Page 76 of No Fear
Chapter Fourteen
“She doesn’t know anything.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I love her and she loves me and if she knew anything that would hurt me, hurt my family, she would’ve told me by now.”
“I know you think that but you can’t be sure. I need to talk to her.”
Rachel cringed back from the door and wished there was another way out, any way out of this that didn’t end with Remy hating her. But there wasn’t. She’d known that she needed to tell him the truth, tell him what she’d overheard, what she knew about her brother and the trouble he was causing for Remy’s family, but she’d been scared.
She’d been scared and she’d frozen, just like she always did. She’d chosen to hide here, with him, instead of fighting. Instead of telling the truth. She hadn’t come clean and now it was too late.
Lincoln had figured it out. He’d put it together. And now he would tell Remy that she was a liar, that she was related to their traitor, that she’d been keeping what she knew from him.
Lincoln wanted to talk to her and she thought, somewhere in the back of her mind, that should scare her. The eldest of the Bomar boys, their leader, wanted to talk to her about her brother. He wanted to know what she knew. The fear should have swallowed her whole. It should’ve made her knees shake and her palms sweaty but that wasn’t the reason she wanted to shrink into the floor.
It was the way Remy had stood up for her when she didn’t deserve it. He loved her. She loved him. And he believed that meant she’d been honest with him. The fact that she hadn’t been was going to hurt Remy and that was the thing that made her cringe backwards when the door flew open, banging against the side of the trailer as a big shadow loomed in front of her.
She bit her lip and swallowed a whimper when Remy came barreling back into the trailer. She should have stayed hidden in the bathroom like he told her to but she hadn’t. She’d quickly brushed her teeth and found a change of clothes and then she’d tried to eavesdrop on what was happening outside.
She’d heard him arguing with his father. She’d been incredibly proud of him for standing up for himself and for his brothers, but then she’d heard the fight start. She’d been trying to decide if she should go out and stop it or run back to the bathroom when she realized Lincoln was there.
Despite hearing the fight, she hadn’t expected Remy to look quite so bad. His clothes were dirty and bloody. The collar of his shirt was torn. There was a bruise already forming on his chin and another near his temple. His hands were clenched at his sides, scraped raw and bleeding as well. His lip was busted and he dabbed at it with his tongue even as he eyed her with a dark, worried gaze.
“You okay?”
She snorted, “I’m not the one that just got into a fistfight with my father. I’m fine. Remy…”
“I’m fine.” His eyes narrowed as he looked her over again, clearly taking in her dry hair and the change of clothes she’d put on, “You were supposed to stay in the bathroom.”
“I was worried about you.”
“Why?”
She flinched back at the question, “Because I love you.”
He sighed and wiped at his lip, “No, I… never mind. I wouldn’t have stayed hidden if you were in trouble either. Look, Rach, I don’t know how much you heard but uh… Lincoln’s here and he…”
“Wants to ask you a couple of questions.”
Her gaze darted over Remy’s shoulder and she watched as Lincoln Bomar stepped up into the trailer. His mere presence in the space made it feel suddenly small and claustrophobic. It wasn’t that he was a huge man, he wasn’t. He was about the same size as Remy actually. Tall and broad and muscular, but not a giant or a bodybuilder. Yet there was something about him, the way he held himself, the aura of power and confidence that surrounded him, something that made him seem bigger than he actually was.
He wasn’t smiling this time. Wasn’t smirking. He looked as serious as she’d ever seen him. His ridiculously handsome face was pulled into a tight mask, his lips thin and his eyes narrowed. Those beautiful blue-green eyes looked different today and it took her a moment of staring at him to realize it was because there were dark circles beneath them. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. There was stubble on his jaw where usually there was none and his clothes, which were always perfectly put together, were wrinkled.
She swallowed down the urge to ask him if he was okay. She had no idea where it came from. Her worry about Remy must have simply transferred itself to the other man because despite her bruised and bleeding boyfriend, something about seeing the always proud and put together Lincoln disheveled worried her.
“He just wants to talk to you.”
Rachel pulled her eyes back to Remy when he spoke and her stomach tightened painfully. Lincoln didn’t just want to talk to her. He wanted to accuse her of things. He wanted to interrogate her. And God only knew what he’d do to her when he figured out that his suspicions were right.
“Rach.” Remy cupped her cheek and forced her to look at him, “Nobody’s gonna hurt you. I promise. He just wants to talk. There’s no reason to be scared of him.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re shaking, baby.” Remy stroked her cheek and she closed her eyes and tried to stop shivering. “It’s okay. I’m not gonna let him hurt you. I’m not going anywhere.”
She wished that were true but she didn’t know if it was. She thought there was a very good chance that Remy would leave her if she answered Lincoln’s questions. He would leave her and it would be her own fault because she should have told him the truth from the start.
