Page 85 of Shattered By the Currents

All she wanted to do was fall into Connor’s arms and let him hold her.

She’d just stepped off the stairs when she heard his hushed voice from the kitchen.

“Yeah, she’s okay. They kept her there for questioning most of the day. Ward didn’t like the blood on her clothes and shoe,or that there was an hour of time last night when she was unaccounted for.”

He sounded as tired as she was.

“I haven’t asked. Ward said she was driving around but…”

Raven frowned. But? Did he not believe that was what she’d been doing?

“No, I’ve never heard of a Sampson. Who is he?”

She flinched at the name.

A second passed before Connor cursed. “And he’s missing?”

How was he getting this information? Ethan?

“I feel like I don’t know her at all. Like she has this entire life I’m not privy to.”

She inched backward, hurt cutting through her chest, even though it probably shouldn’t be. She hadn’t told him anything, so of course he’d found the information himself.

“I don’tknowwhat the hell to think,” Connor growled quietly. “You said yourself that her signature’s all over the business. Lottie’s dead and there’s a missing mechanic connected to her, that we know of. She hasn’t told me any details. Maybe she’s innocent. Maybe she’s a victim. But there’s also the chance that, just like Margaret, she’s more involved than she’s admitting.”

The flinch cut through Raven’s entire body.

For a long, drawn-out second, she couldn’t move.

Connor thought she could be involved in the stuff Xander had done. That she could be laundering money. Did he also think she could have had a hand in killing Lottie?

Tears pressed at her eyes, but before they could fall, she spun and raced back up the stairs, then immediately pulled her bag out from under the guest bed.

The weight of Connor’s words hurt so much she wanted to double over. To grab her chest as if that could somehow ease the pain. No, she hadn’t told him her story. But he should knowher well enough to know that she’d never be a part of anything Xander was a part of.

Shouldn’t he?

Footsteps sounded on the stairs, then a knock. “Raven?”

She walked to the drawers and grabbed an armful of clothes before carrying them back to her bag.

The door creaked open. She didn’t look up. There were tears in her eyes. He’d see them regardless, but it didn’t mean she had to look at him.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m leaving.”

From her peripheral vision, she saw him moving closer. “Why?”

“Why?” Finally, she looked up at him, emotion clogging her throat. “I know I didn’t give you much about my past, but to say I could be a willing participant in a money-laundering business? Do you think I had something do with Lottie’s death too? In what happened to Sampson?” Even saying those words out loud hurt.

“You heard.” He stepped closer. “It just doesn’t make sense to me why you won’t tell me what’s going on.”

She dropped the clothes into the bag and spun back to face him. “You want to know why? Because the last time I confided in someone he ended up dead!”

Blood. It soaked her arms.

Sampson’s blood.