Novak Raven (Harper's Mountains #4)(59)

Weston’s face appeared in front of her window, scaring her nearly to death. He cast a glance over his shoulder at the grand chase Ryder was leading the hospital staff on. Through the remaining sliver of window Avery could see out of, Ryder was flapping his arms and squawking like a total nutcase.

“Move back quick,” Weston murmured over the jingle of keys.

As she backed away, the lock clicked, and the door swung open. Weston rushed inside and closed the door behind him.

Stunned, she stood there frozen while he checked the window down the hall both ways. But when he turned around, looking like a million bucks in his black T-shirt, backward hat, and big old muscles poking out everywhere, her body loosened right up.

“Weston!” She launched herself at him and clung to him like a flying squirrel catching a tree trunk. God, the relief she felt when he crushed her to him was insane.

“Ave, we don’t have much time.”

“Are you breaking me out of here?” she asked, hope nearly choking her.

He eased back and cupped her cheeks, but his eyes were hard and worried. That and they were black as night. Something was wrong. “This is where you have to make a choice. A detective has been working on getting a warrant to search Raven’s Hollow, but he has no evidence of anything illegal to get one. If I break you out of here, it’ll cause trouble, not only for you, but it’ll make us look guilty.”

“Us. You mean the Bloodrunners? But you didn’t kidnap me!”

“Ave, they sliced up a video of when they came in the shop yesterday. It looks bad. I look bad. You look like a victim, and the ravens have threatened to go to the media.”

“No,” she whispered, horrified. “They can’t do that. This is all a lie. I want to be with you!”

“Shhhh,” Weston said, stroking his thumb across her cheek. “And we will be together. No matter what, we will. But the ravens are after us, for revenge on my mom or on shifters outside of their community, or maybe on me, I don’t know. They will haunt us if we don’t put a stop to their manipulation.”

“What can I do? Weston, should I leave? I can’t have the Bloodrunners under attack from the public. I can’t! I love them. I love you. Do I run? Hide? Maybe they’ll forget about me if I just disappear for a while.”

Weston shook his head slowly, eyes locked on hers. “Avery, I don’t think you’re a runner, and I don’t think you’ll be happy with that decision.”

“Then what? How do I protect you? How do I protect the Bloodrunners?”

Weston swallowed hard, and his skin paled. Slowly, he eased something small and brown out of his pocket. “Remember the spy cameras I told you about in that letter? The ones Ryder and I used to spy on Willa’s Wormshack?”

She took it gingerly between her finger and thumb. It was so much tinier than she’d imagined. “Yeah.”

“Ave, the detective needs evidence. Concrete, undeniable evidence that you’ve been mistreated. Evidence that can get Caden and the rest of the council taken out of power so the ravens can recover and rebuild, if they want. Evidence that will take Caden and whatever game he’s playing out of our lives forever.”

“Evidence of what?” Oh, she already knew the answer. The two words were already scratching against the back of her mind like nails on a chalkboard, but she needed to hear it. She needed to know exactly what Weston was asking her to do.

“He needs evidence of The Box.”

There was yelling outside, and a couple nurses rushed by again, so Weston pulled her to the side of the door so they couldn’t see him.

The Box? She wanted to fall apart just thinking about going back there. She wanted to cry, hold onto her memorized letters, and curl up in a ball on the floor. Willingly go back into The Box?

But the vision of her fantasy, of Weston telling their child someday that she would be a fierce lady raven like Avery, drifted across her mind. If this were Lexi, Harper, or Alana being called to help the crew, they would do it. Without a shadow of a doubt, Avery knew they would.

And she wanted to be strong like that. She wanted to earn her place in the Bloodrunners at Weston’s side. She wanted to protect them. If the ravens stripped the crew down in the media and ruined their names, their good reputation, and Avery did nothing to stop it, she would never be able to forgive herself.

This was her chance to be the heroine of her own story.

This was a chance to feel like she matched Weston because, if she could do this, if she could pull this off and pluck Caden from power, she was rising up like a phoenix, just like Weston believed she could.

She couldn’t depend on Weston to go into the heart of Raven’s Hollow and break into The Box. The council had put a lot of effort into luring him to The Hollow, and instinct said it was for dark reasons. She couldn’t lose Weston. Couldn’t risk him getting hurt, or worse. She didn’t want him inside the gates, gathering evidence that she could do on her own.

She forced the words out. “I’ll do it.”

More yelling. A nurse shouted from outside the room that she was going to check on patients. Their time was up. Avery closed her fist around the camera and nodded at Weston’s questioning glance. In a determined whisper, she said, “I can do this. Wait for me outside the gates of Raven’s Hollow. Don’t come in, no matter what. I can do it as long as I know you’re close, but if I think you’ll risk yourself or the crew, I’ll screw this up. Promise me you’ll wait.”