“I know that,” Melissa said, “but he’d have to prove that to Homicide.”
“He can,” Raven said with a sureness she didn’t feel. “I’m his alibi, I’ll offer a statement. Testify if necessary.”
Beyond Melissa’s shoulder, she saw Cass’s eyes pop wide in shock.
Even Melissa’s brows went up. “It probably won’t come to that, but it’s good to know he has the option.”
“I’m not in the system,” Toly said, and Raven twisted around to look at him.
He stood with his arms folded, feet spread apart. Braced, ready, sturdy. Eyes hard, jaw hard, unafraid.
But she could read the way he’d been rattled by the news. He’d been prepared all this time for the attack to come her direction, just as she had. He didn’t know what to make of being the target.
“Are you sure?” Raven asked.
His gaze flicked to her, briefly, shuttered to keep her out. “I’m sure,” he ground out.
Melissa said, “Well, it may not be that simple. You’ve never been arrested, no, not even in Moscow?” The slant of his brows saidwhat do you think?She went on: “But that doesn’t mean your DNA or prints aren’t in the system anyway. They won’t know your name, but they could have prints or DNA samples for reference. It won’t mean they know to come after you straight away, but it could narrow the field.”
He didn’t move, but a muscle leaped in his cheek as his jaw flexed.
The sofa creaked as Shep sat forward, and Raven noted the way Toly’s fingers flexed, where they were tucked under his arms. “This is straight-up revenge then, yeah? Like, your old boss wants to kill you, or send you to jail, or whatever? Kidnap your girlfriend?”
“He hasn’t got a girlfriend,” Tenny snapped. “Don’t be thick.”
Reese stood, and reached for his husband – for his ear, as though to pinch it like a disapproving mother would.
Tenny batted him away. “Sod off, I’ll say whatever–”
Shep said, “I’m just glad it’s not me who fucked up this bad, I mean if–”
Raven shot to her feet and clapped her hands together three times, rapid-fire, startlingly loud. Everyone fell silent and swung their gazes her way. Kat actually winced. “Shut up, all of you. If I wanted to hear this sort of bitching and gossiping, I’d go to my grandmother’s knitting circle.”
Owlish blinks. A bit of contrition – not from Tenny, of course, who looked as though he was about to say something smart in reply, until Reese finally got hold of his ear and pinched.
“Ow, you wanker,” he hissed instead.
Raven looked at Melissa. “What’s to be done, then?”
Nerves flared momentarily in her eyes, then she took a big breath and said, “It’s important not to panic.”
Raven sent her a narrow look. “Obviously. But please spare me the detective talk. What should weactuallydo?”
Melissa chewed at her lip, considering. There were murmurs from the peanut gallery, but when Raven scanned them with a glance, she couldn’t tell who’d been whispering. Cassandra was twirling a lock of hair around and around a finger in a nervous gesture she’d had since she was little. Interestingly, Tenny still sat perched on the arm of her chair; he looked nearly supportive like that.
Back to Melissa, who said, “I’m guessing you don’t want me to say ‘I told you so,’ and that you should have called this whole thing in officially when the finger first showed up.”
Raven sent her a look that had Pongo going, “Shhiiiiit,” quietly to himself in the corner.
Melissa didn’t react other than to deepen her frown, and nod. “Right, well. If Toly’s right, and he doesn’t have a record, it won’t mean much if the hairs ping the system. It’ll mean that the Homicide guys will go nosing into whatever case is still open. A hit, I’m guessing?” When no one answered, she said, “For now, the best thing is for everyone to lie low, let Homicide dig into the murder. Don’t make contact with the bratva further.” This was a warning, her gaze meaningful as she turned a full circle to take in the whole room. “Let the professionals do their jobs and try not to leave prints or DNA anywhere else.”
Tenny’s grin was shit-eating, his gaze sparking with nastiness. He gave a mock-salute. “Yessir,” he said in an American accent. “We wouldn’t want to interfere with the professionals.” He snagged Reese’s hand out of the air as he went for his ear again, ring glinting as he twisted his husband’s fingers meanly. Reese sighed.
Raven didn’t think Bennet was the senior Dog rank-wise – hell, Shepherd was an officer, unlike the others – but he was the eldest, and debatably the wisest, at least in a real-life sense, rather than a super-ninja-assassin sense. He stood, and spread his hands in a gesture that struck her as fatherly. “Alright,” he said, and the murmuring died down again. “I wanna make sure we’re all on the same page here. You guys” – gesture to Ten, Reese, Kat – “went to talk to the guy you thought was the boyfriend of the girl whose finger showed up in the mail, right? And he got spooked, and he ran into some bratva guys? And now he’s dead, and his body was holding hair that’sprobablyToly’s. Yeah?”
Raven said, “Yes,” when it became apparent no one else was going to speak. “That’s where we are.”
He nodded. “Okay. Cool. Well – not cool, but you know what I mean.” He propped his hands on his hips with even more intense Dad Energy. “And we’re all just supposed to stay put?”
