Chapter 54
Hawk hit the floor, dropping the gun and bleeding. The rest of the room went into chaos. Guards yelled at one another. A bright light blew up outside the semicircle of windows. When one guard pointed to a bullet hole in the window, the hole suddenly got a lot bigger.
Every window crashed as shadows came flying through.
Glass rained, sending half the guards scrambling out the door and the other half to stand, dumbfounded.
Voices raised. Nala fell to the ground, covering her head with her hands as Varen threw herself on top of her.
Words like “FBI!” and “Stay where you are! Drop your weapons!”
echoed around them. It wasn’t until someone grabbed Varen and then Nala that she finally opened her eyes and looked at a big fat “FBI” printed on a bulletproof vest in front of her.
Her hands were tied behind her back. Varen was shoved back to the ground next to her. More FBI agents came swinging through the windows, raiding the whole damned place as they crunched broken glass beneath their boots and chased after more of Xan Ravenwood’s personnel.
The commotion they heard throughout the rest of the house was like the entirety of the military raining upon Ravenwood’s palace.
While the raid lasted only a few minutes at most, Nala gaped in awe at the scene opening up around her.
Holy fucking shit! This was the kind of stuff only seen on TV!
So many people, dressed all in black and wearing helmets, their visors pulled down, throwing smoke bombs into rooms to drive people out…
putting the butts of their large guns in suspects’ backs to make them march to the grand foyer downstairs, where Varen and Nala were eventually taken as well.
Do they think we’re anything but victims in this?
Are we being arrested too? They did have fake IDs, and who knew what else they had done illegally.
Nala and Varen stood among the usual suspects, like corrupt security personnel and a beautifully injured Hawk who was cursing and punching anyone in her way before one big and burly FBI guy smacked her in the back and sent her to her knees.
But there were also scared maids, concerned chefs, and a couple of landscapers who swore they didn’t speak English.
They were rounding up everyone.
Including the man of the hour, Xan Ravenwood, who was marched down his stairs with his head still high. His hands were cuffed behind his back, but one would have never guessed this was anything but his plan based on how he surveyed the land around him.
Once he hit the bottom of the stairs with his black-suited entourage, a familiar face walked through the main entrance.
Maggie pushed her rain jacket behind her as she sauntered up in the same dark denim jeans and beige peasant top she wore when Nala saw her earlier that evening. Her demeanor was both determined and satisfied as if this were the greatest moment of her life – it probably was.
“Xan Ravenwood!” she called, pulling something from her pocket. Nala half expected a gun, but it was a leather wallet instead. “Margaret Jameson, FBI.”
His eyebrows went up. Nala’s practically leaped off her face. I will never be that cool.
“You’re under arrest for extortion, insider trading, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and multiple counts of conspiracy to commit murder.” When Hawk squawked in pain a few feet away, Maggie continued, “That one’s arrested for just murder. What a pair you make.”
Jay approached, also wearing an FBI jacket. “Great job, babe. We got everyone.”
She did not smile. “I know. Don’t call me babe.”
Maggie pushed past Nala and Varen without regard. She only had eyes for Ravenwood.
“A pest in my own Aviary,” Ravenwood said before she had the chance to speak. “I always knew there was something off with you.”
“Kinda like how everyone with half a lick of sense always knew there was something or fifty off with you.”
“Nothing you have against me will hold up in court. These scandalous lies you tell will do nothing but hurt your institution instead.”
Maggie smirked before landing a punch right between his legs.
Nala almost laughed as the man slowly sank to his knees, containing a painful expression that she recognized as balls breaking. Maggie told her FBI partners that her hands slipped.
“You have confessed so much already, Xan.” Maggie gestured to Nala. The nearest agent ripped something off her back. When she patted me on the back… she bugged me? “We’ve got your full confession on there.”
“Nobody will believe it,” Ravenwood wheezed.
“Shut the fuck up, baby killer.”
“You better do as she says!” The only woman dressed in a dark suit came through the front door.
Even this one surprised Varen, who stared wide-eyed at Josephine making a lackadaisical entrance.
“You’ve had two official investigations going on for a while, Ravenwood. If it weren’t for the FBI, it would’ve been the police. You’ve been making negative waves in this city for a while.”
“You stupid…”
“Let me guess? Nepo baby? Wouldn’t be the first time I heard that.”
Josephine didn’t have a gun or cuffs to show off, but she did pull out her credentials.
“Jordan Montalvo is my real name. You might know my mother, Giselle Stone, a captain for the PPB. She asked me personally to work with the FBI on this one.”
“Because you’re a pervert,” Maggie muttered.
“No kidding,” Jay echoed.
“Why do you think I didn’t say no?”
“So good to know that my judgment in character over the past year has been shot,” Ravenwood said, attempting to have the last word. “I’m shutting up and waiting for my lawyer.”
“Wise idea. Take him away.”
Before the FBI agents could parade him through the foyer and out the front door, however, Varen leaped to her feet and cried, “Wait! Please!” She was let go, hands still tied behind her back. “I want to ask him one last thing.”
Ravenwood sighed. “What is it?”
“How?” Varen bore upon the man who still treated her like a mosquito to be swatted against the wall. “How could you kill a pregnant woman?”
Ravenwood’s demeanor remained unchanged. “Why do you care?” he asked. “What would you have done when it inevitably came out that your precious Matthew or Magda was actually mine?”
“All right, that’s enough,” Jay said. “Get him out of here.”
Varen was pulled back and Ravenwood marched out.
Some of the FBI agents started cuffing Ravenwood’s security and taking them to vans to load up and haul downtown, while others started questioning the staff.
Nobody touched Nala and Varen. Except for Maggie, who came back down the stairs with her hands in her back pockets and a gun poking from a holster.
Wow. I want to believe she shot Hawk. Nala would believe it until she died.
“Sorry you two kept getting wrapped up in this,” she said, taking out a pocket knife and cutting apart their zip ties.
Varen shook out her wrists while Nala braced herself against the ground.
“Because of your fucking stupidity, though, we got the last of the evidence we needed to finally raid this place. Jay and I have been undercover for over a year now.”
“I helped!” Josephine called.
Nobody heeded her.
“Glad I could help,” Nala said.
“Hey, don’t be too hard on yourself. We’re all young and dumb once.”
“…Thanks.”
“Don’t mind her,” Jay said. “She’s tough on the love. Makes her pretty endearing, right? She’s great at Thanksgiving dinners.” He smiled. “My husband adores her.”
“Your husband would think Paula Deen is great company.”
“For all the wrong reasons.”
When they both caught Nala looking askance at them, Maggie explained, “We’re not a real couple. Jay and Marguerite Jones were our undercover names. That house is an FBI house.”
“I would have never guessed,” Nala sighed.
“You should get some medical attention. You may have only got shot with CO2 for a couple of seconds, but that’s enough to do some damage. I’ll get you a medic as soon as one’s available. Hold tight.”
Maggie patted her. “Need you nice and healthy so we can take your statement. Might need you to testify.”
Varen turned to Jay. “Are we being arrested for anything?”
“No. Although we know about the fake IDs.”
Varen groaned.
“We’ll look the other way regarding any of the… questionably legal things… you’ve done since entering The Aviary as long as you give us official statements about everything that happened. Your records stay clean. We all go home happy.”
Varen exuded a sigh of relief. Nala almost wept to feel an arm wrap around her.
“By the way,” Jay said to Nala. “I’m sorry about what happened at the hotel. I couldn’t blow our cover to anyone. Hawk had made us as some sort of spies, which caused the shootout. Obviously, we were all right, but I know it scared you two shitless.”
“It’s all right,” Nala said, starting to shiver in the drafty foyer. “I’m used to that by now.”
“Found this one in the master bedroom.”
Maggie, standing on the landing of the grand staircase, looked up and saw one of her colleagues bring down a woman in a gold dress. Well, you were around after all.”
Quail looked her in the eye before grunting in disapproval. “And you were a cop after all. Should’ve sniffed it out.”
Maggie finally got to pull out her handcuffs. “I hate to do this, but…”
“Do it already. I got a lawyer on speed dial by this point.”
Rolling her eyes, Maggie took Quail from the agent’s grip, turned her around, pulled her hands behind her back, and cuffed her. “Sybil Rothschild, you’re under arrest for multiple counts of solicitation and prostitution.”
“No shit. I’m a fucking escort, and a girl’s gotta eat.”
“Anything you say can and will be used against you… so you might wanna shut up.”
They started marching down the stairs, Quail’s head held high and her face so stubborn that she looked like she was about to turn around and smash her heel on Maggie’s toes. Instead, she said, “I can give you Seba! She’s a dirty bitch with…”
“Yeah, yeah, we know all about your client’s workings with Ravenwood. Save it.”
“I used to be a real respected girl, you know! One of the most sought after in New England! I was Maximillian Carlisle’s fiancée!”