Page 74 of Raven

The silence gasps between us. Second by second, it becomes a living creature as we gaze at each other while the three attackers are on the ground, their gurgling and grunts saturating the warm evening air, laced with the smell of flowering trees and blood.

29

RAVEN

“You all right?” I ask quietly, assessing Maddy to make sure she isn’t injured.

Her eyes are sparkly with hard determination in the streetlamp light. There’s blood on her cheek, a smudge, or a droplet, not hers, maybe from the guy I stabbed first. Her chest is rising and falling fast. Her right hand grips a tiny knife. No, not a knife, it’s a tactical pen, her fingers wrapped around it, her veins bulging with how hard she grips it.

Smart girl.

She must’ve done something else besides stabbing the guy with the tactical pen, because he’s struggling for breath.

My eyes shift from him to the other two, back to the pen she’s still gripping, up to her face.

She is breathing heavily, gazing at me.

It’s this moment that binds us. Who would’ve known that out of everything we did together, this minute of violence would let us see who we truly are? I almost killed two guys, maybe did. She injured one. It’s in her, too, this violence that came out so naturally. It’s astonishing that she keeps it bottled inside her, under control, while many of us brandish it around like a badge of honor.

Maddy blinks, slowly drops her gaze to her hand, then to the man at her feet, then sinks to her knees next to one of the guys I hurt and pulls his bloodied hand away.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“He needs medical attention,” she says softly, almost in a whisper, as she checks his wound.

She stands up and walks to another one.

I tense, ready to stab them if they make a move. “Let them be,” I say.

She shakes her head. “They need medical help. They will make it if we call the paramedics now.”

She lifts her calm eyes to me.

That’s Maddy for you—she will help the guys who just tried to attack or kidnap her.

Wishful kindness, huh?

And somehow, what she is doing calms me, though I would’ve stabbed all three of them right here and now.

I pull out my phone and call the medical help first, then dial my security and call in several guys.

Then I call Marlow. “Maddy and I just got attacked. Get on this.”

In two minutes, Ayana’s emergency van pulls in, and paramedics examine the attackers. Maddy wraps her arms around her middle as she explains the men’s injuries, like it’s her responsibility.

All this time, my eyes don’t leave her.

In five, I hear the approaching rumble of the sports bikes as Archer and Marlow arrive, then several security guys on ATVs.

This would be a good time to tell Archer what’s happening. But first things first, I need to talk to Maddy. It’s a deal. And we still have weeks of our sweet arrangement. Just a little longer, I tell myself.

I help Maddy to one of the ATVs and drive her to her house. Archer and Marlow follow. I watch her go up the stone steps to her bungalow, then turn to Archer.

“Do you know who?” Archer asks, lighting a cigarette. He just called his security guys and asked them to study all the active cameras to see if we can track where the guys came from.

“Port Mrei. I’m sure they are Butcher’s.”

Marlow leans against his bike with his hands in his pockets, seemingly gloomy. “Were they after you or her?”

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