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Ayden stopped and looked down. When his eyes returned to look at Corbett, he was dead serious. “You never know when Armageddon is coming.”
Pendale, Texas
Tuesday Night
Ridge and Ravenlay in bed, tangled in each other’s limbs and the sweaty sheets left behind from their lovemaking. It had been a marathon session, even for them. This was the place she felt the safest. With Hank’s disappearance and the creepy guy at the bakery, she hadn’t wanted their lovemaking to end.
Once Ridge had caught his breath, he said, “You know, I’m not able to take on the full MMA matches anymore because of my lung injuries. I’m wondering if I should run this activity by my doctor as well.”
Raven giggled. “What if he says you have to retire from this too?” she asked him.
“I’d have to shoot him.” Ridge hugged her to his side. “You want something to drink?”
“I would love some water,” she said.
He pulled her into him even closer and kissed the side of her face. “I love you, Raven.”
She smiled lazily and said, “I love you too.”
Reluctantly letting her go, Ridge went into the kitchen, but returned a few minutes later with two bottles of cold water and an envelope in his hand.
Raven sat up, took the water, and said, “What’s that?”
“I grabbed the mail while I was down there. It’s addressed to you, postmarked Mexico.”
Raven took it out of his hand and looked at it. “That’s weird,” she said as she tore it open. “I don’t know anyone in Mexico.”
“A secret Latin lover, perhaps?” Ridge joked as she took out the handwritten letter inside and read it. Then he frowned. He’d seen her face suddenly go white, and the hand she held the letter in begin to tremble. “Raven, baby… what is it?” he asked her.
“It’s from Hank,” she said. She flipped the envelope over once more. Matamoros, Mexico, was where it had come from, but she suspected it hadn’t been her brother who’d mailed it. In spite of the water, her mouth felt dry.
“What does it say, baby?” Ridge persisted. She handed him the letter and he read it. Then, confused, he looked at her and said, “Why is he writing like you knew he was leaving that day? Raven? You didn’t know, did you?”
Raven looked at him. Clearly, he knew by her face that she didn’t. He didn’t say anything else, but instead he took her in his arms and held her until she was ready to talk.
When she was, she said, “They got him, Ridge.”
“How do you know, Raven? Maybe he really is hiding out in Mexico. Is the letter in his handwriting?”
“Yes,” she confirmed.
“Then I’m sure they don’t have him. Baby… I don’t think they’d keep him alive long enough to write a letter if they did.”
Raven pulled away from him and got out of the bed. She had a bad feeling in her gut. It was the same bad feeling she used to have every time her brother called, wanting her to bail him out of some kind of trouble. Ridge sat in the bed watching her, but he gave her space to figure it out.
She reached for the letter once more and read it again. “I think they have him, Ridge. He’s trying to tell us by pretending that I knew he was going home that day. There’s no other explanation for the way he wrote this.”
“So what’s their end game here, Raven? Why keep him alive and let him write you a letter that says they’re still following him?”
“I don’t know,” she said, looking again at the front of the envelope. “Maybe they want us to go looking for him.”
“In Mexico?” Ridge asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I don’t know, Ridge!” she screeched. This time, the annoyance in her voice shined through. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you. I’m just so tired of this. Every time I think my life is just perfect, good old Hank pops up to screw it up again. Why couldn’t I have been an only child?”
Ridge sighed. Though he didn’t voice it aloud, she knew he was wishing she were an only child. “I’ll call Corbett and have him take a look at the letter, if that will make you feel better, okay?”
Raven set the letter on the nightstand at the bedside, and then she lay down on the bed and snuggled into Ridge’s side once more. “I’m sorry,” she said.
