Novak Raven (Harper's Mountains #4)(52)

“What the f*ck? They aren’t going anywhere,” Ryder exclaimed, taking a step off the porch.

“Ryder, stand down.” The power in Harper’s voice brushed through Avery, rocking her on her feet.

Instinctively, she hunched her shoulders and ducked her gaze, but the quieter of the two officers was watching her with a concerned frown.

“Ms. Foley, it’s okay. We’re here to help you.”

“But I don’t want to leave. I have a house and I have people, and my hair isn’t done.” Avery showed them her half braid. Her cheeks flushed with heat, and she stared at the ground, fiddling with the ends of the braid. “I’m tired and I want to go to sleep in ten-ten, and I want to wake up and all this be over with.” Her voice crumpled to nothing, and then she began to cry.

Weston hugged her up tight, rubbed her back, and pressed his lips to the top of her head. “I can come with her?” he asked.

“Yeah,” the taller police officer said. “We need you both to come in.”

“No,” she said. “I don’t want to go anywhere.”

“I know, darlin’,” Weston murmured against her ear. “But I’ll be right there. I won’t let anything happen to you. We’ll answer their questions, and then I’ll bring you right back home, okay?”

“Swear?”

He chuckled like she was cute. “I swear.” Easing back, he ticked his finger under her chin. “Come on, little phoenix. You’ve got this.”

She tried to smile, but her lip trembled instead.

“Okay?” Weston asked.

She nodded and let him lead her down the steps by the hand. The quiet police officer helped her into the back of the police car, and she slid all the way over to make room for Weston. But the officer shut the door before he got in.

“Wait,” she said, knocking on the window frantically. “There’s been a mistake!” Knock, knock, knock. “He’s supposed to be with me!”

But the police officers ignored her. They talked low to Weston, turned him around, handcuffed him. The Bloodrunners surged forward, angry, yelling, cursing. The quieter officer was reading him his rights, but she couldn’t understand why they were guiding Weston to the police cruiser behind hers.

“Weston!” she screamed, panicking. “Something’s wrong! I changed my mind. I changed my mind. I don’t want to do this. Weston!” Avery was sobbing by the time the officers settled into the front of the cruiser. Through the glass, she pleaded with them. “He’s mine. That man back there is mine, and you said we would go together. I don’t want to go if I can’t be with him. Please. Please put him beside me or let me out.”

The quieter police officer turned in his seat as they drove away. “I’m Officer Ryan and this is Officer Hammond. We aren’t here to hurt you. We’re here to help. Everything is going to be okay, I promise. We’ll have you back where you belong in no time.”

Tears blurring her vision, Avery pressed herself against the window and watched the Bloodrunners and 1010 disappear. A whimper crawled up the back of her throat.

“You don’t understand,” she said in a small, terrified voice. “I’ve never belonged anywhere but here.”





Chapter Twenty-One


Weston shook his leg in quick succession and clenched his hands tighter. Waiting to be questioned, he was handcuffed to a chain on the table. What was taking so f*cking long? If they would just ask what they needed to, he could clear this all up and get Avery back to 1010. Kiss her, hold her, tell her everything was going to be okay. He’d seen her face through the window of that cop car. She’d been terrified.

“Fuck,” he gritted out. He cast another pissed-off glance over his shoulder at the two-way glass. There were people behind it watching him. He could feel them there, but all he could see from here was his angry face, shadowed by his baseball cap. His eyes were black as tar, but f*ck it. They knew what he was. No point in hiding.

He could Change right now and escape the stupid f*cking handcuffs, but what good would that do? It would just prolong this already spectacularly shitty night.

He had to get to Avery, make her feel safe again. She’d been holed up into herself, like a retracted turtle, ever since she’d seen the ravens at Big Flight. They were to blame for this. He didn’t know what was going on completely, but every instinct in his body screamed this was the doings of the council. Fuckin’ ravens. He wanted to pluck every feather from their bodies and light them on fire. Anger was his only companion right now. Weston’s body hummed with it until he was uncomfortable. Squeezing his eyes closed, he rubbed his eye sockets with the heels of his palms and tried to stave off an oncoming headache.

When he opened his eyes, though, he wasn’t in the interrogation room anymore. He was back in The Box. The single swinging lightbulb above swayed back and forth from the vent that blasted freezing cold air. Gooseflesh rippled across his body with the bone-deep chill. The claw marks were still in the wall, but there were more, and they were deeper. The red was gone, though. The room smelled of bleach. There was a single bucket in the corner, but other than that, there was nothing in the room.

Nothing but Avery.

She sat pressed into a corner, balled up, her knees to her chest. She looked older than the last time he’d seen her in here. She wasn’t emaciated or pale looking. Her hair looked clean and cascaded down her shoulders, but her face held the same horrified, hopeless expression, and her lips moved constantly as she whispered something too low for him to hear. Her glassy aquamarine eyes stared right through him.