Warning: Strong Language and Sexual References!
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Ary went through three clips before she sat her Beretta down. The paper person was riddled with holes. It actually had more empty space than it did paper. She had been envisioning her mother the entire time. That's why the face was completely shot to smithereens. She dreamed about shooting Juliana in the face. Unhealthy as it was it helped to curb some of her anger issues.
She'd been incredibly irritable since the confrontation with her mom and she'd been taking it all out on Rave. He was completely supportive and understanding, and that just made her feel even worse. She needed to get herself under control and shooting at inanimate objects really seemed to help. She'd also decided to dive head first into the case against Christian. She and Rave were working together on that, sort of. Rave did his thing with his buddies and Ary did her thing with the Chicago PD, and when they got home at night they shared their findings with each other.
Over the past month there had been several 'accidental' deaths involving ex-Bloodbaths and their family members. Christian was somehow getting his most loyal followers to take out the others that had ran off when Christian got arrested. This had become such a top priority for the Chicago PD that Detective Wilcox had temporarily given her a badge so that she could have more free reign while investigating.
As for her family, well, Ary was pretty much ignoring them. The day after the big blowout in Haven, Mads and her Uncle Jack had tried to call her several times. Within three days she had somewhere near a hundred missed calls and texts from everyone in her family, including her dad and Garrett. She wasn't ready to talk to them yet so she decided to get a new cell phone and new number. It was the only way she could get her space. That was a week ago. She still wasn't in the mood to speak to them.
To avoid having to see them, Ary had brought Maria back into Chicago. She was currently staying at Layla's family's motel, with some of Rave's guys keeping an eye on the place. She had proven to help out a lot, although she didn't know much about Luke and his involvement with Christian. Eventually Ary would have to talk to Luke personally.
From what Maria had told her, Christian swung both ways. He had had sex with her on multiple occasions and she'd witnessed him with men. The catch was that he only seemed to get it up when he was causing them pain. The pain turned him on. That's why he targeted weak, younger men and women. He had to overpower them. Christian was more sick and twisted than Ary had ever imagined.
As she was disarming her weapon, her cell vibrated in her pocket. She set her Beretta on the ledge in front of her, slid off her protective gear, and pulled her phone out. "Harper," she answered.
"Ary, hey." It was Mason and his voice sounded strained.
"Mase, is everything alright?" she asked, worried. She quickly finished with her Beretta just in case she had to fly out of the shooting range in a hurry.
"Well, not exactly," he hedged. He sounded very uncomfortable.
"What does that mean? Did something happen to my sisters?" Ary demanded.
Even though Ary was pissed at her family, she still worried about them. Asking her not to worry was like asking the sun not to rise. It just wasn't going to happen. She'd told Rave all this and he promised to keep someone in Haven just to be safe. As Mason had seemed to loss his job of babysitting her, he picked up the honor of babysitting her sisters.
"They are fine," he assured her.
"Then what the hell is wrong?" she exclaimed, even as she cleared out her station and loaded her gun back into the holster on her right hip. Her Detective's badge was clipped next to it.
"I-uh, I kind of got arrested," he stammered out.
"You, what!?" she shouted into her phone, earning her weird looks from the two other men at the range. She glared at them and they quickly went about their business.
"It's not my fault," he objected.
"How is getting arrested not your fault?" she scoffed as she got into the Jeep.
"Your sister called the cops on me. Well, she called your uncle," he corrected himself.
"Shit, Mase, I'm sorry," she apologized, her anger dissolving.
Even though his intentions were honorable, Mason was technically stalking her family. She couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen to one of her sisters. Maybe it was just paranoia, but with her family's track record of getting into trouble she knew it was better to be safe than sorry.
"I'll come and get you, alright? I promise that nothing will come of this. My family is just doing this to get to me," she told him as she pulled out of the shooting range and headed in the direction of Haven. Luckily it was early afternoon and she should miss any rush hour traffic.
"I'm sorry too, Ary. I never meant to cause you any extra trouble," he grumbled.
"Cause me trouble? Mase, you wouldn't even be involved in this mess if it weren't for me," she snorted in laughter.
"Ugh! Colt is going to kill me!" Mason exclaimed.
"No, he won't. I won't let him," she assured him.
Ary had a protective streak when it came to Mason, and she knew it pissed Rave off. He was jealous that she and Mason got along so well and could talk easily with one another. He had nothing to worry about, though. She wasn't even remotely interested in anyone other than Rave. There wasn't even a brief flutter of interest or desire. She loved Rave. End of story.
"Shit, he's gonna be pissed that I called you and not him," Mason sighed. He'd probably been thinking the same thing that she was.
"It will be fine, Mase. I'll talk to Rave. You just sit tight and try not to antagonize my uncle," she warned him.
"Yeah, whatever," he mumbled.
After Ary hung up with Mason she immediately dialed Rave's number. They were trying out this new thing where she told Rave what she was doing and he tried not to be a controlling ass about it. It seemed to be working so far. They actually worked pretty well as a couple. It surprised everyone.
He answered on the third ring. "Hey, honey, what's up?"
"My uncle arrested Mase. I'm going to Haven to sort it all out," she sighed into the phone.
"I can handle it. You don't need to go," he told her. She could already hear the anger in his voice.
"I would love for you to handle it. Honestly," she said, and she meant it. She dreamed about passing all of her family issues off onto someone else. "But I don't think you speaking to my uncle would go over well. I'll be okay, Rave," she assured him.
"I don't want you to go by yourself," he objected. "Come to the club and we'll go down together." It came out as more of a plea than an order, and that kept her from getting pissed at him.
"Rave," she sighed out his name. "I can't have you protecting me from my family all the time. Besides, I was basically a giant train wreck after Garrett dropped the bomb on everyone. I'm better now. I can handle them." At least she hoped she could.
"You shouldn't have to handle them alone," he said. "Remember that you're not alone anymore, Ary. You have me."
"I know," she huffed out. When he said things like that it made her feel strong. "I'm sorry I cause so much trouble for you and your friends," she sighed.
"It's not you that's trouble, it's your family," he corrected her.
"Oh, I'm not trouble?" she laughed into the phone. She liked talking to Rave. He kept her from thinking about having to see her family during the two hour drive.
"I love your kind of trouble," he claimed. There was laughing in the background and Ary swore she heard a few cat calls.
"Rave, are you flirting with me with your gang buddies around!?" Ary gasped in surprise. She was giddy at the thought.
While Rave was admittedly more lovey-dovey when they were alone, he usually reverted back to an asshole amongst his friends. She didn't mind it. Sometimes she enjoyed a good fight and would intentionally seek Rave out while he was with his friends just so she could start a fight with him. She knew she was messed up, but Rave didn't complain about it, especially since they usually ended up having angry sex afterwards.
"Only for you would I humiliate myself like this," he said, in an overly stern voice.
That hit Ary hard and tears burned her eyes and her chest tightened. Pride was important to Rave and she got that he needed to retain some of his power when it came to his friends. She didn't expect him to roll over and play whipped. She was stubborn and dominate so she understood that Rave needed to retain his dominance as well. To have him let his tough guy demeanor come second to her really showed her just how much she meant to him.
"I love you," she whispered into the phone. For a second she thought she was going to have to pull over on the side of the road because she was going to cry, but she blinked the tears away.
"I love you, too," he laughed. More cat calls in the background.
"Rave, I'm really glad we met. Not in Colorado, but here again in Illinois," she told him. She was becoming more and more honest with her feelings over the past week. Blurting out exactly what she was feeling had become a common thing for her.
"I'm really glad you put up with me for those first few weeks," he told her. His voice was gruff with emotion. "I was a total dick to you. Shit, the things I said to you and did to you. I would strangle any guy that ever threatened you like that." He sounded pissed, at himself most likely.
"Relax, Rave," Ary laughed into the phone. "I sought you out because you were an ass. Besides, I know you. You never would have gone through with anything if I didn't want you to," she rolled her eyes.
"Maybe," he mumbled into the phone.
"You tried to push me off that night I was drunk. Our first time together, remember?" she chuckled.
She blushed just thinking about it. It seemed like such a long time ago, even though it had just happened in May. It was only the second week of October now. She and Rave had been through a lot in the past five months, more than most people went through in a lifetime. Maybe that's why she felt like she could trust him more than the people she had known for her entire life.
"I'm not likely to forget that night. I felt like a huge ass for taking you like that in the kitchen and then being an even bigger ass the next day," he groaned out loud.
"I was kind of freaking out so it's not all on you," she laughed.
"You were entitled to freak out. Fuck, why did you ever give me a shot? You are way too fucking good for me," he groaned. Ary could just imagine him running his hands through his hair in agitation.
"Because you're a good guy. You protected me, believed in me. I guess I'm more insecure than I thought," she sighed.
"You're not insecure. You just don't know how to be loved," Rave told her.
Okay, things were definitely getting too hot for her. She actually had to turn the air on in the Jeep and it was 50 degrees out and windy. She wasn't used to honest compliments like that and it flustered her to no end. It also made her feel hot all over and extremely needy. She actually contemplated turning around and headed back to Chicago just so she could jump Rave's bones.
"Why do you make it all sound so easy? You didn't exactly have a Brady Bunch upbringing either," she countered. Damn, her embarrassment was making her defensive.
"Do I make it sound easy? Ary, I'm just as clueless with this as you are," he laughed, ignoring her defensive tone. "I'm terrified that you'll wise up and realize what a shitty guy I actually am. You are so outta my league that it's not even funny."
Ary was so used to fighting off her own insecurities that she forgot Rave had some as well. She felt like a dick. While she was whining and complaining about her problems, she'd completely ignored the fact that Rave might have some as well. She definitely wasn't going to win girlfriend of the year.
"Rave, I love you. All of you. Who you were in the past is not who you are now. You don't threaten or hurt me, and you don't completely ignore what I want. You are better than most guys. Trust me," she told him.
"I'm only that guy when I'm with you, Ary. I still hurt people. I still do bad things. I'm not a good guy," he said again.
"I don't believe that. You were a good guy before me. It was just buried down deep. I saw how you were with Gracie in Boulder last spring. You weren't an ass then. You're a good guy, Rave. You don't need me for that." Her heart ached for him. Did he really not know how good he actually was?
"I do need you, Ary. I want to be a good person, I really do, but I never knew how to do that. Not until you showed me what it actually took to be a good person." Rave's voice was intense, serious. Ary was glad they weren't talking in person. She wasn't sure she could handle seeing the raw emotion that had to be in his eyes.
"I'm not that good of a person," she whispered into the phone.
"You risk your life for people who aren't deserving of even a single second of your time. You protect people without expecting anything in return. You are that good of a person," he laughed.
Ary never thought about herself in that way. She didn't think she was good. She was rude and lied more than she told the truth. She had been a major ass to her sisters last week, and whether it was deserving or not wasn't the issue. A good person wouldn't be mean at all. Rave didn't know what he was talking about, but she loved him for trying to make her feel better anyways.
"Rave, don't go out tonight. I want to see you when I get back," she told him, her voice rough with her own emotions.
"I'll be at the club," he promised. "I love you. Be careful," he warned her.
"I love you," she replied, before hanging up.
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Not really an exciting chapter, but a good interaction between Ary and Rave about their relationship. I promise it will get more exciting. I'm also really leaning towards a third book about them. What do you guys think? Should we keep Ary and Rave going?