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“Sure, provided he never eventhinksabout hitting you again.”
“I won’t, man, believe me,” he entreated. “This situation is so screwed up right now, it’s just because of that. I ain’t never hit a girl before, never...” Ridge let him prattle on for another minute, offering excuses and explanations, and all the while getting steadily angrier.
“I finish at four,” Raven said after Hank had run dry. “Hang around for another twenty minutes and we’ll all go to Ridge’s together. We’ll go over what we’ll say to Corbett and get this whole thing straightened out. OK?”
The two men sat in painfully awkward silence while Raven cheerily served her final few customers. Hank put up a struggle when faced with abandoning his car, but Ridge was absolutely insistent. “If theyaretracking you, dipshit, there’s no way you’re driving that thing to my place. It puts Raven in danger.” Hank gave Raven an apologetic frown, but Ridge was brusque and business-like. “You can pick it up once this bullshit is over. Seriously, man, haven’t you thought aboutanyof this?”
The ride back to Ridge’s place was silent and strained. Raven’s brow furrowed with worry.He’s a smooth, charming date last night, and then he’s this overbearing grizzly today. I swear I could live to a hundred and still never understand men.
Apart from decidingsome details of their meeting with Corbett, talking a little about money, and making sure there wasn’t anythingelseRidge needed to know about this bizarre and unwelcome state of affairs, the three spent the evening watching TV in a less than companionable silence. Hank excused himself to go to the bathroom, and Raven knew she had to say something to Ridge.
“You’ve been so kind to us both,” she began. “You hardly know me, and Hank even less, but you’ve offered us safety and a place to be.”
“It’s OK,” Ridge said.
“But you’re angry.”
“How could I not be?” he asked. It was a genuine inquiry, as though any normal human would find beating a woman just as unconscionable as Ridge found it.
“He’s within aninchof bolting, you know. He’s scared to death of you. Maybe more than he is of those lunatics out there,” she waved to the front door. “And if hedoesrun, he’s dead.”
“He won’t be bolting anywhere. Not until I know you’re safe.”
“Ridge,” she said, crossing to sit on the edge of his armchair, “look, what can I do, what can I say to get you to go easy on him?”
He looked her square in the eye and said, “Absolutely nothing.”
Raven stood and took the other armchair; she felt tears welling, but found herself unwilling to cry in front of Ridge, and shook them away. “I think...” she began, thinking as logically as she could, “I think I should stay here tonight... I’ll sleep on the big armchair, here,” Raven clarified, patting its soft and surprisingly comfy seat. “I should be with Hank, in case anything happens. Is that OK?” Ridge nodded amicably but without obvious enthusiasm, and then went to find more sheets and a pillow from the cabinets under his own bed.
He handed them to Raven with a courteous but rather formal “Goodnight, then” and headed to brush his teeth.If she wants to sleep out there and make sure Hank doesn’t off himself in the middle of the night, she’s welcome to. But webothknow there’s a far more comfortable place. Right next tome,the face in the mirror said silently, poking himself angrily in the chest.
Hank was carefully arranging his sheets on the sofa when Ridge returned. “You got everything you need?” he asked impatiently.
“Yes. Thanks, Ridge,” Hank replied with quiet but genuine gratitude.
“It’s fine, but just listen; don’t leave, don’t call anyone, and try not to do anything stupid until morning. OK? I’ve got to go out tomorrow, but no one knows you’re here, so juststay put.” Ridge stalked back to his room and closed the door.
Hank sat with his head in his hands but gently pushed Raven’s comforting arm away. “It’s all good, sis. I’m just bone tired.” He bedded himself down, reassured her once more, and was soon very obviously asleep. Raven waited a couple of minutes before gently knocking on the bedroom door.
“Can I come in for a second?”
Wondering if Raven had changed her mind about their sleeping arrangements, Ridge opened the door and stepped aside. Raven slid in and stood on his carpet in her bare feet, feeling rather tiny and exposed; thankfully, the huge US NAVY shirt went down even past her knees, so her black, seductive, date-night panties remained hidden. If you play smarter cards tonight,she fumed silently to Ridge,my panties will be hitting your bedroom floor a moment from now, you goddamned numbskull.
“You’ve got to be nicer to him,” Raven pleaded. “He’s hurting and scared. You must know what that’s like.”
“I do,” he countered, “but I’ve never hit awomanbecause of it.”
“That was awful,” she agreed, “justawful, but he was so desperate,” she explained, and on and on, downplaying his mistakes and stupidity, trying to protect Hank — ironically enough — fromherownprotector. There was still a chance, she felt as she patiently argued his case, a chance that he might climb down, make a promise to be more tactful and forgiving, and then enfold her in his arms and kiss her deeply and pull the oversized t-shirt over her head...
But on this, Ridge simply would not bend. And neither would Raven, not after hearing him slander her brother, calling him a ‘coward,’ and an ‘idiot,’ and a ‘child in a man’s world.’
Resigning herself sadly to his stubbornness, she felt the flame of her arousal dimming. “I understand. You don’t know him as a person, only as a man who hit me. And I can’t change that.” She looked at him, her eyes still pleading with him to reconsider, but all she received was a stony silence and his angry face, glowering back at her in the dark.
Raven curled up on the armchair, listened to Hank’s soft snoring, and was quiet enough that neither man knew that she was crying.
CHAPTERNINE
Patience,Corbett had learned long before, was the key to virtually any successful investigation, but he was still pissed to be kept on hold for this long. He sat impatiently in the small, six-man Corpus Christi field office, a cheap ballpoint tapping rhythmically against his teeth.
