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Chapter Thirty-Nine
Jax
It’s late afternoon the next day when Baxter and Raven finally turn up. Phoenix is out with the others, and I’m pretty sure she’s conned them into taking her to soft play, McDonald’s, and for an ice cream afterwards. She won’t hear any complaints from Thorn, Ace and Rebel. I decided to stay home. I want to know how they got on and I need to make sure that Raven’s okay before Phoenix gets back.
I’m in the kitchen fixing a snack when I hear the telltale click of the entry system announcing their arrival. Part of me wants to go out into the hall to greet them, but I force myself to remain in the kitchen and let them come to me.
Baxter appears first, saying nothing, just giving a small nod of his head to say it’s done. We’ll have to have a conversation later about the body. I think we should burn it but it’ll make reporting her death more difficult without a body. It’s easy enough to pay off the coroner. I’m sure Baxter has one on speed dial.
The trouble is, even though my head says that makes the most sense, my heart says that bitch deserves an empty casket like ‘Lizzie’ had.
I’ll guess I’ll take it to the family and we can vote on it.
Raven enters the kitchen and I feel like all the air is sucked from my body. She looks...radiant. More relaxed than I’ve ever seen her. She has a look about her of total peace. My heart beats faster as she smiles serenely at me. She looks tired, but the good kind.
“Hey, welcome back,” I say, holding out my arms a little in welcome. She surprises me even further by crossing the room and falling into me, hugging me fiercely.
“I missed you. All of you. Where is everyone?”
“Nix conned the guys into taking her out for the day so no doubt she’ll have been spoilt rotten.”
She smiles and relaxes into my embrace, content to just rest and be for a moment. I relish it. We’re not the cuddliest, cutest couple, and we often don’t manage to carve out much time together so it’s nice to have this moment. Baxter slips from the room leaving us to it.
“How are you doing?” I ask quietly, not really wanting to break the spell.
“I’m okay,” she whispers back, not moving in my arms. “This is nice. You’re so damn good at hugs. How didn’t I know that?”
I chuckle. “Are you sure? Do you want to talk about it? You seem...at peace.”
“Weirdly, I am. I think that makes me a horrible person but I’m too exhausted to care. Baxter said she confessed a lot but I asked him not to tell me. I’m not ready. I just needed to know we were justified in what we did and Baxter reassured me that even the devil would give me a free pass to waltz right into hell to kill her all over again, so I’m going to trust him and not feel any guilt.”
I squeeze her even tighter and don’t bother with words. Trust Baxter to know the perfect thing to say to ensure Raven’s demons don’t come back to haunt her with this one.
“Was it okay?”
“Baxter was...wonderful. Like an artist or a musician or something.”
I smile. I know from watching him work on Charlie of course.
“It was amazing to watch.”
“Ah, that explains it.”
“What?”
“The tired but so content smile on your face. You got horny as hell watching him and spent today fucking, didn’t you?”
“We may have celebrated a little…”
“Good.” I kiss her, feeling nothing but happiness for her. “You deserve a celebration or two.”
She smirks.
“Or three,” I huff.
“Try seven. Eight if you count when she was still alive and I was in the...room with him.”
“Jesus.”
