Page 54 of The Fighter
“I would like to think that they would protect me, but hopefully we’ll never find out.” Mila tilted her head. “Do you like dogs, Leo?”
“Yes. And cats too.”
“That’s good. I could never marry someone who wouldn’t accept my animals.”
“Ehm… right. No, of course not, that makes sense.” Mila’s mention of marriage threw me off because after what I’d done with Raven, the thought of marrying her best friend felt wrong. “Mila, have you seen Raven today?”
“No. I thought she was with you.”
“She didn’t come to work.”
“Oh, is she sick?”
“Apparently. I just wanted to check up on her.”
“What a concerned boss you are.” Mila gave me a genuine smile and it hit me how different she was from Raven. Not only physically, where Mila was blond with blue eyes and long straight hair while Raven had dark skin with large curly hair. I knew they were best friends, but they couldn’t be more opposite in nature. Mila was mild and gentle and looked young and innocent with her cute dimples, while Raven was loud, tough, and looked older than she was.
“Come on, Leo, I’ll take you to her.” Mila led the way and as we entered the Manor, she gestured to a guard that he could stay put and that I was her guest.
“I’m sure Raven will be honored that you came to see if she was all right. I’ve told her several times that you’re not half as old and cranky as she claims.”
“Thank you, Mila. Yeah, Raven isn’t my biggest fan, that’s for sure.”
“Oh, it’s just because she says you locked her in the dungeon with the dust dragons. She’s not happy about that at all. That’s why she calls you her warden.”
“Like a prison warden?”
“Uh-huh.”
It shouldn’t have surprised me, but I still felt a need to defend myself. “Just for the record, I did take her on an assignment this week. It was a domestic violence case. Very dangerous.”
Mila made a sound of concern. “I heard about that, Leo. It worries me because I can’t bear the thought of losing Raven or seeing her hurt. Promise that you won’t let her do something too dangerous.”
I huffed out. “It’s a shitty situation. She’s mad if I keep her safe, and if something happens to her, everyone else will have my ass.”
“Yes, I see your dilemma; we all want to be supportive of her dreams but keep her from harm at the same time.”
We had walked up the wide staircase and were now walking down a long corridor. “It’s that door on the right. The one with the purple sign. I made it for her.”
I gave Mila my softest smile. “Thank you for taking me to her.”
“Of course.”
Mila was the one to knock on the door and when Raven opened it, she hugged her. “Are you okay? I heard you were sick.”
Raven’s eyes darted between Mila and me. “Yeah, I had a headache, but I’m better now.” As expected, she didn’t look happy to see me and asked, “What are you doing here?”
“I was worried about you. May I come in?”
Raven stiffened. “No, I didn’t clean my room.”
“That’s okay, my place isn’t the tidiest either. I wanted to talk to you about some… ehh… stuff.” I gave a sideways glance at Mila. “Something related to work.”
Mila picked up on my attempt to talk to Raven alone and with a small smile, she leaned in to place a kiss on Raven’s cheek. “I’d better leave you two professionals to your boring work talk then. See you later.”
As Mila walked away, Raven refused to look at me and kept her eyes locked on Mila and the three dogs.
I spoke in a low, urgent tone: “Raven, we need to talk.”
