Chapter 36 #2
Relief floods her features, and she slumps back against the pillows, exhaustion evident in the dark circles beneath her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispers. “I knew you’d come. I knew you wouldn’t abandon me.”
I stroke her hair back from her forehead, a tender gesture that makes her eyes flutter closed. “You should rest now,” I tell her. “You need to recover your strength.”
I press the call button, and when a nurse appears, I smile my most charming smile. “She needs something to help her sleep,” I say. “The pain is keeping her awake.”
The nurse nods, already moving to adjust Gia’s IV. “The doctor left orders for additional sedation if needed. She’ll be out in a few minutes.”
Gia’s eyelids are already growing heavy as the drugs enter her system. “Don’t leave me,” she murmurs, fighting to stay conscious. “He said… he said you’d come back to me… I just needed…” Her breathing deepens, and her grip on my hand loosens before she can finish talking.
He… who the fuck is this he that’s been talking to her?
The moment she’s under, my expression shifts, the mask of concern dropping away like a discarded coat. I stare down at her sleeping form, mentally calculating how long it will take to unravel her lies and discover who she’s working with.
Raven
My phone rings while I watch the nurse administer whatever it is she’s giving Gia. Adam Kearney’s name flashes across my screen.
Damnit.
Normally, I’d ignore the call since it’s Friday evening and way outside business hours. But I’ve been shirking my responsibilities all week, and if I wish to keep my career, I need to woman up.
An elderly nurse walks by me and frowns. “Could you please turn that thing off or take it outside, dear?” Even though it’s posed as a question, her tone makes it clear it’s a demand.
“Of course. Sorry,” I rush out. “I’ll, umm, take it outside and get some coffee.”
I practically run all the way in my haste to get outside so I can answer the call. But of course, it ends before I’m even halfway outside. When I reach the gift shop and cafeteria, I pause long enough to get myself a coffee.
As soon as I’m outside, I call Adam back.
“Hi, Adam,” I say when he answers on the third ring. “I’m so sorry to have missed your call. But—”
“Actually, it’s Finn,” his brother says.
“Oh.” I remove the phone from my ear and check the caller. Nope, it definitely says Adam Kearney. “Did you need anything?” I ask, confused.
He launches himself into an explanation I barely understand. Something about a social media challenge they want to do next week.
“Do you think we can get it done in time?” he asks once he’s done explaining.
God, I really should have ignored the call. It’s Friday, for fuck’s sake. I could be drunk at a bar and not at all capable of working at all. But if that were the case, I would have sent the call to voicemail or ignored it.
“Yeah, maybe,” I hedge. “It sounds—”
“Would you mind coming over and having a look at it with us now?”
While I try to work out the best and most polite way to tell him to fuck off, I listen to the traffic in the background on his end. There are a few sirens.
“Now? It’s Friday evening, Finn. And I’m…”
I stop talking as tires screech alarmingly close to me. I look up just in time to see Finn Kearney smile from inside the pickup truck.
Something about his smile, about the entire thing, makes big alarm bells go off in my head. Like the ones that need a Hunchback of Notre-Dame to ring them.
“W-what are you doing here, Finn?” I ask, taking a step back toward the entrance.
He gets out of the vehicle and shoves his hands into his jeans pockets. “Just drove by and saw you, that’s all. I wouldn’t have recognized you if I hadn’t known you’d dyed your hair.”
A sliver of coldness slithers down my spine. “H-how did you know I’ve changed my hair?” I throw my splinted hand up to stop him when he keeps walking closer. “Finn. Stop,” I demand.
But he ignores me and keeps moving closer. I look back at the door, which is now further away than he is to me. What the hell is happening? This is not good. Frantically, I try to come up with a plan, but nothing… oh! An idea hits me out of the blue.
“Let me just make a quick call,” I say with forceful cheeriness. While talking, I gesture wildly with my splinted hand as I try one-handedly to dig the North Coast Effects business card out of my purse.
“You can do that from the road,” Finn counters, no longer smiling. “Let’s go. Raven. Now.”
Bingo! I get the card loose enough I can slide it out while I follow Finn over to the truck. Just before I get in, I throw it on the ground fucking hoping that Matteo sees it.
Once Finn has the truck roaring to life and is pulling back onto the road, I try to discreetly call Matteo. But before I can even unlock the damn thing, Finn snatches it from me and throws it onto the road.
“What the hell?” I scream, more outraged than scared.
“Oops.”
“Oops?” I parrot. “That wasn’t a fucking accident. You did that on purpose—”
Before I can finish yelling at him, the vehicle swerves when he grabs my throat and yanks me so close I can see the menace in his eyes.
“If you don’t shut the fuck up, I’ll have to drug you or kill you, Raven. Is that what you want?”