Raine Falling (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club) (7 page)

CHAPTER 15

D
iego had gone back to the card game with Ellie leading the way. He played a couple of hands badly. His eyes never off Raine for long. He saw the hair toss. He
definitely
saw the hair toss. Then goddammit, she smiled at something Jules said and he leaned into her. When Diego saw Jules put his hands on Raine to brush the hair away from her face, he was halfway out of his seat. He saw that Jules was looking carefully at something near her hairline, and he forced himself to relax. Jules had been a medic in the Marine Corps, and he knew his shit. Better he see if something was seriously wrong there. But Diego felt the jealousy curl in his belly like a serpent.

Ellie watched Diego watch Raine. Ellie didn’t like this. Not one fucking bit. She had done her time waiting for Diego to get how good they were together. The bitch better stay away from her man.

CHAPTER 16

Y
eah. Right here. Got that. Right.” Jules had answered on the first ring.

Silence.

“Not too long.” Jules was looking at me. “Definitely been through some shit. Yeah. Later, boss.”

“Need the room,” he yelled out to the club. Everyone started moving out. No questions.

But not Diego. Diego came right up by my side. Crowding me. Not looking at me.

“Prosper?” Diego to Jules.

I held my breath.

“Yeah, man. Boss is on his way and he wants the room clear. Totally, Brother.”

“Ain’t happening,” Diego challenged.

“With that.” Jules sighed.

Jules poured three more shots. One for me, one for him, and one for Diego. He left my shot on the counter. He grabbed the other two in his big hand. He handed Diego the bottle. He nodded once to the back of the room, and Diego started walking.

Jules looked at me and winked.

“It’s going to be fine, honey.” He followed Diego to a table in the back of the room.

Diego just kept walking past me. I took a deep breath and turned to the bar to pour the fire down my belly and wait. A few minutes later, I heard the door fly open. I heard the footsteps that stopped right inside that door. I heard them come from behind me.

“Raine.”

A voice that sounded sweetly familiar. A voice that sounded like firelight, long blended notes on a silver harp, and summer nights on a lake. A voice that sounded like my mother, my father, and everything that family meant rolled into one. A voice that sounded like home. And although I knew he was coming and I had prayed for him to be waiting for me, I couldn’t look at him. The shame and the fear and the feeling of defeat overwhelmed me. I was that little girl in that van again. All those years ago. Because even though I had tried my hardest to keep it all together, I had failed. All the sacrifice and the hard work and the saving every dime had still brought me to this. To a place I needed to be rescued from. No matter how hard I tried, I had failed. That was the darkest secret of all.

So I turned and stood with my back against the bar. My arms wrapped around me, holding down tight. My face turned away from Prosper.
And he knew
. I could hear the sharp growl when he saw the damage. He looked in the direction of Diego and Jules.

“The cocksucking sonofabitch who did this,” Prosper snarled.

Diego nodded and confirmed from his table at the end of the room. “Dead man, Brother.”

Prosper’s attention was back then. I felt his eyes on me, and I wanted more than anything to run into his arms. But I knew that if I unwrapped mine, the bad would come shooting up and rip me apart.

He moved slowly towards me and I tensed. My eyes burned brightly with their refusal to cry. Then he was next to me. He was looking at his shoe. I was looking at the spot on the wall.

He knew.

Damn if he didn’t reach into his pocket and pull out a bar of chocolate. He unwrapped it and popped a piece into his mouth. He handed the rest to me.

I reached across the years and took it from him. We sat in silence for a while, relishing the sweet taste of time gone by on our tongues.

“You still play that little harp I gave you?”

Him not looking at me.

“Every day.”

Me not looking at him.

I put my hand in his and my head on his shoulder.

“Prosper?”

“Yes, Little Darlin’?”

“I’ve run clear out of brave,” I whispered.

“Just so happens I got some brave saved up just for you, Raine,” he said against my hair.

More silence.

“So, Prosper?” I dropped my chin to his shoulder.

“Yes, Little Darlin’?” His voice shaky now.

“You got this?” My voice shaky now too.

“I got this.”

I turned into his arms. I was not a little girl anymore, but just the same I held on to him the way a daughter hangs on to her father. He held me tight, the way only a father knows how to do. We stayed that way for a long, long time. I didn’t see Jules and Diego leave. But I know they must have because when I thought to look for them much, much later, they were both gone.

CHAPTER 17

W
hen the call had come telling him that Raine had just walked into the MC, Prosper had let out a deep sigh. His first go-to was complete and selfish joy. Pure unabashed happiness. He was going to be seeing his Little Darlin’ again. He knew that if she remembered after all this time, it meant that she had never forgotten. There wasn’t a day that went by that he hadn’t thought about Claire and her.

The second go-to was anger because, on his watch, the bad had come around and found her. He wasn’t sure what the bad was, but Prosper knew that Raine had known some hard times. He also knew that she had always found her way around them. Whatever brought her to a place where she felt she needed safe haven must be bad. Really fucking bad.

Prosper had kept a close watch on them for a very long time. Years. Last time he knew, Raine was in nursing school and Claire had been working at a bank. Things seemed good and Prosper was satisfied. Time had moved on for him and life happened as it does. Thinking the girls were in a good place, Prosper had eased up on those reins.

Now after all these years it was with mixed feelings that he pushed through that door. She had her back to him. That was enough to stop him cold. That long, dark, silky hair that hung to the small of her back. Her slim body and those long legs. So much like her mom. His Maggie. The love of his life. Twenty years her being gone and still. Still the love of his life.

Raine and her sister were all he had left of Maggie. He honestly thought that he’d never see them again. Now here his Little Darlin’ stood. Coming to him for help and counsel. Maybe even for a home. It took everything he had to call out her name. He had no idea what to expect when she turned around. Not knowing how he would handle it if he saw Maggie’s face in hers. Not knowing how he would handle it if, worse, he didn’t.

Then she turned slightly to him. He could see her battered face, and it looked bad. Really bad. Dark fury clouded his vision. He looked to his boys to make sure this would be dealt with. Prosper looked back at Raine. At first glance only seeing the beating life had showered on her. Then looking past that and seeing his Little Darlin’.

Just enough of her mother in her to mark her as Maggie’s daughter. She had the high, proud cheekbones, full mouth, and the beautiful tawny skin of a Lakota woman. That hair was all Maggie’s. The deep blue eyes that hid nothing and said volumes, those were Jack’s eyes. The long thin nose, that was Jack’s too. Prosper saw his old friend in her. She was her father’s daughter for sure.

But the sad, “barely holding it together for the greater good” look, that was all Raine. It was a look he remembered seeing on her too often. When her mother was dying. When she was following that fool bastard of a father around for days hoping he would notice her. When he found her in that shit hole of a house, sitting on the floor trying to untangle her baby sister’s hair when she was no more than a baby herself.

Prosper had never forgotten the look on her face when he and Pinky had taken Claire from the van and had tried to reason with an eight-year-old Raine. The sadness bleeding out of her. The anguish on her little face. That way she had of drawing into herself, arms holding tight against her waist and eyes pulled away. It had broken his heart, watching her retreat into a place where he couldn’t find her. He’d hoped never to see it again. Seeing it now on her made him want to kill.

And once all the facts were in, someone was definitely going to die for this. That was for sure. But for now, he was going to take care of the closest thing he would ever have to a daughter.

CHAPTER 18

D
iego couldn’t fucking believe it when she walked into the MC. Could Not Fucking Believe It. He had just spent the day drinking and sexing her off his mind. He had spent the better part of two days clearing that shit up with his club. He was even feeling it enough to put up with Ellie hanging all over him. Yeah, he was golden.

Then the door opened and Raine walked through it.

Last person he ever fucking expected to see in this shit-hole den of thieves.

Seeing Raine had hit him so hard in the chest it had pummelled him backward. His first thought was to get to her and to get her the fuck out of there. Then she kicked at him, pushed at him, and walked up to Cage. Cage being easily the biggest badass in a room of very big badasses and said some shit about needing to see the guy behind the bar. Who everyone in the room knows is the go-to guy.

Jules tells
him
to back off. Back the fuck off?? He had to be shitting. Had to be. Then the shit about Prosper and her lighting into him.

Making no sense.

Then making all the sense in the world.

Diego could definitely see where Raine got the money thing. He had gone to explain it, but he had gotten so caught up seeing her beaten like that, honest to fuck, it had dropped from his mind. He got caught up with her in a different way. No shit, that the message didn’t get relayed. So she had gotten a different message. And it had scared the shit right out of her. Then she was raging at him.

Raging. At. Him.

Then Raine had started crying.

Diego watched as his brother, Jules, had made her a drink and made her smile. He watched as Jules put his hand in her hair and leaned in close.

Really close.

Too fucking close.

Then seeing her with Prosper. Raine not being able to look at him. She had looked so fucking beautiful and broken pulling herself in like that. It moved Diego right off the chair. If it hadn’t been for Jules pulling him back, it would have been him holding her. Not Prosper. It would have been him. Whether she wanted it or not, it would have been him.

CHAPTER 19

T
he Hells Saints compound consisted of a few buildings and a large clearing. There was the main clubhouse where Prosper and I sat talking into the night and half the next day. The room that had been “cleared” was a large room that housed a long, fully stocked bar, several tables and chairs, a couple of pool tables, and a variety of big worn couches and deep, soft seats. To the right of the main area lay a set of heavy wooden double doors that had the Hells Saints insignia carved into them. They led to a meeting area.

There were two other long buildings. One was a warehouse. I wasn’t sure what was in that. The other was a dormitory-style building. It was similar in size to the clubhouse, but it held a large kitchen with several industrial-size appliances. It had one very long table down the middle and several other small tables and chairs. Off the kitchen were two long hallways built shotgun-style with rooms off the main corridor to the left and a back entrance. Those belonged to the brothers and were for their private use. Whatever that meant.

Just to the back of the buildings was a large outside gathering area. There were several picnic tables, Adirondack chairs, grills, and a big fire pit. A huge stack of wooden pallets and logs covered with a tarp was not too far from the pit. There was also a concrete slab with some more picnic tables that was covered by an open porch and wired for electricity.

The whole compound was surrounded by woodlands. If it were not for my GPS getting me close to it, I would never have found my way.

Prosper and I talked and talked and talked. I could not stop. Once that door was open, the words came flooding in. He wanted to know everything about Claire and me. Everything I had to say, he was interested in hearing.

So I shared and watched. I watched, taking my lead from the expressions on his face. When his eyes grew soft and his mouth curved into a small smile, I continued. When something I said made his eyes grow dark and hard, I hurried past that to the next thing. After a while he sensed that, and kept his face open and neutral, which made it both harder and easier to share. But I told him everything there was to tell. Letting him in, keeping nothing back. Eventually all that talk brought me to the events of the past week. Claire, Jamie, Gino, the fragile-looking blonde who saved my skull from being cracked like an egg, and finally Diego’s part in it all. I saw his eyes go hard at that last part for one instant. Then it was gone.

Prosper also shared with me. But not everything. That wasn’t his way. But he shared the important things and the things that would matter to me. He talked about the MC and how he had helped it to grow and expand into several thriving businesses. I secretly wondered how many of those businesses were on the books. Of course, I didn’t ask.

He talked about how a “break of faith” had taken him outside the MC for a short while. He left to get his head cleared, and he spoke of the places he had traveled to. Eventually, his meandering brought him back to the Hells Saints. The place where he had begun and the only family, save mine, that he had ever known.

To my delight, he told me that his restless travels had also brought a new understanding of committed love. That understanding came in the form of a small blonde with a big laugh who made the best cookies east of the Mississippi. Pinky. They had stayed together through it all and had gotten married last spring. I was happy for both of them and couldn’t wait to see her.

It was nice and familiar and safe being with Prosper. I had no doubt in my mind that I had done the right thing by coming to him. The only doubt I had in my mind was why I hadn’t done it sooner. Because sooner may have made all the rest so much easier. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

The brothers had given us the time we needed to work it through. The clubhouse had stayed cleared without so much as a knock on the door. Prosper and I walked out arm in arm into a cloudy early afternoon. I was exhausted and I think Prosper was too. Diego, however, looked wide awake and was leaning back against the wall of the warehouse, watching the door, waiting for us to come out. He pulled himself away from the door and walked towards us.

In a straight line. Right towards us.

He totally ignored me and chin-nodded Prosper.

“You and me.”

Prosper looked at him and nodded.

“Then me and her.” Diego shot that out like a bullet. I took
her
to mean
me,
but since he was still not looking at me, I couldn’t be sure.

“Respect that you bided your time and gave us that to sort it out. But you going there with Raine, we see how it lands with me first, Brother. I’m feeling it, then it goes to her. I’m not feeling it, it stays.” Prosper’s tone was mild but his eyes were hard.

“Let’s do this.” Diego started towards the clubhouse, then turned around and looked right at me.

“Don’t wander, Babe. This will not take long.” He looked at me long and hard.

Prosper and I had been on our way to the kitchen house for some lunch when Diego had put himself in front of that path. Prosper told me to go on and that someone would be there to help me find things and get settled. He had a suite of rooms in the house, and they were to be at my disposal. He had already told one of the recruits to go in there, change the sheets, bring my stuff from the car, and put some shower stuff in the bathroom for me. Prosper really only kept the rooms out of old habit. He and Pinky owned a house not far from the compound.

Forget the lunch, I hadn’t showered or slept in two days. If I counted the night of worry, make that about three. I was going to take a really long, hot shower. Then eat, if I could make it that long without falling dead on my feet.

I wasn’t even thinking about dealing with Diego.

Prosper had that. And I was going to leave them to it.

Prosper and Diego had their sit-down. Because Prosper had been dealing with some Saints’ business a couple of states away for the past month, he had to be brought up to speed with the whole mess. The Hells Saints didn’t deal in drugs but had been on the radar of Los Diablos Rojos MC because of a missing cache of cocaine and heroin. Business and relations between the Saints and Los Diablos were shaky at best. The Saints’ involvement with Jamie came on the money-lending part of things. Jamie had his own agenda. He was borrowing money from the Saints and fronting dope from Los Diablos with the intent of hijacking both the cash and the drugs.

Essentially, he had intended on building a small fortune then disappearing. In order to clear the way for that, he was playing the MCs against each other. Prosper’s chapter bordered the Diablos’ territory so when it all came down, it all became clear. Diego had come down to sort things out. The sort-out had gone well, and both sides left church that day satisfied. The tenuous alliance the Diablos and Saints shared was back on track.

The only thing that had been left to sort out was Claire’s involvement in the dealing and the deception. In order to clear this up, there had to be no loose ends or stones left unturned. Serious bloodshed could and had been spilled over that much green and that much dope. Jamie had just been beginning and they were not sure how wide his shit had spread. When they found out Claire was just a stupid little piece (yeah, he said it) that got hooked up with the wrong guy, they had decided to let it alone. The MC had no way of knowing that Claire or her sister, Raine, had any ties to Prosper. Nor did they share that.

Diego told Prosper that he solidly, solidly regretted putting Raine in the path of that psycho. He shared with him his intent to deal with Gino before Raine went to him and how he had pushed MC discussion along to make that happen. He told him about the file and the phone call making sure that Gino was going to pay for the hurt he had put on Raine. He explained how when his wrecking crew got to Gino’s house, he was gone. The house had been tossed and nothing had been found. Diego had Gunner on the house and so far nothing had turned up. However, they would find him and when they did . . . well, when they did.

Prosper listened to it all. Intently. Because this was his club, he knew most of the story but had needed some of the details filled in. He also wanted to hear what his brother had to say. Diego had Prosper’s respect and had from the time he was a recruit. Prosper accepted what he said and gave props to Diego for sorting it all out in the way he had. He asked a few more questions. They shared a beer and then a couple more.

Prosper liked him. Diego was a solid, clear-thinking, tough motherfucker of a man. But that didn’t necessarily mean he wanted him sniffing around his Little Darlin’.

“So you and Raine,” Prosper asked casually.

There it was. Diego wasn’t fooled at all by the casual tone of Prosper’s voice. He was going to meet this head on.

“Yeah. Me and Raine.” Diego took a long pull on his beer. “But she don’t know that yet.”

He put the beer down and looked Prosper in the eye. “You good with that?”

“Not sure, Brother,” Prosper replied honestly.

“You know me,” Diego said. “I know you and understanding what she means to you, the respect I have for you, you know I wouldn’t go there and fuck her up.”

“Worry is, Brother, that life has fucked her up. So a man wouldn’t have far to go, all good intentions aside, to cause more pain. Truth is, I would like to see a brother get in there, take care of my girl, keep that shit away from her. Raine needs someone who would lay it down for her. She deserves it. Her mother deserved it. Claire deserves it.” He was looking into his empty glass now. Prosper grabbed the bottle. He filled Diego’s glass and then his own.

He drank it and muttered, “Damn Winston women keep picking the wrong fucking men.”

Then he looked at Diego.

“D, looking out for a brother here. Seriously, don’t know if you want to go there. Women like Raine and her mother. Beautiful inside and out. So fucking heartbreakingly beautiful that they get in there and stay in there. Even when they are not yours, even when they are fighting for their last breath. Even after they have passed from this life to the next. Women like that are so achingly soft and good and so fucking special. You get all of it, you’re the luckiest man on the face of God’s green earth. You get a part of it, you take it and thank the Lord for the small bit you get. Every fucking day. You thank the Lord.”

Diego looked at Prosper, and he knew it wasn’t the booze talking. The only woman Diego had ever seen Prosper with was Pinky. They had a good thing. He treated her well, and as far as Diego knew, he didn’t fuck around on her. Prosper was getting on in years now, but no doubt he was still a good-looking guy. Tall, all lean, hard muscle, and although gray now peppered his light brown hair, he still had all of it. The lines on his face made him look like a badass with experience. The chicks really seemed to dig that. But no, Diego never knew Prosper to step out. You just had to take one look at Pinky to know she adored her man.

But listening to him now, Diego came to realize the ties that bound Prosper to Raine went deep. Raine’s mother had evidently been Prosper’s one true love. And as badass and tough and dark as Diego could be, he absolutely positively believed in the whole “one true love” thing. He knew what having that would mean to a man like Prosper. He knew, long ago, what it had meant to him.

“Raine’s been through some shit.” Prosper was looking at Diego. “Shit that happened in what they call the formative years. Shit that happens when you’re that young sets a course for the rest of it.”

Prosper was looking right into Diego’s eyes.

“Shit that she keeps buried deep. So deep she has to wrap her arms around herself to keep it in. Because if she don’t, she’s afraid that, on the way out, it will tear her up so bad inside that it will kill her. Stuff she keeps down. Stuff she thinks no one knows or can see or can touch but her. She carries that for her and for Claire. She doesn’t share that. She carries it.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Boss. She gave it to you last night. I saw it. I heard it. She gives it sometime.”
And she will give it to me
, Diego thought but didn’t say.