Page 88 of The Devil’s Feather

I finally croaked out, “I’m ok.”

“Are you sure?” He brushed my sweaty hair from my face, peering deeply into my eyes as though searching for some horrible truth. “You can tell me, aşkim. My darling, my love. Please, let me help you.”

“S’true. Jus’ scared.” Why was my speech so slurred? My vision fuzzed around the edges too.

Rafael kissed my forehead. “I never should have let you go out by yourself after what happened at Telve. This is my fault.” His eyes lit with fury. “I will kill the motherfuckers who laid a hand on you.”

Bathed, fed, watered, coffee’d, and summarily burrito’d, I watched Rafael pace from inside my blanket mound on the sofa. He’d wanted to take me to the ER, but I wasn’t hurt, just terrified. It took me about an hour to stop shaking, even with a Xanax.

I’d been dumped only a few blocks from the abduction site. Rafael had found my phone—now with a cracked screen courtesy of those assholes—because my watch had pinged his phone to report a hard fall. It had also dialed 911. I hadn’t even known I had that setting. Naturally, someone had stolen the watch in the interim. It was a small SF miracle that my phone was still there.

Cops finally showed up to take my statement almost an hour after Rafael found me. I didn’t remember much of note, and they didn’t seem particularly interested.

One asshole pig had said, “Probably just some jealous ex-boyfriend trying to scare you.”

Rafael immediately bowed up, making the cops nervous. I’d begged him to take me home. The last thing I needed was for him to catch a charge for assaulting a police officer and land in jail after all that. Thank god his worry over me distracted him away from his anger.

That didn’t last. On the drive home, he got the chief of police on the phone and cussed the poor lady out for the officers’ incompetence. I barely registered his blistering words, only the bass growl. He’d been on edge ever since.

“How did you find me before the cops did?” I freed one arm to reach my coffee mug.

Rafael paused, an unreadable expression flitting across his face. “I put an AirTag in your wallet.”

I frowned. “Why?” The last thing I needed was more surprises.

He raised supplicating hands. “You kept misplacing it. Sorry, I should have told you. Now I look like a stalker.”

My heart rate slowed. “Oh. Ok, that’s fair. I do lose it a lot.” The implications loomed, but I didn’t have the energy to pick them apart. A neat little compartmentalization for you. “I don’t understand why they didn’t take it too.”

“No point if they were not trying to rob you. That stuff is too traceable. I would not have known anything was amiss until much later if not for this.” His eyes darkened like a hurricane on the horizon, jaw muscles twitching. Rafael pulled out his phone and thrust it at me, a ferocious scowl distorting his face. “I looked for the AirTag the second I saw this.”

The text was from a blocked number.

See what happens when you fuck with me? I won’t be so sweet to your little punching bag next time.

xx Dollface

“They said ‘Dollface’, too.” My stomach dropped into my ass for the second time that day. “I’m guessing that’s⁠—”

“Molly Fucking Lively.” Rafael snarled her name like a curse. He typed something angrily into his phone. “Started calling herself ‘Dollface’ when I refused to.”

I sat up. “Please don’t retaliate.”

His nostrils flared with the effort to keep his breathing even. “You do not understand. If I do nothing to stop this, Molly will continue escalating. I cannot risk your safety again, Elaine.”

“So we tell the cops she was behind it and let them handle it.”

“With what? Circumstantial evidence?” Rafael snorted. “Who do you think owns the cops? Dear old daddy Benjamin Lively. All the pigs in the entire state are in his pocket. He’s paid out millions to cover up all his family scandals. If you think Molly is bad, look up her brother, Johnny. He has probably set a world record in most charges dropped.” A sigh hissed out through his clenched teeth. “You saw how those officers reacted to a goddamn abduction in broad daylight. I am done with the fuck around phase. Time to find out.”

Stone-faced, he disappeared into the guest closet.

All my instincts went on red alert, and a chill crept through my insides. “Rafael, you had better not be getting a gun.”

“Mind your business,” he growled, emerging into the kitchen.

“You are my business!” I scrambled out of my blankets and blocked his path to the front door. The Xanax made it hard to enunciate, but my meaning was clear. “If you come at Molly with a gun, the cops will shoot you in the fucking head, and I will never forgive you for dying on me in such a macho bullshit way. Don’t you fucking dare.”

His nostrils flared, and the muscles in his jaws feathered.