Page 55 of Nightcrawler

They both grinned back. “You bet we will. This is the kind of stuff we live for,” Cassidy replied. “Mike’s gonna take you home. I have dinner and a man waiting for me.”

Raven pulled away from me and wrapped Cassidy in a huge hug. “Thank you. I’m sorry for dragging you into this but really, Cassidy, I don’t know how to thank you.” He let go after Cassidy gave him a pat on the back and then he turned and hugged Mike, thanking him profusely as well.

“We never got to talk about the job to get your fugitive,” Cassidy said when he turned to me.

“Breakfast tomorrow?” I asked.

“Same time, same place,” Cassidy said with a sharp nod. “I’ll make sure Jarrett and Thayne are there as well.”

“They’re really good guys?” I asked.

Cassidy smiled. “Let’s put it this way. When you get back to Raven’s place tonight, you’ll find your footlocker tucked nicely away in his garage.”

“What?” I frowned, staring at them until realization hit. “They did that?”

“Raven was worried about it so when he told me, I had them run over to his place and move it,” Cassidy said. He looked at Raven. “Your new nurse, Dolly, was very nice to them, and the way I heard it, went something like, ‘the one with white hair is funny but the one with Bahama blue eyes is a dreamboat.’”

Raven and I both laughed, and I reached for his hand, looking over at him, not believing just how lucky I was. While facing all the trouble and uncertainty with what was even going on this morning, Raven had thought about my footlocker and asked our friends to make sure it got handled. Jarrett and Thayne had dropped everything and gone over to take care of the one thing in the world that meant everything to me. Now, looking at sweet, adorable, Raven Mathis…I knew that was no longer true.

Chapter Eighteen

RAVEN

When we got back to my house, Mike let us out and followed us up to the door to talk to Dolly, assuring her that we’d only been taken in for questioning and it was being cleared up. He left the reasons vague with Nana’s new nurse and for that, I was grateful. I’d fretted all the way home about what she thought about me, but Miguel sat beside me holding my hand the whole time in Mike’s backseat as he drove us home, and that helped. Dolly took Mike’s words to heart, smiling at the calm, older man’s explanation of the day’s events, seeming to take them in stride.

“Oh, I know the LAPD can overreact,” she’d told him. The sweet-faced, older, black woman hadn’t left it there. “I live in Compton, and we’ve seen our share of the LAPD overreact…um hmm…you can set a clock by it.” She’d gone into Nana’s bedroom with me and watched as I knelt at her feet and apologized for all the shouting she’d heard and all the worry she must have felt as Miguel and I were taken out of the house that morning.

“Shh…Raven…” She stroked my hair. “I knew they’d made a mistake.” She leaned down, speaking quietly into my ear, “I really like Dolly. She’s very sweet. You don’t have to worry about a thing,hatsóí ashkiígíí.”

I loved it when she used the Navajo word for grandson. It took me back to memories of my childhood with her which had beenhappy ones. With my head in her lap, I nodded and then looked up into her cloudy eyes, leaning in to kiss her wrinkled cheeks. I loved her so much and her calming influence that always made me feel better whenever I was in her orbit. I patted her cheek, helped her into bed, and promised to bring a cup of tea for her, before walking back outside with Miguel and Mike. After giving Mike a tight hug, Miguel and I stood on the driveway and watched him drive away.

I glanced over at Miguel and offered him a tiny smile. “I’d better make Nana’s tea and then rustle up something for dinner. I’m starving and I know you probably are too.”

He smiled at me as we walked back into the house. We spotted Stanley sauntering into the living room and when he lifted his head, he gave Miguel a plaintiff cry. He grinned as he met the kitten halfway across the floor as Stanley came running, picking him up. “I can eat a horse and this little guy probably can too.” All I could do was smile.

When I walked into the kitchen, I was surprised at how Dolly had not only cleaned up the dinner dishes we’d left lying out the night before, but she’d also put away the leftover pasta which had been sitting on the stove. I found leftover salad in the fridge and figured we should finish it off so it wouldn’t go to waste. I couldn’t stand food waste and was pleased that it looked crisp enough to eat. As Miguel heated the pasta, I made tea and dished up the salad.

Miguel opened a can of cat food which brought Stanley running from the other room, and I brought Nana her tea and a light supper Dolly had already prepared for her. I gave her the last of her daily supplements and made sure she was comfortable before wishing her a good night. It was nearly seven by the time we sat down and demolished the food I’d made the night before. We even managed to finish off another bottle ofwine between us and after that, I was buzzing comfortably, ready for a shower and bed.

“Why don’t you go first while I check the garage for extra clothes?” Miguel said as we walked into my bedroom. “I’ve been wearing these for two days.” He held out his T-shirt and sniffed at the pits before grimacing. When he looked up, I simply laughed. He looked so good, I hadn’t even noticed they were the same clothes.

“There’s another half bath in the hall and a tub in Nana’s bathroom but I don’t want to disturb her,” I said, glancing through the open door into my bathroom. “Are you sure you don’t want to go first?” I wanted to mention that it might be nice to shower together, but mutual blow jobs didn’t really mean he wanted further intimacy, so I left it at that.

“I’m fine. Please, go first, Raven.” He dragged me into a hug, and I went easily, circling him with both arms. I noticed that for the first time in almost three days, the gunshot wounds weren’t pulling when I did this. I felt greatly relieved.

He let me go after a minute or two. “Let me check your bandages before you shower.” Before I could reply, he was pulling my T-shirt over my head. He looked down and prodded at them. “There’s no leakage but I’d like to get new bandages on these wounds,” he said, examining them closely. “I’ve got clean bandages and Tegaderm in a box. Let me go dig those out.”

I smiled at him. “You take good care of me.”

“You’re very precious to me,” he said before walking out of the room.

I sat on the bed pondering what he’d said with a smile and peeled off the used Tegaderm and bandages. The wound on the front looked good, closing nicely. I grinned to myself as I thought about how quickly vampires healed and put those sillythoughts out of my mind as Miguel returned, bandages and extra clothes in hand.

“Okay, let’s have a look.”

I stood and let him examine both wounds. He looked relieved at how they were healing as he reapplied some antibiotic cream, the bandages, and covered them up with the plastic adhesive Tegaderm so I could take a shower. I left him behind in the bedroom with a kiss.

MIGUEL