Page 99 of Shattered By the Currents

“Me too. I’m not even sure hate quite cuts it.”

“I feel so…violated. And angry.”

“Me too.” He touched her hip. “I have to tell you something.”

Her eyes flew up to meet his in the mirror, heart kicking at her ribs at the way he said the words. Like whatever he was about to tell her would make things worse. And she didn’t know if she could handle worse right now.

Still, she whispered, “Okay.”

In one swift move, he turned and lifted her so that she was sitting on the bathroom counter. “Someone shot at me.”

She gasped. “Who? Xander? When?”

“On my way back to you at base, someone shot at me through the forest. I assume it was Xander or Nathaniel. Whichever of them wasn’t attacking you.”

“Oh God! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. One bullet grazed my arm?—”

“What?”

“Raven—”

“Show me.”

“It’s nothing.”

“If it’s nothing, then show me.”

With a sigh, he pulled off his sweatshirt.

The bandage was stark white against his tanned skin, making it look wrong and out of place. “Oh my God.”

He inched between her thighs and cupped her cheeks. “I’mfine.”

Tears suddenly pressed at her eyes. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you. What if he does to you what he did to Sampson? What if?—”

“Nothingis going to happen to me. You hear me? Nothing.”

“You can’t?—”

“I can. I’m telling you. I’mpromisingyou.”

She tilted her head. “I wish I had your confidence.” But then, he hadn’t found his best friend’s dead body. That sort of thing changed the chemistry of the brain.

“You know what I think?”

Her gaze slipped back up to his. “That I’m in a hole I can’t dig myself out of?”

“No. I think his threats about turning you in for Sampson’s death and letting you take the fall for his illegal business are all bullshit.”

“I touched theknife, Connor. He has a murder weapon with my prints on it.”

“Okay. But I think he knows that if the murder is investigated,properlyinvestigated, he’s not getting out of that unscathed. And if they dig into his business, it’s not justyouwho’ll go down.”

“When I found Sampson, I thought Xander would kill me. Instead, he laughed in my face when I said I was leaving. He told me that I could stay or run, he didn’t care. Because he’d alwaysownme. He told me about my connection to his business. About how I’d touched a murder weapon. He wanted me scared. And he got what he wanted.”

“He’s not going to win for much longer, Raven. Do you hear me?”