Page 42 of The Raven
She didn’t reply, but her mouth dropped open. When her eyes cleared again,a long minute later, she pulled out of my grasp.“I… I know where he is.”
She turned and attempted to walk away, but I grabbed her again, stoppingher from going anywhere.“Where?”
“He’s in the den. That’s where he’s been hiding. We should have checkedearlier!”
“The den? As in-”
“Yeah, that den,” Raven replied, her voice shaking.
I cursed internally for not thinking aboutthatlocation earlier. But Raven’sold childhood home was the last place I would have expected Grim to go; it had been condemned several years ago and was boarded up with thick metal fences around it.
“I’m coming with you,”I said, leaving no room for argument and lookingaround for my keys.
The den used to give Raven nightmares. When Grim and his dad moved inwith Raven and her mom, he claimed the basement as his, turning it into his den. Before his father disowned him, Grim and the other Vipers used to hang out there, plotting ways to cause havoc and ruin lives.
Particularly Raven’s. Grim used to terrify her by threatening to take herdown to the basement. He would tell her all the wickedly vile things he would do to her, which ranged from cutting her open to see what her insides looked like to letting his friends rape her.
Raven never told her mom or stepdad because she was too frightened.Instead, she’d cry in my arms as I tried to comfort her and promise Grim would never hurt her.
I failed to deliver onthatpromise, but I wouldn’t fail again.
“No, Mase, you’re not coming. It’s too dangerous,”she said, panic lacingher tone as she blocked my path to where my keys lay on the kitchen side.
“I’m not letting you go alone, Raven.”I side-stepped her, but she was tooquick and blocked my path again.“Raven-”
“No. Youreallythink I’m going to let you put yourself in harm’s way? Grimwillkill you, but I’m already dead, Mason. You’re not. You still have your whole life ahead of you.”
Her cheeks reddened as anger swirled in her beautiful eyes. For as long as I’dknown Raven, I couldn’t ever recall a time when she’d lost her temper at me. It was enough for my own temper to rise.
I opened my mouth to reply. To tell herthatI didn’t care if Grim killed mebecause I didn’t want a life without her? To tell her I wasn’t ready to let her go? I wasn’t sure, but I never got the chance.
A heavythump, thump, thumpbroke the tension when someone pounded onmy front door, both Raven and I staring at it as if we expected someone to knock it down any second.“Roberts!”a familiar voice called.“Open up!”
My gaze snapped back to her.“That’s Brenner.”
“What’s he doing here?”
“Roberts!”he called again.“I’ve got a warrant for your arrest, Mason. Weknow you were involved in conspiring to murder the Vipers, so I suggest you open the door right now! Don’t make this worse for yourself.”
What. The. Fuck?
Raven gaped at me.“What? They think you were involved?”
“I know you’re in there, Roberts! You’ve got ten seconds to open this doorbefore we smash it down and drag you out in cuffs!”Brenner shouted, his voice growing more impatient.
My brain clicked into gear. There was no way I was getting past Brenner. Itwasn’t like I could go off the balcony and scale down my building, and I imagined he’d brought a whole battalion with him who were guarding the front door.
It was the sort of thing the prick would do.
“You need to go.”I grabbed Raven’s arm and marched her out onto thebalcony.
“What? No! They’re going to arrest you for something you didn’t do,”sheprotested, ripping her arm out of my grasp.
“Don’t worry about me. Time is running out; you need to go and deal withGrim.”
“No-”
I slammed my mouth down on hers, preventing her from arguing, andknowing this would be the last time I got to kiss her. The pounding on the door broke us apart, Brenner’s angry shouts getting louder.
