Chapter 25
Connor paced the hall of the sheriff’s office. He hadn’t slept all last night. Not a single fucking minute. He’d spent hours waiting for Ethan to call him with some sort of information proving Raven’s innocence, then the rest of the night at the station, waiting for Ward to get in.
He wanted to know what evidence they had against her, and he was not leaving until he had it. He didn’t give a shit that he wasn’t law enforcement and they shouldn’t be sharing anything. Ward had done a hell of a lot worse in his time as sheriff—he could certainly break a rule for Connor.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go home?” the elderly receptionist asked for what had to be the tenth time in the last hour. “I can call you when Ward—”
“I’m staying.”
She sighed in clear exasperation and turned back to her computer. There’d already been a front-desk change an hour ago. It was almost nine. Nine in the fucking morning. That meant Raven had been held in a cell for over twelve damn hours.
He’d called her a lawyer, and the lawyer had made contact with her last night, advised her not to say anything without him present, but also said he wouldn’t be present until the morning.
There was no way she was talking to Ward without a lawyer present. The sheriff would take the easy way out like he always did, and right now, that would entail Raven going away for a crime she didn’t commit.
He couldn’t stand here for much longer. He had to do something. Anything.
The doors opened and Connor spun, only for hope to crash and burn at the sight of Ryan. “What are you doing here?”
“What do you think?” He stopped beside him. “I’m here to make sure you don’t kill someone and get your ass put in a cell.”
“I want her out, Ryan. I want her out now.”
“I know. Ethan’s been up all night. I’m sure he’s close.”
Connor nodded. Ethan would find something. He was too good at what he did not to.
A few minutes of silence passed before Ryan broke it. “This probably isn’t what you want to hear, but this feels eerily similar to—”
“Don’t say it. This is nothing like what happened with Margaret.”
Not entirely true. He’d stormed down to the station for her too. He’d gone in to fight for her and refused to leave for hours. Only Margaret had committed the crimes she’d been accused of. Something she’d only admitted to when the evidence was stacked against her.
But Raven was innocent. There wasn’t a part of him, not a single fucking fraction of his soul, that suspected she held an ounce of guilt.
He wasn’t making the same mistake as last time by putting Raven in the same category as his ex.
The door to the station opened a second time and finally, Ward stepped in.
The sheriff frowned at them. “What are you…” He sighed. “I can’t tell you anything about the case.” He shuffled into his office, a paper bag with The Pancake Bar logo across the front.
Both he and Ryan stormed inside after him.
Ward dropped the bag onto the desk. “Boys—”
“Why was she arrested?” Connor growled.
Ward lowered into his seat. “I told you, I can’t—”
Connor slammed his hands on Ward’s desk. “You’ve let us in on cases so we could help you before. Let us help you now and get her the hell out of here. She’s innocent.”
“You’re too close to this.”
“So imagine how hard we’ll work to clear her name and find the real killer,” Ryan said from behind Connor, a hell of a lot calmer.
Ward huffed as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his protruding stomach. “This is a pretty open-and-shut case. Apart from the fact that Raven and Lottie very publicly disliked each other, we found Lottie’s murder weapon. Raven’s prints were on it.”
Connor frowned. “That’s not possible.”
“It is. There were also traces of blood from a Sampson Pritchard on the knife. He was a young man who was found stabbed to death in North Dakota. His body was only located a few days ago, but he was close to Raven Price too. It appears your Raven is a killer.”
The son of a bitch. Xander had used the same murder weapon. “Where did you find it?”
“The murder weapon? Ferris found it outside the community center.”
Connor’s eyes narrowed. “Wouldn’t you have already searched there after Lottie’s death?”
“Well, yes, but my boys obviously missed it.”
Connor laughed, but it came out sharp and edged with anger. “It was planted after the fact.”
Ward shook his head. “No. Who would—”
“You know who. Her ex.”
“I told you. There’s no evidence that—”
A deep voice in the hall pulled Connor’s attention away from whatever Ward said next.
He knew that voice. And the asshole had no right to be here unless he was in cuffs.
Connor stormed out, ignoring Ryan’s call for him to stay. The second he spotted the fucker coming out of an interview room, Connor saw red.
He grabbed Xander by the collar of his shirt and threw him into the wall. “You did this.”
Xander’s shock shifted into a cocky brow lift. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I could kill you right now.”
Ryan touched his shoulder. “Connor, let him go.”
“Do it,” Xander said, words just for him. “Then you can both go to prison together. Won’t that be romantic. Quite the happily ever after.”
“Raven’s not going to prison. She’ll be out within the day.”
“Huh.” He frowned. “How’s that?”
“Connor, let him go, now,” Ward barked.
Connor ignored the sheriff and inched his face closer. “You did this. You killed those people. And there’s evidence somewhere. We’re not going to stop until we find it. Then you’re going away for a long fucking time.”
There was a single flash of fear, but it cleared as quickly as it came. “I’d wish you luck, but…you know.”
Ryan pulled him away. Connor let him. Then he watched as the asshole walked out of the station.
Ward started berating him for his actions. He didn’t listen. He continued to watch Xander through the glass as he climbed into his car and drove out of the lot. It was only when his phone rang that he finally looked away.
Ethan.
“Tell me you have something.”
“I have everything.”
The single recessed LED light flickered from the center of the ceiling in the holding cell. It had been flickering all night. It wasn’t warm or golden. It was a bright, clinical kind of light, similar to the doctor’s office.
She hadn’t realized lights weren’t turned off at night in a holding cell.
She hadn’t known a lot of things. That prisoners didn’t get a bed, just a concrete bench.
That there were cameras everywhere, to the point she felt constantly watched.
And the smell—God, it was awful. A musky, almost stale stench, like terrible body odor mixed with urine and vomit.
At first, she’d wanted to be sick. But at some stage she’d gotten used to it.
So many emotions had passed through her since being locked in this cell.
Fear. Anger. Tiny flickers of hope that were sometimes high and sometimes low.
Now, there was just this odd numbness. Because there was a chance, a very real, very terrifying chance, that no one would save her.
That she wouldn’t be able to save herself.
That she was about to spend the rest of her life in prison for crimes she didn’t commit.
She closed her eyes as the numb armor around her chest started to crack and hopelessness tried to punch through.
Breathe, Raven. In and out.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and focused on the recessed light again. The flickering had begun to form a pattern. A silent beat to a song she didn’t know the tune to.
How many others had lain here, watching this light, waiting to be transferred to a prison? And how many of them had been as innocent as she was?
Her heart clenched at the thought of Connor. Was he fighting for her? A scared whisper in her head said maybe he was questioning her innocence again. Maybe whatever evidence Ward had on her was so damning that he believed it.
She let the numbness creep back in as she focused on the light.
Flicker. Flicker.
She’d always pictured these cells as loud and busy. Maybe some drunken shouting. The scuffle of a fight breaking out between a deputy and a man trying to reclaim his freedom.
There was near silence.
Obviously, Deep River wasn’t the hotbed of criminals that movies painted towns out to be. Either that, or Ward and his deputies weren’t working hard enough to arrest anyone but her.
Maybe it was a combination of both.
Long minutes of silence stretched by. More overthinking. More swinging of the pendulum between bravery and fear.
She was still staring at the light when the loud click of footsteps sounded down the hall. Her spine stiffened.
Was someone joining her in this cell? Or was she being transferred to a prison?
Her heart started to beat loud and fast.
When only Ward stepped into view, she sat up, almost groaning at the pain in her back from lying on the hard surface for so long.
Ward unlocked her cell. When she didn’t immediately stand, he spluttered, “Well, come on. Do you want to go home or not?”
“Home?” No, he couldn’t mean—
“Yeah, home. Come on.”
Disbelief spiraled throughout her body. In what felt like a fog, she rose to her feet and crossed over to Ward. He locked the cell after her, and she followed him down the hall.
Her heart beat so wildly in her chest that she didn’t recognize the rhythm. And maybe there wasn’t one. Maybe it was just thumping any moment it could between the waves of shock pummeling her system.
Then she saw him—Connor.
He stood in the foyer, looking tall and strong and intense. The second his gaze met hers, he straightened, seeming ten times bigger even though she wasn’t sure how that was possible.
He took two steps forward and pulled her against his chest.
Oh God, the smell of him! The feel of his strength wrapped around her. She wanted to cry. The final crack of the numbness let everything pour in. The shock. The relief.
Tears pressed at her eyes, but she blinked them away as he leaned back. Just a bit. Just enough so he could look at her. “Are you okay?”
“No. But I’m better now I’m with you.”
He growled and tugged her into his arms again.
Ward cleared his throat. “I need you to sign a few forms, Raven, then you can go.”
“I don’t understand,” she whispered.
“I’ll tell you everything once we get the hell out of here,” Connor said quietly.
Signing the forms was a blur. Connor was never far from her side.
They’d just stepped outside, and she’d breathed her first lungful of fresh air in over twelve hours, when Nathaniel was pulled out of a patrol car in the parking lot. His hands were behind his back, his features full of rage.
He’d been arrested?
Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed on Connor. “You.”
Connor switched sides so he stood between her and Xander’s friend. “Come on, Raven.”
“You think this is over?” Nathaniel laughed, the sound almost manic. “You’re gonna pay. Both of you! You hear me? You’re going to wish jail was all you had coming.”
Raven shot one last glance over her shoulder as they crossed the lot. He was still yelling and trying to pull away from the deputies as they dragged him inside.
Connor didn’t look back. He helped her into the passenger seat before moving around to the driver’s side.
“How was Nathaniel involved?” Raven asked, amazed that her eyes were still open after an entire night of no sleep.
“Ethan found large money transfers to his account and a whole lot of communication between him and Xander. He’s been part of the laundering business since the beginning.”
Jesus. She’d had no idea. But then, there was a lot she hadn’t known.
So many questions flickered in her head. But delirium was setting in. A level of exhaustion she’d never experienced before. Not just because she hadn’t slept. This was a different kind of tired. The post-fight-or-flight kind.
She closed her eyes, only for what felt like a second, but when she opened them again, she was in Connor’s arms, being carried up the stairs in his house.
“I fell asleep?” she asked softly.
“You were tired.” His voice was gentle, but there was also an edge to it. One she had a feeling he was trying to hide but couldn’t.
When he reached the bedroom, he tucked her beneath the blankets before sitting on the side of the bed. “Sleep. I’ll make some food.”
“Wait. I need to know what else Ethan found.”
Connor slipped a piece of hair behind her ear.
“Deleted files from Xander’s cloud backups.
Everything was there. Evidence they used you as the fall guy.
They meticulously planned how they were going to forge your signature.
Ethan even found video surveillance of the garage that captured Sampson’s murder, proving Xander was the killer.
There was also a discussion about your feuds with Lottie, and how killing her could both scare and incriminate you. ”
Jesus. “I’m almost too scared to believe it’s true.”
“It is true. Your name is cleared. They have Nathaniel, and soon they’ll have Xander.”
She leaned forward and pressed her forehead to his chest. She’d lived so long with this fear of Xander, and what he could do to her, always hanging over her head. It almost felt surreal that she could be free of it. “Thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me, Raven. I would have gone to the ends of the earth to prove your innocence.”
She looked up at him. That edge that had been in his voice now shadowed his eyes. “You never wondered if I—”
“Not once.” He cupped her cheeks. “Because I know you. I love you. And you are good.”
The final bit of unease dissipated from her chest in a soft sigh, and she leaned into him again. It was over. And as soon as they had Xander she’d be free.