Novak Raven (Harper's Mountains #4)(54)

“Do you feel like you love her?” Detective Sutton asked.

Weston leaned back in his chair and considered his answer. Something had made the detective see him as an obsessive stalker, and this question was a shiny lure into a deep trap.

“Do you feel like she is yours?” the detective pressed on.

Weston should call for a lawyer now. He should wait for Harper before he said more, but the thought of Avery sitting in the interrogation room next door, getting grilled, made him want to end this as fast as possible.

“I want her to be a strong woman and find herself. I want her to be happy. I want her to choose her own path, connect with people, and know how special she is. So yeah. I love her. I love her so much, but if she ever wanted out of a relationship with me, that would have to be okay, because more than I want to be happy, I want her to be happy.”

Hammond looked utterly confused now. He sighed heavily, then murmured, “I’m gonna show him the video.”

“No, you won’t,” Sutton said.

“I am! This is my precinct, and he lives in Nantahala under my jurisdiction. And to be completely honest, none of this makes a lick of sense to me. The Bloodrunners have been good members of this community since the day they moved here. One of them owns the coffee shop in town, this one just opened a tourist business, the alpha has opened a law shop right on Main Street, Aaron Keller is a respected firefighter in town. And besides all that, I rode in the car with Avery Foley, and she seemed scared shitless…” He leveled the detective with a significant look. “But not from him. She spent the whole damn ride falling apart to be in the same care as Weston Novak.”

“She was falling apart?” Weston asked. “Is she okay?”

“She’s being transported to Asheville on a twenty-four-hour psych hold,” Hammond said.

“What? No, she’s been abused by her people. She can’t be strapped down or put in solitary. They can’t put her in a white room.” Weston stood and yanked on the chains.

“Sit back down!” Sutton yelled.

“Fuck,” Weston muttered, panicked. He wanted to Change, but escaping this room as a raven would be impossible unless he could somehow break through the two-way mirror.

The door swung wide, and Harper strode in, dressed in a black power suit and looking like she was about to bring hell to earth. She jammed a nail at Weston and ground out, “Sit. Now.”

Power rippled from her voice, buckling Weston’s legs under him. With a pained grunt, he slammed down into the metal chair so hard the legs screeched backward by a few inches. Wincing, Weston tilted his head away from the Bloodrunner Dragon and exposed his neck to her. Goddamn, she didn’t use her alpha powers often, but when she did, it sucked balls.

“Officer Hammond,” Harper greeted.

“Bloodrunner Dragon,” he murmured, eyes wide.

“I told you to please call me Harper.” She shoved her hand out for a shake to the detective. “Harper Keller. Who are you?”

“Uuuh, Detective Sutton.” The man shook her hand in a rush, then jerked away as though he’d been burned. Dragons. That was a power move if Weston had ever seen one but, f*ck it all, he couldn’t find it in himself to be amused. Not when he was getting a crick in his neck from her alpha dragon shit.

Harper sat down, crossed her legs primly, and set her briefcase down on the floor beside her chair with a click against the tile floors.

“A kidnapping charge? We all know that’s bullshit, so what are we really doing here?”

“They took Avery to a psych ward in Asheville,” Weston gritted out.

The fire in Harper’s bi-colored eyes nearly buckled Weston. “Fffuuck, Harper, let me up.”

After she inhaled deeply, then blew it out slowly, leveling her intent gaze back on the officers, the heaviness lifted from the air.

Weston sat up straight and sucked oxygen.

Officer Hammond hit a couple buttons on his phone and shoved it across the silver table to rest in front of Weston and Harper.



A video opened on Avery’s dad’s face. He was in a car and looked worried and disheveled. “That monster has my daughter. He took her from me and from our people. From her fiancé, and I’ll stop at nothing to make sure she comes home safe again. I’ve promised my wife I will save our baby girl. I won’t fail my family.”



The humans in the room couldn’t hear the utter bullshit lie in Mr. Foley’s voice, but Harper shot Weston a disgusted look. She hadn’t missed it either. Fuckin’ manipulative ravens.



The scene cut to Big Flight’s shop, to Avery, who was huddled against the back corner. The camera was shaking, but no one could mistake the terror in her eyes. Her long hair had fallen forward, covering her cheeks, and she was hunched badly, as though she would be attacked at any moment.

“We’re here to bring you home,” Benjamin said.

Weston’s face was contorted with hate and rage, and his fists were clenched. “She is home,” he gritted out. “Who are you?”

“I’m Avery’s fiancé.”

The scene was edited and jumped straight into Weston slamming Caden against the wall again and again and Ryder threatening the others with the machete. More editing, Weston dropped Caden and said, “You’ll have to pry her from my cold, lifeless talons.”