Chapter 54 #2
“Yes, and you had protection over there, didn’t you?” Their voices echoed in the foyer until they were at the front door. “Don’t have a powerful madam to protect your ass this time. You’re a fat little quail sitting dead in the road, after all.”
Jay turned away from the scene as soon as they were out the door. “I’ll leave you two to it. We won’t detain you or anything but don’t stray too far away. We’ll need your statements before you can go home.”
Once they were finally left alone, Nala fell into Varen’s arms and let out a repressed sob. Varen rocked her back and forth slowly enough to make Nala feel at ease with so much pumped-up energy around them.
“I almost died…”
“I know, darling.”
“But you came for me…”
“I did.”
“You stalked me… but you came for me…”
“I had to make sure you were safe. I normally wouldn’t do something like that.”
“I know.” Nala shook as a powerful realization claimed her. “It’s over, Varen. It’s all over. He’s not going to hurt anyone anymore.”
“I sure hope not.”
“Don’t say that. Tell me he’s not going to hurt anyone.” Tears fell from Nala’s eyes, dampening Varen’s sweatshirt. “Tell me it’s all over and we got the justice we set out for.”
Her lips buried in the crook of Nala’s neck. “It’s all over. It’s all fucking over.”
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too.”
They kissed, not for a lack of anything else to do, but because they were so overcome by emotion that nothing else needed to be done.
Nala fell back, feeling Varen hold her with one arm and overpower her with her kiss as if that were the most natural thing in the world.
It is now. Heavy boots stepped this way and that.
The occasional words of derision were exchanged outside.
Sirens sounded. Medics came. People wanted their statements.
Soon there would be reporters. Until then, Nala was content to spend the first few moments of her new-found freedom sharing her joy with her girlfriend.
Are you okay, Tasha? Are you happy that I got you justice? Or are you angry that I hurt the man you loved?
Nala opened one eye as lighter steps walked by. It was two women, wearing FBI gear and reporting back from their superior. One woman had big, bushy hair, and the other long, black hair that looked too Slavic to ignore.
“I’m gonna need a cigarette after this,” the curly-haired agent said. “I’ve never smoked.”
“Buy me a coffee first. As soon as we get back to HQ, I’ve gotta go back to those criminal pathology classes. Thinking about it is wearing me out. Fuck it, we’re wanted upstairs to process the office.”
Both women turned in the couple’s direction, briefly exchanging glances with Nala and smiling. She smiled back, watching them walk by, self-assured – tired, but self-assured.
“What is it?” Varen asked, nuzzling her. They still sat in the middle of the damned floor in the foyer, but Nala didn’t care.
“Nothing. Kinda funny how many doppelgangers there are in the world.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Shut up and kiss me.”
She did, going as far as to slip some tongue in the middle of a crime scene. That’s how she was, and Nala accepted it – because that’s how she was. The world could be collapsing all around them, and she would be content if it meant kissing a woman like Varen Lake.
I’m glad you’re not mad at me, Tasha.
She kissed Varen harder, finally garnering the jabs of a few agents around them.
Somewhere in the distance, a man was asking them to stop long enough to answer a few questions.
Except nobody was able to stop such a formidable pair once things heated up.
Especially when someone like Nala was happy.
Right now she was mostly relieved, but she knew she would wake up the next day feeling pure happiness for the first time in…
Well, she didn’t know in how long.
Far away, a bird perched in its cage, singing a song of mourning. Nala used to be like that. A nightingale, crying desperately over a broken heart. The most beautiful song in the world. Beautiful because it spoke to the darkest, most pitiful parts of the human condition.
Nala used to be like that. Then someone opened her cage door and finally let her fly away, right into the arms of the only woman who could change her life in such a wonderful – and unexpected – way.
As the commotion died down and Nala realized how exhausted she was, Varen was escorted outside to answer some questions in private.
Nala was cornered by a member of the police bureau, and at first, she didn’t recognize “Starling” in pants and a rain jacket, her blond hair curled behind her head instead of left loose around her face.
“Aw, come on, don’t gawk at me like that.”
Blushing, the other undercover Aviary member showed Nala her police credentials.
“Stacey Morley, Portland Police Bureau. Jordan is my partner in the undercover unit.”
She blew air out between two perfectly plump lips, rolling her eyes.
“Partner in other things, too, you catch my drift?”
“I got that feeling, yes.” Unlike Jay and Maggie, Josephine and “Stacey” projected the vibes of a real couple. “Who wasn’t undercover, by the way?”
“Oh, easy. Lucian and Clara were the real deal. Seba Williams was one of Ravenwood’s henchwomen who owed him money and supplied women for trafficking. We also pegged you and Varen pretty quickly, although we weren’t sure what your game was right off the bat…”
She pulled a pen and notepad out of her pocket.
“Forgive me, Nala. I’ve got a few things to ask you. I know you’ve been bothered half to death, but…”
Before Nala could tell her it was all right, loud voices erupted in the foyer as half of the agents left in Ravenwood’s house rushed outside. Stacey likewise whipped her head around, one hand going to the gun holstered on her belt.
“Stay here.” That was the last thing she said before running toward the door.
Varen’s outside… Nala got up, a scratchy blanket wrapped around her as she approached the open doorway where police lights flashed and voices called for medics.
She knew what had happened before she saw it for herself.
“Ven…” Maggie and Jay held Varen back from one of the black vans, a gun dropped on the ground. Agents surrounded the van. Nearby, Hawk poked her head out of another van and shouted that she had seen everything, that Varen Lake had done it.
Done what?
Nala knew. In all of the confusion, the commotion, and the contention of those around her, Nala got close enough to the van in the middle of Ravenwood’s driveway to see the man himself slumped behind an open door.
Blood bled from a bullet hole in his forehead.
He’s dead. What was this feeling inside of her? This sense of…
He’s dead.
It had been enough, she thought, to see Ravenwood handcuffed and thrown behind bars.
Nala was willing to put herself up on the witness stand.
She would go into witness protection if that’s what it took.
Just to get him away from hurting anyone.
Even though she knew it could happen with him behind bars.
He could still hurt people, even back there…
The view of his dead body was blocked from view as medics crowded around the van. Nala was pulled by a man in a rain jacket. She was urged to not look, to not see what her eyes beheld. Would they tell her to not feel the rising jubilation in her heart, either?
He’s dead!
For months, Nala had fantasized about killing Xan Ravenwood. She didn’t care how. She didn’t care if she went to jail or got the death penalty. It was worth it to avenge her sister. Tasha… do you see? He’s dead! Dead, dead, dead.
“Ven!” Nala called from behind the man shuffling her back toward the house. “Don’t say a thing! They’ve got nothing!”
Detectives swarmed the lot. Varen was holed up for more questioning. Someone picked up the gun and put it into a bag. Xan Ravenwood’s body was pulled out of the van and loaded onto a stretcher, his face covered by a sheet.
He’s. Dead.
“Jesus,” Stacey said when she was back inside with Nala. “Well, who hasn’t thought about doing that in the past few months?”
Indeed, who hadn’t?