Rain

by A G Henderson

  I wasn’t sure my heart was beating anymore. And if it was, I couldn't hear it. Blood rushed through my ears, muting the rest of her tirade while her lips kept moving. I was stuck on the words she had just said. I wasn’t ready to hear the rest.

  She was the reason he was always there? Sitting in my section. Leering at me.

  “Did you even hear what he did?” I whispered, voice weak and thready. I barely sounded like myself.

  “Of course I did!” Her neck flushed with color and the sight was so odd I felt dizzy for a moment. “What did you think was going to happen when you kept prancing around him in those whorish clothes you’re always wearing? He’s a man. When you don’t give them what they’re owed, they take it instead. As is their right.”

  She sounded so smug.

  So sure.

  As if she wasn’t talking like a fucking crazy person.

  Bile rushed up the back of my throat and I swallowed the burn of acid back down. Tears stung my eyes but there was no way I was going to give her the pleasure of watching them fall.

  “You’ve lost your mind,” I said softly, shaking my head. “I don’t know how I didn’t see it before but there’s something wrong with you. Is it Dad? Did he do something?”

  Her lips curled back far enough to show the pink of her gums above her teeth. “Your father has always taken care of me and he always will. I tried my hardest to make sure you would find a man who would do the same for you. And what do I have to show for it? You went gallivanting across town on the back of some hoodlum’s motorcycle.”

  Her face creased; disgust written plainly. “I told you that you were going to go too far, and that’s exactly what you did. You’re no daughter of mine, Kayla Marie. I suggest you get off my property before I call the police. Your junk is outside in case there’s something you want to take with you. If there’s anything left, that is.”

  My head swam. I was trapped in quicksand and the more I tried to catch or avoid the blows coming at me one after another the faster I sank. My head was barely above ground and there was a weight against my chest that made me suck each breath in desperately.

  “You can’t do that.”

  She stopped, because the cruel woman I only fooled myself into thinking I knew had already started walking away after yanking the rug from beneath my feet.

  The Ice Queen turned back to me, clutching the pearls around her throat. “You’re still here?”

  She isn’t serious.

  “You can’t just throw me out,” I half-screamed, half-cried. “I live here. Where’s Dad? He’s going to be pissed when he-”

  “When he finds out?” Her laugh was loud, mocking. Ringing in my ears. Echoing endlessly until it was the only sound around us except for the roaring fire on the other side of the glass.

  From where she stood, the shadows cast by the flame crawled across her skin. Monstrous and wrong. Revealing the revolting creature that had been hiding in plain sight.

  “Do you think I lugged that garbage outside myself?” That fake smile cut me. Punched me. Kicked me. I staggered and hunched over on myself but fought to remain upright. “He did most of it himself once he heard how deep your disrespect went. He even took his time tearing each of those foolish pillows into pieces he could throw out the window.”

  My head turned slowly, a rusty gear that hadn’t been oiled in way too long. Pillows. I stared out at the fire while the click of retreating heels disappeared down the hall.

  Specifically, I stared at the assortment of pink fabric along the side of the flames, slowly curling into blackened edges that soon became ash.

  The quicksand swallowed me whole, stealing my breath and my sense along with it. I scrambled blindly for the door handle and finally got it open right as thunder boomed and a torrential sheet of rain started coming down.

  Each fat drop bit into my skin as I dashed towards the fire, hearing the pop and sizzle as the naturally opposing elements met and did battle. As I got closer, my eyes were able to pick out the ruined items that used to be in my room. It was down here.

  Everything I had to my name was in this pile tossing foul smoke into the angry sky.

  My tears came then, although I could only feel the sting of them. The rain washed them away as fast as they could form. I bit down into the meat of my lip, blinking droplets from my lashes as I searched desperately for something—anything—I could recover.

  I worked around the burning mess in a circle, even as the flames sputtered and died. A sob turned to spikes in my throat, refusing to come out. Was there seriously nothing that had escaped their cruelty?

  Wait. There.

  At the far edge, a once glittery picture frame caught my eye and I pulled it from the wreckage. I held it close to me so as not to leave it in the rain any longer and brushed the black soot from the corners. The picture inside the frame had barely survived, and as my shaky fingers pulled it out, I managed to swallow the lump sitting in my throat and take in a breath that didn’t burn me from the inside out.

  In the picture, a young version of Lizzy and I stared back at me. I had my arm thrown around her shoulder and my mouth open to show missing teeth as I screamed in her ear right as the picture was about to be taken. The face she was making was wide-eyed and terrified, and she was already trying to pull away from me when the camera went off.

  Just to spite the cruel woman locked away in her fortress behind me, I looked up at the towering structure I had called home for my entire life and smiled.

  She had tried to burn me out of her life, as if such petty actions would make me cease to exist. And to her, maybe things would work that way. She didn’t want me for a daughter? Fine. I didn’t want such a pitiful excuse for a mother.

  Folding the picture, I tucked it away inside my purse before searching for my phone and firing off a rapid string of texts.

  I wish I could say I barely spared a backwards glance for my childhood home as I walked around towards the front, but I did look back. I looked back a lot.

  At the burning heap I could replace but never replicate.

  At the walls I would never be welcome in again.

  At the betrayals I was all too glad to leave behind me.

  I shivered in the rain but managed to hold myself together while I walked off the property, soaked to the bone. I held it together while Lizzy picked me up, face pinched in concern and mouth moving a mile a minute. The only thing I could give her was a sad smile, because even though I knew this wasn’t going to ruin me, it had broken me.

  When this day started, I wasn’t prepared to end it without my parents. I just wasn’t. Lizzy drove carefully through town towards the one place I could fall apart without splintering into a million pieces and I only stared out the window, watching the town pass by.

  I held it together until she dropped me off.

  Until I wandered into the open bay of the garage.

  Until the man on the roller beneath the car surfaced and stood, revealing dark skin without any tattoos.

  Tone, my tired brain supplied. I wanted to say something to him but talking seemed like a bad idea. Except I wasn’t sure I could get across what I needed in sign language either. Thankfully, I didn’t have to.

  The calm Sinner that had hauled away the man who attacked me without asking any questions took one look at me and shook his head. In the next moment, he had wrapped me in his jacket, shuttled me into the waiting room, turned on the heat, and-

  Made me hot chocolate?

  I sniffed to be sure I wasn’t imagining the smell wafting from the mug in front of me. A slight grin cracked through my frozen features. There were even tiny marshmallows dotting the surface of the steaming drink. I glanced up at the man before me in question and he flashed a quick smile before shaking his head again.

  “Don’t look at me,” he said. “I can’t stand that sweet shit. Your boy goes mad for the stuff.” I mouthed a thank you and took a careful sip, letting the hot liquid spread out from my stomach and start doing its job. “He’ll b
e here soon. Creed asked him to come by and that’s not someone you want to keep waiting. Even if you’re related.”

  I nodded in understanding but looked away to hide the disappointment that pinched my heart.

  Disappointment that barely had a chance to get a solid grip on me before the door was flung open and Rain came flying through it, his namesake sliding down his face in rivulets.

  He rushed towards me as I stood. I thought he would crush the mug between us, but he slowed down just long enough to take it from me and hand it off. I expected Tone to balk at the gesture, but he took it without a word and disappeared out into the garage.

  Then Rain was pulling me against him, cradling my head against his chest, and my mouth opened. Everything that had happened spilled from me in a rush. He bristled against me but kept rubbing my back, whispering soothing words into my ear.

  “She had no right,” he rumbled when I finally went quiet. “No fucking right at all.” He paused for a moment and I glanced up, watching the way his jaw worked. “Do you want her to apologize?”

  Huh? “Come again?”

  He glanced down at me, grey eyes burning like twin stars. Then he blinked, and the fury radiating from every pore wasn’t gone so much as...lessened.

  “Nothing,” he said, voice even. “Are you okay, Pixie?”

  “No.” A dry laugh slipped from me. “But I will be. This was always going to happen. From the first time I decided to disobey her orders, she had it out for me. Although I wasn’t expecting to not have a place to live before I graduated.”

  “Stay with me.”

  “Isn’t that a little-”

  “Fast?” He winked, reading my mind. “We only have one setting and I wouldn’t have it any other way. You’re already mine. Might as well start getting used to kicking it with me.”

  I pushed back from his chest, narrowing my eyes at him. “I’m not going to be a freeloader. I don’t want you to think this means you need to start paying for-”

  His mouth closed over mine, stealing my words. I made an annoyed sound at being cut off once again, but he simply swallowed it and trailed his tongue across my lips before pulling back.

  He snagged a lock of my wet hair, twisting it in circles. “Like I said. I’m not trying to chain you down or clip your wings, Pixie. You want to fly? Fly with me. I promise to always be right here whenever you’re ready to come down.”

  A weight I hadn’t realized I was carrying dropped from my shoulders. I practically hovered above the ground as I went up on my toes and placed a kiss on the underside of his jaw. “I love you,” I told him on a soft sigh, feeling my heart soar.

  “I know,” he said, linking our fingers together and pulling me towards the stairs.

  I snickered, letting him lead us to his bedroom. “You know, huh? Someone’s feeling cocky.”

  He turned and shut the door behind me before slamming both palms on either side of it, boxing me in. “And someone else is about to feel so thoroughly fucked she won’t even remember her name. But first, I’m gonna have to get you out of these wet clothes.”

  “I can help with that.” I grabbed the hem of my shirt and made it disappear so fast it might as well have been magic. My skirt went next, and while wet denim wasn’t exactly easy to get out of, I made it work. Managed to keep the amount of times I almost fell to two or three.

  He laughed at me and I laughed at myself, heart doing happy backflips all the while.

  Then I was naked before him.

  The laughter died on a low growl. He trailed his gaze up and down my body, so focused I could feel where his eyes landed. He obliterated the remaining distance before us, and I heard the door rattling in its frame before he consumed me.

  Heart. Body. And soul.

  Chapter 11 - Rain

  The sound of several rumbling Harley’s tearing up the street shattered the early morning stillness into fragments.

  Movies and tv got a lot of things wrong when it came to outlaws, but every now and then, they captured the essence exactly. Because as Creed flexed the might of the Seven Sinners while we rolled through town, even the rising sun paled in comparison to the deadly purpose that filled the streets.

  Blinds got pushed back so faces could peer through their windows.

  People already out and driving pulled to the side of the road to make way.

  We passed a church and the preacher paused while he was letting himself in so he could make the shape of the cross over his chest.

  Alright. Maybe he was just looking for another set of keys, but I was trying to make a point.

  It wasn’t often that Creed brought all the scary motherfuckers out to play. And it definitely wasn’t often that they rode together through the middle of town. Several other routes could’ve been taken to get to where we were going.

  But there was a purpose to this.

  A meaning.

  Word would spread quickly that the Sinners were on the move, and that was exactly what my brother wanted. Violent asshole that he could be most of the time, no one could ever claim he didn’t know how to send a message.

  We rode for several miles with me right beside Creed at the front of the pack. Behind us, staggered like jet planes flying in formation, a pack of hardened killers followed. Tone and Axle brought up the rear with blank faces. Kane and Saze hooted and hollered, voices loud enough to carry over the wind. Tanner looked mostly bored by the entire ordeal, but he was here.

  Sylvia looked scary as hell with her many piercings gleaming in the early rays of sunlight, and she gave me a slow nod when she noticed me looking her way. Emotion pooled at the back of my throat but all it took to banish it was a reminder of why we were out here. Who we were gunning for.

  The mansion was easy to find, and we pulled to a stop in front of the sealed gates. I stared at them as if I could burn them down with nothing but my glare and moved to dismount. Creed held up a closed fist, stopping me. A second later, Tone was striding right up to them, quickly picking up speed.

  I frowned. As strong as he was, it was still a fucking gate. But then he walked over to the keypad on the side of the gate’s brick housing and pinned in a code that had them swinging open. He strutted back to his chopper and offered me a quick grin that was gone in an instant.

  Creed raced up the winding path and I followed closely behind him, feeling the pounding rage go through my chest again. I had held it on a tight leash ever since yesterday. Ever since my girl showed up with tears clinging to her lashes and her body soaked with rain.

  The mental image had me squeezing my hands so tight I could feel my knuckles grinding together. I barely registered that we had arrived at the front of the towering estate until the bikes behind me cut off and the sudden silence echoed.

  A lighter clicked somewhere behind me. Creed held my focus while he leaned his bike to the side and crossed his arms. His perpetual glare inspected me closely, looking for something I wasn’t about to give him.

  He was waiting for me to tell him what I wanted done about this situation. The same way he had listened while I explained why I wanted him to mobilize his soldiers in an obvious display of force.

  Like I said, Creed was a monster. But he was blood.

  And this time, I didn’t need him to go that extra step I usually wasn’t willing to take. My own monster was awake and hungry, practically salivating at the need for retribution.

  Kayla might be upset when she found out what I was doing, but I would cross that bridge when I came to it. Soon, the rest of the town would know what she meant to me.

  Soon, they would all know what would fucking happen if they crossed her.

  I climbed from my bike, grabbing the cool metal of a large wrench, and stomped up the stairs. My fist beat hard against the solid door, echoing across the many acres my woman’s parents owned. For now, anyway.

  The door opened to a curious, older face and why the fuck was this person dressed like a goddamn butler?

  Doesn’t matter. You’re here for a reason.
<
br />   “May I help you?” The man asked carefully. Then he opened the door a little wider and saw the assortment of faces behind me.

  No joke, his gaze swung around twice—as if he needed to make sure that he could believe his eyes—and he bolted in the opposite direction, leaving the door wide open.

  Good. Saved me the trouble of forcing my way past him.

  “Sebastian?” A voice called from upstairs, sounding slightly slurred. “What in God’s name is all that racket?”

  A nasty grin split my lips as I stepped inside, locking the door behind me. I climbed the stairs two at a time, blood howling. When I reached the top, a slight figure in a robe was just stepping into the hallway with a glass of something orange in hand. A glass that slipped from wrinkled fingers the moment she saw me standing in her home with a wrench in my hands and an ass-kicking expression on my face.

  The glass broke, scattering around her heels while her hand raised to her throat, clutching at the pearls there. She went white as a sheet before anger flushed her mannequin-like face. “What are you doing in my home you-”

  “No.” The single word fell from my lips and dropped down on her like an anchor. I stepped forward and she took a step back. “You don’t get to talk.”

  Her mouth opened and I closed the distance so fast her hair stirred when I stopped in front of her. My wrench lifted, and I tapped her chin with the cold metal, watching the way she quivered.

  My nostrils curled in revulsion, but I couldn’t help but look at this woman and wonder how she could’ve possibly given birth to the girl I was completely in love with it.

  It didn’t even seem possible.

  Her hair was lifeless and dull. The robe she had wrapped around her body accentuated her dreadfully thin figure. Their eyes were the same, but not in any meaningful way.

  Where Kayla’s were filled with warmth and determination; this woman—because I couldn’t bear to think of her as a mom to anyone—was like an empty husk. Cold and isolated and shackled to the life she had chosen.

  Floorboards creaked behind me and I pretended not to notice.