Raine Falling (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club)

by Marinaro, Paula

  “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 wa
s 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 has 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.

  It took me the better part of the night to get Claire settled into the hospital and to arrange for a subsequent bed in rehab. We had to file a (falsified) police report, and I was exhausted from the fear and the lies and the worry.

  CHAPTER 4

  To say I thought a lot about that night would be a lie. To say I thought of nothing else would be much closer to the truth. I jumped at every sound and locked every window despite the heat of the evening. I jammed a chair against the bathroom door while I bathed and against the bedroom door when I slept. I fretted and worried constantly. I had a permanent headache and my eyes hurt. I wanted this to be over. I had no idea what had happened to Jamie. I didn’t want to know. If my head was clear, I might have worried about him coming after us. But my head was full of other really, really bad things.

  About a year earlier, I had moved in with Gino Abbiati. He managed a club next to the hospital that served cheap drinks and pub food. Best of all, the staff never made you feel rushed or complained when a study group of ten took up a table for a few hours during the busy time. Appreciating this, we always ordered the cheapest thing on the menu to be able to tip big for the privilege of sitting there.

  Gino was beautiful, charming, and persuasive. He smiled, flirted, and asked me out every single time I was in the place. He never charged me for my drinks, and on the odd occasion I ordered a burger, he would pick up the tab for that too. He was genuinely interested in everything I had to say and took every opportunity to converse with me. I held him off for a while, but not long enough to really get to know him.

  He showed up for our first date with the biggest bouquet of flowers I had ever seen. Since no one had ever given me flowers, it could have been one rose and it would have had the same effect. He showered me with just enough and just the right kind of attention. He took me out when he sensed I needed that release, and when the class work became overwhelming, he sat up with me all night and tested me on my flashcards. One time when I complained that my hand was cramped from taking such copious notes, he showed up with a little handheld tape recorder so I could record my lessons. No one had ever done anything like that for me. No one had ever treated me that well. No one had ever paid enough attention to my life to know about the things that would make it easier. He not only paid attention, he made an effort to make it easier.

  I fell hard and he wanted me to move in immediately. He hounded me about it day and night until finally, six months into it, I accepted. The agreement was that I would stay at his place but still keep my grandmother’s house. He had wanted me to put the house on the market, but that was where I drew a hard line. Gino didn’t even attempt to cross it, and we lived happily ever after for a while. The sex was great and we actually had fun together when he wasn’t drinking. He had a nasty streak that came out when he drank, but he had never hit me. I had been dealing with drunks in one way or another most of my life, so while I wasn’t okay with the nasty drunk side of Gino, I could put up with it.

  I put up with it right until I caught him in bed with our sixteen-year-old neighbor. When she saw me, she had run out screaming. Disgusted, I turned to walk out the door. From the look on her face it appeared that she was happy to be escaping and not just from me. But Gino wasn’t happy at all. In fact, he was so enraged that he came charging at me. The first punch he landed broke my nose. Then he took payment from me for the sex I guess he thought he was missing.

  I always knew I had to go back a
nd get that money. But I also knew that the money would be safe there. Gino never went into the second bay of the two-car garage. The thought of what he might do if he found me there made me sick. I was straight-up terrified of him. Gino Abbiati had raped me while I was barely conscious, and my nose was gushing blood. That made him an animal in my mind. All the good forgotten.

  Maybe I had made some mistakes in judgment in my life but I wasn’t that girl. And I was never ever going to be that girl. The one who forgot and forgave when a man beat her and raped her. That girl was not me. The only way I had escaped from him was because he was so strung out that he passed out right after. I had no thoughts of giving him another chance at hurting me again. A drunk Gino was annoying. A jacked-up Gino was deadly. I wished with all my heart that I didn’t have to go get that money. It loomed over me like a big, black doomsday cloud.

  Waiting around the house until the time rolled around was just too much. I jumped at every noise. I paced. I couldn’t eat or sleep. I decided to see what I could do about getting to that money sooner. I sat outside Gino’s house in different spots, at different times, for the next two days. Finally, I saw Gino and his Lexus leave with a pretty, flaxen-haired blonde riding shotgun.

  Now or never.

  I slipped around to the backyard and carefully turned the door to the garage. It gave way immediately. I saw a newly installed alarm system to my right and figured it was to the main house. Who would alarm a garage? But I hurried anyway.

  The cardboard box I had hidden the money in was at the very top of the shelf. I grabbed a ladder to retrieve it. I had it! I hurried down the ladder and was heading out when the automatic garage door came flying open. Gino was standing in the driveway with the Lexus still running behind him. I looked quickly at the alarm to see the sequence of lights going crazy. I must have set it off. I was shaking so hard at seeing him that I almost wet myself.

  Gino was standing in front of me shouting. His hands were clenched in outrage. The next thing I knew he was straddling me while alternately choking and hitting me. I felt the fury of his fists pound into my face. Gino had my head caged firmly in his hands and was getting ready to smash the back of my skull in. I fought and screamed like a wildcat. Then I heard a gunshot and felt plaster raining on my face.