by A. P. Jensen
She turned spitting eyes on the linebacker. “You brought me back to the penthouse? Are you insane? I could get fired!”
He raised his brows sardonically. “You want me to take you to the hospital so they can call the cops?”
Raven’s teeth clicked together. She really had no reason to be afraid of cops. She had a clean record but she had her fair share of talking to the cops and she avoided them at all costs. She looked pointedly at the guns in his waistband.
“I’m not the one packing,” she muttered but didn’t insist on going to the hospital. “The cops will probably look for me anyway, considering there was a gun battle in my apartment!”
He shook his head. “No.”
“What do you mean no?”
“They won’t come looking for you.”
More alarm bells went off in her mind. She struggled but both men held her easily. Her head swam and her stomach rolled. She clenched her teeth to control the urge to vomit and stop herself from screaming against the agony in her shoulder. The doctor lowered the washcloth with a hand that had rings on each finger. His nose was swollen and he puffed out a breath and wagged a finger at her.
“You behave!” he chided. “My name’s Manny and if you’re not good, you’re not getting the good stuff.”
Raven blew out a breath and tried to relax as Manny leaned over and prodded that damn shoulder again. He pulled out a needle and she glanced at the linebacker who looked extremely bored. She focused on him because her stomach lurched when she felt the needle penetrate.
“Was I hallucinating when you said you’re here to protect me?” Raven asked.
“No. That’s the truth.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Cain Henson. And your name?”
She saw Manny pick up a knife from a tray of horrifying-looking tools. She had no choice but to focus on Cain completely. It was either that or do something mortifying like cry or scream her head off. “Raven.”
His lips twitched as if he thought Manny slicing into her shoulder was hilarious. She imagined shooting him with her pellet gun. Although her shoulder was numb, she still felt jolts of pain shooting down her arm that made her damaged hands twitch.
“Who, exactly, are you protecting me from? I didn’t know I was important enough to have a rich boy like you take notice of me.”
“That reminds me. Where did we meet?”
“I’m a housekeeper here,” she said through gritted teeth. “I better be able to work tomorrow. I can’t afford to call in sick.”
There was a ping as Manny dropped the bullet on the tray. Her shoulder was doused with liquid that burned and made her glare at Manny who seemed to be enjoying paying her back a little.
“When they let me go, you better be far away from me,” she hissed.
“From the amount of blood you lost, I expected you to be a lot weaker.” Manny looked at Cain. “What is she?”
“I told you, I’m a housekeeper.”
“I’m not sure what she is yet. Rich told me to protect her and that’s what I’m doing. As you can see, she likes to take matters into her own hands. Rich would’ve been disappointed if I lost the target.”
“Target?” Raven’s head lifted off the bed. “What does your grandpa want with me?”
Cain used one hand on her forehead to make her lay flat again. “For now, he wants to keep you alive.”
“You sure did a number on your hands,” Manny muttered.
“Do you know who shot at me?” she demanded.
“Not specifically.” Cain shifted his grip to hold her better when Manny came at her with needle, thread and a bowl of orange paste. “You jump out of windows, but you don’t like needles?”
She ignored that. “How the hell did you get in my apartment?”
“I walked in.”
“I locked my door.”
“So?”
Raven stared at him. There was no way Cain could get in her apartment. The front door was locked; windows barred and except for that tiny window in the bedroom there were no entrance point. She made sure of it.
“Cain can walk through walls,” the guy working on her hand said with a chuckle.
Manny finished with her shoulder and this time gave her a shot in her arm. Manny moved to her hand and Cain shifted his grip on her to give the doctor better access. Raven’s eyes fluttered shut as whatever Manny injected her with began to move through her veins. The aches began to fade beneath a blessed tide of numbness. The men’s voices hummed around her but she didn’t care. Not anymore.
Raven woke as suddenly as if someone shouted in her face. Her eyes flew open and she tried to sit up but the movement made her gasp. The pain in her shoulder was strong enough to make her feel faint and she held up hands swaddled in bandages.
The door opened and Cain strode in. Raven scowled at his slacks and crisp mint colored shirt. There was no gun in his waistband and he looked as cool and unemotional as he had the first day she met him. She glanced at the windows and froze. It was Friday, which meant… She looked at the clock and saw it was nine in the morning.
“What the hell are you doing?” Cain said when she fumbled clumsily with the phone.
“I’m late for work!” she snapped. “Can you dial for me?”
“I already did that.”
She dropped the phone and stared at him. “You did what?”
“You told me you were a housekeeper here. I called from my cell and said you were sick.”
She stared at him, flabbergasted. This guy, who she knew nothing about, called her job to say she was sick? When she didn’t say anything, he crossed his arms across his chest.
“You seemed pretty worried about getting fired so,” he shrugged. “I figured you were too out of it so…”
“What did they say?” she demanded.
“They said okay and asked why I was calling in for you.” When Raven frowned he added, “I said you ate bad turkey.”
“And who did you say you were?”
“Your husband.”
Her mouth dropped open and his mouth curved at the corner. She couldn’t believe his nerve. She forgot about her damaged hands and slapped the covers and let out a shriek of pain. Through watery eyes, she jabbed a mitten hand at him.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but we’re going to get something straight right now. I don’t need a freaking protector, okay?”
She leaned back against the pile of pillows as her head swam.
“Here.”
She opened one eye and saw he had two big white pills on his palm. She glanced up at his steady eyes and opened her mouth. He dumped them in and held up a cup of water with a straw. She drained the glass and leaned back and waited for them to take effect. Cain walked out of the room and her bladder clenched. She slipped out of bed and froze when she realized she was dressed in a large man’s shirt. She had an inkling who it belonged to. Although she was grateful that she wasn’t still covered in blood, she didn’t like that Cain handled her while she was so vulnerable.
Raven swayed when she stood and slowly, carefully made her way into the bathroom and locked the door. She paused a moment to take in the splendid bathroom before she hobbled to the toilet to do her business. It was awkward and by the time she opened the bathroom door, her hands stung from the effort. Cain was standing in the middle of the room with a plate of eggs, bacon and hash browns on the table. She shot him a suspicious glance but couldn’t find the will to be truly afraid of him. She had already taken two questionable pills from him and she was in too much pain to think straight.
She sat in the chair, raised her hands and grimaced. Cain let out an aggravated growl, grabbed the fork and stabbed as much food as he could onto it before he held it up for her. She opened her mouth as wide as it could go, pulled everything off with her teeth and chewed for several minutes. They completed this ritual in silence until she waved him off and crawled back into bed. She felt a little better with food in her stomach and the pills were d
efinitely doing their job.
“If you need anything, just call out for me,” Cain said.
She eyed him from under heavy lids. “Are you the one that bathed me?”
For a moment, she thought he wasn’t going to answer.
“Manny would only take care of your wounds, so I had to do the rest.”
She pulled the duvet over herself with one arm and mumbled, “You do that again and I’ll kick your ass.”
Her rational mind was numb with shock and fatigue. She knew she should be worried about her apartment, cops and the guys who tried to gun her down. She knew she shouldn’t trust Cain. After all, he broke into her apartment and kidnapped her, kind of. She should keep her eyes open and grill Cain but she couldn’t find the will to care. Not now. Soon, though. All she needed was sleep and then she would figure this out.
Pain woke her. She was flat on her back and she felt stiff and every move she made jolted her shoulder. She groaned and the door opened. A light flipped on and she glared at Cain as he came towards the bed. He offered two more pills that she took without comment and drank from a glass of water with a straw.
Without a word, he flipped back the covers and gently pulled her into a sitting position. He grabbed a sling from the dresser, slipped it over her head and settled her arm in it. She rose and walked into the bathroom and unwrapped her right hand from the mitt and saw that her cuts were half healed. She took care of her business and was happy to see a toothbrush waiting for her. There was a comb on the counter and she felt marginally better after she brushed her hair. When she walked back into the bedroom, Cain had a salad and a pasta dish on the table. He didn’t mention her raw hand and waited in silence for her to eat.
When she finished off most of the pasta and salad, she eyed Cain as she drank another glass of water. She was so thirsty, disoriented and her head felt as if it was full of cotton. Cain refilled her water and she drank half a glass more before she was satisfied. Cain was dressed in a sky blue shirt with those damn perfect slacks and shiny black belt. He was too tidy, too refined, too contained. She didn’t like it.
“So, Cain, what the fuck is going on here?” she said.
Cain stood, feet braced apart and arms crossed. “Why don’t you tell me?”
His disturbing eyes were fixed on her and she resisted the urge to squirm. She felt a little ridiculous only wearing a shirt that hit her mid-thigh but she didn’t have a choice and she was damned if she’d show that she was uncomfortable.
“I have no idea what’s going on. All I know is I cleaned your room… yesterday? And then you show up in my apartment, a gunfight breaks out and I get shot. You drive me here and have that bastard poke and prod at me and now you’re playing nursemaid. Oh yeah, and you’re here because your grandpa, Rich Henson, told you to protect me and you can walk through walls.” She bared her teeth in a tight smile. “Did I miss anything?”
“You must know more than you’re letting on. You had a getaway in case things went bad.”
She shrugged and winced when her shoulder protested. “I’m cautious.”
“Why?”
She snorted. “I don’t live in the ritziest places, babe.”
“And the pellet gun?”
“Like I said, I don’t live in the best places and men can get a little… fresh. So, why don’t you tell me how you broke into my apartment?”
“I walked in.”
“Bullshit.”
“I walked in when you went to get your rum cake. I watched you have your little orgasm over it. I knew I didn’t have much time. That’s when you threw your cake at me and shot me.”
“The door was still locked when those bastards tried to break in. Don’t tell me you just walked in because I know that’s not possible.”
Cain stared into Raven’s hazel eyes, which were hard and unreadable. He wasn’t sure what to think of her. He hadn’t expected her to toss a plate of cake at him or throw the fork like an expert knife thrower. The pellet gun took him by surprise and her aim made him wary enough to take extra care with hiding his guns in the penthouse. When her apartment got gunned, she hadn’t gotten hysterical. On the contrary, she matter of factly kicked him in the head and flew like a bird out the window, nearly giving him a heart attack. He shot the four guys that broke into her apartment and by the time he figured out how the hell she got out of the apartment, she was running across the parking lot. He saw a man stop, raise a gun and aim. He jumped over the rail (screw the stairs) but he heard the shot before his feet touched the pavement. Cain took him out in the next breath and knew he had to get them out of there. There was always backup and he didn’t know where she’d been hit.
Even with a gunshot wound, she didn’t break down. Even moments before she went unconscious, her mind had been clear and focused. When she woke and swung at Manny she hadn’t asked stupid questions, hadn’t been confused or alarmed to find an outrageous looking doctor tending her wounds. She let Manny inject her without asking what it was and watched Cain the whole time with eyes that promised retribution if he was playing her false…and he believed her. He was surprised when she took the pills and food from him without comment. She was too smart to argue when she was weak and unable to fight her way out of this situation, he guessed.
Even with the sling, Raven didn’t seem like an invalid. Her eyes were dull with pain but they were centered on him and he knew the time for avoiding questions was over. Raven’s inky black hair cascaded over his white shirt and although she had no idea, she looked seductive and rumpled despite the sling, bruises and cut hands.
“I’m a retriever,” he said.
“Like a dog?”
He barked out a laugh. “Shit. I guess you could say that. I fetch or protect what the Council says to.”
“Council,” she said carefully. “Mafia?”
He considered for a moment. “We’re not that bad.”
“How bad are you?”
“We’re the good guys.”
“That’s what they all say.”
“You’re telling the truth when you say all you know is that your apartment got shot up and you don’t know why those guys were after you?”
She nodded.
Cain eyed her. “I don’t like hysterical women.”
“Do I look hysterical to you?” she said coolly.
His mouth quirked. “You’re good. I’ll give you that. Okay. Let’s start with this.”
Cain walked out of the bedroom and closed the door behind him. Raven tensed because she had a feeling she wasn’t going to like this. When Cain walked through the door, she went rigid with shock and nearly fell off her chair. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Casually, Cain walked towards her, grabbed a chair and straddled it.
“Like I said, I’m a good retriever.”
Raven rubbed her suddenly pounding head. “What kind of pills did you give me?”
“Pain killers.”
She looked from his elegant appearance to the solid door. “You’re gonna tell me that you’re magical?”
He grinned. “Something like that.”
“So your grandpa’s on a magical Council and he told you to fetch and protect me. He tell you why?”
“No.”
“So you walk into my apartment at the same time it gets shot up?”
“There’s a group that wants to overthrow the Council.”
“Of course there is,” she muttered.
“They’re called the Battalion.”
“Catchy.”
“They were the ones that came in, guns blazing. That’s probably why Rich said you needed a protector.”
Raven eyed him. “Why would the Battalion want me?”
“I was hoping you could tell me that.”
For the first time, Cain saw a hint of panic in her eyes. Her injuries were probably the only thing that kept her from trying to make an escape.
“I told you, I’m a housekeeper!” She waved her right hand wildly and let it drop with a grimace of pain. �
��I don’t know any magic tricks or know about these Battalion bastards. I’m normal.”
When Cain said nothing and continued to watch her, she glared at him.
“You led the Battalion to the wrong person!” she accused.
“Not possible.”
“Why not?”
“We got there at the same time. They were onto you before I got there.”
“What the hell would anyone want with me? You want a cleaning lesson or something? I’m a nobody, okay?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. My grandpa doesn’t make mistakes.”
“And how the hell does he even know about me?”
“He’s a Seer.” At her blank look, he elaborated, “You know, he can see the future.”
Raven struggled to her feet and pointed at the door. “Get out.”
“Fine. You want me to call in for you tomorrow?”
“No, hubby, I can do that for myself,” she snarled.
Cain saluted her and walked through the closed bedroom door. Raven rubbed her eyes and fell into bed. She didn’t bother pinching herself. She was in too much pain even for that small discomfort. Slowly, painfully, she dialed, hand stiff and splayed. Any attempt to close her hand made it burn as her nearly healed cuts opened and seeped blood. When the operator answered, Raven gave her employee number. The woman yawned as she noted the sick day and hung up.
Raven shifted uncomfortably, rearranging the pillows until she found a position where her body didn’t scream in pain. She stared up at the ceiling for a long time. Her eyes moved around the room at the rich furnishings. She didn’t belong here and there were so many things wrong with everything that happened in the past twenty-four hours that her mind simply couldn’t process it.
“Fucking walk through doors,” Raven muttered as she drifted off into an uneasy sleep where she dreamed of being chased by men with guns.
CHAPTER FOUR
Raven forced herself out of bed without making a sound and brushed her teeth and hair while making pained faces in the mirror. She unbuttoned the shirt and pulled it to the side so she could peel off the bandages on her shoulder and look at her gunshot wound. Her stomach dipped when she saw the stitches, bruises and paste. She slipped her arm back into the sling but didn’t bother with the bandage. She walked back into the bedroom, fixed the bed out of habit and saw a pair of pajama shorts with a matching tank draped over the chair. She glared at the door as she slipped out of his shirt and into the new clothes. It made her feel better but she really wanted a bath. She glanced at her shoulder wound and tried to judge whether or not she had enough energy to give herself a sponge bath in that beautiful tub.
