Page 8 of Renegade

I bent over with my hands on both knees and sucked in several gulps of air as Raven caught up once again. He put his hand on the small of my back, and I glanced up at him, feeling miserable. I straightened as his hand fell away. “I’m sorry, Raven.”

He frowned at me. “Who was that, Miguel?”

I sighed. “Come on. I’ll tell you but first, I owe Aston and his client an apology.” We turned and began walking back to the restaurant. Tawny Flores, the bodyguard/boyfriend, and her lawyer stood at the valet station, waiting for their car to be brought around. They all turned in our direction as we walked over. I felt my face color as I apologized for the abrupt exit.

“I’m so sorry I left the way I did. I was uncomfortable with that man arguing, and he was carrying. Then when he turned, I’m sure I saw someone I recognized,” I said, shaking Aston’s hand.

“We were worried,” Tawny said. She’d pulled her lace veil back down over her eyes and it was hard to see her expression beyond it. My mind’s eye flashed back to the numerous women in burkas populating Afghanistan, a country I often wished Icould forget. The garb covered their bodies from head to toe unlike Tawny Flores’ short, black dress that showed off a petite and near perfect figure.

“Forgive me.”

“Of course. Do you think he was a threat to us?” Aston asked.

“I’m not sure. But we’ll be investigating this further,” I said.

“Thank you. In any case, I’ll call your office after I drop off my client to give you my investigator’s number and Mrs. Flores’ address so you can get a look at the vault as we discussed.”

“Thank you,” Raven said, shaking his hand. He turned to the widow. “It was very nice to meet you, Mrs. Flores.”

She held out her small hand and he took it. “You too, Mr. Mathis. I hope you can find my ruby.”

“We’ll do our very best,” Raven said, glancing at the bodyguard, acknowledging him with a nod. “Mr. Mancuso.” The man gave a tight-lipped nod back.

A sleek, black Mercedes drove up, and Mancuso opened the back door for Tawny. She slid in and Aston turned to look back at us. “I’ll be in touch. I look forward to seeing you at the Flores estate in the morning.”

We both nodded as Aston joined the widow in the back before watching Mancuso tip the valet, get behind the wheel, and drive away.

We walked side by side to Raven’s truck at the back of the parking lot in silence. As he moved to the driver’s side, I followed. He turned in surprise as I pushed him back against the door and before he could say a thing, I kissed him. His arms were around me in an instant as he kissed me back almost desperately. It was several seconds before our lips parted.

“I really am sorry,” I said, resting my forehead against his.

“Talk to me, baby. Just tell me what that was all about. Who was that man?”

“Let’s go home. I have something to show you.”

“But Aston said he’s going to call as soon as he gets to the office. Shouldn’t we go back?”

I reached up and cupped the side of Raven’s smooth cheek, smiling at him. I loved this man so much, my heart felt like it’d burst. I shook my head. “Judy’s there. She’ll send over the paperwork for us. What I have to show you can’t wait.”

Raven’s brow creased in confusion, and I leaned forward, kissing over the furrows before stepping back. I walked around to the passenger seat and climbed up into the big, black vehicle. He started the engine and we headed toward home. “Do you want to talk about this now?”

“When we get home, Sunshine. Like I said, I have something to show you, and it may take a bit of time to figure out what I can say about everything.”

“So, this is about the military…when you were in the Marine Corps?”

I cracked a tiny smile. My man really was tenacious in everything he did. “Yeah. It’s about the Corps. Let’s leave it for home. Okay?”

He glanced over at me as he pulled onto the 101 Freeway. “Yeah, okay. When we get home then.”

I was grateful. I had pictures to show him, and I had a flag. It’s all I had left of a man who was more than a brother to me. We didn’t speak after that, but as I sat there, I made a deliberate effort to put the image of John’s shocked face out of my mind, the guilt of having left him behind, and tried to think of lesscomplicated and better things to take my mind off the present. I thought about Raven’s most recent book review. These days, Nightcrawler was my safe space and I really felt like I needed one right now.

Book title: The Art of Floor

Author: Yun Mae

Publisher: Self-published

Genre: M/M Erotic Romance

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