Page 130 of Shattered By the Currents

“Briar? Well, she should…” The woman scanned the room, suddenly looking confused.

She wasn’t here. Briar was missing, and so was Raven.

He turned and raced back into the common area and out the back door.

Raven was in danger. And he had to find her before that danger turned deadly.

30

“What did you do?” Raven gasped, as she dropped to her knees beside Herbert and touched his pulse.

A steady beat thudded beneath her fingertips. Thank God. But there was so much blood.

“Stand up, Raven.”

The coldness in Briar’s voice had her freezing. A small click sounded, like the safety on a gun disengaging. Slowly, she looked up.

Air froze in her lungs at the sight of the pistol aimed at her face. “Briar…what are you doing?”

“I said,stand up.”

Slowly, she pushed to her feet. The motion was clumsy, exhaustion from the drugs still trying to tug her down. But she fought it. “He needs help.”

“He’s a crazy old man who won’t be missed.”

Whowasthis woman? She wasn’t the Briar who Raven knew. Not that she’d ever known her well. She looked at the gun again before glancing at Briar. “Why do you have a gun?”

“I need you to do something for me.”

A sick feeling churned in her belly, because the last person who’d said those words to her had been Xander. But Briar had nothing to do with him…right? “What?”

“I’m going to ask you a few questions, and I’m going to record your answers.”

“Bank questions?”

“Bingo.”

She stumbled back a step. “You were working with them?”

“I’ve dated Nathaniel on and off since high school. Well, dating’s a reach. We fucked. Then one day, I saw financial statements left open on his laptop. I saw the layered LLC structures that screamed shell entities. But even before that, I’d heard phone calls here and there, with Nathaniel saying things that didn’t add up. I eventually pieced it together. When I told him what I knew, he looked like he was going to kill me. Until I told him I wanted in. That I could help.”

“Because of your accounting background.”

“Right again.” Keeping the gun raised and pointed with one hand, she pulled out her cell with the other. “Ready?”

“If I give you what you want, you’ll just kill me after.”

“If you don’t, I’ll kill you right now.”

“Then you’ll never get the money.”

A sneer curled Briar’s lip. “You think I’ll stop at your death? I won’t. I’ll go back to that little care facility, and I’ll kill those parents of yours too.”

Dread filled Raven’s gut. But also anger. So much anger. She’d trusted Briar to care for her parents. And this entire time, she was a terrible person.

“This isn’t personal, Raven. It’s business.”

The hell it was.