Chapter 22 Raven
The room goes still.
Babe stands near the kitchen counter with his arms crossed over his chest, looking too big for my tiny apartment.
Min stands next to him, offering me quiet, reassuring smiles.
Carver sits in the chair beside the door, elbows braced on his knees, his expression unreadable.
Shield lays his head back in the recliner and stares at the ceiling.
Neither of them says anything right away.
I wish one of them would. I fight the urge to stand up and pace. Or flee. My face throbs from the punch Tony gave me. I touch it tenderly, prompting Min to rush to the freezer for a fresh bag of peas. She takes the pack that I dropped on the coffee table.
Shield finally breaks the silence.
“I heard about what happened at the bar. One of the waitstaff found the woman in the bathroom and called the cops. The woman couldn’t remember what happened. She said that someone took her outside and then brought her back in.”
A knot twists in my stomach. “She doesn’t remember anything?”
“She spent the night in the hospital under their watch as they flushed the drugs from her system. Another detective interviewed her this morning, but she doesn’t remember anything more about what happened.”
I close my eyes briefly.
Thank God.
Shield watches me carefully. “Her blood tests showed that she’d been drugged with rohypnol. Probably in her drink.”
“By Tony,” Carver muses.
Tony.
The name burns through my head like acid.
I press the cold peas harder against my cheek. I can still see his face when I tasered him. The anger and hatred making my skin colder than the frozen peas could.
Shield leans back in his chair slightly. “No one in the bar remembers who she was with, so they don’t know who slipped her the drug.”
“Tony made sure of it, or he got lucky again,” I mutter.
Shield nods once. “By the time police got there, nobody was outside anymore.”
Of course they weren’t.
Tony’s a coward, but he’s a smart coward. The second that fight turned against him, he ran.
“You should’ve called the cops,” Shield says.
Suddenly the apartment feels too hot and too cramped. I can feel everyone’s eyes on me.
“Maybe. I didn’t know how to explain my being there. It wasn’t like I was dressed to go bar hopping. I looked like I was gearing up to rob a bank. What could I have said? Besides, I didn’t think the cops would believe me.”
Shield’s expression hardens. “You assumed the worst.”
“Because the worst happens. I didn’t think you believed me before, so I didn’t trust that you’d believe me this time.
Besides, I would have had to explain why I was following Tony, which would have meant admitting that I remembered more about the night behind his gym.
I didn’t know if I could trust the cops. Or you.”
The words crack out harsher than I mean them to.
Silence slams into the room again.
I fold my arms tight across my chest, trying to hold myself together. “I couldn’t risk it.”
Shield stares at me. “Risk what?”
“Getting blamed.” My throat feels raw suddenly. “Getting arrested while Tony walks away clean because he knows how to lie better than I do.”
Carver shifts slightly in his chair but still doesn’t interrupt.
I shake my head and look away from both of them. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see him. Guys like that always know how to turn things around.”
Shield rocks forward. “We could have arrested him. We probably would have found the drug he used on her on him.”
“Do you really think he would still have it on him? He could have come up with a lie so easily. All he had to do was deny he was taking the girl. How could I have proved it? He could have said he stopped at the bar looking for his friends and was on his way out when I attacked him. Hell, he could have accused me of being in cahoots with the person who stole his car. That would explain how I was found behind his gym. He probably has a million lies ready to unleash if he finds himself in need of one.”
Shield drags a hand over his jaw, frustration flashing across his face. “Jesus Christ, Raven. That girl could’ve died.”
“But she didn’t.” The words come out sharp. “Because I stepped in.”
“And then you disappeared.”
I flinch as if he slapped me.
For a second, nobody speaks.
Carver finally exhales and stands from his chair. “Enough.”
Shield’s eyes stay locked on mine another moment before he looks away.
The tension in the apartment doesn’t disappear, but it shifts. Loosens just enough for me to breathe again.
Carver moves toward the kitchen slowly. “Girl’s alive,” he says evenly. “That’s what matters right now.”
Shield doesn’t answer.
I can tell by the look on his face that he still thinks I should’ve called the police. He still thinks I made the wrong choice.
Maybe I did.
But the image of handcuffs snapping around my wrists while Tony smirks from the sidelines rises in my mind so vividly it makes me sick.
I stand and move to the window to stare outside.
The silence after Shield’s accusation sits heavy in my apartment, thick enough to choke on.
Then Carver breaks the tension.
“Question is,” he says slowly, “why the hell was Tony there alone?”
I look up.
Shield’s attention shifts toward him, irritation easing slightly from his face.
Carver leans against the counter now, thoughtful instead of angry. “Think about it. Why did Tony meet up with his friends only to go to a bar alone? That doesn’t make sense.”
“What are you saying?” Shield asks.
“Raven said two other men left Rollings’ house at the same time he did. Did they go to the bar?”
I frown at his question. “I didn’t see them or their cars in the parking lot.
You’re right. If the three of them were headed to the same place, why take separate cars?
I guess they could have been planning on going home from there, so they drove separately, but I didn’t see the other two. Only Tony.”
“Maybe they arrived before you and went inside?” Babe suggests.
I shake my head. “They weren’t that far ahead of us. In fact, I remember seeing them turn off and go in different directions. Why do that if they were going to the same bar?”
“Besides, wouldn’t his friends have been helping get the girl outside? You said she could barely stand, right?”
I nod.
“Where was he going with her? I mean, what was the plan? Was he going to rape her there or take her somewhere?”
No one answers Carver. I turn my mind back to the scene. Tony telling her that they were going to have some fun. No, he said that she might not have as much fun.
“Tony said something to her,” I murmur. “He said that they were going to have some fun. But then he said that maybe she wouldn’t.”
“So, who is they?” Carver asks.
“He and his friends?” Min asks quietly.
I swallow hard.
“You said Tony and his friends convened at Rollings’ house before three of them took off. Why meet up if the plan was to separate? Unless that was only the first part of the plan?”
“You think he was bringing the girl back to the house?” Babe says.
Carver nods. “It makes the most sense, doesn’t it?”
The awful realization settles over all of us.
If I hadn’t walked into that alley when I did, nobody knows where that girl would’ve ended up.
Shield pulls out his phone and disappears outside. Leaving us to stare at each other in horrified silence.
“You said two others took off at the same time as Tony, right?” Min asks. I nod. “Where did they go? You said they didn’t show up at the same bar.”
I shake my head. “I don’t think so. I didn’t see them or their cars. As I said, I think they turned off and went in different directions from Tony.”
“You think they went somewhere else,” Babe asks.
“I’m guessing that’s what they did,” Shield says as he returns to the room.
“I called the precinct and had them check missing persons reports. Two women disappeared from two separate bars Friday night. I’m having Maestro check traffic cams to see if he can spot the cars of the two who left at the same time as Tony.
My guess is we’re going to learn that the three were hunting that night and two came back with their prey. ”
“Six men,” Min says flatly. “Three women.”
Nobody speaks.
Because the math lands instantly.
Tony had one girl.
The other two men left the house the same night.
And now two women are missing.
A cold wave of horror rolls through me so hard I grip the edge of the counter to stay steady.
“Oh my God,” I whisper.