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She turns her head and looks at me, starting to smile, but once she sees my face, she stops and sits up quickly. “What happened?” she asks with wide, frantic eyes.
I didn’t think this part through. I probably should’ve cleaned up before coming up here.Good going, Axe.
Chapter Seventeen
Presley
Ravenpullsmethroughthe clubhouse and up the stairs to Axe’s room. I didn’t even get to look around, she dragged me in here so quickly. As soon as the door is shut behind us, she plops down on the bed and tears fill her eyes.
“Oh, Raven, what’s going on?” I walk over and sit next to her, grabbing her hand.
“I can’t tell you how sorry I am. How much guilt I will carry for what happened. How I feel selfish for grieving something that wasn’t even mine to lose to start with. But yet, I got so close to you so fast and you having a baby didn’t bother me. I—I even bought things.” She says the last part quickly. Before I can speak, she keeps going. “I know I shouldn’t bring this to you and cry and be upset. You have too much to deal with, but you're kind of my only friend.” She laughs, but it sounds strained and broken.
I laugh too and sigh, “You’re my only friend, too. So it’s okay. And please always come to me. Raven, first off, you have nothing to feel guilty over. If anything, I am so thankful you weren’t there.” I can’t even bring myself to think of what could’ve happened if she had been.
“You know, Axe said the same thing to me,” she says with a small eyeroll.
“I think that man knows me better than I do lately.” I let out a small chuckle. “But anyway, please don’t let it eat at you. I won’t tell you not to feel it. Your own feelings are always valid. But just know you have nothing to feel guilty over.”
“Thank you.” She leans over, resting her head on my shoulder.
Something she said finally connects. “You-You bought things for her?"
She sniffles and nods against my shoulder. “I did. I knew it was a girl. I had this intense feeling it was, so I went online shopping. My guilty pleasure.”
We both laugh lightly.
I sigh, “It doesn’t feel real. But it didn’t feel real when she was still alive, either. It’s throwing me through a loop.”
“That makes sense. Your life was already flipped after finding out you were pregnant. Then this happens, and it’s… I can only imagine what it’s like.”
“I just want him gone already. I feel like I can’t truly move on until he’s out of my life and I no longer have to worry about him doing something like this again or messing with someone else I love. And all because of—” I let out a small cough and exhale slowly. There is no getting out of her asking me what that is about now.
“Because of what?” She furrows her brows. “You aren’t talking about the cheating, are you?”
I shake my head. “No. I have never told anyone what I’m telling you, but Rave, please don’t say anything.”
“That isn’t suspicious at all. Fucking spill, Pres.” She narrows her eyes and crosses her arms.
I rub my sweaty palms together and dive in. “A while ago, before I had left Ben, we went to his parents’ house for dinner. Before we left, his mom slipped something into the pocket of my jacket. When I got home, I waited for Ben to be busy before looking. It was a flash drive.”
Even though I never watched the whole thing, what I did see and hear was enough to be stuck in my head for the rest of my life.
“Pres, what was on it?” Raven demands more than asks.
“I didn’t watch all of it. I only got maybe a minute in, but it showed Ben tied to a chair being shocked with some kind of prod type thing over and over again. He was screaming and couldn’t have been more than fifteen. I turned it off right away and hid it. I don’t know why she gave it to me, and I was too scared to bring it up to him. But then a while afterwards, his dad and him went crazy trying to find a flash drive that went missing. I never understood why Ben would try so hard to find it. Or why they even had it to begin with.”
I glance down and realize I am pinching my palm, so I slide my hands under my thighs to stop myself and glance back at Raven, who appears to be deep in thought.
“You should give it to the guys. Pres, there could be something else on there. Who knows?”
I sigh. “I would, but it’s gone.”
“It’s gone?” she whisper-yells, shooting me a glare. “What do you mean it’s gone?”
“That is the biggest reason I wanted to go back to the apartment today. It was to get it, but he found it. It wasn’t where I had kept it in my clothes,” I mumble, feeling defeated.
“Well, shit.” She sighs and slumps back on the bed. “You need to still tell Axe. They need to look into whatever was happening, Pres.”
