Page 60 of Just One More Moment

Remy nodded. His friend had a point. “You’ll be the one to question her?”

“Yes.” Remy breathed a sigh of relief. At least she would tell her story to someone she knew.

“Remy? Detective Lewis?” Raven called out.

They turned at the same time.

“I’m ready to talk now.” She still had the blanket wrapped around her and chills still racked her body. She’d calm down later. Remy would make sure of it.

“You can stay,” Garrett said to him. “But you need to let her talk. Since you were a witness, I’ll take your statement later.” Garrett sat down beside Raven on the back of the ambulance. Her feet dangled off the side and Remy listened as Garrett questioned her, beginning with the bomb scare evacuation and everything that happened after.

As he listened, Remy’s hands clenched at his sides and his anger grew until he stormed off to find Lance, only to be pulled back by Zach.

“Looks like I’m just in time,” Zach said, his hand on Remy’s shoulder.

They watched as the bastard was loaded into an ambulance just like the one that had hit him. Cuffed to the gurney, Lance appeared conscious though Remy didn’t know the extent of his injuries. Remy hoped they hurt like hell.

“Let’s go,” Zach muttered. “You can’t go near him without fucking up the case against him.”

With a groan, Remy followed his friend to a spot where they could talk alone but one where he could keep an eye on Raven.

“The bar’s been cleared,” Zach told him. “They’d already done a full sweep when Lance admitted to making the fake call.”

Remy nodded. “Good. Hopefully we won’t have to do too much PR to get business back to normal. A bomb scare isn’t good for the bar.”

“We’ll be fine. We have a good amount of returning customers.” Zach paused in thought. “Add aWomen Drink Freenight and they’ll all come back. I’m not worried about the business.” He eyed Remy, concern visible in his steady gaze.

“I’m fine,” Remy insisted. “Just worried about Raven. Once I get her home everything will be okay,” he said, hoping he was right.

Despite dodging a bullet with Lance, she’d been badly shaken and his gut told him she hadn’t been as prepared to face her brother as she’d believed herself to be. Even if shehadsaved herself. He was damned proud of her for escaping.

Zach adjusted his leather jacket and eyed him with surprise. “Home, hmm?”

Remy blinked. “What?”

“You do realize that technically, Raven still lives in the apartment above the bar?”

Zach’s words were a gut punch. Since she’d moved in, Remy had all but forgotten she was there out of necessity and not choice. “After the attempted break-in, she said she didn’t want to go back.”

“That was when Lance was out of prison. He violated his parole and we both know calling in a bomb scare means federal charges. Add in the unlicensed gun that a known felon can’t lawfully carry and the drugs in his pocket, and he’s in deep shit.”

“Seriously?” Remy shook his head. “Stupid motherfucker.” But he felt his lips tug upward in a grin.

“Keep smiling,” Zach said. “The detective who patted him down said the pills look like the synthetic fentanyl they’ve been tracking.”

Remy chuckled. “That bastard is going away for a long time.” And if Lance didn’t plead guilty, Remy would be in court every day of his trial, no matter how long it took. “At least I can tell Raven she’s finally safe.”

Comfortable silence fell between them. “I need to give her time, don’t I?” Remy asked.

Zach, who’d lost his first love, then found her again, only to let her go home to Chicago when the threat against her was over, nodded. “Sorry, man. She needs to be ready.”

“You did change your mind and go after Hadley,” Remy reminded his friend.

“But I gave her the time she needed first.”

“Fuck.” Remy had wanted Raven in his life for a long time. He’d been patient but that patience had run out.

But Zach was right. Raven had been consistently terrorized by Lance since she was adopted. If she needed to live her life before he asked her for a commitment, he’d have to back off and let her go.

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