Page 30 of The Fighter
-She’s being disrespectful on purpose
-She’s mad that I don’t allow her to come on dangerous missions and she tells me so all the time.
-She never flutters her eyes or lifts her shoulders to her cheek as an invitation like the women in the books I’ve read.
-She tried to strangle me with her legs when we fought.
Clues that Raven likes me.
-She won’t put in a good word with Mila… maybe she wants me for herself?
-She acted jealous when Gennie came on to me.
-I’ve never seen her fight anyone the way she fought with me. I don’t care what she says, that was fucking porn.
-She has joked that she flirts with me, but what if she wasn’t joking and she really is flirting with me in her own strange way?
“Inspector, can I have a minute?”
I had been so engrossed in my own thoughts that I hadn’t seen Cameron approach. With a quick swipe of my hand, I brought back the case I’d been working on before I got stuck on whether or not Raven liked me. What the hell had I been thinking anyway?
“What’s up?”
“It’s Raven, sir.”
I lifted my gaze to meet his eyes and leaned back in my chair. “What about her?”
“Something is wrong with her, but I don’t know what it is. She didn’t come up for lunch, so I went down there to see if she was alright. She tried to tell me she forgot about lunch because she was distracted by her work, but we both know that’s a bloody lie. She’s always dying to get out of that room.”
“Hmm…” I narrowed my eyes. “Did you see her do anything suspicious?”
“No, she was looking over some papers. I assume they were files that she was sorting. But here’s the next thing that worries me; I offered to spar with her and she said she wasn’t in the mood.”
That part got me out of my chair. “Yeah, something is wrong here. Raven would never pass up the chance to have some fight training.”
“That’s what I thought. I worry about her. What if some ass hurt her or something?” Cameron scratched his beard.
I was already making my way around my table. “Then that ass would die a slow and very painful death.”
Cameron groaned in agreement. “Don’t tell her I sent you. I don’t want Raven to think that I fuss over her or anything.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t. I’ll just go down to check up on her.”
Three minutes later I walked into the archive and saw Raven sorting files at a desk.
“You changed your system.”
She didn’t look up. “What do you mean?”
“You used to stand over by the file cabinets, now you’re sitting by the desk.”
The normal Raven would have given me some kind of sharp reply about me being a fine inspector and very attentive to details, but not today. Raven showed no interest in talking to me and simply shrugged her shoulders.
“Raven, what’s going on?”
“Not much.” She kept her eyes on the papers, but I wasn’t that easy to shake off.
“It’s Friday.”
