Page 51 of Renegade

“I don’t know, Raven. Maybe she wanted me to think John was working with her.” I shook my head, still working it out. “I never believed that John would put me in this situation, but obviously, he has. She knew other things too.”

“Like what?”

Raven’s expression was so trusting, it made me feel like a total bastard. He wasn’t judging me for lying to him in the car earlier either. He was such a good man; I didn’t deserve him at all.

“She knew about the incident in the desert.” I swallowed hard, trying to talk past my guilt. “She said she knew we left John there, so I know she knows him, and somehow came into contact with him after the desert.”

Raven nodded. “Go on.”

“I don’t think she was telling the whole truth about her relationship with him. I think she was repeating lies that John told her…or someone connected to her…which confuses the shit out of me.”

“What lies?”

“She said she knew that I made a pass at John…and he rejected me.” I looked up at him. “Which he didn’t by the way.” I sighed. “She said she knew I made several passes at him trying to get him to become a gay.”

Raven’s lips twitched. “A gay?”

I quirked my lips. “That’s how she put it. I’m pretty sure the Italian accent isn’t a put on. English is not her first language. Anyway, if she thinks that he rejected me, it has to be because hewas lying to her or whoever is working with her. We did have a relationship.” I concentrated on my feet. “The way I told you.”

He reached out and lifted my chin, making me look up. “So, maybe Sutter isn’t working with them of his own free will, Miguel. Maybe you were right all along, and they are holding something over his head to make him compliant.”

My heartbeat sped up. I’d thought about it before but hadn’t processed it. Images of torture flashed through my mind, but I wiped them away before they got too graphic. I’d seen what was left of men who’d been tortured. “Maybe.”

“Could they be holding someone in his family? A sibling or his parents?”

I thought about the possibility of that for a moment. “No. His only brother died when he was young, just like my older brother, Tomas. It was one of the things that helped form a close bond between us when we first met. His folks retired while we were still in the Corps but they both died before John was lost. That’s why the military gave me his flag at his funeral. There was no one else.”

“Could it be someone else then?” Raven asked. He cleared his throat looking awkward. “Is it possible he had another lover at the base?” When I frowned at him, he went on. “Or someone else? A friend? Someone the CIA might have known about, but you weren’t aware of? I’m only asking if it’s possible there was someone else close to Sutter…a relationship you were unaware of. Is it possible?”

I thought hard about it. Anything was possible. John was gregarious, always cracking jokes, the life of the party wherever we went in the camp. He was a natural born leader even though he was headstrong and stubborn, buteveryoneliked him. When he played pranks, they were fun, never mean-spirited. He madefriends with the villagers and their children, helped out orphans where he could, just like we all did. He was full of love and optimism but was a warrior when the situation called for it. All that had been John Sutter back then, was what had made me fall in love with him.

“He had lots of friends in the camp, but no boyfriends, or girlfriends.” I stopped, thinking about it. I frowned at Raven. “John was bisexual, not gay. Maybe there had been a girlfriend that he hadn’t wanted to tell me about.”

“Another Marine?” Raven asked.

“Yeah, probably, but if she was, we would have known. It was a huge base filled with not only military personnel, but civilian doctors and nurses as well as military medical staff. But still, a female sniffing around John or vice versa, would have stuck out.”

“Why?” His gaze was so sincere…so hopeful that he was helping to jog some old memory of mine.

I smirked. “Because John was a catch and if he was fucking a woman on base, my guess is she would have made her interest known to everyone. Girls aren’t subtle when they want something. Guys…well, you already know with guys, relationships are more about sex than relationships.”

“Maybe she wasn’t a Marine. You said there were other branches of service there, right?”

“Army…some Navy intelligence guys.”

“Maybe it was one of them, or even the CIA.”

I frowned at him.

“Okay…okay, sorry. Just throwing stuff out there,” he said hurriedly.

I took his hand. “It’s a possibility he got involved with a woman, but I just don’t know. I can’t possibly say.” I sighed, tired as hell. My head was pounding just thinking about John and the redhead at the Getty. I couldn’t talk about it anymore. I just wanted to be with my Raven. I stood up, tugging him to his feet. “Come on to bed. I need to feel your skin next to mine.”

RAVEN

As we walked down the hall to our bedroom, I could feel Miguel’s confusion and sadness with the situation. Everything inside me wanted to make him forget all about tonight. I didn’t want him to have to think about the evil bitch at the Getty. More than that, I needed him to get out of his own head, stop thinking about what had happened. And no matter what happened at the museum, nothing could be resolved tonight. I couldn’t hide a smile as I heard the soft snores coming from the bedrooms on either side of the hallway, one from Nana’s and the other from the guest bedroom where Dolly slept.

The moment we walked into the bedroom, I felt better in my own environment. It smelled of green tea and lemongrass from my favorite candles, one sitting atop my dresser and the other in our attached master bathroom. Miguel followed me into the room, and I shut the door quietly, only to be spun around and pinned against the solid wood a moment later. Strong arms grabbed my wrists, lifting them up as high as they’d go in the suit I still wore, pinning them to the door above my head. Miguel’s mouth was on mine a second later.

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