Page 3 of No Fear
“Or Jemma.” Cash stroked the soft swell of his fiancé’s pregnant belly and frowned.
“We won’t give him that chance.”
“We want to help.” Colt raised his voice.
“That’s exactly why you can’t go tonight.” Remy glanced between the two women, using his ace in the hole, knowing his brothers would insist on protecting them above all else.
“What?”
“Why?”
“The entire family is going to be at the barn tonight.” He explained when the twins exchanged a glance, “All Link’s guys, all Abel’s guys, everyone is going to be at the barn for the fight. They’re gonna be scouring the crowd, listening and watching. If the guy is there and he’s working against us, we’ll find him. But if he isn’t…” Remy shook his head, “Then he could target us where he thinks Bomars are weak tonight. The businesses. The shops or the garage or…”
“Us.” Skylar spoke up and was promptly hauled into her boyfriend’s lap, as if she were immediately in danger.
“No.” Colt growled.
Remy smiled softly when Skylar rolled her eyes at him but cuddled into Colt, “Nobody’s going to hurt her.” He turned to see Cash with the same stricken look as his twin, “Or Jemma and the baby.”
“Because we’re gonna stay home and protect them tonight.” Cash turned to look at his twin. “He’s right. We can’t take the girls to the barn. They don’t belong there. And we can’t leave them alone. Not while this psycho is runnin’ around trying to hurt us.”
Colt frowned but nodded in agreement, “Fine. I don’t like it but I’ll go along with it on one condition. When you guys get the bastard, you call me because I owe him a hello from the business end of a baseball bat.”
Remy breathed a sigh of relief as they all agreed on a plan for tonight. He would go and he would fight in order to lure the guy out. The rest of the family would be there to watch out for him and to watch for their traitor while his fight served as a distraction.
But he wouldn’t have any distractions. The twins and the girls would be home, safe. That was all he cared about. He would do his part for the family tonight. He would tap into all of the dark, dangerous emotions that made him a Bomar in order to become a good man and he wondered if it was that kind of sick, twisted backwards ass logic that made him a Bomar to begin with.
Family was everything to some people. They loved each other unconditionally. They would do anything to protect each other, take care of each other. They would put themselves in harm’s way just to save someone they loved. She knew love like that existed. She’d seen it. She’d just never experienced it.
Rachel Grant’s family was a complete and utter train wreck of dysfunction.
Her dad had gotten himself locked up for killing a man in a bar fight when she was a kid. After that it had mostly just been her and her mom and a few random guys that stopped in but never stayed long. When she’d lost her mom to the cancer she’d thought she was all alone. Then Craig had come home and she’dwishedthat she was all alone.
Her half-brother was eleven years older than her and had spent most of his adult life in and out of lock up. He was a violent criminal. He’d inherited every bit of their father’s mean streak and then mixed in paranoia, arrogance and sociopathic tendencies. He took pleasure in terrorizing her. He loved that she was scared of him. He got off on the power, being the one in charge, and his day wasn’t complete until he’d forced her to tremble with fear.
Well, Rachel had to physically cover her mouth with her hands to contain a manic laugh, he’d certainly accomplished his goal today.
She sat huddled in a ball trying to stay as small and as quiet as possible. She’d learned how to hide a long time ago. Invisibility was her best friend when it came to Craig. If he couldn’t see her, he couldn’t hurt her. If he forgot she existed for just a little while, that was even better.
And that was the only explanation for what had happened tonight. He’d forgotten that he didn’t live alone. Forgotten that he didn’t own the trailer, that her mother had left it to her and she had only agreed to let him stay there under duress. Either he’d forgotten or he’d been too worried about looking like a big shot to his buddies to call out for his little sister.
He’d come into the trailer house while she was in the back room, her bedroom, and he hadn’t thought to check and see if she was around. He’d set up camp with his friends, all guys whose voices she’d never heard before she realized about halfway through the conversation. She’d known better than to come out and interrupt them but it wasn’t like she’d intended to eavesdrop. It was a small trailer and even if it wasn’t, the walls were thin. A strong wind would blow the thing apart and every spring when tornado season hit she feared for her life.
Fear was a part of her everyday life. Scared was her default reaction, her standard emotion. Had been for as long as she could remember.
When her father had been around, she’d seen her fair share of violence. Never knowing if the fists he threw would connect with a wall or with a person, with her mother or brother or her. Then there had been the cancer, the fear that she wouldn’t be able to survive on her own after her mother died. The worry about child protective services and money and food and keeping the electricity and water turned on. And then Craig had slithered out of whatever dark hole he’d been living in at the news of her mother’s death and taught her what true fear was.
He’d moved in, claimed everything that was hers as his and his threats alone would have been enough to destroy her last shreds of hope for a better life but of course he hadn’t come home alone. No, she also had to deal with his never-ending string of terrible, disgusting friends that pawed at her like she was a toy for them to play with and tried to force their way into her room and into her more times than she could count.
She’d survived a lot in her twenty-one years, more than any girl should ever have to. Loss and pain, hunger and fear, she’d fought her way through all of it. Her survival instincts were good, well-honed from years of use, but even they were sputtering in the face of what she’d just overheard.
Fearing for her life had become a real thing in the past half hour. Not some exaggeration of her terrified mind. Not some distant worry. It wasn’t even one of Craig’s not quite joking threats this time. Her death was all but guaranteed if anyone found out what she now knew.
She could barely function some days as it was. She stuttered whenever she was fearful or nervous. She jumped at the slightest noise. She was hardly able to hold down a job and really, if Skylar Holland hadn’t taken pity on her when she went into her salon asking about sweeping up the floor for extra money she wasn’t sure she’d have a job at all.
Skylar had saved her life in a lot of ways. She was learning how to be around other people, around men, and not have panic attack meltdowns thanks to Skylar. But right now, in this moment, all of her hard work and progress disappeared.
If she didn’t think of a plan, and fast, Rachel feared she’d never be able to get back on her feet, never crawl out from her hiding place and that Craig would eventually find her here, catatonic and defenseless and easy prey for him to follow through on his threats to take her out. And he would take her out, she had no doubt about that. He would just as soon kill her as risk her telling someone what she had accidentally overheard.
