Night of the Raven Read Free Page A

might be able to sink her teeth into his forearm.
    “I’ll kill you if you’ve hurt her,” she panted. “This is about me, not my family. You of all people should understand that.”
    He offset another blow. “Lady, the only thing I understand is that you broke into a house that doesn’t belong to you.”
    “Or you,” she fired back. “You have no right to be here. Where’s my grandmother?”
    “I have every right to be here, and how the hell should I know?”
    Her heart tripped. “Is she—dead?”
    “What? No. Look, I live here, okay?”
    Unable to move, Amara glared at him. “You’re lying. I spoke to Nana last night. There was no mention of a man either visiting or living in her home.”
    He lowered his head just far enough for her to see the smile that grazed his lips. “Maybe your granny doesn’t tell you everything, angel.”
    “That’s disgusting.” She refused to tremble. “Have you hurt her?”
    “I haven’t done anything to her. I don’t eat elderly women, then take to their beds in order to get the jump on their beautiful granddaughters.”
    “That’s not exactly reassuring.”
    “Yeah, it really is, Red.”
    When her eyes flashed, he sighed. “Red... Red Riding Hood. Now, why don’t you calm down, we’ll back up a few steps and try to sort this out? My name’s Ethan McVey and I—”
    “Have no business being in my grandmother’s house.”
    “You’re gonna have to get past that one, I’m afraid. Truth is I have all kinds of business here.” He shifted position when she almost liberated her other knee. “As far as I know, your grandmother’s somewhere in the Caribbean with two of her friends and one very old man who’s sliding down the slippery slope toward his hundred and second birthday.”
    His words startled a disbelieving laugh out of her. “Nana took old Rooney Blume to the Caribbean?”
    “That’s the story I got. No idea if it’s true. Her private life’s not my concern. You, on the other hand, are very much my concern, seeing as you’re lying on my kitchen floor behaving like a wildcat.”
    “Nana’s kitchen floor.”
    “Rent’s paid, floor’s mine. So’s the badge you probably failed to notice on the table above us.”
    Doubt crept in. “Badge, as in cop?”
    “Badge as in chief of police. Raven’s Cove,” he added before she could ask.
    The red haze clouding Amara’s vision began to dissolve. “You said rent. If you’re a cop, why are you renting my grandmother’s house?”
    “Because the first place she rented to me developed serious plumbing and electrical issues, both of which are in the process of being rectified.”
    Why a laugh should tickle her throat was beyond her. “Would that first place be Black Rock Cottage, rebuilt from a ruin fifty years ago by my grandfather and renovated last year by Wrecking Ball Buck Blume?”
    “That’d be it.”
    “Then I’m sorry I scratched you.”
    “Does that mean you’re done trying to turn me into a eunuch?”
    “Maybe.”
    “As reassurances go, I’m not feeling it, Red.”
    “Put yourself in my position. My grandmother didn’t mention a Caribbean vacation when I spoke to her yesterday.”
    “So, thinking she was here, you opted to break and enter your grandmother’s home rather than knock on the door.”
    “I knocked. No one answered. Nana keeps an extra key taped to a flowerpot on her back stoop. And before you tell me how careless that is, mine’s bigger.”
    To her relief, he let go of her wrists and pushed himself to his knees. He was still straddling her, but at least his far too appealing face wasn’t quite so close. “Your what?”
    “Omission. Nana didn’t mention an extra key to you, and she didn’t mention you to me.” She squirmed a little, then immediately wished she hadn’t. “Uh, do you mind? Thanks,” she murmured when he got to his feet.
    “I’d say no problem if the damn room would stop spinning.”
    Still wary, Amara accepted the hand he held down to her.