line he used to get me into his bed. I was such an idiot. After everything Alex put me through, I just wanted to believe that Ozi was a better man. But I was wrong. Again.
Shooting pain reverberated in my calf muscles each time my feet slammed into the pavement. It traveled past my knees, burning my thighs. My body wanted to slow down, to sit, but I had to keep going until I was far enough away from him.
It was late and the streets were half empty. Most people were smart enough to get out of the rain. Not me. I just had to run right into it. I passed cozy coffee shops and restaurants full of smiling faces and warm lighting. I could duck into one, but what if he followed me in and made a scene?
A red light forced me to stop at the crosswalk. Come on, come on. Turn green. Ozi’s voice was getting louder, closer. I didn’t dare turn around. I shifted my feet, transferring weight back and forth to bring some relief.
“Raven, please stop,” he yelled.
The light was still red. Fuck it. I’m just going to have to run into traffic.
I stepped one foot off the curb just as a shiny black sedan pulled up. The window lowered and Camille poked her head out. “Get in.”
I hesitated, looking back and forth between her and a faster approaching Ozi. I didn’t know her at all and I didn’t trust her, but Ozi was at my heels and I didn’t have the stomach for dealing with him tonight.
She pushed the car door open. “Raven, let me get you out of here.” Her gaze traveled past me.
I nodded and slid in beside her. I slammed the door shut and heard the lock click. Ozi threw himself at the car, screaming at me to get out. “Raven, what are you doing? Don’t go with her. Please get out and let me explain everything to you.” My eyes welled with tears as I raised the tinted window. Camille nodded at the driver and he stepped on the gas, lurching us forward so fast, Ozi stumbled backward, forcing him to let go of the car.
I sank into the leather seats. “Thank you.”
Camille handed me a towel. “Of course. That’s what friends are for. Shall I take you home?”
I scrunched my hair into the plush towel. “No. He’ll be waiting there. Can we just drive around for a while?”
The corners of her red painted lips curled into a smirk. “Actually, I know a place we can go where he’ll never find you.”
I sighed and leaned back, closing my eyes. “Great. Take me there.”
My heart was racing. I ducked underneath an awning and furiously punched in Cassius’s number. He answered on the first ring.
“Ozi, I’m at your place. Where are you?”
“I’m on the corner of 95th and 2nd. Tell my driver to bring you here. Now.”
Fifteen minutes later I was in the backseat of my car with Cassius, speeding through Manhattan. I filled him in on everything that happened since we’d left Maplewood—my confrontation with Enzo, his revelation about Raven’s ancestral line, Charlie’s unannounced orgy at my penthouse, and chasing Raven through the rain only to watch her hop into a car with the very person I was trying to protect her from.
“How are we going to find her? She could be anywhere in the city,” I grumbled.
“I’ve hacked into the streetlight cameras and am trying to piece together their route.” Cassius typed furiously onto his laptop. “Take a left up here,” he ordered my driver.
Each block we passed grew darker and more desolate than the last. It was three in the morning and while bars and clubs were still open, most other businesses had closed up for the night.
It didn’t take me long to realize where Camille was headed. We were following her trail straight into the Meatpacking District. When the cameras showed her car slowing to a stop at a red light, Cassius was able to read her plates and punched them into his computer, giving us easier access to trace her on other cameras in the city.
“There.” I pointed to a black sedan outside of an abandoned meat packing plant. There was a sign out front that showed plans for an office building with the words, Coming Soon, splashed across it.
The driver drove around the block and parked on a side street. “Keep the engine running just in case.” He nodded and retrieved a handgun from the glove compartment.