With the Colonel’s Help: A Pride and Prejudice Variation

It was a couple of minutes before one when Raven and Charleigh stepped out of the café.

My insides stirred, a whipping of need to get back to my girl.

I was so fucked.

So fucked considering I hadn’t seen her in all of fifty minutes, and I was already sick to my stomach at missing her.

She and Charleigh were huggin’ it out in front of the restaurant.

The two friends who’d become sisters clinging to each other in the middle of the sidewalk as they whispered something under their breaths.

Could feel the emotion radiate from all the way over there. It clutched my chest in a grip of thankfulness that Raven had someone like Charleigh.

Someone to confide in.

Someone to trust.

Knew their relationship had changed both of them, their belief and encouragement in each other pushing the other toward their goals and dreams.

Didn’t mind that I had likely been the main topic of conversation during their lunch, either. Without question, Charleigh had Raven’s back, no matter what, even when her heart belonged to the man who was going to hate me when he found out.

He would.

The oath I’d made him all those years ago swirled through my head.

Raven might have liked to believe that he would see through it to support us, but she didn’t know the full extent of the promise I’d made to her brother.

But I wouldn’t be so much a coward that I would keep it from him for long. No chance I would keep the woman like a dirty secret.

Charleigh pulled away, then turned and started up the sidewalk. Raven watched her go, her expression filling with a grin when she lifted her phone to look at it.

I started to round the counter so I could meet her at the door, just needing to get her back into my arms, when I felt it.

A change.

An omen that blustered through the atmosphere.

The sense that I always got when something bad was about to go down.

Nothing but a slick of wickedness.

A thick stench that coated the oxygen and turned it evil.

I went clamoring for the door, shouting her name from within the confines of Moonflower.

“Raven!”

But it was too fucking late.

Too fuckin’ late because some vile motherfucker came from out of nowhere. Manifesting from thin air, emerging from the crowd in a flurry of depravity.

Panic surged through me when I saw he had a brick in his hand.

My hand was on the knob at the same second as Raven whirled his direction.

Sensing it, too.

No, Raven, no.

My heart leaped to my throat, and I ripped open the door and tore out onto the sidewalk at the same time as he brought the brick down hard and struck her on the side of her head.

She didn’t scream or fight.

She didn’t do anything but crumble to the ground.

“Raven. No!”

Fury and fear bashed at my senses, hate careening through my veins and sickness churning in my guts.

No. Raven. No.

Head spinning, I darted out into the road. Horns blared and people shouted their disdain. I just dodged the cars that screeched to a stop to avoid hitting me, zigzagging through the chaos as I raced for her.

Confusion bound, and I could hear the shouts of concerned bystanders, though it was a dull drone that could barely penetrate the tumult that cluttered my mind.

Second my feet hit the sidewalk, I was shoving people aside so I could get to her.

Anguish cut through the middle of me when I saw her. Cleaving and flaying as I looked down at this beautiful girl with blood pouring out of a wound on the side of her head.

I dropped to my knees, my hands shaking out of control as I brushed back her hair so I could get a better look at where she’d been hit. “Oh God, Raven.”

Feet came clattering up from behind, and Charleigh was on her knees beside me, horror in her expression as she began to inspect her.

“Is she okay?” I grated through the clawing pain.

Charleigh’s hands were much surer than mine, going to her wrist to check her pulse and then brushing her hair back so she could inspect the wound.

“She was knocked out. The cut is probably less of an issue than the concussion she likely has.”

Raven moaned, and I nearly wept with the surge of relief that slammed me.

She blinked those inky eyes at me in confusion.

“Baby.” It gushed out of me, then I turned to Charleigh, my voice urgent. “Stay with her. Need to find this asshole.”

I jumped to my feet and started pushing back through the crowd. The bastard had fled in the direction that he’d come from, disappearing around the corner of the building.

Motherfucker was dead.

Bloodlust reeled through my being, violence twitching in my hands.

I ran that way, my boots thundering against the sidewalk as I followed the same path he’d taken. My heart beat a manic rate, so fuckin’ heavy that I could hear the thud of it in my ears. A tempo that screamed that I had to find this piece of shit. End the threat that had been made.

I made it to a T where the alley met the backside of the buildings, a long chain-link fence boxing the area in.

My attention darted from one direction to the other, trying to discern which way this pussy might have gone.

A forest rose high beyond the fence.

Monster had left no trace, no indication of which way he’d went.

The alleys were basically empty except for a few cars parked at odd angles behind the back entrances to the buildings.

There was no movement.

No sign that he’d escaped down either direction.

Frustration blustered. I couldn’t give up. I ran for the fence that was about seven-feet high, and I jumped up and hauled myself over the top.

I dropped to my feet on the other side. My attention raced, delving through the thick foliage and leaves, looking for any suggestion that someone had come this way.

I could see that the wild grasses had been freshly trampled, and I took off, following the same path. My breaths grew heavy and harsh as I raced through the woods, ducking and diving beneath the branches, smacking the ones that whipped into my face out of the way.

A frantic desperation lit inside me.

The outright need to find who would dare harm Raven.

The trail curved right, and I increased my pace as I wound around a giant tree. Then I skidded to a stop when I found the tracks had shifted.

Dirt bike tracks.

My hands fell to my knees as I bent in two.

Heaving for air.

“Fuck,” I spat, whirling around like I was going to catch the motherfucker, all while knowing he was already long gone.

“Goddamn it.”

Gulping for oxygen, I turned around and ran back through the woods, no chance of catching up to him.

The aggression riding my being didn’t abate as I made it back to the fence and threw myself over it.

The frenzy still buzzed through me in electric shocks as I flew around the building to where a crush of people were huddled around Raven.

It looked like every person on the block had piled out of the restaurants and stores and circled her.

I shoved back through, and I nearly crumpled in a ball when those big raven eyes blinked up at me. Arrows that impaled. They dropped me straight to my knees, and I took her face in my hands. “Fuck, Raven, are you okay?”

She nodded against my palms. “I think so.”

“I’m so sorry. So fuckin’ sorry I let him get to you.” Guilt ate up my insides.

“It isn’t your fault.”

“Should’ve been nearby. Right next to you.”

Only my fiery little vixen would scoff in a situation like this. “I’m the one who told you I wanted some privacy with Charleigh.”

“Yeah, well I shouldn’t have given it to you when I knew someone was after you,” I murmured quiet enough that the spectators wouldn’t be able to hear.

She looked at me, the question clear. My head barely shook, a silent confession that I’d failed her in that, too.

Bastard had gotten away, and I wasn’t any closer to having an idea of who it was.

“It seems like maybe it wasn’t as bad as it looked,” Charleigh cut in, no doubt trying to assuage the regret that flayed me wide. “But we do need to get her in to see the doctor to get her checked out to make sure.”

It was right then that the blare of sirens whirred in the distance.

Dread sank to the pit of my stomach. Someone had called 9-1-1.

But why wouldn’t they?

They were only doing what was right.

Helping.

They didn’t have the first clue that this all had to remain under wraps, which really pissed me off, too, the fact that Raven was trapped in this life that put a target on her head.

With the bleep of a siren, an ambulance came to a stop in the middle of the road with its lights flashing. Carefully, I picked Raven up and nestled her in my arms, one under her back and the other under her legs.

I carried her toward the tail of the ambulance, shouting at the paramedic who hopped out.

“We need to get her to Dr. Reynolds’ office.”

He started to open his mouth to tell me why it was against protocol, but I cut him off, grinding out, “You can check her inside the truck.” My tone told him there was no room for argument. “But right now, you’re going to get her to Dr. Reynolds’ office and you’re going to do it fast.”

I wound around him and climbed into the ambulance with Raven still in my arms. I sat down on the bench, holding her tight against my chest while the paramedics piled back in.

Charleigh hopped in, too.

Casting me a glance of worry as the siren blipped again before we took off down the street.

“CT scan is clear.”

My head rocked back against the white brick wall as Dr. Reynolds delivered the news that we’d been waiting on for the last half hour.

He’d had her taken to the small local emergency room in the building next to his to get the scan.

“Thank God,” I muttered as I scrubbed both palms over my face like it might be enough to eradicate the worry that had held me hostage.

Guilt constricting.

Nerves going haywire that I might have allowed Raven to have been severely injured.

A gush of air heaved from River’s lungs. “Fuck. You sure she’s okay?”

“The CT scan showed no brain swelling or trauma. It was likely it was the pain of the impact that brought her down and not a true unconscious event. There is no evidence of a concussion, but there is still a chance she sustained a mild one, so I expect a full recovery without any issues. Two stitches in her head are all it took to close the wound. She should be ready to go home soon.”

Without saying anything else, Dr. Reynolds dipped back out of the private office where River and I were waiting.

River nodded, relief and rage in his stance as he stared at the linoleum floor. “Can’t believe this monster, coming up on an innocent like that. In the middle of the fuckin’ day on a busy street.”

I pushed to standing, knees wobbling beneath me with the amount of shame that bore down on my shoulders. “So damned sorry.”

A vicious frown carved into his face as he turned his attention to me. “Not your fault, man.”

“Should’ve been there.” I could say it a billion times, but it wouldn’t rewind time. It wouldn’t take me back so I could stop it from happening.

“You were there,” he said, giving me his belief and encouragement.

It only made me feel insurmountably worse. Guilt eating me alive at the secret I was keeping. At the betrayal I was committing.

“Should have gotten to her before it happened.” My throat was so thick I could barely get the words out.

River took the two steps required to bring him to standing in front of me, and he reached out and squeezed my shoulder as he stared at me in emphasis. Eyes that were the same color as his sister’s boiled like black, menacing flames. “We’re going to get this fucker. We’re going to hunt him down and make sure he doesn’t have the capacity to ever hurt her again.”

My hands curled into fists.

Yeah, this bastard was going down.

Before I could say anything else, the door nudged open, and Charleigh poked her head through. “Raven is ready for you both to come back in.”

River tipped his head at me and immediately strode for the door. He pushed his face into Charleigh’s cheek when he got to her, breathing her in like it was the only thing that tethered him to sanity.

Raven was the only thing that did it for me.

Seeing her sitting up on the examination table when we pushed into the room, still wearing a medical gown, her hair tied back and better exposing the spot where she’d gotten two stitches at the very farthest edge of her left forehead.

“Raven,” River wheezed, going straight to her side.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“Can’t believe this is happening. Have done everything…everything in my power to make sure you aren’t touched by the choices we’ve made.” His apology rasped in the tense air.

“We don’t know that it has anything to do with Sanctum.” She kept her voice low, her brow knitting in emphasis. “And even if it does, I’m just as much a part of Sanctum as the rest of you.”

Those eyes met mine from over her brother’s shoulder.

It was the last place I wanted her. In the middle of our mess. And I was only dragging her deeper into the depths of my own depravity.

A strained sigh rippled out of River. “Shouldn’t be that way. Only thing I’ve ever wanted is for you to be safe.”

His sentiments echoed mine. Of course, that’s what we both wanted. Except he didn’t have the first clue how deep that ambition really went. How I felt like my insides were being shredded, thinking of her in the line of fire, all while knowing it would devastate me—leave me in complete ruins—if I were to have to let her go.

Raven glanced at Charleigh, then her brother, before her attention hooked on me.

“We all have to make choices for ourselves about where we belong. About what is most important to us and what risks we’re willing to take. And I choose to be here. With you all. As a part of you. It has always been worth the risk to me, and it always will be.”

It was delivered with quiet, determined strength.noveldrama

A hushed ferocity.

Beautiful, brave girl.

My throat trembled as I took the silent message she was delivering.

River let go of a disbelieving laugh. “Guess it’s in your blood, huh?”

“Pumping strong right through the middle of me.”

His amusement was short-lived, no one quite sure how to traverse this disaster. “What do you want to do from here, Raven?”

And that bottomless gaze was on me when she murmured, “I want to go home…with Otto.”

I didn’t know if it was the way she said it. What he heard or felt or sensed.

But there was no missing the suspicion carved deep in River’s brow when he swiveled to look at me.

We were both held in it for an eternal beat.

Then he blinked it away like he refused to believe something so foul in me.