Page 55 of Raven

“Oh, yeah? What does he want from me?”

I hold my breath, waiting for the answer, because children are peculiar in their observations, and Little is sure to come up with something silly.

He grins at me, twisting in his seat. “He wants kiiiisseeees.”

He giggles, covering his mouth with his palm, and it makes me grin too.

I shake my head, and Little explodes in laughter.

“You are so silly,” I murmur.

But I know where this comes from. Little stays with Kai and Callie, and there’s plenty of kissing and more going on there. As well as with Ty and Dani. Marlow and Ray-Ray, as per rumors. Little is around couples all the time, and he assumes that’s why Raven and I are occasionally in the same room.

But that’s just that. Occasionally, we are in the same room, and we will be for the next two months. With doors closed…

When I meet Little’s eyes, he is suddenly quiet, looking at me from under his eyebrows.

“What?” I ask.

“You think… Can we invite him for dinner sometime?”

Raven and I didn’t sign up for dating. Our arrangement has clear rules. But I will let Raven decide if he wants to sprinkle it with some sort of normalcy.

I smile at Little. “Maybe you should ask Raven.”

21

RAVEN

First thing in the morning, I check the camera on Maddy’s porch.

Yesterday, she appeared on the porch before seven in the morning. She wore leggings and a tank top, her hair pulled into a bun on top of her head. No bra. I zoomed in, and sure enough, Maddy was so homey-looking that I wanted to peel that tank and leggings off and make her do naked what she did next—yoga.

After half an hour or so, she went back inside and came out ten minutes later dressed in work clothes.

This morning, I watch the empty porch like a fucking creeper until she steps out. Yoga will be my demise, I swear, because I watch her with a raging hard-on in my boxers as she lies on her back, brings the soles of her feet together with her knees out to the sides, spreading those sweet thighs and making a diamond shape with her legs.

I already jerked off as soon as I woke up and thought about her. And I’m ready to do it again.

Fucking crazy, no?

I check her vitals on my phone. Her heartbeat spikes mostly in the mornings when she does her yoga. I know that she rarely goes off the beaten path—work, then home, then work, sometimes, the Ayana store. Occasionally, she meets up with her Outcast gang. That’s at Ty’s or Kai’s. I even know when she sleeps, and her sleep cycle lately is messed up.

Soon, I will mess it up even more.

I watch her leave for work, except something clicks in my mind, and I remember that she had Sonny overnight. But he hasn’t left with her.

I rewind the footage and watch the little trickster leave her house when the camera is still in night-mode. I check the time stamp. 6.20 a.m.

What the hell…

I dial Kai. “Hey, sorry for the early call. Little is with you?”

“No. Maddy called earlier and said he wasn’t at her place when she woke up. I checked his GPS tracker. He is at the beach. I called him. He said he is doing a karate class there.”

Not at 6.20. a.m. I’ll check on that later, because right now, I have to take a ride to Port Mrei.

Skiba and James are already waiting for me at the docks, and when I jump in and we take off, I light a cigarette but instinctively sniff at the familiar smell.

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