Raine Falling (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club) (2 page)

CHAPTER 3

T
wo big men filled the dirty, little kitchen. One had a gun closely trained on my sister and Jamie.

“You here why?” A third man I hadn’t noticed pulled himself away from the filthy kitchen counter and walked towards me.

“My name is Raine,” I stammered. “Claire is my sister.”

My palms were sweating and the fragile hold I had on the paper grocery bag started to slip. The bag broke, and the groceries fell heavily on the floor. Apples were rolling everywhere. I followed them with my eyes, trying to gain composure.

The man standing in front of me was the biggest man I had ever seen. Everything about him was frightening. He stood well over six feet tall and had massive arms covered with big tribal tattoos. His skin was the color of sun-kissed copper, and he had jet-black, tousled hair. He had a long, straight nose. His perfect white teeth looked like they were ready to bite me. His eyes were so dark, I couldn’t see his pupils. The outlaw was dressed all in black. Three little silver hoops dangled from his right ear.

He continued to walk slowly towards me with his big arms crossed against his chest. When he examined me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, I felt myself shrinking back. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him for very long. I forced myself to look past him into the dark night, and I saw myself in the reflection. From the top of my ponytailed head to the bottom of my running shoes, I looked small and scared in my too-big scrubs. I had just finished my last class of nursing school. As of that very minute, I was a licensed practical nurse specializing in pediatrics. The ceremony itself would be in two weeks. But really I was done, and I had wanted to celebrate early with Claire.

I broke out of my trance and pulled myself back when I felt him reach out and grab my arms. He roughly turned my palms up and stretched out each arm looking for marks. Not finding any, he pushed me away from him and snorted.

“You’re clean,” he said.

Not sure if this was a question or not I nodded
yes.

“Why are you here?” I asked him.

He turned to look at my sister, who was still hysterical on the floor.

“Ask her.”

“What have you done?” My hands were at my sides now and balled up so tight I could feel my nails cutting into the palms of my hands. My sister’s eyes were glazed over with fright, and I saw that the absolute piece of shit had a tight hold on her.

“None of your fucking business, bitch.” That was Jamie.

I ignored him and walked quickly to put myself between the gun and my sister. I knelt down beside her and smoothed the sweaty matted hair off her face.

“Claire, please
please
tell me.
What have you done?”

She wouldn’t look at me. When I looked up, I saw three really big badass bikers staring down at the cleavage left open by my oversized scrubs. A giant of a man reached over and hauled me up.

“Your sister and her jacked-up boyfriend have a real problem, sugar.”

The hold he had on me tightened. I glanced down quickly at the panther tattoo that ran the length of his arm. The front of his hair was pulled back into a ponytail, while the rest fell loosely on his shoulders. He had bright white teeth, a tanned face, and a two-day stubble.

I took a deep breath and nodded. Maybe this could be fixed.

“How much?”

“Thirty large.” He smiled.

I felt the legs go out from under me. Not because I couldn’t fix this, but because I could. I had saved every single dime I had ever been given or earned since the age of ten years old. I had exactly thirty-one thousand dollars saved. A small fortune to me. It was everything we hadn’t done. It was everything we hadn’t had. It had always fallen on me, and I had always stepped up. I lived in a tiny house that we had inherited. I never went out. I drove a crappy car and spent next to nothing on myself. I kept a close watch on that money, all the while planning on it going towards something better for the two of us. If saving Claire’s life was the “something better,” I was good with that.

“I’m good for it.” I looked him in the eye.

I heard someone snort in the background and amber eyes skimmed my body. Then he reached out with his hand and
touched me.
Two fingers trailed a slow path from the hollow of my throat, over my scrubs, and in between my breasts to my belly button. I held my breath and watched him as his eyes followed the path he made and then below.

He looked up and smirked. “Darlin’, there’s no doubt in my mind that
you’re good
for it.
”

I pulled my arm out of his death grip and said, “I can get you that money.”

Then I did a mental calculation in my head. Today was Monday.

“I need five days, and you’ll have your money.”

“Banks are open tomorrow, darling,” said a voice so close to me it made me jump. It was the badass in black.

I looked him straight in the eye. “It’s not in the bank.”

He arched his eyebrow.

I hurriedly added, “It’s my money. I’m not doing anything illegal to get it. Don’t worry.”

I heard some chuckles and looked around the room to a sea of black leather and grins.

“
Darlin’.” Badass grinned. Then he pulled his hand through his hair, cocked his eyebrow at me, and continued, “I don’t care if you do blow jobs at a thousand a head to get it.”

That was accompanied by a lot of hoots and hollers. Then it started.

“I would be in a grand for that. Look at that sweet mouth.”

“Fifteen here, if you include anal.”

“Hell, I’ll give her five hundred bucks right now just to show me her tits.”

I ignored them and reminded myself that I was my mother’s daughter. I looked Badass right in the eye. He waited until the hilarity died down.

“Why can’t you get it now?” He wasn’t smiling any longer.

I took a deep breath because I didn’t like thinking about Gino.

“Because it’s hidden in a strong box in my ex’s garage along with a lot of other stuff that I left when I
left.
”

“You left thirty grand in your ex’s garage?”

I nodded. “I had to leave everything. He doesn’t know it’s there.”

“How long ago?”

“About four months.”

“How do you know he hasn’t found it yet?”

“Because he would have found me and killed me for hiding it from him.” That was what a horror Gino had become. It was the straight-up truth.

His eyebrow went up.

“But it’s your money? Not that I give a shit. Just trying to sort this out.”

“Yeah, it’s my money.”

“Go get the shit now, Diego?” asked a man from the sidelines.

So the man in black was Diego.

I shook my head. I was seriously afraid of that lunatic Gino.

“No!” Claire called out. Everyone turned their eyes to my little sister.

“No?” said Diego.

Claire turned her big, beautiful blue eyes to him and said, “Then he’ll find out where she is, and when you’re gone, he’ll come back and hurt her.”

“What do you mean, hurt her?” Diego was staring at Claire.

I stood very still watching Claire.

“He broke her nose before, and . . .”

“And?” Diego was looking at both of us now.

I held my breath and shook my head slightly in warning to Claire.

“And . . .” Claire had paled looking at my face.

“Yeah and what?”

I pulled my arms tight around me. Praying to sweet Jesus she wouldn’t finish that sentence.

“. . . some other bad stuff,” she ended weakly with her eyes on me.

I closed my own eyes and began to breathe again.

“He took a really rough turn on the bitch,” Jamie croaked out gleefully. He was a guy who never missed an opportunity to capitalize on shame.

Diego’s eyes squinted and I felt them on me.

“He raped you? That sonofabitch
raped
you?”

All eyes on me then. I felt myself flush and go dizzy. Faces started swirling around in a haze. My head pounded and my lungs hurt. I had stopped breathing.

“Did he?” Diego was moving towards me.

I couldn’t seem to catch my breath.

“Did he rape you?” He was closing in on me.

Breathe, Raine. Just breathe, I told myself. Inhale. Exhale. One . . . two . . . three . . .

“Raine, did he?” Diego was still moving in.

Suddenly a burst of air escaped my lungs in a giant whoosh, and I had to steady myself with the force.

“No! Of course not.” All that air, and all I could manage was a squeak.

All eyes still on me. I thought I might throw up and briefly wondered how Diego’s badass biker boots would look with puke all over them. The thought made my stomach turn one more time.

I desperately wanted this conversation to move on. But not in the direction it took.

Jamie chimed in from his throne on the floor, “Why would I say it if it ain’t true?” He was sniveling from his place in the corner.

“Because you’re a desperate jacked-up ass who would say anything and do anything.” I made myself busy looking for my pocketbook and found it on the counter. I had recovered my ability to inhale and exhale and was taking full advantage of the moment.

Feeling those eyes still upon me, I was fighting against a full-blown anxiety attack. I needed to calm down if I wanted to get us out of this one. And I needed to get us out of there fast. I dug into my pocketbook and my hand came out shaking.

I handed Diego my license and said, “This is where I live. You come by Friday night and I’ll have your money. Or you can tell me where and I’ll bring it to you.”

He looked at me like I was from another planet. “Seriously?”

I realized how absurd that was.

“At least you know I’m not going to be hiding from you. My sister and I will both be there. If we don’t come up with the money, you can kill us then.” I said it more casually than I felt. I took my license back from him and put it in my bag.

“Killing ain’t the first thing I’d have in mind.” He was staring at my breasts. And he was doing it to make me uncomfortable. Then he grinned. Asshole.

I was a long way from smiling. “If I don’t have your money, you do whatever you want to me. But my sister leaves with me now.”

I held out my hand. “Agreed?”

He took my cold hand. He held it too tightly in his man paw and said, “Agreed. We recoup our green and it’s all good. That’s unless we find the little missus and her man are in it up to their ears. Then the thirty grand won’t mean jack. If that happens, we’ll be looking for a payment of a different color. You get what I’m sayin’, Babe?”

My eyes turned to Claire.

My sister struggled from where Jamie was holding her. “Raine, I swear to Jesus, there’s nothing else. And he can get it. Jamie
ha
s that money.” She pleaded with him, “Don’t bring my sister into this.”

Jamie tightened his hold on my sweet baby sister and said, “Bitch, shut up. Let the cunt pay, so we can get these assholes off our backs.”

I heard a sharp intake of breath from behind me and Diego took a step towards Jamie. Claire tried to pull away from him and elbowed Jamie deep, catching his ribs.

“
What the fuck? I’ll hurt you, bitch” Jamie reached out and grabbed my sister’s hair. Then he snapped her neck so far back, for a minute I thought that he had killed her.

All hell broke loose. Gunner and I both moved in on Jamie. Diego yanked me back quickly and held me so close against him that I could smell leather and clean soap. I pulled away from him just as fast. My eyes were glued to my sister. I watched as the blond biker put his hand against the junkie’s throat and squeezed.

“Let her fucking go. Right. Fucking. Now.”

“Fuck you, Gunner!” Jamie managed to squeak out. Then he did the unthinkable. He spat in the biker’s face.

Gunner roared and let go of Jamie’s throat. He pulled back fast and hit him once hard in the face. Jamie lost his death grip on Claire. With a sob she got up and ran to me. I struggled to be free of the iron armband holding me, and Diego let me go. I opened my arms to my sister, pulling her close. The Hells Saints were all over Jamie, and I could hear the sickening crunch of breaking bones. Gunner picked him up and threw him across the kitchen, splintering a row of cabinets. When Claire opened her mouth to scream, I clamped my hand over it. We heard sirens sounding in the distance. Another vicious kick to the ribs and someone said, “We gotta get the fuck outta here.”

Diego grabbed my arm and growled, “You got five days to make this right.”

Then he pulled me close and whispered against my hair, “You got no green, you gone. You take your shit, and you leave tonight. Get me, Babe? You lying about this shit, you find a way to disappear. Your sister lying about this shit, she’s dead.”

“I wasn’t lying,” I whispered.

Diego took one long last look at me and headed for the door.

“How will I find you?” I called softly to him.

Diego turned around and looked at me.

“Got that,” he said and was gone.

Claire and I ran to my car and, after the third try, the engine turned. We pulled out of the parking lot exit just as the police were taking the off-ramp to the complex. I pulled onto the highway and reduced my speed to legal. Claire had begun moaning in the seat. Her nose was bleeding. I made a split-second decision and turned off the exit that led to the hospital. The strangulation marks on my sister’s throat stood out in sharp relief against her pale skin. She was holding her head to one side, cradling her neck in her hand. I was beginning to think that Jamie might have done some serious damage.

Claire was also jonesing from the coke, and I knew the nosebleed had something to do with that. I was familiar with a lot of the staff at the hospital, and I knew they wouldn’t question it if I told them my sister had been mugged. From the hospital, I was pretty sure that I could get Claire into rehab for the blow. I wasn’t sure how Point General Hospital would feel about employing a nurse with an addict sister. I guessed we would just have to wait and see on that one.

It took me an hour in the parking lot to convince a sobbing, terrified, strung-out little sister to go along with the plan. She wanted to get clean, and I knew that wouldn’t be a problem with Jamie out of the picture. I also knew that if things went bad, I couldn’t have her anywhere near me or that house on Friday. Claire was the only thing I had left that I loved. I wouldn’t lose her. If it came down to it, I would give my life for hers. No question.