The knock was loud. But sure, I was only staring at the wall, my thoughts all over the place. That meeting at the coffee shop, that was all over the place, too. What had been said, what hadn’t. Luke, very cagey altogether. I couldn’t blame him, really. Why would you trust three people you’d only just met, no you wouldn’t. And he clearly didn’t trust me. The thought of that made me laugh and it also made me want to cry. Why? Another why there, to lay against the other whys that were starting to crowd in on me. Finn, now. He’d been a bag of emotions. That was new, new in a way that made me angry, frustrated and again, that weird need to cry. Feck the weeping willow act, I told myself. That wasn’t me, sure it wasn’t. Not me at all. But Finn thoughts returned again, sneaking in like some little lad trying to get into an 18 certificate film at the cinema. You kick him out, but he’s back again a while later, trying it on.
My world was on its end. Yes, I knew that. I wanted that. It was a different end up, with me ending up here, cowgirl happy. Yes, that was it. Just a little wobble on those boots. I would be grand. New friends, new times.
I rose from the sofa and opened the door, the smile on my face filled with my latest resolution. It’s all good. My smile turned sultry and Raven grinned at the sight, a small laugh escaping.
“Come for a little cosy before you venture out tonight?” I asked.
“Sure. Exactly. Cosy chat, just you and me.”
I opened the door wider to allow him entry and he passed through to the middle of the room.
“Sit, sit,” I said, gesturing to the sofa. “Unless you’d rather somewhere more amenable to reclining.”
Raven laughed hard this time. “No, the sofa’s good. I’ll do the sofa.”
He strolled over there and took a seat, draped his arms across the back of the sofa, one leg crossed over the other. Relaxed, cool, calm.
“Coffee?”
He shook his head. “Nah, I’m good.”
I shrugged. Cup of tea for me, I thought. If only to give me something to do, because suddenly I was nervous. Me? No, no, sure that wasn’t me, not me at all. I slammed on the kettle, found a mug and a tea bag (awful yokes this brand) and poured the water once it boiled into the mug. After a splash of milk I was done and yet my head was still in a shed, or some feckin’ place I couldn’t find it.
I sat beside Raven on the sofa and turned to him, a determined phrasing of cowgirl happy, with a good country rhythm with it, making a determined loop through my mind.
“When do you head out?” came out of my mouth. Sip of tea, stop the gob, I thought and held the cup to my lips.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Talk?” I said. That’s what he wanted.
He rested a hand on my arm and began to rub it. I looked down at the hand, puzzled. Was this some kind of innuendo?
“I’m happy to talk,” I said. Was that a good response? Or should it be “happy talk”. I had no clue.
Raven leaned closer. I leaned closer, my eyes on his. His said nothing and everything. What was I to do with that? I leaned even closer, my lips inches from his. Finn’s face flashed through mine. Feck off, I told it and kissed Raven. A light kiss. A kiss that said things could get better. There was more. Raven rubbed my arm, kissed me back. Pulled away a moment later and leaned his forehead on mine.
“You’re a lovely woman, Maura from Ireland. A woman of power.”
I pulled away, confusion drowning out the cowgirl happy beat, beating hard. “What do you mean by that?”
“Just that,” he said.
His dark eyes, so difficult to read sometimes, were now filled with sincerity and maybe a little amusement. I stiffened when I saw it. Amusement was definitely not among my feelings at this moment.
I crossed my arms. “What is it you want, Raven?”
He squeezed my arm. “Nothing for myself. Just your company. And the wit that goes along with it.”
My expression eased, my arms uncrossed and I gave him an inquisitive look. He leaned forward, kissed me on the mouth and brushed the hair away from my face. A caress?
“You have my company,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. “You have my wit, well as much of it that’s around, because for some reason half of it seems to have flown away.”
Raven chuckled. “There you go. So, so clever.”
I shrugged. “No, not really.”
“Flown away. I like that.”
Another puzzled frown came to my face. Sure, those puzzlement muscles were well exercised now. Raven still had his hand on my arm and I looked at it now. Seeing my glance he rubbed it a bit again and let his hand drop.
“Balor’s home,” he said finally. “Do you know it?”
I narrowed my eyes. Was this it? The reason for wanting my company and my so-called wit? “No.”
“But you knew they were looking at it.”
I didn’t need him to explain who “they” were. “I knew it was one place they were interested in. But that was a while ago.”
He nodded. “They didn’t say what their interest is in Balor. I mean I know he’s Irish, and has a headquarters there in Ireland, so it makes me wonder that maybe he’s committed some illegal practices there. And that you and the others were trying to get proof to put him out of commission, or behind bars. Or something that might stop him from continuing.”
“Yeah, you could conclude that,” I said.
Part of me wanted to trust him. The “cowgirl happy” part, but that “cowgirl happy” also wanted nothing to do with anything connected to Balor. And the part that might still be Maura, goddess of war, ally of the Tuatha de Danann knew I shouldn’t trust him. So either way, it was the “say nothings” that held the day. They joined from both sides of the aisle and made me sigh.
“Balor is an evil man,” said Raven.
“He is,” I said. Sure, that was safe enough.
“That’s why I think you and I should work together on this. We both want the same thing. Put Balor out of action.”
“Haven’t you got enough from the documents Smithy photographed?”
Raven shrugged. “Yes, probably. But the more we have, the better. Once they lawyer up, his kind get away with just about anything. There might be more inside the house.”
I nodded slowly. I could understand his interest. Of course I could.
“What do you want from me?”
“Come with me. Tonight. I know they won’t trust me enough to be involved. But maybe if we went earlier, had a look around. At least see if it’s possible anything is hidden there.”
“What about Skye and Sherman?”
Raven grinned. “Sherman? He’s working on getting into the security system. He’ll be along later. As for Skye, this doesn’t really suit her, not really.”
“Not really, no” I said, slowly. I could understand. Regal, stately, Skye. She certainly didn’t say, “sneaky job at night”. I sighed. “Right, so. Fine. I’ll help you.”
He leaned over and kissed me again. Brief, without passion, “thank you” written all over it. I sighed again. Tried to drag those wits of mine from all the scattered places they were hiding. Including the shed. Feck me, what was I like?
It was still warm, the early evening air still carrying the heat from the sun. I had on a long sleeved black T-shirt, that I’d managed to find at a local Walmart a few days before and it felt too hot. Or maybe it was me. We stepped out of Raven’s SUV and shut the doors. We were near the automatic gate that was an entrance to a landscaped drive that led up to the house. Raven approached the gate, gave it a little shake and then, noticing the CCTV camera overlooking the entrance, walked away back to the SUV where I stood, out of its range.
“You wait here,” he said. “I’m just going to have a look around. See if I can climb a wall or a hedge.”
I shrugged. Fine, if he wanted to try and find a way to climb the impossible,so be it. I could see that the walls stretched down both sides and presumably along the area around the corner from where we parked. I had my own ideas. Why, I don’t know. But curiosity was strong.
I watched Raven disappear around the corner, his step jaunty, not a care in the world. When he’d gone, I stepped away from the car and took flight, changing in an instant. I wasn’t about to let walls and height keep me out.
I landed on a balcony terrace and shifted back again. Something I deemed safe enough from random CCTV cameras. I shook myself out, rolled up the arms of my T-shirt and was about to try the sliding door to the balcony when I heard a ruffling behind me. I turned and there was Raven, standing beside me. He grinned and gave a sharp laugh when he saw me and shook his head.
My mouth opened and shut. Opened again but before I could utter a word his finger pressed against my mouth.
“Later,” he said.
I was about to argue, but then held back, because he was right. We didn’t have the time for arguments, discussions or any of the million and one items that crowded my mind. The “who-the-feck-what-why-how” of this man. Raven. Of course. No irony there. I snorted. Feckin’ raven all right. And I’m feckin’ raven mad to think I hadn’t known. Hadn’t suspected, forget about hadn’t been told.
My wits were all scattered to the wind again, so it took a force of will from who knows where that had me turn and start to peer into the window. It was a bedroom. Large, spacious and with the outrageous gaudy roundness to the bed and the mirror on the ceiling above it, I didn’t need two guesses to know whose it was. Even one guess would be too much, because who wanted to spare any thoughts imagining Balor in that bed doing anything?
The room was tidy, full of streamlined modern furniture making statements all over the place, but suggesting nothing other than itself and sparing no room for storage, or files or anything of that nature.
Raven turned to me. “You take the upstairs windows. I’ll look downstairs. We’ll meet back at the car.”
I nodded. “Right, fine.”
At this point what I did seemed immaterial. Just getting beyond it and back to the car might be the biggest challenge for me. I paused a moment, uncertain if I wanted to shift into my crow form in front of him, until I got angry with myself and just huffed off in a flap of wings. His soft laughter followed me for a moment.
Later, back at the SUV, I toed the ground while I waited for him. I hadn’t seen anything that would suggest a potential place for either slingshot and spear or files. It had been only bedrooms and a few frosted windows I presumed meant bathrooms. It was down to Raven to see if there was any possible chance that what we were searching for was here.
I tried not to think about all the implications of Raven. Raven with a first letter capitalised and small case raven. Or his knowledge of me, now. All that on top of the “who-the-feck-what-why-how”. Where didn’t matter. That was something.
“Hey,” came a voice.
Startled, I looked up and Raven was standing beside me. Not a whoosh of a wing. Just there he was. I thought of the times people had complained when I’d done that. Paid back now in spades.
“Any luck?” I managed.
Raven nodded thoughtfully. “I think. Maybe. There’s a room that looks to be a study and off of it is another room, I think. At least it seems so from the outside layout of the house and the door going into that section from the room. A storage area that maybe contains a safe, or something like that. The study is possible too. In any case it’s worth taking a closer look.”
I nodded. I had no words.
“You avoided the CCTV cameras, yeah?” asked Raven.
I gave him a “feck off” look.
He raised his hands and grinned. “Sorry, sorry. Just checking. I meant to say it before we split up.”
I nodded and got in the SUV, Raven following suit.
“When do you meet the others?” I asked.
“About a half hour.”
“You don’t have much time. Where are you meeting them?”
That grin came out again. “Here.”
“Here?” I thought and then knew what had to be. “Fine, so. I’ll wait with you. But then you knew that, didn’t you.”
“Let’s say I hoped.”
I nodded and fought the urge to put a hand over his mouth so I couldn’t see that feckin’ grin.