Page 20 of The Raven
“Roberts!”whoever was at the other end of the phone barked, loudenough for me to make out his words clearly.“I expect you in my office within the hour to discuss your insubordination last night!”
Mason’s body tensed, his jaw clenching.“I’ll be there soon.”He hungup and repocketed the phone.“Fucking dick,”he hissed.
I raised a brow; the tense atmospherethathad descended momentsago had once again lifted.“Friend of yours?”
“Fuck no.Thatwas my boss. The one who signed off on the finalreport for your case.”
I snorted.“He is a fucking dick.”
Mason grinned, and the butterflies that had just settled down in my stomach began flapping again.
“Listen, we can talk more about all this. And I have a fuck ton ofquestions about how it’sevenpossible you are here, ‘cos quite honestly, I’m still a little convinced I’ve finally gone doolally,”he said, beginning to unbutton his shirt. Without meaning to, my eyes dropped to the exposed golden-tanned skin of his chest before I quickly looked away. Thankfully, Mason didn’tseemto notice.“Can we talk later? I’ll be a few hours, but you can hang out here and do…well, whatever it is ghosts do.”
I couldn’t stop a chuckle from breaking free.“Maybe I’ll put somebedsheets over my head and go haunt your neighbors.”
“Yeah, dothat. The neighbor below is a real pain in my ass; he’salways banging around down there. Give him a scare and teach him a lesson,”he replied.“Justmaybe don’t kill anyone for a bit. I’ve got enough paperwork to sort as it is.”
A devious smirk crossed my lips. “I can’t make any promises.”
Buck Fuck
The Raven
The second Mason lefthisapartment, thedarknesshis warmth hadbeen keeping at bay descended. Gone were theimagesof the two happy children running on the beach, laughing as the cold sea lapped against their ankles, replaced byshadowsof the night my life was cruelly taken from me.
I waited a few minutes forMason’scar to pull out of the parking lotbefore I left too.
I had a date.
And now, more than ever, Ineededto make my plan succeed. It wasclear fromMason’swall of evidence that he was as haunted by theVipersas much as I was. Maybe more; after all, he’d lived and breathed them every day for the past year,unableto escape their crimes,unableto move forward.
Then there were the pictures of the other victims who’d suffered.They might not have died, but they were living their own nightmare, left without justice and scarred by the gang’s sins.
It couldn’t go on, and I was all the more determined to end their reignof terror, once and for all.
Every single one of theViperswere responsible for the distress Inowcarriedaround with me, butBuck, he was the mostbrutal. The one who took the most amount ofgleein destroying me. The one who wouldsufferthe most for what he’d done.
His time was up, and I planned on making himsuffer.
Pullingmy hood over my head, I leftMason’sapartmentblock and tunedinto the mind of myraven, who was watching over thegang, letting me know when the right time to strike was.
Currently, she wasfollowingBuck, flying high above so he couldn’tsee her. He was alone, walking in the direction ofChestnutStreet, the notorious area where prostitutes solicited for work. But something had spooked him; every fewsteps, he looked over his shoulder, almost as if he knew he was beingfollowed.
I briefly wondered where the others were, but I had faith in my bird guidingme to where Ineededto be at the right time. The others would come, but now, my focusneededto be solely onBuck.
Worry creased his brow as he hunched hisshouldersand tried hishardest to keep hidden in theshadowsof thewaningsun. But he couldn’t hide from me; I would find him nomatterwhere he went.
The chilling laughBucklet out as heslammedinside of me on thatfateful nightrangin my ears, sending white hotpainthrough my body. I paused, needing to steady myself against a wall as my knees threatened to buckle, and invisible hands slid around mythroatand squeezed.
UntilBucktook his turn, I’d held onto a sliver ofhopethat I wouldmake it out alive, but when he knelt behind me, his fingersburninginto my already bruised flesh, I wanted todie.
I wanted it all to be over.
I evenbeggedGrim to kill me as Buck violated me, inflicting more damage on me than any of the others. My pleas were met with nothing but hateful stares.
It took several minutes for thepainto recede enough for me to carryon, by which timeBuckhad made it toChestnutStreet, and wasdeepin conversation with a woman who was wearing nothing but tiny glittery pink hotpants and a leather jacket over hertop.
He handed over a $20 bill, which shetuckedaway in her bra before takingBuck’shand and leading him into a run-down house behind her. Maybewhen theViperswere gone, and the cops of Hadleigh Peak could reclaim thestreets, it would be a better place to live.
