Page 23 of Sins of Seduction
Raven kept laughing only because it was pissing Cruz off. He didn’t think she took this seriously enough, and it was funny because Raven didn’t think Cruz was taking this seriously. A man died in her club, and instead of asking her questions pertaining to what happened last night, he’d spent the past twenty minutes arguing with her on the morality of what she did at Lush.
“Detective, I’d be happy to send you the bill for my time if you don’t hurry this process along. You’ve yet to ask Ms. Wright anything relevant. I’m sure your coworker and those listening behind that mirror will see this as borderline harassment of my client, and I have enough time on my hands to file a lawsuit on her behalf.” Diane’s voice rang out sharp in the small room, and a tense silence fell over everyone.
While Diane stared at Cruz, he kept his hardened gaze on Raven a moment longer than necessary before he flipped open a folder and shoved the image of the dead body in Raven’s face, causing her to gasp.
She knew him, not well but they had fucked a couple of years ago. He’d been the perfect distraction she needed to get over the turmoil she had found herself in. He wanted nothing more than to scratch an itch, and Raven had felt the same. She was desperate to bury the pain she’d felt, and he’d been all too willing. A perfect stranger that was gone once the sun came up.
She never thought she’d see him again, but the sight of his lifeless body staring up at her from the pictures unnerved her. The angry wound at his neck and at his wrists—the only marks on his otherwise perfect body—reminded Raven of another lifeless body she hadn’t been able to save.
Images of red water overflowing a bathtub flashed in her mind, and she quickly shook her head, not ready to relive that night.
“I know him.” The words fell out of her mouth as she continued to stare at the picture, wondering if he even saw the attack coming.
Had there been a struggle, and why hadn’t any of her guys seen it?
Raven was filled with so many questions that she knew would probably never be answered. It also made her realize that if Lush ever rebounded from last night she would have to up her security. She couldn’t understand how a customer had gotten in with any weapon, considering she made sure to provide everything—lube, new toys—anything they needed was available for their pleasure. Any bags that came through Lush were thoroughly searched as were the individuals. She didn’t take any chances because she knew how one mishap could change the course of Lush and hurt the individuals there.
But someone still got killed.
“You know the victim, Louis Bastillo?” Cruz sneered and her gaze snapped to him. She could see how he was trying to spin this as her fault—as if she was the one who wielded the knife that took Louis’ life.
“He was a one-night stand I had ages ago. I didn’t even know his name.” Raven held Cruz’s stare, daring him to make some snide remark about her sexual activities. She was ready for the barb about her fucking random men as if he never had a one-night stand before.
Men like Cruz pissed Raven off. They looked down on women who liked to fuck as if they weren’t out there looking for women to stick their dicks into.
Cruz sucked his teeth. “How long ago was this one-night stand?”
“About four years, give or take, and before you ask, I met him at a bar in North Ivywood on the corner of Essex. I don’t know what they call it now, but back then it was called the Reaper. Do you need a play by play of what happened—what positions I had him in?” Raven snapped. Her anger over the situation—over the loss of life and dealing with Cruz—was reaching its boiling point.
Greyson cleared his throat in the corner. “No, we don’t need a play by play, Ms. Wright.”
The tension in the room heightened. The animosity Cruz and Raven shared clogged the air. It was getting hard to breathe in the stuffy room, but Raven wouldn’t back down from Cruz, and his closed-minded views on how she lived her life.
Cruz pressed his lips together, seeming to have ignored that Greyson spoke. “I know what kind of establishment you run, Ms. Wright. You may have not slit this man’s throat, but now that we know you once had relations with him, I’m pretty sure I can find a way to legally hold you responsible for it. Is it possible a little knife play amongst your customers got carried away?”
Cruz’s smug smile was back on his face, and when Diane went to respond, Raven held up her hand to stop her. This was clearly more than just Cruz doing his job. He was so desperate to pin something on her—probably in hopes that she would have to shut down Lush and leave town that Cruz didn’t realize that with that much hate in his soul for Raven, he would never be able to get rid of her.
Raventsked, shaking her head. She sat forward, putting her elbows on the metal table so she could get as close to Cruz as possible with the table between them. She looked him over. He had at least two days’ worth of stubble on his mahogany skin. His exhausted hazel eyes glared down at her. His wide shoulders blocked the exit to the room, and even sitting down, he made Raven look like a pixie. It was a shame, really, Cruz would be good looking if he wasn’t such a dick all the time.
“First, if you bothered to read my liability contract I make everyone sign before they’re allowed to step foot into Lush, then you would know the most that can happen to me is I get sued.” Raven held Cruz’s gaze. “While I’m sure Mr. Bastillo’s family will go that angle, and they are well within their rights to do so, you and I both know how this city works. It’ll be years before I see the inside of a courtroom if I do at all. We’ll probably settle out of court for a fee that I’ll be more than willing to pay.”
Raven hated how callus she sounded. A human life was lost, and she’ll never be able to shake that image from her mind. “Second, looking up knife play on that free porn site you still use is not going to give you an accurate representation of that kink. You need to do a little more research before you try and flex on a topic you clearly know nothing about.”
Raven leaned back in her chair, putting her shaking hands in her lap. “My security team checks everyone who comes through the doors of Lush, Detective Cruz. I don’t know how anyone would have gotten a knife in, let alone been able to attack someone like that.”
“What about your staff?” Detective Grayson spoke up again.
“Everyone who works for me has worked for me since the opening of Lush, everyone has gone through thorough background checks. I have them see a therapist of their choice once a month for a wellness check and make sure they have hobbies outside of Lush that gives them some type of outlet. I wouldn’t believe my staff had anything to do with this.” Raven tried to sound sure as she spoke to Grayson, but even she could hear the uncertainty in her tone.
None of this made sense, and the more she sat here, the more her unease grew. She wanted to believe this was random and maybe the killer had known Mr. Bastillo and this was some crime of passion, but it didn’t feel that way. It felt like this was specifically aimed at her, but she didn’t understand the connection between her and Louis Bastillo outside of their one-night stand.
Raven’s eyes glanced back toward the two-way mirror. That feeling like she was being watched settled over her again. She knew that there should have been cops on the other side of the mirror, but there was something else—someone else there, watching her with avid attention.
Can you see me?
The words whispered in her mind like a plea—begging her to see, but see what Raven didn’t understand.
See me, Raven.
