Page 46 of Sins of Seduction
“Really? I was pulling off to the shoulder to avoid the traffic when a black car looking awfully close to yours sped up beside me. They got close enough that if they turned the wheel even a fraction to the right, they were hitting me, and guess where I was going?” Raven took a step forward, and everyone tensed. Greyson physically put his whole body in front of Cruz with a hand on his gun, and Raven leveled a look at him, knowing good and well he wasn’t going to shoot her with Jax at her back.
Cruz’s laugh made her grit her teeth. “You must be under duress, Ms. Wright. It wasn’t my car. I just got here.”
Raven crossed her arms over her chest. “So your license plate number isn’t J-F-N-3….” Raven stopped talking, her memory a little fuzzy on the actual numbers, but she’d recalled the first three letters just fine.
When Cruz’s car had pulled up while she was giving the officer her statement, she tensed, thinking whoever it was had thought to come back and finish her off. When she saw it was Cruz getting out of the car, her shoulders slumped, the bone-deep exhaustion she felt knowing she was going to have to deal with him again made her wary. Until she caught a glimpse of his license plate and all she felt was rage. She knew he didn’t like her, but this was a bit much, and as she stared at him over Greyson’s shoulder, she began to wonder if he was the one sending her the white roses.
Jax moved before Raven took her next breath. He was on Greyson in a matter of a heartbeat, and that seemed to get everyone else moving. Greyson was a little smaller than Jax and Cruz, but big in his own right. They looked like two linebackers going up against each other as Jax tried to plow through Greyson to get Cruz who seemed more annoyed than worried.
“Enough.” Greyson pushed Jax back, and a few of the firefighters had come to hold Jax back. “We don’t know what happened.” Greyson kept one hand on Jax’s chest and the other on Cruz.
Raven walked right in between both of them, looking Greyson square in the eye. “We don’t? Have you not been listening?” She let out a frustrated growl. She had not only been terrified but now that fear had been replaced by anger, and her stomach reminded her she was starving. Now, she was hangry, and ripping Cruz’s or even Greyson’s head off to get to Cruz sounded way too appealing.
“The brakes gave out or they were cut.” Raven took another step forward. The idea that someone wanted to hurt Jax hadn’t sat right with her, and she ignored her initial thinking that the brakes had been messed with, but now that she was fuming, the idea sparked to life again. The only hole in her thinking was that whoever did it, hadn’t known she would have been the one in the car.
Her gaze shot to Cruz. His car had come close enough to be able to see that she was the one driving before he took off. She thought for sure Cruz wouldn’t hesitate to get her out of his life by getting her out of Jax’s life, but nothing was actually making sense now the more she stood there and thought about it.
It didn’t stop her from lashing out though. “And this shithead tried to finish me off by pushing me off the road and into whatever is down there.” She pointed past the guardrail.
“Fuck you, Raven.” The heat of his words made Raven laugh.
“I think that’s been our problem since the day we met, Cruz.” She smiled up at him, enjoying the slight tick in his jaw. “If you asked nicely and weren’t such a prick…,” she winked at him, enjoying the way his nostrils flared and the rigid set of his jaw. She crept under his skin, she always did, and as he stared at her like he wanted to snap her in two, she really wondered if she missed her mark with him. She always thought he was into Jax and Raven was in the way, but now she wondered if Jax was the one in the way for him, and since he wouldn’t dare take it out on his best friend, he took it out on her instead.
“I didn’t run you off the road or tamper with the Mustang. Only reason I fucking stopped in the first place was cuz I thought Jax was in trouble, and even if you don’t believe me, call the station. I’ve been there from sun up to sun down working on the case that put us in each other’s paths yet again.” Cruz stepped around Greyson.
Greyson grabbed Cruz’s shoulder to keep him close, but Cruz brushed Greyson’s hold off of him and closed the distance between him and Raven. He was close enough that if he wanted to, he could touch her, and given that the firefighters dropped their hold on Jax who was now standing pressed against her back, she was perfectly sandwiched in between them both.
Raven felt Jax’s warm hand around her hip with his fingertips almost digging into her skin. He was tense behind her, but she felt something else seeping out of him—it was heavy, coating the air with something sweet, or maybe it was coming from her.
Somewhere inside of her a small voice started whispering in her ear that being between these two wasn’t such a bad thing at all. She tried to ignore it, but the way Cruz was looking at her right now sent an electric spark across her skin.
“When they prove that I’m right…,” Cruz started. She held her breath, ignoring the gruff timbre of his voice that slipped in between her legs.
Did he always sound like that?
The press of Jax’s full body against her back made her pulse quicken, and going by the way Jax flexed his fingers into her skin and the predatory smile on Cruz’s face, they both felt it. Something she never thought would happen was being pumped into the air, and she wondered if she was making this sensation up to deflect from the fact that she almost got seriously hurt.
Cruz’s lips tipped up into a smirk that reminded her of warm melted chocolate and made her wonder what his lips would feel like against her skin. She’d never admit to it, and when she replayed this moment over in her head, she was going to chalk it up to duress.
“When they call the station and prove that I’ve been there all day,” Cruz’s voice dipped lower, causing her body to get hot, “I’m going to enjoy the apology that comes from your lips, Ms. Wright.”
Danny let out a string of curses. “I fucked up—bad,” Danny grumbled that they had not accounted for Raven to ever be the one behind the wheel of Jax’s car. As far as Danny knew, Jax never let Raven drive it on her own.
“Son of a bitch!” Danny hit the steering wheel a few more times, hoping the pain radiating through their hands would somehow lessen the annoyance they felt. This was supposed to get Jax out of the picture—at the very least incapacitate him to the point that he wouldn’t be near Raven.
Danny drove past the accident site on the way back, doing their best to blend in with the traffic. Danny knew Raven got a glimpse of the car’s license plate, and it was only a matter of time before the cops ran the plates. They would come up empty, but Danny was driving out of town tonight to ditch the car. There would be no time to break the car down. The next best thing was to wipe as much of the car down as possible and dump it in the middle of an abandoned area.
Danny got a quick glimpse of Raven talking to an officer. She looked shocked, her normal bright eyes dimmed as she rubbed her arms, probably trying to infuse warmth back into her body. The scare probably rattled her. The ever-confident Raven looked fragile and weak, and it made Danny smile. Seeing that fear in her gaze when Danny pulled up next to the Mustang had been intoxicating—Danny could still taste it. It would have been all too easy to tap the Mustang, give it just the right push, and send Raven into the guardrail and hopefully over it.
Raven would have been gone or hurt enough that the pain she had caused in her life would have come back to her tenfold, but it wasn’t enough for Danny.
Danny wanted more—wanted Raven to understand why she was being punished. Danny wanted to see her pain and the realization that what was happening to her by Danny’s hand had been caused by her choices. Raven destroyed everything she touched, and when Danny finally got to wrap their hands around her delicate neck, Raven would beg for forgiveness and mercy, the same thing she never granted to anyone.
Pretty little Raven,
I’ve tasted your fear
Got high on what caused you pain
