Page 78 of No Fear
“She’s mine, Lincoln. Mine. You lay a fucking hand on her and I swear to God I’ll put you in the ground. You do whatever you have to with that piece of shit traitor but you don’t touch her and you don’t threaten her. She’s mine and I swore to protect her, even from you.”
“Get. Off. Me. Remington.” Lincoln growled so low it was barely audible but the sheer force of the words was deadly and the clear threat in them, the threat against Remy, against the man she loved, broke through the barriers that were keeping her quiet.
“I heard him that night. I-I-In the trailer, i-it’s hard to keep a s-secret in the trailer.” She spoke up and slowly, she watched as Remy’s grip on Lincoln loosened and he turned back to face her. “He was meeting with s-some guys I’d never heard before. I-I... I didn’t realize what they were s-saying a-at first.”
Both men were looking at her now but she couldn’t stand to meet Remy’s eyes and watch all the love go out of them. She stared at the floor right in front of her instead. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them the same way she had when she’d first heard Craig with his friends. She curled into a ball, trying to shield herself from this, even as she let what she knew spill out.
“T-the guys were a gang. I-I think they were Hispanic, maybe. S-some of them spoke s-spanish b-but not all of them so… They were talking about hurting you, all of you, the B-B-Bomars.”
Once she got that far, something happened. There was no explaining it. Maybe it was simply knowing that it was over. That everything she’d tried to hold onto and put together had already fallen apart. There was nothing else to be scared of because she was already going to lose Remy over this. But the rest of the words came out easily, no stuttering, not even when the tears began to stream down her face.
She told them what the group of men in the trailer that night talked about. Stealing shipments, jobs and recruits from the Bomars. Rigging fights. Working their way deep so they could hit them where it hurt. But she also told them what she hadn’t heard. She hadn’t heard Craig say a word about busting up Skylar’s salon or Colt’s tattoo studio. She hadn’t heard him bragging or laughing about leaving Colt for dead. She hadn’t heard anything about Craig hurting Colt that night.
She managed to raise her eyes with the only shred of hope she had left, “He didn’t hurt Colt, right?”
Remy winced and turned his back on her. She swiped ineffectually at her cheeks as another stream of tears poured out of her. He couldn’t even look at her. He wouldn’t look at her and it hurt. It felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest.
“Actually…” Lincoln sneered, “I spoke to Colt this morning and he remembered something. One of the guys that attacked him was wearing a mask, probably because he was afraid Colt would recognize him.”
“But that doesn’t mean…”
“The other men called that guy Bug.”
“Oh God…” She felt physically ill and had to swallow back bile, “Oh God…”
“Colt didn’t remember the name, couldn’t remember because they beat him in the head with a baseball bat, but he’s pretty sure now that it was Bug. After we put it together he said the eyes were familiar, that he’d known they looked familiar but not how. It’s because they look like yours.”
Remy blew out a rough breath and Rachel struggled through a sob, “I didn’t know. Oh God, I didn’t know. I thought he was… I didn’t know he’d hurt Colt. If I had… I would have… you… you have to believe me.”
Lincoln shook his head, “Why should I believe you about anything when you didn’t come to us and tell us what you knew in the first place?”
“I w-was s-scared.”
“Of us? Of me? Come on, Rachel. You know how this stuff works. We protect our own and if you’re not with us, you’re against us. You chose your side and…”
“Stop.” Remy spoke up suddenly, his voice rough and guttural. “Stop it Lincoln.”
“Remington, you were wrong. She’s not…”
“I said stop it.” Remy turned on his cousin, “I don’t care if you believe her or not. I don’t care what you think of her. It doesn’t change anything. You’re not gonna touch her. You’re not gonna hurt her and you’re not gonna threaten her anymore.”
“You can’t honestly believe that she…”
“I do.” Remy turned back to face her and her breath caught in her chest, “I believe her.”
“You’re stupid if you…
“Shut up, Lincoln! Just shut the fuck up for once in your goddamned life!” Remy growled at his cousin, “I believe her. She didn’t know her brother… half-brother… was responsible for hurting Colt. There’s no way. She loves Skylar. They’re best friends. If she’d known, she would have said something. Right?”
Rachel nodded weakly.
She couldn’t believe it. Well, she could actually, she just hadn’t wanted to believe it. She’d known that Craig was capable of hurting people. He’d hurt her, more than once. She’d heard him talk about hurting others. But the thought of him hurting Colt like that, someone she liked, someone she cared about, she hadn’t wanted to think that was possible.
Because he was her brother and she’d known that if he hurt Colt she couldn’t stand by him. She couldn’t protect him. He would have whatever Lincoln wanted to do to him coming. He was a dead man walking and she seemed to be the only one just now realizing that.
“She knew he was plotting to hurt us and she didn’t say anything.” Lincoln countered.
“Because she’s fucking scared!” Remy yelled, “She’s scared of him. He hurt her. He threatened her. Damnit, Ford said he told you what happened at the salon that day! You know he’s been asking about her, trying to find a way to get to her and that’s while she’s been here with me. What the fuck do you think he’d have done to her if she was on her own?”
