Chapter Twelve #2
I have the sense she’s coming into her own without realizing it and her need to be there for the young girl she mentioned was the deciding factor for me in agreeing to come tonight. I can’t be the reason she lets the girl down.
I lean against a wall at the coffee shop, drink in one hand.
I’ve chosen a spot with a good vantage point to look around and one with a direct view of the entrance.
Raven promised to stick close and let the people she knows drift toward her to say hello instead of me having to scope her out as she moves around the crowded room.
Since this isn’t my first time here, familiar faces say hi to me and I nod or smile back. I’m not an antisocial guy but I have an important focus tonight and I don’t want to be distracted because I’m deep in conversation.
Raven is more jittery this evening than last Sunday, which surprises me since she isn’t going onstage. She bounces lightly on her Chucks, looking around.
“If you see him, all you need to do is tell me. He won’t get near you. Not with me around,” I assure her.
She tilts her head up to meet my gaze. “I’m not worried about Lance. Angel isn’t here and I hope she didn’t decide to blow the night off.”
I can’t control the warmth filling my chest at her response, nor do I want to. She’s everything warm and giving and the deeper she lets me in, the more I like what I see.
“I’m sure Angel will show up.” I hope I’m right because I have a feeling Raven will be devastated if she doesn’t. “Do you have any way to reach her?” I ask.
Raven shakes her head. “She never gave me her number.”
“Raven.” A young guy wearing a beanie with long hair walks up to her and engages her in conversation, which gives me a chance to look around. To see if there’s any sign of Lance.
The early, mingling part of the evening continues in the same way, with Raven worrying about her friend and my concern more focused on her brother. And I’m not talking about Caleb.
“She’s here!” Raven exclaims in an excited voice. She takes two steps away from me and I grasp her elbow, preventing her from leaving.
“Let her come to you, remember?”
My gut tells me it’s time for Lance to make a move.
The bastard broke in through her bedroom window, and was obviously tailing her as we went to dinner with Caleb, and then at the last poetry slam.
Lance will be dying to step things up again, scare her and receive an adrenaline rush-filled jolt of satisfaction, knowing he’s gotten to her.
“You made it!” Raven exclaims, relief filling her eyes.
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” a young girl with long blonde hair says as she rushes over. She pulls a hat off her head and tucks it into a worn tote bag. “My train stopped and I had to wait until it got moving again.” She pants, out of breath.
“Relax,” Raven says, touching Angel’s shoulder. “It hasn’t even started yet.”
Nodding, she rubs her obviously cold hands together. After a few minutes, she removes her jacket and places it on a chair near where Raven and I have put ours.
The owner, who I recognize, steps up to the mike and the night begins. I listen to the poems with half an ear and keep an eye on the door at the same time.
“I’m ready. I can do this,” Angel says to Raven, who’s still standing beside her.
Raven smiles wide. “You can. Now go knock ’em dead.”
“Come with me!” The young girl grabs her hand and pulls.
Raven’s gaze shoots from Angel to me. “Please? I’ll just be near the stage and you can watch me the entire time.”
I groan. The fact is, I have a view of the entrance and the stage is nearby. “Fine, but do not go out of my sight. No bathroom, nothing.”
“Yes, sir.” With a cheeky grin, she salutes me.
I lean forward and whisper in her ear, “Do that again and I’ll be more than happy to kiss that smile off your face.”
Cheeks pink, she turns and follows Angel.
The young girl’s turn comes soon and she clomps onstage in her heavy boots.
Angel’s words come from both the heart and experience about her time on the street, her feelings of solitude, and are filled with enough emotion to give me a lump in my throat.
She ends to a standing ovation and runs off the stage, giving Raven a hug.
Afterward, Raven starts to walk back toward me. Without warning, her expression morphs into one of horror and fear. Her eyes grow wide, mouth parted in shock. She glances from me to the side door and points, gesturing wildly.
I turn my head but all I see is an entrance to the hallway leading to the bathrooms. And the fire exit.
“Why didn’t you go after him?” she asks, slamming into me and wrapping herself around me. I love when she does it with exuberance. Not so much now when she’s afraid.
“I didn’t see him,” I say, anger at myself for somehow missing the bastard settling like lead in my stomach.
“I saw Lance. I swear!”
I move her away from me, keeping my hands on her shoulders. “Shh. I believe you.”
But Lance is smart. He was following her, and even I, for all my experience, didn’t see a tail. Lance picked a hidden exit that I scoped out last time but the door is permanently locked, according to the manager I asked.
No doubt Lance got in by charming a female employee. It didn’t matter enough for me to bother asking around. Raven won’t be coming back here.
“Let’s go home.” I grasp her hand, intending to keep her tight against me until we’re in an Uber.
“What if he’s outside when we leave?”
I groan. “He won’t be. He accomplished his main goal tonight. He rattled you. Now you’ll be looking over your shoulder everywhere you go.”
“How can you be so sure you’re right?”
“Experience,” I say grimly. My time as a detective and later, looking for missing women, taught me more than I want to know about the mind of a sociopath. “As for Lance, knowing you’re wound up tight and thinking about him will keep him satisfied until… I mean, for a while.”
Thankfully she doesn’t ask until what. And I don’t let myself think about the answer. Because, I think, as I pull out my cell to arrange for a ride, we won’t be in the city when Lance is ready to make his move.