor, I—”
The line cut out.
Crap. She tried to send a pin of her location, but an error sign popped up.
Her foot hit a rock this time, and she fell hard onto her stomach.
“There you are.”
She spun to her back as hurried footsteps approached, and without pause, kicked Briar in the kneecap. She cried out and fell. The other woman was lifting her gun when Raven dove on her, grabbing her wrist and rolling her to her back.
Briar rolled them again. They were moving toward the water’s rocky edge.
No. If she wound up in the water, she wasn’t sure she’d have the strength to pull herself out.
She put a second hand on Briar’s wrist and swung, forcing the gun to hit Briar hard in the head, right where she’d hit the tree.
Briar growled and dropped to the side. Then Raven was up and running again. She moved as far and fast as she could before finally collapsing behind a tree to breathe. To allow her tired body to rest.
She only felt like she’d been there for a minute, maybe less, when the crunch of a branch sounded close by.
Her heart jumped into her throat. She scanned the dirt around her for something to use as a weapon.
A rock. That was all there was.
She reached for it, gripped it firmly in the palm of her hand, then waited.
“Raven? Can you hear me?”
The line cut out. Fuck.
Connor shoved the phone into his pocket and sped up. The forest was huge, but if Herbert was missing too, if he’d had something to do with this, then he had to check the man’s usual spot.
Zac sprinted behind him, both their steps fast but silent. They were almost at the river when they spotted the body.
Not Raven’s—Herbert’s.
Connor dropped to his side and touched his neck. “I have a pulse.”
As Zac checked over his body, Connor studied the ground, eyes narrowing on the disturbed dirt beside them. Then he saw the blood on the bottom of a tree. “There was a fight.” He looked back at Herbert. “He’s not mean enough to have been involved.”
“Herbert could have dragged Raven out here. Briar might’ve followed, hitting him over the head before taking Raven.”
Connor shot to his feet and tracked the marks in the dirt with his eyes.
“Go,” Zac said. “Find her. I’ll stay with Herbert.”
Connor started moving again. Slower this time, not taking his gaze off the prints. He stopped at the next area of disturbed dirt. Another fight. Then the prints continued.
Every step he took without eyes on her made that pit in his gut grow wider. He slowed when the prints separated. One second of indecision passed before he chose the ones closest to the river.
Glock raised and aimed, Connor continued.
When he rounded the tree, a rock flew at his head.
He ducked, then a shoulder slammed into his midsection.
He absorbed the impact, his gaze on the top of a blonde head. “Raven?”
Her face jerked up, relief clearing the storm from her blue eyes. “Connor? Oh God, Connor!” She wrapped her arms around him and dug her head into his chest. “Thank God you’re here. It’s Briar! She wants access to that account, just like Xander. She hit Herbert and—”
“I know. You’re safe now. You—”
He saw the flash of movement moments before a gun fired. He dropped on top of Raven and rolled behind the tree.
The gun kept firing, footsteps growing closer.
“I’m going to kill both of you!” Briar screamed. “You ruined everything. You—”
Connor leaned out just slightly on the other side of the tree, took aim, and hit Briar in the right shoulder with a single bullet. She cried out and dropped to her knees.
“Stay here,” he whispered to Raven, before stepping out from behind the tree, Glock still raised. “Drop the weapon, Briar.”
She moaned as she knelt on the ground, free hand on her shoulder, gun still in her left hand.
Ryan, Ethan, and Joel all rushed through the trees, their own pistols raised.
“You’re surrounded,” Ethan said quietly. “You have two choices. Drop the gun and surrender. Or die.”
Her chest moved quickly, hand still on her shoulder, blood seeping through her fingers. Her gaze shifted to the tree Raven still hid behind, angry fire shooting from her eyes.
“You won’t get her,” Ryan said.
“It’s jail or a fatal gunshot wound,” Joel pressed.
“Choose,” Ethan finished.
She looked away from the tree. To Ryan. Joel. Ethan. Before landing on Connor. “I didn’t kill anyone. I don’t want to go away for murders I didn’t commit.”
“That’s between you and the legal system.” Connor stepped forward. “Drop the gun, now.”
One more second passed. Finally, her weapon hit the dirt.
The three other guys closed in on her, while Connor turned back to Raven.
She was already on her feet but leaning heavily against the tree.
He gripped her hips. “Where are you hurt?”
“Not hurt. Tired. Herbert gave me a sedative.”
“He drugged you?”
She nodded, massaging her temple. “He pulled me out here. Told me I was leaving with him. I think Briar encouraged it.”
“She used him to get you alone.” Maybe she even planned to kill Raven and frame the old man.
Raven stepped around the tree, her attention on Briar, still on her knees while Ryan spoke to someone on the phone. “I can’t believe she was involved. She knew they killed people. That they were committing these crimes.”
“She only cared about what she could get out of it.” He tugged a piece of hair from her cheek. “You’re sure you’re not hurt?”
Finally, she met his eyes again and shook her head. “No. But I wouldn’t argue if you wanted to carry me out of here.”
He growled and curled his arms around her. Then he walked them both out of the forest, knowing it would be a long damn time before he felt okay letting her out of his sight again.