“Not sure myself, Brother. But there’s been a note hanging behind that bar for as long as I’ve been in the MC, and from what I hear longer than that. As far as anyone knows, it has been there a good twenty. That light outside? Shines all night long. Prosper pays that.”
“What’s the note say? Exactly?” Diego was looking at me.
My eyes were glued to Jules. Holding my breath.
“Note reads that if a chick named Raine ever comes in that door looking for Prosper, it means she needs safe. And she gets safe. If Prosper’s not here, he’s found. No matter where. No matter when. No matter what. Brother minding the store takes care of that. Prosper not around permanently, whoever’s minding the store takes care then too,” Jules replied, looking at Diego’s hand still on my arm.
“Look, D, I see you got some kind of stake in this. But the way I see it, twenty years the brother has kept a light burning, and the chick has not used that out. Now she shows up with a face that looks like a punching bag, and you looking like you got something to do with it. I know you. I like you and I respect you. Just step the fuck back before this gets ugly, Diego.”
“You come here to be safe, Raine?” Diego’s eyes were on me, furious. “You come here because you feeling you’re not safe? Me coming to your house and fucking tending to your wounds. That shit was me keeping you safe. Me arranging it with the club so it’s settled. You keep the green, and Claire gets a pass. You tell me you don’t think that’s me keeping you safe?”
Then.
“You setting me up, Babe?” He dropped the hold on my arm.
I took a step away from him and reached into my pocket. My anxiety was so bad that my whole body was a mass of hard shaky movements. I shoved the money at him.
“You left this on the table.”
He looked at me like I was crazy. “Yeah, my point.”
“You brought it back. I got it for you. I got the shit beaten out of me to give it to you to keep my sister safe.” I was heaving, my chest ready to explode. I was confused and scared and my brain was still all what the fuck was the man I was running from doing in my safe place?
“Yeah.” Diego was watching me.
“It was over. It was over. Then I go into my kitchen and there it was. All of it. You came two days early and waited in the dark. Then you left it. Like it was no good. Not enough.”
Big heaves now.
“You said that if the MC ever found out that Claire’s involvement was more than what she told you, then the money wouldn’t be good enough anymore. You never told me different. You never told me anything had changed. You never said safe. You never said settled. You never said pass.”
I went on with my heart beating in my chest. But I was getting some of my brave back.
“You were waiting for us in the dark two days early! You came after me when I ran. You took that money. You took it then you left without saying a word about bringing it back. Then it was back. It was back. And Jamie was in the papers. Jamie was beaten to death, and you left the money. You told me. You said it goes wrong, you would be looking for a different color payment.”
I was breathing hard now trying to get it all in.
“So that color to me means red. And red is the color of blood. So if the green was not enough, you were coming back for the red. You said that. You said it and you never told me anything different. So don’t sit here in my safe place making it seem like I’m out of my fucking mind. I came to the only place I know that might stop the ‘killing my sister’ thing from happening. So yeah, damn right this is me not feeling safe.”
Goddammit. I had started to cry. Damn him.
“Un-fucking-believable. Un-fucking-believable.” Diego was running his hands through his hair.
Looking at Jules, he said, “That MC shit I came down here to settle.”
“Got that,” Jules answered. He was looking at me.
No one moved. In the whole place. The Hells Saints clubhouse was rocking a silence so loud it was deafening. Diego was shaking his head. Jules was by my side and I was looking towards the bar. There was a note. There was a light on. My heart was so full it was close to bursting with the gladness of it. The spell was broken when some slut (yeah, my first thought) came up to Diego. She made sure I watched as she stretched in her six-inch stilettos to press against him and whisper something in his ear. She linked her arm through his and pulled him away from me.
He shook his head and muttered, “Jesus, Raine.” Then Diego walked away with her.
All tits and short tight everything, the woman did a hair toss. She flashed a look back at me that clearly said, You’re out of your league here.
She was not wrong.
“We’re gonna get you something strong, doll.” Jules put his arm around me and steered me to the bar. He sat me down on a stool. He put down two double shot glasses, splashed something amber into them, and poured out two glasses of beer. Handing one glass to me, he lifted the other. We tipped them back. He splashed some more and we tipped back again. The heat hit my belly and my eyes teared up. The second one was a killer.
“Drink the beer, honey.” Jules said to me, “It’ll wash away the burn.”
“There’s a note.” I looked at him.
He nodded.
“And a light.” I grinned at him.
“Sure is, honey.” He smirked.
Because there was a note and a light and because the Viking God and I were having a moment, I did my own version of a hair toss. I did it, because even though I hardly ever worked it, I knew how much I could really rock the whole tossing-the-hair thing. And I did it because the light and the note and the Viking God standing next to me were all making me feel that maybe I was not out of my league.
Not even a little bit. Not even at all. So I shook out my long hair, and I smiled a smile so wide that I almost split my torn lip open again. And Jules smiled right back.
CHAPTER 15
Diego 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
Yeah. 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
When 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
Diego 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 differen
t 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
The 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.
Raine Falling (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club) Page 6