“Do you want me to come and pick you up after your shift?”
“I would love it, thank you, Zain.”
When I get to work, Raven is sitting at her desk with the biggest smile on her face. “This can’t be the same person that I threatened last Friday can it?”
“Oh stop it, you big bully!” She giggles. “Thank you, Carson. You were right, God, I love him so much.”
“So did you go beat him up?”
She giggles again. “Let’s go to lunch and I will fill you in, it’s kind of a long story.”
“A looong story?” I say, with a big smile as I raise my eyebrows a couple of times in jest.
Raven flushes red. “I can’t even believe you just said that.” She throws a pen at me, as I duck and chuckle at her.
“Okay, just come get me when you’re ready to go.” I bend down and pick up the pen and set it back on her desk.
I walk back to my office and pull out my phone to call Toby. Before I know it, Raven is knocking at my door. We walk down to the little café around the corner. As we are walking, it’s the first time in years that I see the colors of flowers. Not only that, but I hear the birds singing and smell the scents in the air. Have I really been in my own little bubble of hell that I hadn’t noticed the world around me?
“Hello? Earth to Carson.”
“Sorry, I was just thinking.”
Raven stops and looks at me. I stop a few steps in front of her.
Tears brim her eyes. “My God.”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“You’re in love with her. You always have been. You’re starting to see the world for the first time in years.”
“Shit, Raven, how do you do that shit? It freaks me out.” I walk a couple steps and turn to look at her. “Yes, I do. I always have, and yes, I realize that I see in color now.”
Before I know what hits me, she is on me, hugging me. “I knew it. I knew it was meant to be.” She’s now bouncing down the sidewalk.
We walk into the café and find a table. As we sit, I look up at her. “Okay, spill it.”
“Okay, okay, okay, it was so funny, his back was to me when I walked into the gym. He was looking for a sparring partner, but there wasn’t anyone around, so I said I would spar with him. I don’t think he recognized my voice at first, because it was so raspy from crying.”
“This has to be good. What did he do?”
“He turned and looked at who the hell was challenging him. The look on his face was epic. Let me tell you, he looked pissed, almost insulted, that a chick would even think about sparring with him. I didn’t know if he was still mad at me or not with the gaze he gave me. But I did what you said, I stood there and even if he said no, I would still fight for him.”
“Good girl. So what did he do?”
She giggles. “He said, ‘Oh? You think you will be able to keep up with me?’ He played like he didn’t know me. God, it was fun.
“Then I said, ‘I don’t think it will be a problem. I once took down a guy about your size.’ He said, ‘Oh really? He must have been a real wimp to be taken down by a little girl your size.’ I said, ‘Actually, he wasn’t.’ I reached up and felt my biceps. I hemmed and hawed, and then I touched his stomach and slapped it. Hard.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did. He deserved it for what he put me through.”
“So then what happened?”
“After I slapped his stomach an ‘OOF’ sound escaped his lips.” She giggles. “I did some more hemming and hawing as he let me play. I lifted his shirt, ran my fingers down and around the ridges of abs, and said, ‘No, I don’t think so. In fact, he was built just about like you.’ He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. Then I said, you’ll love this, I said, ‘But hey, if you’re afraid of little ole me, I can understand that.’” She giggles again and claps a happy clap. “I started to walk around him in the gym and as I did, I said, ‘After all, good things come in small packages.’ And I turned around and winked at him. It took all that was within me to not laugh.”
“Did he just let you go?”
“No, as I was walking by him he said, ‘Wait,’ then he jogged up to me and said, ‘I’ll take you on, angel. You don’t have a problem with me calling you angel, do you?’”
“What did you say?”
“I said, ‘Not at all, because you’re going to be calling for an angel by the time I’m through with you.’”
“Did you really?”
“Yep.”
“Go on.”
“He said, ‘Oh … that sounds like a threat.’ So I said, ‘Take it any way you want, baby.’ It felt so good, like we never had a problem. But the bantering back and forth, it was fun, exciting, and hot!”
“So did you really fight him?”
“Hell yes!”
“We walked to the side of the mat and slipped our shoes off. We both walk onto the mat and stare at each other. I know he was concerned about hurting me, but I have been thrown to the mat so many times, I wasn’t afraid of it. I start walking around him, he just stood there watching me, then I said, ‘So does our relationship mean so little to you that you would just walk away from it?’ I continue to walk around him. He said, ‘I think you know my answer to that, angel.’ As the last word left his mouth, I land a skipping side kick into his chest knocking him backward. I was in his face throwing punches, but he blocked most of them. He regains his balance as I start to walk away, but then I land a roundhouse kick to his shoulder. Then I said, ‘Well, you sure didn’t act like it the other day, when you walked out on me.’ He said, ‘I walked out on you?’ I swing my leg up and he scoops it up, lifting it higher, throwing me off balance and I land on my back, as I get the wind knocked out of me.
“I swing my leg, sweeping him off his feet, and he hits the mat. I say, ‘Yes you, you’re the one that left, not me.’ I jump back onto my feet as he starts to stand. I come at him with a punch to the chest, but he blocks it. I’m pissed because he won’t fight back and I yell at him. ‘Don’t just stand there, I want you to fight back. I’m mad and scared, and …’ He throws a punch at me, and I block it, then he grabs my wrists, and I twist out of it.”
“Are you serious? That bastard threw a punch at you?”
“Yes, it was great!”
“How can you say that? What would have happened if you hadn’t been prepared?”
“Then I would have deserved to be hit. The point is, he needed to let off steam. I didn’t want him to just stand there and take what I was throwing at him.”
“So then what happened?”
“He said, ‘I believe it’s the other way around, angel.’ I threw another kick and he blocked it. He continued. ‘You are the one that walked out of the restaurant, I followed after you. You were so mad at me, what did you expect me to do?’ I was so mad, he was right, I did walk out. I then turned from him and spun into a hook kick that he blocked. He again scooped my leg and I fall on my back again.
“I sweep him again, and when he was on his back I was on top of him, straddling him. ‘I know,’ I whispered, ‘I was in shock. I didn’t even know you were looking for her and then to see her, after all these years, I look just like her.’ Tears started to roll down my face then, and I start to hit his chest, not hard, just out of frustration I think, because I continued to talk. ‘I expected you to stay, fight for me. Tell me everything was going to be okay, anything, but run.’
“He grabbed my wrists so I would stop hitting him, and he rolled so he was now straddling me. He said, ‘Angel, I didn’t think you wanted me anymore. I thought I had pushed you too far and you were done. What you said to me hurt me, it felt like you ripped my heart out and stomped on it.’”
“Oh, Raven. What did you say?”
“I said, ‘Toby, how could you think that?’ I twist my wrists and grab his as I wrap my legs around him and roll again so I am straddling him again. ‘Love isn’t some random feeling that you can give away freely. Love isn’t a choice, and it takes
work to continually grow that love. I don’t take love lightly, so few people get to experience true love and I made the choice all those weeks ago that this …’ I let go of his wrists and point between him and I. ‘This love that we have between us is worth fighting for. Therefore, if I have to come to the gym and fight you for what we have, I’ll do it.’”
“Oh Raven, I am so happy for you.”
“Thanks Carson, and thank you for what you have done for me.” Then she perks up and gets all excited. “Oh my gosh, you and Charlie, I can’t believe it. I knew you guys were meant to be together. How’s it going? Have you two figured things out?”
We start to walk back to the office.
As we walk, a group of motorcycles ride by. Raven stops and her exuberant smile that she had had on her face is gone.
“What is it Raven? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she shakes her head, as if shaking old memories. “Nothing, I’m sorry.”
She smiles up at me, but the smile doesn’t reach her eyes.
As we walk into the office, I say, “So do you want to tell me what just happened out there?”
“It’s nothing.”
“I think you are wrong, you’re just afraid to tell me what it was that stopped you dead in your tracks out there when the motorcy … Oh, Fuck! How long?”
“How long what?” She isn’t looking me in the eye. “How long have they either been around or you’ve been feeling them around you? This isn’t just you, it’s Char and Jaxon too.”
She finally looks up at me. Tears start to fall from her eyes, and she’s pasty white. “I noticed them about a week and a half ago.”
“Have you said anything to Toby?”
“No, because I don’t know anything for sure.”
“And you’re going to risk your life, Char’s, and Jaxon’s? At least Toby can see what this guy is up to.”
“Okay, I’ll call him.”
I walk into my office and call Char to make sure she’s okay. After the motorcycles unnerved me, I needed some reassurance. She picks up on the second ring. “Hey baby, it’s unusual for you to be calling me during your day, is everything okay?”
I don’t want to scare her if she seems all right, so I just act casual. “I just missed you and wanted to say I love you and see how your day was going.”
“It’s a day. I’m doing inventory, so it’s a little boring. I miss you too, and I love you. Don’t ever forget that.”
“I won’t, you have a good rest of your day and call me if you need me.”
“Are you okay, Zain? You’re acting funny.”
“No, I’m good, I just missed you is all. I’ll let you go. So you are through at nine?”
“Yep.”
“Okay baby, I will see you then. I love you.”
“Love you too. See you then.”
I start working on the project that I had started the week before, but for some reason, I just have a bad feeling about Char. I called Toby this morning, asked him some questions, and told him of my concerns. He told me that in a situation like this, there is an automatic restraining order in place as long as he is on probation. The thing I didn’t know is if he really was since he was an informant. I was concerned that they didn’t require him to follow the same rules.
I walk to Beckett’s office and knock on his door.
“Enter,” he says.
I stick my head in the door. Richard is sitting across from Beckett in one of the office chairs. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I was hoping I could talk to both of you.”
“Come on in, Carson, and take a seat.” I really like these guys, they are so laid back and easy to approach.
“I need your opinion.”
They look at each other. “Shoot.”
“Well, it isn’t business related.”
“So, if it concerns you, it concerns us,” Richard says.
“I know I might just be paranoid but, have you met Char, I mean Charlie?”
“No, we’ve heard about her, but that’s it.”
“Well, let me give you a little history. Raven and Charlie are roommates; they met each other about six years ago. They were both homeless. Char got a job at a club and then got Raven a job there as well.”
“How could that be, since Raven is only twenty-two now, she would have been sixteen.”
“I know, she was a runaway and Charlie helped her out. Anyway, a year or so ago, Raven, Charlie, and her boyfriend worked at the same club. There had been a motorcycle gang that come into the club, tried to cause some problems and they were kicked out. About an hour later, as they were leaving the club, the same gang of guys was waiting for them as they were leaving. Braydon, Charlie’s boyfriend, put her behind him, she was who they were after, and at the time, she was pregnant. Anyway, Braydon was stabbed and died.”
“Oh my God, and the murderer?” Beckett asks.
“He was an informant and only got nine months. He got out about a month ago.”
“Holy fuck!” Richard says.
“Today on the way back from lunch, a motorcycle gang drove by. You should have seen Raven. She stopped dead in her tracks and she turned white. She knows I don’t know what it is about her, but it’s freaky weird how she knows things, but I think she is just too afraid to admit that he might be back. I don’t know what to do. Raven said she has been noticing something strange for the last week and a half. Charlie has a baby. God, I fell in love with her six years ago, I can’t lose her again. I don’t know what to do or if I’m just being paranoid or what.”
Beckett picks up the phone and calls Toby. “Mitchell, it’s Beckett, I have a situation here that I need you for. How fast can you be here? Okay, I’ll see you in ten.”
Richard buzzes Raven on the phone. “Raven, when Mitchell gets here can you come back to Beckett’s office, please?”
A few minutes later, there is a knock on the door. Raven sticks her head through. “Toby’s here.”
“Good, would you please lock the front door and put the phones on the voicemail system, Raven, before coming back in here.”
“Hey, Mitch.” Beckett stands up and extends his hand to Mitchell.
Richard extends his, but stays sitting. “Hi Toby. I’m very concerned about what happened to them a year ago.”
Raven taps on the door before coming in and takes a seat.
“Raven,” Beckett says, “I don’t know what mental gifts you have, but I think we all know there is some truth to your feelings you get.”
Raven just sits in her chair looking at Beckett. “I …”
“Don’t even try to deny it, Raven. You did it the day I came in for my interview,” I say.
“Okay, I just don’t know why it’s that big of a deal.”
“Because today when the motorcycle gang went by, you felt something. You know you did, you’re just afraid to say it.”
“Angel,” Toby says, “I need to know what you saw or know or anything that might help us. That guy is out there and it’s like he has diplomatic immunity. He knows he can get away with almost anything. We don’t want you or Charlie to get hurt.”
“I should have just finished him off for what he did to Braydon. If it weren’t for Charlie, I would have.”
“Carson said you have noticed them around or have felt them for about a week and a half?”
“Yes, it’s not that I saw them, but I felt something, and I didn’t think anything about it until today at lunch. Did you call Charlie?”
“Yes, she was doing inventory and the ordering. She said it had been quiet,” I say.
“When’s the last time you contacted Charlie, Carson?” Toby asks.
“When we got back from lunch.”
“Try and get in touch with her again. I will get some guys over to her, but I want to make sure she is okay until they get there,” Toby says.
I take my phone out of my pocket and press her name. It rings and rings; there’s no answer. I feel a knot in my stomach.
“Raven, when I w
as dating Char before, she always kept her phone in her bra. Does she do that at work too, when she was just doing inventory and stuff?”
“Yes, I would always get on her about keeping it there because of the cases of breast cancer that they have started finding in young girls that would keep their phones in their bras.”
“Raven, do you still have the owner’s number?”
“Yes, I’m on it.” Raven runs out of the office. I hear her talking, but can’t understand what she is saying. She runs back into Beckett’s office. Tears are streaming down her face. “They have her!” she says, in hysterics. “Benny says that he was outside checking in the beer order when a group of motorcycles came in. He hollered that they aren’t open yet, but they went in any way. He heard screaming and then they walked out with Charlie over one of their shoulders.” Raven puts her hands over her face. “This is my entire fault, I should have said something.”
“Mitchell, you have Carson’s GPS tracker on your phone. You gave it to your men, correct?”
Mitchell gets on his phone and presses a button. “Is everyone on the call?” he asks. “I have an emergency! Raven’s roommate was just abducted. Everyone has the GPS tracker on their phone, put this into the app.” Mitchell gives the number to his men. “Track her and them, but don’t do anything unless you see she’s in danger.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Charlie
I FEEL LIKE I’m walking on a cloud, after all these years, to have Zain back. I never understood what people were talking about when they were talking about their first loves. I always knew there was a part of me that could never get over him, but I never knew I would get another opportunity to find him again, let alone be with him again. Out of all the places and people, I should have known it would be with Raven. Her intuition astounds me. From Braydon to Jaxon, and now Zain.
I like days like today, I would much rather do inventory and work on the alcohol orders than dancing or serving. This is busy work, mindless, but strenuous—the day goes by quickly. All the liquor suppliers deliver this day, so there is a steady stream of interruption through the day.
Benny is here to check on the orders while I organize the liquor room, pulling the stock forward and writing the order for next week. My day is almost half over when I hear someone come through the front door. Benny is at the back door, the beer truck is probably blocking the next order. I walk out of the storage room when I’m confronted with a gang of bikers. They part, as one biker walks forward.
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