Suspicious as hell…
Even if Willow hadn’t said a word to me about being worried Raven was up to something, this would be enough to convince me.
Raven has never been an early riser. Even when the newspaper was still operating and she had an actual boss to answer to, she stumbled in there only after nine, and only after many cups of coffee in her. We all heard Old Man Murray come into the diner complaining about it enough to understand her usual schedule.
She isn’t the type to be up before the sun. She doesn’t jog. She doesn’t hike. She certainly doesn’t hunt. She doesn’t enjoy being out on the mountain exploring nature. She prefers to explore human nature—after nine in the morning.
So, what the hell is she doing up before dawn?
It wouldn’t do any good to go up there. Raven isn’t going to tell me anything if I try to question her about her unusual behavior, but I can’t bring myself to put the truck back into drive and move on down Main Street.
Despite having no goddamn reason to, I sit in front of her place and watch her shadow move around behind the drawn curtains for a few more moments.
When the light flicks off, I sit up straighter.
A few seconds later, the door next to the bakery entrance that leads up a narrow set of stairs to her apartment flies open and Raven hustles out, her long, blond hair loose today and flowing behind her, computer bag over her shoulder. Dressed in a pair of skin-tight dark jeans, her typical black combat boots, and a white t-shirt, she doesn’t look any different than she does on any typical day.
Until she anxiously looks up and down the street, as if she’s expecting to find someone waiting for her or a threat that she might have to face on pre-dawn Main Street.
I narrow my gaze on her, slinking down in my seat so she hopefully won’t notice me. “Why do you look so nervous?”
Raven chews on the corner of her bottom lip, scans downtown McBride Mountain another time, then darts around the corner toward the back of the building where she keeps her car parked.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry, Perry?”
That little bit of suspicion I had quickly grows to a pit of unease in my gut.
I throw the truck back into drive and wait, and sure enough, not even two minutes later, her car pulls around and turns down Main Street in the direction of the way south out of town.
“Where the hell are you going?”
Fuck.
I’m the last person who should be chasing after Raven Perry to make sure she doesn’t get herself into the type of trouble she seems to be a magnet for, but there isn’t anyone else to call.
In two minutes, she’ll be out of town and out of reach…
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I keep my headlights off so that she hopefully won’t notice me and wait a few minutes before I pull out after her to put some space between us. On the narrow, often desolate mountain highway that leads from McBride Mountain south, she’s sure to notice my truck and recognize it if I stick too close, but I can’t hang so far behind that I lose her, either.
The possibility of just flashing my lights at her and getting her to pull over, confronting her, and forcing her to come clean crosses my mind. But I know damn well that Raven won’t tell me what she’s really up to.
There is only one way to figure out why Raven is being so secretive…
And that’s to follow her to the end of wherever this drive leads.
Maybe I’ll get lucky and whatever she’s up to this morning will have her distracted enough that she won’t even check who is in her rearview mirror.
I glance at the clock as we leave the last buildings of town behind us.
4:58.
It’s not even five a.m., and Raven has already gotten under my skin and fucked my entire day.
Maybe it’s just another excuse to avoid Killian at work, or maybe it’s because I want to protect Willow from any hurt that might come to her friend, but for some reason, I stay behind her.
For miles, and miles, and miles, and miles, and miles…
