Page 22 of Sins of Seduction
But will it be a one off?
Can you see me?
A golden sun will die.
Raven shuddered. The image of the bloody message left behind for her made her feel uneasy. She resisted the urge to look up at the two-way mirror, feeling like an ant under a microscope. It was ridiculous. Cruz was probably on the other side wanting to watch her squirm, but it didn’t feel like just Cruz was watching her. She felt exposed, just as she did last night. A stranger’s eyes scorched her skin as she scrambled to make sense of the rose petals and the message.
A chill swept the air around her, and she crossed her arms over her chest to keep from rubbing her hands against her arms to infuse heat into her body. The last thing she’d ever do was give Cruz the satisfaction that she was rattled even if she was. She hoped after this meeting she’d have some answers.
“They sure are taking their sweet time.” Diane looked at her watch, and Raven fought her smile at Diane’s annoyance.
“I appreciate your concern for my wallet,” Diane was paid by the hour for her services but she was worth every dime Raven spent. “You know Cruz is going to drag this out as long as possible. His disdain for me will be on full display and keeping us in this stuffy room with cups and no water is him swinging his dick around.”
As soon as Raven finished talking, Cruz walked into the room. His smile was a little too predatory for a cop coming in to question someone who shouldn’t be a suspect, but Raven expected nothing less from him.
Cruz went to slam the door behind him, but Grayson’s hand came down heavy on the frame, echoing in the otherwise quiet room. The sound did nothing to dispel the tension coating the air. If anything, it only caused it to grow. Grayson and Cruz had a silent conversation that neither Raven nor Diane were privy to, but it didn’t take a genius to see it was a pissing contest, which made Raven smile. Cruz intended this questioning to have been done in private, and Raven glanced to her right to see if the camera’s red light was on.
“What is it?” Diane whispered beside her.
Raven’s chuckle was low as she shook her head. “Nothing, just nudge me when you think he’s trying to trap me into something. I’ll handle him.”
“Is there something funny, Ms. Wright?” Cruz growled at her as he walked farther into the room, throwing a stack of papers on the table. Grayson stood off in the corner toward the right just underneath the camera. His arms were crossed and his lips were set in a grim line as he glared at Cruz.
Raven leaned back in the chair, crossing one leg over the other as she let her hands fall into her lap. The smile on her face widened as Cruz’s eyes narrowed. It really did amuse Raven that her mere presence ruffled his feathers, and going by his interaction with Grayson and what she knew about Cruz, he craved order and control, and Raven was anything but order and control.
“I don’t think you’ll find what I’m laughing at amusing, Detective Cruz. It would require a certain level of intelligence to see the merriment of it, and well,” Raven’s smile mirrored Cruz’s—venomous and sharp enough to cut glass, “we know where you rate on the scale of intelligence.”
Danielle watched Jax pace the length of the small room they were let into by some detective after Raven and Diane were escorted to an interrogation room. Danielle hadn’t been sure she should show up today. She spent an unnecessary amount of time with the ever-pleasant Detective Cruz last night, reiterating to him again why they didn’t have cameras near the Paradise room. He hadn’t been satisfied with any answer Danielle provided him, and she was starting to wonder if he wanted Raven to be the one who slit the poor guy’s throat. He seemed to have an ax to grind, and that ax was Raven.
Danielle had noticed the animosity between the two as soon as they had come face to face. It was like watching two Titans battle it out for dominion over land. Every word spoken was a jab toward the other, and every look had been deadly enough to cut the other in half. Danielle had been Raven’s assistant for a while now, and she had been able to avoid Cruz as much as she’d been able to avoid Jax, but she had heard of both of them. Raven had complained to her a handful of times of her issues with Cruz, and seeing it up close and personal, Danielle finally understood what Raven was feeling when it came to Cruz. That man seriously had it out for her.
“You’re making me dizzy, and going by the condition of this room and the rest of the station, there won’t be enough money in the budget to fix the hole you’re making in the floor.” Jax ignored Danielle’s remark and kept up his pacing.
Danielle rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Raven and Diane behind the two-way mirror. Both women looked as bored as Danielle felt. Cruz and some other detective had just walked in, and going by the snide remark Raven just made toward Cruz, this day was just about to get longer.
There was a brief chuckle from one of the other cops in the room Danielle was in as Jax finally stopped his pacing and turned to face the mirror. Danielle could see the worry etched all over his face, and Danielle had to wonder what exactly he was worried about.
“You know Raven can handle herself, right?” There wasn’t a situation that Danielle knew of in which Raven didn’t come out smelling like roses. The woman had an uncanny ability to read people and situations so that she always had a leg up. Even now, Danielle could see Raven was going to play with Cruz like a toy.
Jax scrubbed a hand down his face. “I know she can. It doesn’t mean that I have to like her being subjected to this. You saw her last night. The rose petals and dead body shook her.”
“Well no shit.” Danielle looked back at Jax. “Normal people don’t see blood like that or a dead body on a regular basis that they’re numb to it. Were you so focused on Raven last night that you missed the way the rest of Lush was? Anyone with a pulse was damn near in tears or shaken up, and that was before the people saw the body.”
Jax walked over to where Danielle stood, his gaze was scrutinizing every detail on her face. Danielle could tell he was looking a little too closely at what she did and didn’t say. His old habits as a detective were alive and well. Danielle saw Jax in action last night before the cops had shown up. He took control of the situation and handled Lush with an air of authority Danielle only ever saw on Raven. Danielle was grateful for it last night; right now it unnerved her like he knew all her secrets, even the ones she’d forgotten about.
“You weren’t last night.” Jax’s voice was barely audible. Danielle had to lean in to catch what he was saying.
“I wasn’t what?” Danielle felt like she was in the hot seat, and it was ridiculous, given she hadn’t done anything.
“Last night. Outside of myself and a few of the dungeon masters, you were as steady as I was.” He crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head like he was inspecting something under a microscope. She heard the unspoken question he hadn’t voiced, and with the dim lights in the room seeming to grow hotter, Danielle tried not to fidget under his weighted stare.
He hadn’t come out and said it, but she could see the way his mind was trying to put pieces together, and being surrounded by cops in a police station made her feel guilty. She was ready to confess to stealing lipstick and candy when she was younger with her sister, until she heard Raven’s laughter drift into the room.
Danielle shook her head, a smile cracking her lips. Jax was good, she almost felt bad for anyone who had been on the receiving end of that glare of his. As big and menacing as he was, it wasn’t his size that was off putting; it was the unnerving way he stared down at her—making her want to confess to sins she didn’t even have.
“You’re sneaky, Pierce. If I had something to hide, I’d be worried.” Danielle tapped her head. “I had a rough upbringing. I had to learn quickly how to compartmentalize. It’s why I’m such a good assistant. I can see a problem arise before most people can. I didn’t break down till I got home.”
Jax looked like he didn’t one hundred percent believe her, but she wasn’t worried about it. If Jax stuck to his usual routine, he’d be out of Raven’s life again by the end of the week. Jax was a creature of habit. He coveted the Raven but didn’t understand wings weren’t meant to be caged, they were meant to fly.
