54 I did what I had to (1/2)

Over the next few days Rayven kept her distance from Hunter. It was hard but it was necessary. She knew better than Hunter that it was necessary for all ties from her old life to die. Otherwise it would be too easy to trace her, the chance of Hunter so easily replacing the woman those men had seen her with wasn't a likelihood at all. It was too suspicious. There was no way he would just pick up another woman so soon after his disappeared. At least not in her mind. It was better to just lay low.

There was also the matter of Charlie. She hadn't seen him since her abduction. He was the only other person who knew that Luke was just another one of her aliases. She would have to avoid him as well. This narrowed her friendships down to one person, Cage. It made sense. He was taught to train her, he knew her altered identity and he wasn't someone who had been overtly close to Luke or Lia, in fact neither of them had really spoken outside training. So it made sense that she would veer toward him, he would keep Hunter updated and at the same time keep Hunter and Charlie out of the line of fire. It was a risky gamble, and would put him in the cross hairs, but she had to do it.

He was the only one that made sense, a high profile assassin like Rayven wouldn't waste her time on the lowlifes in the club. They hadn't been worthy of Luke, how could they possibly measure up to Rayven.

In the meantime, while she avoided Hunter and Charlie, she began to gradually gravitate toward Cage. She just hoped Hunter wouldn't hate her for it.

It was one of these days while she was hanging out over by the office, Cage at her side that she noticed Charlie walked in. Silently, she thanked god for her make up, underneath that tan she had turned white. Calming herself she nodded in his direction, whispering to Cage with a mildly contained sense of aversion as she did, ”Whose this punk? What's his problem?”

Cage looked over at her and couldn't help but hide his sense of pride in her acting, she was right into her role and smirked. ”That is Charlie, he used to be friends with that punk we got rid of last week. One of his casualties.”

Rayven smirked, the expression cold and aloof, ”What kind of man allows himself to get caught up in something like that? He made himself a target if you ask me..” She intentionally allowed the sentence to fall off as Charlie climbed the stairs to Hunter's office. Judging by the look on his face, this would not be good.

Charlie took one glance at the new girl and shook his head. The Soldiers were allowing anyone in it seemed. He completely ignored her until he seen Cage at her side and lifted a brow. Since when did Cage have a woman?

Rayven smirked noticing Charlie's line of sight and reached over so that her chin was resting on Cage's shoulder. ”Isn't that cute. The little one is jealous I think Cage” she taunted. Cage narrowed his eyes a little but shrugged it off. He would talk to her about this display later. His biggest worry was that Hunter would see, Charlie was a small fry in comparison.

Charlie shook his head and stormed into Hunter's office, slamming the door behind him.

”Hunter!!” he yelled, loud enough that it drew the attention of everyone in the club, in spite of the closed door. ”Just what the actual f*ck did you do! Where the f*ck is Luke, you better tell me now!”

Hunter stood there sizing the man up as he did. He had two options he could tell him the truth, or he could tell him the lie. He opted instead for the grey area, the middle between the two options. Pretending to ignore the question he pulled out a folder and cleared his throat. The pretext was obvious, anyone watching would assume he was being given an assignment. In the meantime, he flipped the folder back to him and merely said ”I did what I had to do, to protect the club”. On the paper in front him Luke could clearly read three words 'She is safe'. It was all Charlie needed to know, and while Luke stared blankly at the paper Hunter rose from his seat and carried on the charade.

”Luke was a loose cannon. He endangered your life, and he endangered members of the club. He challenged my authority and was drawing too much attention. So I took care of him, you got a problem with that?”