Page 20 of Her Avenging Angel

“Let’s turn on the TV and find something to watch.” He reached for the remote to the TV mounted on the wall opposite where his bed sat. “What do you like to watch?”

Taylynn remained quiet. He turned on the TV and looked at her, waiting for her to give some input on what to turn on.

“You like sitcoms?” he started flipping through channels.

“Not really.” Her voice was so soft he almost didn’t hear her, but he did

Elation shot through him. She was talking. She was telling him what she liked. “That’s okay, what about family dramas?” he carefully didn’t look at her as he continued flipping through channels.

“I’m not into that fake stuff.” Her voice was a little louder this time.

Raven frowned, but quickly wiped his expression. He didn’t want her to think he was unhappy with her. “Then tell me what you like,”

“I like action movies. I like cop shows, you know the kind where they catch the bad guy and the good guys go home and live happy lives.”

“I can work with that.” He kept his expression blank as he tried to find something that fit her likes on TV, the whole time thinking how backwards that she didn’t like family dramas and saw them as fake but liked shows where the bad guys were always caught. Especially after the life she’d been forced to survive over the last several months. He wouldn’t say living because while technically, she’d been alive, she’d been surviving, not living.

It took him a moment, but he found a rerun of a series about the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit. The series was over, but it could be found in reruns on a lot of channels.

“How’s this one?”

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this movie.” She frowned at the screen.

“It’s not a movie, it’s a series.”

She turned and frowned at him, “Is it new?” Taylynn didn’t bother waiting for an answer before turning back to the screen.

“No, but just sit here and watch it for a bit.” He kept rubbing her back, hoping as she got into the show she would continue to relax. Maybe get comfortable enough with him that she forgot to guard her every expression or word.

By the first commercial break, she had moved around in his lap so she could lean against his shoulder. Because of the way she’d moved, Raven now rubbed up and down her uninjured arm. The touch was nothing big, nothing overt, but she seemed content to let him do it, and he liked the soft, velvety feel of her skin under his hand. He liked that while she hadn’t looked at him since that one glance while they were talking about the show, she seemed comfortable there, in his chair, in his lap, watching TV and touching him, even if she wasn’t doing any active touching.

By the time the first episode was over Taylynn had let her head fall against him and he could tell by the soft snoring that she’d fallen asleep. Content to stay like that for the rest of the day, he let the TV play the next episode and wrapped his arms around her. It hadn’t taken as long as he feared for her to become more comfortable with him. Though he wasn’t where he wanted to be, not yet. Still, this was progress, and he would enjoy it while he could.

****

After dinner, Ravenoffered to watch more TV with her, but Taylynn said she was going to take a shower and read in bed a while before going to sleep. He watched her leave, then turned to Jersey who’d been sitting on his other side.

“Send word out. Church in an hour. I want everyone who’s not busy on club business present.” Once the order was given, Raven retreated to his office. He wanted to go over everything one more time before taking the issue to the table for his brothers to vote on.

By the time Raven made it into the chapel a little over an hour later everyone else was present.

“I know I crack down hard on all of you for being late, and I apologize. I was on the phone with Shotgun getting an update on the situation and it took longer than I anticipated.” He stood in front of his chair, his eyes scanning the room for a moment then sat. “As far as we can tell, the Demons have no clue that Taylynn survived. That puts us at an advantage. You all know I want to end them over what they did to her, not just how we found her but everything they subjected her to over the last year. She still hasn’t told me all of it, and she may never be able to. I know enough to know I want them all wiped from this earth. Shotgun is working on getting his hands on Ace, but it’s proving a little more difficult than he anticipated. What I want to know is our end plan. Smokey, tell me what you’ve got.” He looked at the brother known for being fond of building gadgets and making things go boom.

“I’ve been doing a bit of research. Interestingly enough, the Demons’ clubhouse has an fascinating history. Apparently, the building dates back to around 1900 and was once a speakeasy during Prohibition.”

“Interesting but why the fuck does that matter to us now?” Snoopy said, rolling his eyes.

“Because its history as a speakeasy means it has a basement. Did any of you know that?”

Heads shook around the table.

“Why does it having a basement matter?” Snoopy didn’t seem satisfied.

“It’s not just the basement, but that particular one has an escape tunnel, actually it used to have more than one, but the one that matters is the one that still exists. It does have a brick wall across the entry to the building but that’s easily taken care of.” The grin that spread across Smokey’s face told them all he had a plan. One that was most likely dangerous and if done right, could mean the end of their Demons problem.

“Tell us what you have in mind,” Raven said, sitting back in his chair as he wove his fingers together and listened.

An hour later, satisfied they had a good plan in place, Raven adjourned the meeting. He watched as one by one his brothers filed out of the room until all that was left was Jersey, Freud, and himself. Panther, who was the last one out, closed the door behind him, as Raven had requested.

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