21. RAVEN

21

RAVEN

First thing in the morning, I check the camera on Maddy's porch.

Yesterday, she appeared on the porch before seven in the morning. She wore leggings and a tank top, her hair pulled into a bun on top of her head. No bra. I zoomed in, and sure enough, Maddy was so homey-looking that I wanted to peel that tank and leggings off and make her do naked what she did next—yoga.

After half an hour or so, she went back inside and came out ten minutes later dressed in work clothes.

This morning, I watch the empty porch like a fucking creeper until she steps out. Yoga will be my demise, I swear, because I watch her with a raging hard-on in my boxers as she lies on her back, brings the soles of her feet together with her knees out to the sides, spreading those sweet thighs and making a diamond shape with her legs.

I already jerked off as soon as I woke up and thought about her. And I'm ready to do it again.

Fucking crazy, no?

I check her vitals on my phone. Her heartbeat spikes mostly in the mornings when she does her yoga. I know that she rarely goes off the beaten path—work, then home, then work, sometimes, the Ayana store. Occasionally, she meets up with her Outcast gang. That's at Ty's or Kai's. I even know when she sleeps, and her sleep cycle lately is messed up.

Soon, I will mess it up even more.

I watch her leave for work, except something clicks in my mind, and I remember that she had Sonny overnight. But he hasn't left with her.

I rewind the footage and watch the little trickster leave her house when the camera is still in night-mode. I check the time stamp. 6.20 a.m.

What the hell…

I dial Kai. "Hey, sorry for the early call. Little is with you?"

"No. Maddy called earlier and said he wasn't at her place when she woke up. I checked his GPS tracker. He is at the beach. I called him. He said he is doing a karate class there."

Not at 6.20. a.m. I'll check on that later, because right now, I have to take a ride to Port Mrei.

Skiba and James are already waiting for me at the docks, and when I jump in and we take off, I light a cigarette but instinctively sniff at the familiar smell.

Skiba does too. He meets my eyes. "Da fuck is with this food smell?"

I don't know, but something doesn't sit right with me.

We don't spend much time at the port these days. I mainly ensure that there are no shipments issues and check on the reports about suspicious activities while Skiba and James hang out with the other guards.

An hour later, we take the boat back to Ayana.

When we dock and disembark, I motion for my men to carry on without me, while I sit down on the wooden boards at the bottom of the neighboring pier, behind one of the small yachts, and smoke.

My powerboat is visible between the hulls of two yachts, and I watch it intently as I smoke. My cigarette is finished, my guards are out of sight, the sun is rising, and it's getting hot. But I don't leave. I smoke another one.

Over forty minutes passes before I finally see the movement in my boat.

First, the top of a head with unmistakable messy hair appears above the boat's port. The little stowaway looks around, then crawls out of the boat, jumps onto the pier and, hunching over, tiptoes down toward the sand.

I fucking knew it.

Look at him—he even has a backpack. There goes the mystery of burger-eating monster. He must've hid in the galley.

When I see him starting to walk away, I whistle at him.

He jumps like a rabbit, and his eyes go wide when he notices me. He freezes. Doesn't move. Just stares at me.

I curl my forefinger, beckoning him over.

"How many times have you done this before?" I ask calmly, not getting up, as he hangs his head and digs the pier boards with the toe of his shoe.

"Once," he says, hiding his eyes as he stands in front of me.

"Try again."

I wait.

"Don' know. Five?"

Bullshit . I'm sure hiding in speedboats is not the only way he snuck out of Ayana. "How else do you go to town?"

His eyes dart to me from under his eyebrows, but I wait for his answer. He bites his lip. "In a delivery truck. Main gate."

"How else?"

"Thas' it." He chews on his bottom lip like it's candy.

"Why?"

"I bring food," he says so quietly as if afraid to be punished.

"For who?"

"My friends. Garrick and ‘em all."

"Where?"

"The empty building behind the port."

"Outside the port fence?" That's where Kai and Callie met him first.

He nods.

"How do you get outside?"

"If I have time, I take the rock at the very en', where the's a hole. And I do the seagull kaw-kaw. Or I jus' leave it by the hole. They get it."

"You understand that you jeopardize your safety, right?"

He doesn't say anything, doesn't look at me.

"You know you also let down Kai and Callie and Maddy, who care about you and brought you here so you can be safe, right?"

He swallows hard but doesn't raise his head. His little fingers fidget with his short pockets, and his chest shakes in a tiny sob.

"Do you want to go back, Sonny? To Port Mrei? Because I can take you there. You can stay there if that's what you want."

His eyes snap at me, teary, pleading, and so full of hurt that I feel like the biggest scumbag threatening him.

"No," he says almost in a whisper. "Bu' my friends there. They don' have food."

Fucking dammit!

I study Ayana, majestically resting on a slope covered in lush greenery and patches of flowers, the infinity pools with their waterfalls peacefully spilling off the cliffs. It's not the kid's fault he ended up on the privileged side while his friends live behind a condemned warehouse.

"Sorry," he whispers, wiping the falling tear with his hand.

"Okay. Here's what we are going to do."

I try to sound as calm and friendly as possible. I tell him I must tell Archer because it's a security issue. I have to tell Kai and Callie because they need to have another talk with him.

"You can't go to town anymore, understood?" I say more sternly.

His face falls. "Can I come with you? Jus' sometime? To bring ‘em something?"

I exhale through my lips and get up. "I will talk to Archer about it and see what we can do. But you are not to leave Ayana without permission. Okay?"

He nods.

"Come on."

He follows me obediently across the beach as I glance at his Aquaman backpack. "How many burgers can you fit in this thing?"

He gives me a thievish look as he skips, trying to keep up with me.

I force a smile. "I'm curious. How many?"

"Ten. I can't get more than tha', usually. Bu' also shirts and stuff."

Clothes… For friends…

"How many of them are there?" And just to get him to relax, I ask, "Tell me about Garrick and the others."

And then the little shithead talks. Once he starts, he is spilling all his logistical secrets, and I make mental notes, wondering how feeble the idea of security on this island is. And also the idea of normalcy when over a dozen kids are willing to sneak through the highly secured area to get food.