by Jeny Heckman
“Wyatt, this section is restricted.”
“Not to me,” Wyatt said, brushing past the man. Donovan strode around him and put a hand on his shoulder squeezing hard.
“You will not test me on this. I assure you, you will lose.”
“Take your fuckin’ hands off me, Fortner, you piece of dog shit.” Wyatt growled deeply, his eyes darkened, and his face reddened. Immediately Donovan snatched his hand away as if bitten. Wyatt, six inches taller and thirty pounds of solid muscle more than the older man, stepped toward him, precipitating an immediate retreat backward by the older man. “If you honestly think you have any power over me whatsoever, Fortner, you are pathetically mistaken. I don’t have to tolerate you anymore. I’m standing in the wings, where my sister asked me to stand. If you even think of trying to put me out, I will end you.” His face was inches from Donovan’s. “Now fuck off somewhere and twitch.”
The older man stepped back, eyes unblinking and jaw clenched. Wyatt knew the older man understood he would not win this verbal battle any more than he’d win a physical one. Fortner looked as if trying to ascertain if anyone had witnessed the exchange. With a final steely look at Wyatt, he slithered off, quietly cursing his once-brother-in-law. The announcer’s voice boomed across the loud-speakers.
“And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. She’s been away too long! The one. The only. Raaaaven Huuunter!” The music cued, and the lights came up, spotlighting Raven’s return.
Chapter 28
“Wine?” Wyatt asked, sounding exhausted, as they walked into her condo.
“Vodka,” Raven replied.
He laughed, nodding his head in approval, and moved over to the wet bar. He gave each a heavy pour and handed a glass to his sister. She spent the entire hour, traveling in the limo, attempting to brush out the backcombing in her hair and wipe off several layers of makeup from her face. Donovan said he wanted her to leave the stadium in character for pictures and autographs. Not obliged to do so by contract, she decided to be amicable, trying to make the decision to let her play her songs the next evening easier.
“Did you talk to Abby?” Wyatt asked, clinking his glass to hers.
“No. I wanted to do it here, where I could actually hear her.”
“Well, maybe give it ’til tomorrow. When I talked to Que, she was talking about putting her to bed.”
There was a knock on the door, and Wyatt lifted his eyes in question. She wrinkled her brow and shook her head at him to indicate she wasn’t expecting anyone. He walked over and opened the heavy door. Standing on the other side, soaking wet, was Finn. His worried face turned into an angry sneer when he saw the strange, good-looking man answer her door.
“Who the fuck’re you?” Finn demanded vehemently.
“What?” Wyatt’s usual calm demeanor flared a little, and he shot back, “Who am I? Who the fuck’re you?”
Raven’s eyes widened when she heard Finn’s voice and rushed over to calm the sudden spike in testosterone.
“Finn, what’re doing here?” Seeing both their faces, she stepped between them and slapped a hand on each chest, taut for battle. “Ah, Wyatt, this is Finn Taylor. Finn, my twin brother Wyatt.” Sneering with what looked like unsuppressed jealousy, Finn stepped toward the other man, then stopped short.
“There it is,” Wyatt said patronizingly. “Yep, brother.” He pronounced it distinctly and with sarcasm. “Now that gives me the right to ask again, who the fuck’re you?” Raven closed her eyes at the ridiculousness of the male ego.
“This is Finn. I told you, I met him on Kaua’i.”
“Never heard of him,” Wyatt said, waving a hand with dismissal, then padded back to the living room. She rolled her eyes.
“What’re you doing here?” she asked helplessly.
“What am I doing here?” Finn moved closer to her. “What the hell’re you doin’ here Raven?’ He took in her appearance, “And what the hell’re you wearing?” Finn’s eyes scanned her face, hair, body, then face again, appearing to look for anything he recognized. Shaking his head a little, he focused on her eyes. “You just disappeared. Just left your door unlocked and disappeared without a word?”
“I told Jason when he went back to…”
“Oh yes, right, you told Jason.”
“Yeah, Jason. You know, her manager?” Wyatt yelled out. “Tall, good-lookin’, rich.”
“What, are ya, fuckin’ him?” Finn spat at Wyatt.
“No, but…”
“Stop it!” Raven yelled. “Stop. Come here.”
She grabbed Finn’s hand and dragged him to her room. As the door slammed shut, Wyatt grinned. Well, this was getting interesting, he thought, enjoying himself. He leaned back on the couch, propped his feet up on the coffee table, sipped his drink and smiled, as he eavesdropped.
****
“Look, I’m sorry about the way I left,” Raven said. “It was incredibly complicated.” She followed Finn with her eyes, as he paced her bedroom like a huge cat. “My best friend Que—her daughter, Abby, had a heart attack playing basketball; she’s only seven. And she…”
When she paused, he stopped pacing and looked at her, as if he knew what was coming.
“Wait, how in the hell can you come here and lecture me about anything?”
“I tried to tell you, but you left and wouldn’t let me explain. Then I go to your house and your door’s unlocked. I tried calling; you wouldn’t answer. Nothing happened with Holly.”
“Right. Okay, Finn. It sure as hell didn’t look like nothing. Or are you going to say now it didn’t mean anything?” She glared at him.
He clenched both his fists, then jerked them down once, as he grunted out frustration.
“I came out to grab my toothbrush. She drove me home. I didn’t even think she was still there, let alone half dressed. I saw her at the same time you saw each other.”
They were silent for a moment, each visibly depleted, so he asked quietly, “Is she okay? Your friend?”
“She’s seven and had to have open heart surgery, but yeah, she’s okay. She gets to go home after a couple more days.” He nodded then looked around the room and sat down on her bed, placing his head in his hands.
“Why didn’t you call me back?”
“Well, I called Jason. Everything was so crazy, and I just assumed.”
“I asked him, and he wouldn’t tell me shit. Apparently, I’m not part of the inner circle when it comes to your personal life.”
“I’m sorry Finn. He shouldn’t have said that.” Remembering the vodka in her hand, she sipped it. Finn took it from her and drained it. “I didn’t know we were there anymore, or if we ever were,” she retorted.
“Where exactly?” He glared at her. “I go over to your house, and you’re not there. Your doors are unlocked, and the door’s open but you’re gone. For Christ sake, we’re fuckin’ each other, don’t you think a little communication is good, before falling off the face of the earth? So maybe, I don’t know, have to worry that something horrific has happened to you?”
“Can you not call it that?” Raven said.
“What?”
“Fucking!”
“Oh, we aren’t fuckin’?”
“No… I… No, just don’t call it that.”
“What would you like me to call it Raven?”
“Making love,” she said quietly, “or having sex.”
“Making love, Christ.”
He laughed derisively and threw up his hands, appearing to want to hurt her in any way he could. He yanked opened the bedroom door and stomped to the refrigerator and yanked open the door. Grabbing a beer, he popped the cap and drank deeply. The fact that the raging man knew there would be one in there seemed to impress Wyatt. He shifted to watch the show. Raven narrowed her eyes at him.
“What’re you, sixteen?” Finn replied scathingly, and suddenly she felt a glorious rage bubbling in her blood.
“No, I’m thirty-four. I stopped being a frat girl a long time ago.”
>
“Frat girl.” Finn laughed. “I’m fairly certain you were never a frat girl.”
She looked over at Wyatt, who looked like he’d jump in at any moment. She simply narrowed her eyes again, indicating she wouldn’t tolerate his interference.
“No, you’re right,” she yelled at him. “Never was a frat girl, never got to be that free. I’m tired of your bullshit, Finn. My whole life, I’ve been someone else’s possession, and I have no interest in being yours now. Go home. We’re done here.”
He stared at her throughout the outburst and could obviously see the fat tears forming in her eyes and cast his eyes down.
“Raven…” He set his beer down and reached out to touch her face, but she evaded, and ran out of the condo, slamming the door.
****
Finn felt utterly dejected and frustrated. He locked his fingers behind his head and exhaled, puffing out his cheeks. Wyatt stood up and walked to the kitchen.
“I’m Wyatt,” he announced, extending a hand. Finn automatically extended his own hand, distracted. “Finn, right? Nice to meet ya.”
“You too.” Finn looked at the man smiling at him. “Brother, huh? Where you from?”
“Oh, I’m from here too. I’m a U.S. Forest Ranger up on Mount Baker-Snoqualmie, but I also do some survival training and just finished a stint when Abby got sick. It’s why I wasn’t able to get over to the island to see Rave. It’s, ah, been pretty emotional around here lately.”
“Forest Ranger.” Finn crossed his arms over his chest, not rising to the bait. “I’m not sure I would’ve pegged ya for that.”
“Funny hats, khaki shorts, and clipboards?” Wyatt laughed. “Yeah, I know the perception.” Finn’s smile didn’t reach his eyes.
“No, it’s just that I’ve just never actually met a forest ranger before.”
“Well, I’ve decided not to hold that against you, so it’s all good. You’re a marine biologist, right?” Finn’s eyes snapped up, widening, then accusing. “Okay, she might have said something about you,” Wyatt admitted sheepishly.
“Yeah?”
“Always worked on Kaua’i?”
“Yeah, for the most part. I was born there.”
“And you work with some kind of seal, right?”
“Hawaiian monk seal. Are we done with the pleasantries yet?”
“Hey, look, man,” Wyatt said, facing him. “I don’t know what this whole badass thing you’ve got going on here is, but I can tell you, if you want any future with my sister, you’d better lose it.”
“Or what?”
“Or she’ll dump ya. Actually, I’m pretty sure that she just did,” Wyatt stated as Finn shifted uncomfortably, “Yeah, weren’t expecting that, were you?”
“Cut the shit.”
“She’s on a different level, man. Things happened to her you can’t even comprehend. And the people that love her would never let another asshole come into her life.”
“What things?” When her brother just stood there, Finn grew more aggressive, “What God damn things? Why the fuck’re ya tauntin’ me, man?”
“Look.” Wyatt’s eyes sobered and bored directly into Finn’s. “I don’t know you. I don’t know what my sister feels about you, but I can tell you that you’ve been a regular ball of sunshine since you walked in here.” Finn lowered his eyes, afraid her brother would see his panic. “If your intentions,”—he held up his fingers in quotation marks—“for lack of a better term, if they’re good, I’m on your side, all the way.” Finn took a deep breath and stepped back. “But if they’re not, you’ll get nothing from me, man. In fact, I’ll actively work against you.”
“I don’t know.” Finn exhaled deeply and looked hesitantly at the man, unsure of himself, and admitted, “Okay, yeah, I care about her.” He scraped his teeth over his bottom lip.
“Well, hell, son, why didn’t you say so?” He moved to the refrigerator for a six pack and handed a beer to Finn.
“But that’s it.” Finn took the beer, opened it, and took a long swig, “I don’t do…this.”
“Yeah, me neither.” Wyatt nodded his head. He was quiet for a few moments, then seemed to make a decision and said, “Okay, so, I’m pretty sure she’s never said this to you, but my sister and I are damaged goods. Our folks died when we were eight. Had a pretty good life up until that point.” Finn sat and looked into his beer. He wasn’t sure he was ready to hear this but couldn’t stop himself either.
“How’d they die?”
“Drunk driver.”
“Wrong place, wrong time?”
“No just an asshole that didn’t give a shit about anything or anyone made a choice and destroyed our life.” He sipped again.
“What happened to the guy?”
“Involuntary manslaughter. Sentenced twenty years, served sixteen, with time off for good behavior.” Wyatt’s jaw clenched. “We didn’t have anyone to go to, no family or friends, so we went into the foster system, and were adopted by a family in Missouri.” Finn looked over at Wyatt, suspect. “Yeah, it was pretty bad.” He sipped his beer again and took in a deep breath. “You said you like Raven, right?” It was an unexpected question, so Finn locked gazes with her brother and gave a nod of his head.
“Yeah.”
“Do you like her, like maybe love her, or are you just trying to…wait, how did you so ineloquently put it, fuck her?” Finn winced.
“Dude I…I don’t even know how to respond to that.”
“Our adopted father repeatedly beat Raven and me.” Finn jerked in his seat as Wyatt eyed him carefully. “It was pretty brutal from the time she was eight to ’bout sixteen when we ran away. We came to Seattle on a bus in the middle of the night and slept on the streets for a few weeks before we found jobs and an apartment with our friend Que. Her daughter is the little girl that just had surgery. After that, we never looked back.” Wyatt seemed to be looking back into the past.
Finn closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, trying to absorb the new information.
“Did you ever report it?” When Wyatt shook his head no, Finn demanded, “Why the hell not?”
“I’m not sure. Probably young and dumb. Thought he’d find us or they’d somehow make us go back. The Colonel, well, he was a mean sonofabitch, especially when he drank, but that wasn’t always the precursor. Broke more bones of mine then I could probably count. We always went to different hospitals and clinics. If I didn’t comply or if he thought I’d say something, he hurt her and vice versa. It’s a different life than most people experience and I don’t expect you to understand it.” Finn was on fire with rage, so stood up to pace.
“Where’s this guy now?”
“Dead. Lung cancer.” Wyatt was at peace with the knowledge. “Raven had to grow up fast—we both did. She never got to be a kid or free, like she said. She just had this talent, this one place she could retreat into, even if it was just inside her head.” He sipped his beer again. “She never dated much but when she did, they were users that expected her to change for them and she did. She would change her entire world and identity, just to be accepted. Married the last dickhead. When he realized he wasn’t good enough for her, he picked her apart, and she let him do it. Donovan took most of what she had because she wouldn’t stand up for herself.”
Finn looked around the cold, sterile condo that she had shared with her husband and the massive wedding photo over the fireplace. Raven, with jet-black hair, her ethereal skin, covered in heavy makeup, wearing an elaborate wedding dress. Standing next to her was an attractive older man with a condescending smile, commanding the photo. Finn couldn’t take his eyes off the incredibly foreign-looking woman, trying to reconcile her to the one he was resisting to love.
“Where’s he now?” Finn asked, gesturing to the groom.
“Donovan?” Wyatt laughed. “Well, he contracted her for two shows; one was tonight, and one’s tomorrow. She’s upset because he made her wear all that shit again. One of the nastiest assholes you’ve ever met. She thought she was going
to be able to do some of her new stuff. That's what Jason promised, but it was all bullshit, and he screwed her. Made her play the opening act to his mistress.”
“Jason allowed that too?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me—he’s a douche. She’s as loyal as they come though. And when Que and I told her to chuck him, she wouldn’t listen.” Wyatt sipped his beer, then set it down. “Look, I don’t just offer this shit up. Between the two of us, you could probably count on a single hand who knows about our life. Not even the asshole she married. You could fuck us a hundred different ways by going to the press.”
“You don’t have to worry about that.”
“Figured.” When Finn didn’t respond, Wyatt continued. “She’s had counseling, and she knows what happened to her when she was young wasn’t her fault. She just doesn’t always see her own worth.” Finn saw the dejection and what looked like guilt on the man’s face.
“I’m doing myself no favors by telling you this,” he admitted, as if reading his mind. “She’s going to be livid, beyond livid, for exposing some pretty honed-in secrets.”
“You don’t have to tell her.”
“Yes, I do.” He held Finn’s gaze. “We’ve always been straight with each other. It’s what we’ve got. I’m telling you because if you like her, and want something more than sex with her, you have a right to know.”
“Look, I don’t know what I think. I’m not looking for anything.”
“Oh, well, if that’s true, then you’ve just gained some insight that may make you treat her better.”
“I’ve got my own issues, man. Believe me, she doesn’t want to take that on any more than I do.”
“If she likes you, don’t be too sure of that.” Wyatt paused and glanced out the window toward the moonlight on the water. “Finn, she’s a phenomenal person that’s been trying her whole life to figure out who she is. The only thing that’s becoming crystal clear to her is that she doesn’t want to be this.” He gestured around the room. “She’s literally on the verge of figuring it all out, man. She just doesn’t know it yet.” Wyatt drained his beer and stood up.