Page 98 of Dirty Secrets
“I can do that,” I said more to myself than anyone else, getting to my feet and stumbling closer to the bodies so I could take photos of them, sending it to Stone before returning to Raven’s side and hanging up on Beckett without saying goodbye.
Thankfully, people knew to mind their own business here, so no one bothered us as I shrugged my jacket off and covered Raven with it, stroking her hair and begging her to wake up until the ambulance finally arrived and loaded her lifeless body into the back.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
RAVEN
Iwoke to the sound of beeping, blinking against the dim light to try and focus.
“Take it easy, you hit your head,” Zavier murmured, reaching for me but pausing when I pulled back to avoid his hand. “Rae?”
I ignored the burning pain through my body as I sat up, the room coming into focus finally as I woke up properly. “Don’t touch me.”
My mind was a little foggy, but I remembered being hit by a car and the driver saying he’d been sent by some guy for Zavier. He’d promised he was done with that shit, but obviously not if he was selling drugs for some asshole who was powerful enough to hire hitmen or whatever they were.
“Are you thirsty?” he asked, seeming confused when I scoffed.
“Thirsty? This is your fucking fault, asshole. Why are you even in here?”
“Of course I’m in here. You got hurt.”
“Because of you!” I choked out, wincing as my ribs ached. “You promised me you’d stopped.”
“I did stop. I have no idea who they were talking about,” he assured me. “I’ve only worked for Ander in the past year. He sure as fuck wouldn’t send people after me, and there’s no way he would’ve allowed someone to hurt you.”
“Fuck Ander,” I said through tears, swatting his hand away as he tried to touch me again. “Stop lying to me!”
“I’m not,” he said in a panic. “Raven, I haven’t done a dodgy job since Ander left town. No rich prick parties, no drug deals, nothing. You have my word.”
“Your word doesn’t mean shit. Someone came after you. You almost ended up dead right in front of me, and I could’ve died too!” I sobbed as the door opened and a doctor stepped in, giving me a look of pity.
“Raven Pierce? I have some good news and some bad news.”
“What’s the good news?” Zavier asked, and I glared at him.
“None of your business. You need to leave.”
Hurt flashed in his eyes, but he gave me a pleading look. “Please, I just want to know that you’re okay, then I’ll go.”
The doctor looked at me, waiting for me to ask them to continue before sighing. “The good news is nothing’s broken. You’ll have some nasty bruising and might struggle to get around for a week or two until the aches and pains go away, but it’s a quick recovery. You did have a gash on your head from cracking it against the pavement, but it was glued together, and so far there’s no alarming swelling on the brain. You have a concussion though, and will need to remain in here under observation until we clear you to go home.”
“If a concussion is all I got out of that, I’m buying a lottery ticket,” I joked, knowing something else was wrong from the way she looked at me. “That wasn’t all of it? If that was the good news, what’s the bad news?”
She held my gaze for a second before answering. “Were you aware that you were pregnant, Miss Pierce?”
My throat went tight, my voice wavering. “I’m pregnant?”
The pity only grew in her eyes as she scanned her paperwork. “Unfortunately, when you were brought in, you had some vaginal bleeding. We drew blood and checked your hormone levels, which indicated a miscarriage. You were five weeks pregnant. When was your last period?”
“I— I don’t know. I was due for it but then kind of forgot about it,” I said as I stumbled over words, almost feeling like I was outside my body watching this trainwreck hit the station. “It might still be okay, right? Bleeding doesn’t always mean a miscarriage.”
As if right on cue, the ache in my lower stomach got a little worse and I winced, Zavier instantly reaching for my hand. My emotions were going haywire as the doctor tried to explain things to me, but all I was hearing was that I’d gotten knocked up and lost the baby.
Zavier was talking to me, but I couldn’t hear him, and when he started rubbing his hand against my back, uncontrollable sobs left me.
How could I have been so stupid?
The doctor excused herself to give us some privacy, and I fought to get Zavier’s touch from my skin as despair and anger hit me at once.