Devil's Due [h.s.]

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

"What the fuck did I just witness?"

I whirled around to face Raven, whose expression was frozen between amusement and astonishment. She was glancing between Harry's car and I, the familiar hum of his engine echoing down the road as he sped off.

"I..." Harry's sudden act had me at a loss for words. I glanced to where his car had been parked a moment before, shaking my head. "I have no fucking idea."

With another look around the deserted, morning street, I realized that, in Harry's absence, another black SUV was likely to pull up momentarily to take his place considering I didn't get even a second of peace in this lovely situation that I was currently caught up in. I took a small chew of the gum in my mouth, my lips still feeling a bit numb and winced once before spitting it out onto the street and spinning on my heel in the direction of the studio.

"Jesus, Riv," Raven jogged to match my pace, reaching forward to pull the scarf off from around my neck. "Did he do this?"

"They're hickeys," I clarified, looking over my shoulder at her and felt heat rise onto my cheeks. Shoving my hand into my purse, I withdrew the studio keys and shoved them into the front door.

"I know that," she scoffed, bracing her arm above her head on the wall to look down at me. The very action made me feel small, and I had an urge to shrink back, suddenly embarrassed at having been caught. "Doesn't explain his bruises though," she muttered under breath.

Once again, her energy had shifted into that wary, apprehensive protectiveness that she'd harbored before Harry just about mauled me in front of her. Like a predator assessing her competition, doing whatever was needed to protect the weaker link. Except I wasn't her weaker link. Nor was I Harry's.

I was strong all on my own and didn't need this protection.

"How was Loaf?" I asked instead, pushing the front door open. The bell above our heads jangled and I dropped both my purse and scarf onto the front desk beside us.

"She misses you," Raven grinned, letting the door fall shut behind her. She took a few steps forward, glancing slowly around the studio. "I gave her a bath for you."

"You did?" I laughed, circling around the desk to pop the monitor on. The screen hummed to life.

It was a running joke among our friend group that Meatloaf was essentially my child. That she needed the same kind of maintenance as a toddler, considering her skin was hard for her to groom on her own and needed to be hand washed once a week in order to clear her of the oils she'd accumulated.

The first time I told everyone I'd adopted Meatloaf, they were all disgusted. Even more so when I started having to leave our plans early in order to go home and give her a bath. Slowly though, everyone started coming around to the idea and eventually bath nights became almost a small routine for us all – with all of the girls gathering in my apartment weekly to give Meatloaf her fair share of loving and affection during her grumpy few minutes in the tub.

"Angel came," Raven braced her arms on the counter across from me. "The little beast was hesitant at first because, you know, she hates me–"

"She does not."

"–but eventually we got her in the tub and an hour later she was asleep in my lap wearing her tiny coat. It's fucking freezing in your place, you know that right?" Raven raised a brow. "Also when the fuck did you get all those extra locks? Place is like Fort Knox now."

My heart skipped a beat at her words and I instinctively reached out to place my hand flat over my purse, hoping I'd taken all of my incriminating, stolen identity documents with me and not left them laying out on the counter for her and Angel to see.