Chapter 42
Nala was still shaking when they returned to the loft.
The security team did their customary sweep and didn’t find anything.
Varen told them to bring in more people and double their vigilance.
When the captain suggested they officially go to the police with everyone’s testimony, Varen convinced him that when it came to Xan Ravenwood, nobody else could be trusted. Especially the police.
Varen consented to two bodyguards staying inside the loft that night, taking shifts with another pair.
She and Nala went upstairs with drinks while the security detail sat on the couches downstairs, doing more sweeps, looking out windows, and communicating via their phones.
With so much activity going on, Nala and Varen were forced to whisper their conversation.
“Who are they?” Nala huddled in her sweats as she continued to lightly shake on the bed. “Please tell me you’ve looked up their real identities.”
“I did a long while ago. Jay and Marguerite Jones. He’s in hedge funds and she… well, there was nothing about her besides basic profile shit. Both squeaky clean. Nothing stood out.”
Nala furrowed her brows. “You mean it was eerie how nothing stood out.”
“I don’t think they’re who they say they are, but if they have real information out there, I can’t find it. I can barely break into Ravenwood’s security.”
“Maggie gave you something, right?”
Varen pulled the small envelope from the end table. “She told me to open it with you. There was no time to discuss further because Hawk wasted no time. She wanted to take us out first. I think she was targeting Maggie. I was lucky that she was already so alert.”
“So was Jay. They knew that was going to happen.”
Varen nodded, opening the envelope. Inside was a single piece of paper containing a typed letter. She spread it out on the bed and focused the nearest lamp, so the soft yellow light illuminated Maggie’s words.
“I cannot tell you my real name. Whatever you do, do not dig into my identity. You could greatly compromise what I have already achieved, and I will have to kill you.”
They were off to a fantastic start already.
“I am on your side. I am like you in that I have been touched by Ravenwood’s evil hand.
Two years ago, I lived in a community not too unlike this one.
Xan Ravenwood was buying up land all over Washington, which included my town.
On one of his parcels, he built a daycare.
I enrolled my son, who was four at the time.
It turned out that Ravenwood over-purchased the town.
Soon his allotted funds dried up with little return.
Whispers of him going after phony insurance claims arose, but nobody could prove anything.
I should have acted, but I didn’t expect the worst-case scenario.
See, I had my son in daycare because I was a single mother with a full-time job that often went into overtime.
On the night I will never forget, I had to work late.
I phoned the daycare and one lovely lady there agreed to stay late with my son until I could pick him up.
By the time I got there, the whole daycare had burned down. Both my son and the woman died inside.
I do not doubt that Xan Ravenwood burned down the place to get insurance money.
Whoever did it for him must have thought nobody would be there so late.
There hasn’t been a day that goes by that I wish I had gotten there even half an hour earlier.
Maybe I could have done something. Maybe I could have saved my son and that woman.
But mostly my son, who was the most precious thing in the world to me.
My son is not the only victim. I know others have died by command. I will not rest until there is justice. You are meddling. I infiltrated long before you, and I must ask that you back off. For your good, and for the best chance at justice that we have.
I am sorry about Tasha Nazarov. I am sorry about Desirée Whitmore.
Their deaths did not have to happen. I sent Nala that photo that I stole from Ravenwood’s office because she needed to know the truth.
I recognized Nala the moment she entered The Aviary for the first time.
I know that Xan Ravenwood did too. You were made the moment you started lying.
Tasha was known as Crow when I first infiltrated The Aviary.
Of course, I did not know her relationship to Ravenwood until I did some digging.
When I found out she was one of his top researchers, a lot of things started to make sense.
For one, the girl was never happy in our group.
I could tell that her relationship with Ravenwood was not her choice.
If you told Tasha Nazarov that she would never have to come to another club meeting, she would be the happiest I ever saw her.
I won’t upset you with the things they did there, but as far as I can tell, there was some other reason Crow was in the group, and it was not because she was Ravenwood’s real girlfriend.
Since her death, Ravenwood has not had a partner aside from Hawk.
I’m sure he wanted us to think that he was grieving.
Nobody asked any questions. We all long learned to not ask about group members who disappear.
I knew Othello and Sparrow as well. Othello cost Ravenwood a lot of money with a bad shipment, and he moved to Germany to get away from his wrath.
If you’ve seen the news lately, you’ll notice that it didn’t work out that great.
Varen, I do not have any information on Desirée’s death. I’m sorry. I’ve done my digging and my guess is probably as good as yours.
Please do not interfere with me. I am on your side in that we both want justice. But I will not stop until it’s done. If you get in my way? I apologize in advance for what I have to do.
Maggie.
Nala could not face the piece of paper after she was done reading.
“I don’t believe it,” she muttered. “How could Tasha have been that man’s partner in any way? She would have never been into that sort of thing. She was as vanilla as basic ice cream.”
Nala knew that a woman who appeared vanilla on the outside may very well be kinky on the inside, but she knew her sister.
Tasha liked flirting, she probably liked sex, and she was always going on about guys when her time allowed, but the idea of her being into BDSM was about as likely as Nala becoming a housewife.
Nobody would have been surprised with Nala being kinky.
Submissive, maybe, but overall kinky? Yeah, right.
Nala should have seen it for herself before meeting Varen.
“There must have been something in it for her. Why would Ravenwood risk her quitting? She was one of his top researchers.”
“Do you still think that he had her killed because of her research?” Varen folded up the letter. “I’ve been questioning that myself lately. Then again, I don’t know what the alternative could have been.”
Nala shook her head. “A part of me doesn’t want to know. I think it would hurt me even more than I already am.”
Nala thought back to that photo, of her sister trapped next to Xan Ravenwood, looking like the most miserable woman in the world.
This was happening to her and she never told me.
Why? Because she thought I was too young?
Because she didn’t want to scare me? What else was going on in her sister’s life that Nala never found out about?
“I’m sorry you had to know any of this.”
Varen put the letter away. “I’m going downstairs and starting my research again. Maggie can tell us to stay away from her investigation, but I have my own to continue. I have to know why Desirée was killed. I have to find some piece of evidence we can use against him.”
“Please be careful.” Tears were spilling from Nala’s eyes again. I have cried so much lately. I didn’t cry this much before. She had been holding too much in, apparently. “I love you, Ven. I don’t want to lose you too.”
Varen kissed Nala’s forehead and caressed her cheek. Even so, her legs crawled off the bed and took her away from Nala. “You won’t lose me, and I won’t lose you. Starting today, you’re not leaving my side. I can’t risk it.”
Nala waited until Varen was downstairs before burying her face in her pillow.
I’m sorry, Tasha. I’m sorry I could have died tonight.
How many times had she almost died now? This was her first official encounter, but what about the things that were caught before she ever knew about them?
How many plans that were never carried out?
Where was Hawk right now? Maggie? Who was Jay to Maggie?
He was never once mentioned in her letter.
She had more questions than answers now.
When sleep did not come easily, Nala focused on the ambiance around her.
She settled on the sounds of Varen typing downstairs.
The woman was going to give herself blood clots and carpal tunnel working on those computers all day, but Nala knew it would be worth it.
Everything they did had to be worth it now.
Varen wasn’t kidding when she said Nala had to constantly be by her side.
When she attempted to go to work the next day, Varen told her to call in sick.
“Quit, honestly,” she told her. “You don’t need that job. If you want a job when this is over, I’ll help you find something much better.”
Instead, Varen had to swing by her office to contend with some neglected business, and Nala went with her.
Because nothing was better than being tailed by bodyguards and sitting on Varen’s office couch while playing escapist games on her phone.
She wished that there was something she could do to help, but she didn’t know coding.
She didn’t know how to hack. Those things were so beyond her that she couldn’t tinker with the fans on Varen’s machines even if she wanted to.
The fact she put them together was too much to fathom in the first place.
My girlfriend is a computer genius, and I’m useless. Nala’s anger had abated recently. Now she was more sad than angry. Sadness did not fuel the need for revenge.
When they were home, their lives revolved around what the security brought them to eat.
They didn’t dare go out. When Nala asked why they were not hotel hopping again, Varen told her that it was pointless.
Hawk would always know where they were. That didn’t make much sense to Nala, but she decided to trust her judgment.
Every day the security team - whom she had no choice but to trust as well - swept the loft and Varen’s car for anything nefarious.