“Three years ago, I got the call that brought me back here. He had a stroke while he was out in one of the fields. Laid out there for a day and a half before anyone even noticed and got him help. I put him in a care home and made him sign everything over to the three of us equally. We own everything now. There’s nothing he can do to you or us anymore, Rainy. He’s not a threat. He’s just a broken, bitter old man that will never leave that place until he dies.”
He rolls his head to face her and reaches out, wrapping a hand around her ankle loosely.
“Tell us, Rain. Tell us what he did. Did he threaten Luke?”
Her lower lip trembles. She tries to hide it by taking a sip of her coffee but that just shows us the shake of her hand. She still won’t look at either of us but she finally gives a small nod.
“What else, Stormy. What else did he do?” I ask her softly.
Her knuckles turn white as she grips her mug.
“My dad. He threatened my dad. Said he could make his friends at the bank raise the rates on his mortgage so we’d be forced out, forced to sell to him for pennies.”
Chase curses under his breath. “That’s why you were so mad when you thought he had bought this land.”
She doesn’t answer him just drops her head to stare into her mug.
“You shouldn’t have run. You should have come to us. We could have…”
Her head snaps up and she pins him with a glare. “Could have what? He had all the power back then, Chase! He also made it damn clear if I stayed and oh, let’s see, how did that go again – ‘played the whore for the Kingston men’ I believe is how he put it - that he’d get first shot, being the head of the family and all. I did what I thought I had to do to protect you, protect my dad, and protect myself!”
White hot fury courses through me hearing that and I’m right in front of her pulling her chin my way so she’s forced to look at me.
“Did he hurt you? Did that motherfucker put his hands on you, Rain? Did he…” I can’t bring myself to say the word. Just thinking about it is hard enough.
She makes a small whimper in the back of her throat that almost brings me to my knees but she pulls her chin from my grip with a shake of her head.
“N-not…that. He didn’t go that…far.”
I stumble back until my boots hit the grass, and I turn around shoving my hands through my hair and fisting the strands and pulling. I need that pain to stop myself from roaring the pain and rage I can barely keep contained. He put his hands on her. My…our girl! Fuck! She was just a kid, barely a woman, and that fucker…I’m going to kill him and I’m going to do it really fucking slow so he feels every bit of the pain of it for what he did to her, did to us.
“I’m sorry. I’m so damn sorry, Rain.” Chase tells her quietly.
I hear her sniff like she’s trying not to cry so I turn around to reach for her but her face has gone back to the smooth blank expression again. She nods once and pushes to her feet.
“Well, there you go. You got your answers. Can you guys go now…please? I…I need some…space to do what I came here for.”
I open my mouth to say hell no, we aren’t leaving but I can see that she’s completely walled herself off again so I don’t.
Chase studies her face, sighs, and nods.
“Yeah, we’ll get out of your way. Uh…let us know if… if you need any help with all of this…packing up.”
She manages a tight smile our way and then goes back inside, leaving me to figure out how to make this right, how to fix something that I don’t know can be fixed. I want there to be a way because one thing hasn’t changed after all these years. I’m still completely in love with Rain Rawlins.
Luke
Ican’t. I can’t fucking see her right now. I head straight to the barn once I’m back in the yard. My skin feels too tight, my pounding heartbeat roars in my ears and my hands ache from clenching them so hard. I need to work so I grab a shovel and hit the stalls. I muck out all the old dirty straw from each one and put in a fresh, clean layer. The repetitive motion does nothing for the thoughts circling my head. My fault, she left to protect me, it’s my fault.
By the time I get to finishing the last stall, I hear the truck pull up and the sound of Rex’s boots against the concrete floor. Something clangs against the wall and then his roar of rage echoes through the barn. I make it out to the main area just in time to see him slam a fist against the boards and crack them. He whirls around like he’s searching for another target and goes still when he sees me. A snarl rips out of him.
“Get that fucking look off your face, Luke! It wasn’t your fault. It was so much fucking more than what you think.”
“She told you? She told you what happened?”
He kicks out at a bucket, sending it flying with another clang. His face transforms from rage-filled to monstrous, pulling at the beast inside of me that I keep tightly leashed. Whatever she told them had to be pretty bad for this reaction so I brace myself for what’s to come, knowing if that beast of mine slips its leash, someone will end up dead.
“It wasn’t just you, man. He threatened her dad too. Said he’d get his cronies at the bank to force a foreclosure and then buy the place himself for pennies. But that’s still not the worst. He…he…”
