Betraying Innocence (16 page)

Melting in her own flesh, Ana shifted, moving forward rather than back. There was a spark of satisfaction in the surprise that flickered behind his eyes at her bold move.

“But I already—”

His hand closed over her mouth, his hold as tense as the fear in his eyes. “Stop!”

She tugged his hand away. “Rafe, let me—”

“No!” His growl was vicious and raw with panic. He stumbled back from her bed. “
You have no idea what you’re saying.” He straightened, his face a mask of carved ice. “Call me when you want a quick roll between the sheets. Otherwise, stay away.”

He
turned away from her and stalked across the room. He paused at the door. Three heartbeats later she heard a sound, a cross between a growl and a sigh, then he was gone and she was alone in her room with her demons and now a deep ache in her chest.

Rafe

Rafe left Ana’s hospital room without a single glance in her direction, and still the hurt behind her big, green eyes followed him all the way down the elevator to the main floor. He kicked an empty soda can across the parking garage. It rolled and scuttled into the splotchy darkness. The noise was tumultuous, echoing around him like thunder. He cursed himself again and again, ripping hairs from their roots with every infuriated thrust of his hand.

“Ugh!” He kicked the can again, sending it sailing
before smacking into the driver’s side door of a red Suburban. Its alarm flickered in warning.

He’d done it for her own good. She had no idea what she was talking about, no id
ea what a danger he was to her, and not just him but the entire town. He was protecting her. He had to believe he was. Otherwise the guilt of his lies hurting her would be just another notch on his tombstone and he was pretty sure there was no more rock to notch.

He scrubbed a hand over his face.

No. It hadn’t been a lie, not entirely. He
had
done her a favor. A girl like her didn’t need the bullshit and baggage that came along with a guy like him. He wasn’t Chipawaha Creek’s golden boy like Vincent Andrews. He wasn’t the mayor’s son. He wasn’t the quarterback of the football team, or captain of the swim team, or even an all-around good guy. What he was, was the son of a murderer who was rotting in jail, a guy who everyone said he looked just like. He’d been marked for something he couldn’t control since the day of his birth and that was a curse he couldn’t bring on anyone, especially not someone like Ana. It killed him, but he would rather she turned her back on him now than let himself fall too deep and her wind up hating him. The good folks of Chipawaha Creek were not known for their mercy, or their kindness towards those they found undesirable. His mother stayed because it was her home and he stayed because she was his only family. Her and the twins. He had no one else. They were the only good thing about him.

Then there was Ana. He didn’t even know what to make of her. One minute she was giving him a tongue lashing that left welts and then she was smiling at him with those big eyes and full lips. Damn it if that didn’t mess with a guy’s head. He wasn’t entirely certain when exactly she had wormed her way under his skin, but he knew he was in trouble when every other girl he
came across seemed remarkably less appealing when compared to her. It was kind of like picking broccoli when you could have a huge New York sirloin steak, and he’d had every intention of taking a bite, taking several bites and then licking his fingers and plate clean, but Ana wasn’t the kind of girl you took behind a clump of bushes. She was the full-on commitment kind of girl. Not because her father scared the crap out of him, but because she deserved nothing less and
that
scared him like her father never could.

No. Ana was better off with someone
who wouldn’t earn her dirty sidelong glances or whispered words behind cupped hands. She deserved someone like Vinny. Rafe was pretty certain she wouldn’t have crawled half under the dashboard had it been Vinny dropping her off at school. Why would she?

Rolling in a thundercloud of anger, resentment and pain, Rafe reached his car and threw himself behind the wheel. He left a cloud of burn
ed rubber and smoke in the rearview mirror as he shot out of the parking garage and into the rising dawn.

The lights were off when he reached the house, but that didn’t mean anyone was actually sleeping, not in the Ramirez house.

He killed the engine on the Firebird and shuffled up to the porch. He hesitated a second before pushing open the door and stepping into the foyer.

“Where have you been?”

There was no time to wince or curse when the door behind him slammed shut. Rafe didn’t even bother turning around.

“Out,” he muttered, keeping his head down, his tone flat.

“It’s four in the morning, boy. Where in the world could you possibly have gone off to at that hour?” Heavy, army-issued boots pounded against hardwood as the shadow lurking behind the door stomped around to stand in front of Rafe. All Rafe saw were the slits of steel glinting across the toes. “The school phoned. Said you missed classes, again. You had your mom worried sick. Not that you care I’m sure. Just like your old man.”

The keys cut into
Rafe’s hands as he balled his fists, but he would never dare use them, not on this man, not if he wanted to live to see another day. Years of experience taught him to take what he was given and keep his mouth shut.

“Are you listening, boy?”
A hard shove in the shoulder rocked Rafe back a step, but he kept his ground. “Where were you?”

“Out,” he said again.

“With a girl?” There was a cold hint of mockery in the question, like he didn’t expect a good for nothing brat like Rafe to get anywhere near a decent girl. And he was right. After all, wasn’t that why he kept Ana away? “She must be something hideous if you refuse to bring her around here, or is she only good for one thing?”

“Don’t!” He couldn’t clench his teeth together tight enough to trap the single word that snarled out, carving into the silence, the darkness
, and striking the man in front of him.

Dan jerked back as if
physically struck. “What did you say to me, boy?”

Rafe raised his head, his nostrils flaring, his eyes flashing between the long fringes falling into his face as he glared into the face of his stepfather. “Don’t talk about her.”

For a moment, Dan really looked stunned, like a rock had suddenly decided to speak to him. Then, his pudgy face split into a malicious grin that only made Rafe’s fists
beg
to punch on.

“Oh ho!” Dan barked, rocking back on his heels. “Look who’s grown a pair! Little snot!”
The shove sent Rafe crashing into the door. “Think because you’ve had a few girls you’re some kind of man? You’re not a man. You’re a weak, pathetic pile of shit that I scrapped off my boots. If it weren’t for your ma, I would ship you off to military school where the only lovin’ you’d get is in the locker room. They don’t put up with pretty boys there. Do you know the first thing they’d do? Huh?” He didn’t wait for Rafe to answer. His long, fat fingers fisted in Rafe’s hair, yanking it back until roots were torn from his scalp and tears stung his eyes. The back of his head slammed into the door. “They’d cut off all that pretty hair!”

Blood slicked the keys in his hand. Rafe tightened his fingers around the jagged teeth, redirecting the pain in his head down to his hand. He gritted his teeth, refusing to make a sound.

Dan released him with another push that drove Rafe’s shoulder blades into the rectangular carvings in the door. “Get on upstairs before you wake Gabby and Mike, you worthless prick.”

Rafe didn’t move. He waited until Dan had turned away and climbed the stairs before
he pushed away from the door and rubbed a hand over the throbbing spot at the top of his head. His fingers came away wet, but he wiped them on his jeans.

Dan was a big man, six-
three with a body like a two-ton truck. He’d been in the army before getting wounded in an ambush. Rafe’s mom hadn’t been married to him then. She’d run into him while shopping and somehow, instead of groceries, she’d brought him home and he’d never left. Nine months later, Gabriella and Michael were born. If it weren’t for his mom and his siblings, Rafe would have left a long time ago, but he couldn’t be sure Dan wouldn’t start taking his mean out on them. So long as Rafe stayed, Dan had an outlet for his hate and it stayed away from the people Rafe loved.

“Ray?” His mom, a tiny thing with a cloud of blonde ringlets and big brown eyes like a porcelain doll, appeared at the top of the stairs clad in her threadbare robe. The sickly light above her head gave her alabaster complexion a dull glow that emphasized the worry in her eyes. Rafe hated that he’d been the one to put it there.

“Hey, Mom,” he murmured, shuffling to stand at the foot of the stairs.

She hurried
down the steps bare foot. “Did you just get home?”

Rafe nodded.

She stopped at the bottom step, one step higher than him, and was still forced to tip her head back to peer into his face. “Is everything all right? Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine.”

Her fingers were cold touching his cheek. “Come on then. You must be hungry. You missed supper.”

He stopped her when she started towards the kitchen. “I can get something. Go back to bed.”

The lines around her eyes crinkled when she smiled.  “You know I don’t mind. I love taking care of my big boy.”

Although being called a
big boy
made him want to wince and fidget, he didn’t correct her.

“I’m fine!” he brushed a kiss to her forehead. “Go to sleep. I’m not hungry anyway. I grabbed something with some friends earlier.”

She took his hand and squeezed his fingers. “You know I like that you have friends, but please don’t stay out so late. Four AM is very late.”

He nodded, promised that he wouldn’t and pushed her off to bed. He waited until he heard her bedroom door shut before shuffling into the kitchen. The chicken was cold, but he scarfed it down quickly over the sink, gulped down a glass of milk and went to bed, wondering if he would see Ana at school in the morning.

Ana

Her mom was there the next morning, dressed in gray slacks and a silk blouse, her
casual
wear. Her heels clacked like gunshots all the way down the hall, signaling Ana of her arrival long before she actually appeared in the doorway.

“Morning,” she said, smiling. “Did you sleep all right?”

Still in the same position as Rafe had left her only hours before, Ana nodded, forcing her mouth to twist into a smile. “Like a rock.”

Pleased, Mom stepped deeper into the room and crossed to the bed, a plastic bag in hand. “I brought you some clothes. The nurse said you can leave any time you want. Do you feel well enough?”

Ana was already pushing back blankets and throwing her legs over the mattress. “I’m ready.”

Mom’s hand rested lightly on her shoulder. “Wait!” she said, chuckling. “They still have to remove the IV
.”

Right. She’d forgotten about that. Dejected, she sunk back on the mattress, legs dangling
over the edge.

Mom pulled a chair to the bed and lowered herself into it
. “So I was thinking we could get some breakfast and catch up. What do you think? We haven’t had a mother-daughter day in a little while. And maybe, if you’re feeling all right, we could drive around town, maybe see the shops?”

Ana looked up at her, brows creased. “What about school?” She was pretty certain it was
still only Wednesday.

Mom waved a dainty hand dismissively. “
No one expects you to go straight back. I think they’ll understand, given the circumstances.”

Well, Ana wasn’t going to argue. After Rafe had left, after spending several minutes struggling between rage and humiliation and pain, Ana had decided she didn’t want to face the people at school, not so soon after what happened. She had hoped to talk her parents into letting her skip a few days,
desperate enough to use her head injury as leverage. Not too many days, just until some of the heat calmed down. She had already accepted the fact that she would forever be known as the weird, new girl who saw a demon in Chem class.

“Shopping sounds nice,” she mumbled, not really feeling like doing anything.

Her mom beamed.

“But what about your meeting
s?” she asked.

Mom did the fluttering of her hand thing again, rolling her eyes. “Those idiots can handle things
for a few days without me. Lord knows, they could learn a thing or two from their mistakes without me holding their hands.”

That statement was so uncharacteristic that Ana saw right through it.

“Mom, you don’t have to do this. I know—”

Mom’s hand came up, halting her. “This is more important.”

The nurse arrived and Ana was distracted by the IV being pulled out and her discharge papers being signed. She didn’t think about her mother’s concern until they were on their way to the car.