“Ryan, I’m scared!” she yelled. “It’s no excuse, but I’ve always been terrified of your father. If he finds out I made this call, things won’t be good for me. I acted how he told me to so I could protect you. As long as everything was smooth between him and me, he didn’t really care what you did when you were a child.”
The anger ebbed a fraction. “What do you mean?”
“I did what I had to do to make sure you weren’t in his line of sight. That meant ignoring you myself. I hated it every day, and I wanted to die, but I kept going because of you. When you were struggling and came back from college, the help we gave you was because I begged and pleaded with your father until he gave in,” she admitted. “When you got upset and left, there wasn’t anything I could do to convince him to keep paying for your therapy. I tried. He forbade me to give you a cent or anything else because you were the one walking out on him. Not the other way around.”
The guilt punched me in the stomach. “Mom…” My voice trailed off. I didn’t have words. My brain wasn’t processing what I was hearing.
“You don’t have to say anything, Ryan. I don't even care if you hate me for it. I did what I had to. You’re successful, and I’m proud of you. That doesn’t matter right now, though. I have no idea what he’s going to do. He got a call this morning and lost it. He wouldn’t go into any detail with me, but I overheard him say something about coming to find you.”
Mom started to cry again, and the desire to comfort her overwhelmed me. “Mom, it’s all right. I’ll be fine. I can protectmyself from him. You don’t have to worry about me. You just need to be safe yourself, all right?”
“Okay. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for everything.”
“We will talk about it later, maybe. Right now, I’ve got some other stuff going on. I’ve gotta go, but I’ll call you when I can.”
Her agreement came in a whisper. “And Mom, call me if he does something to you.”
She assured me she would, and I ended the call. I was almost half an hour late to meet Raven. I jumped up from the couch and tapped into the security feed as I grabbed my keys.
I stopped short of the doorknob, the keys clanging to the floor. My heart skipped as I stared at the phone screen. “Fuck!” I yelled to the empty apartment, loud enough to be heard outside in the parking lot.
I watched in horror as a man walked into the camera’s view and went right into Raven’s office.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Raven
The hairson the back of my neck stood on end, and my blood ran cold. That voice knew my former name. The name that had haunted my dreams for over a decade. No one knew me by that name except my parents—and him.
When he stepped through the doorway, my stomach dropped even further. Blue eyes glared at me from beneath perfect dusty blonde hair. He was the man I’d run into on the street last month. He looked familiar then, too, and I realized I had been glimpsing him for months. I never thought anything out of the ordinary, but the truth hit me like a ton of bricks. Ryan hadn’t been the one following me. It was him, my initial fears confirmed.
He looked around my office. “You have been a busy woman since the last time we properly spoke. From a scared little girl to a successful entrepreneur. I’m impressed.”
I was frozen in my chair, my mind replaying how it felt as he held me underneath my arms against a brick building while his friend touched my body. I kept my face composed, as badly as I wanted to vomit.
“You do know who I am, don’t you?” he asked, his eyes fixed on my face.
I didn’t answer. I needed to be calculated with my words and try to delay and distract until I knew how to get out of this mess.
“Now, Leah, you know I’m the one that got away,” he scoffed. His large frame shifted and he moved to sit in one of the chairs opposite my desk. He placed one ankle on a knee, his expensive shoes shining in the fluorescent light. “I told you I’d be watching, didn’t I?”
Years of training my mind slid away. My rage and fear were replaced with the calmness I’d had in the aftermath of killing his buddy. I’d worked tirelessly to tamp down the monster lurking inside me that took pleasure in what I had done, but now, I let her roam free.
I laughed, the sound indifferent and deep, filling the room. “Yeah, watching your friend die at my hands must have really traumatized you. I assumed you would have shown up long before now.” I leaned back in my chair into a relaxed position. “Did you finally work through your issues in therapy, or did it just take fourteen years for you to finally grow some balls and come back for me?”
His mouth crept into a sadistic smile. “She’s still a cunt bitch, I see.” His laugh clanged through my bones. “Lovely, my dear.”
“You surely didn’t think I was going to be a cowering mess in the corner waiting for you to show up again, right?” I jeered as I gestured around the room. “Look at what I’ve built. I should actually be thanking you and your homeboy. You lit a fire under my ass. Thank you for that.”
His smile faltered the tiniest bit, almost as if I imagined it before it was back in place. “Speaking of thanking each other, I should be thanking you.” He leaned to his right, restinghis elbow on the chair. “I was angry at first. Angry that you killed my only brother. Then, as the years went by, I understood you did me a favor. I would’ve had to kill him eventually, anyway, to take over my family’s company. So, actually, thank you, Leah. You took that burden from me, and I’m forever grateful.”
A maniacal cackle tore from my chest. “I killed your brother? Oh, even fucking better. I’m honored, truly.”
“He always was a hotheaded imbecile.” The man looked so relaxed, like this was a friendly business conversation. “He saw you somewhere while visiting one of our offices and decided he wanted you. Admittedly, I was an idiot for entertaining him, especially while I was so…inebriated.”
I listened, the new information coating the back of my throat with ash.
“I was pretty reckless back then. The run-in with you wasn’t the only time I’d escaped death, or worse, prison.” His eyes had been wandering, but now they rested back on me. “If you have enough money, though, anything is on the table.”
