Page 98 of No Fear
“Oh baby. Oh God, baby.” Remy smashed her to his chest and held on with shaking hands, “I thought I was too late. I heard you screaming and I burst in and saw you on the ground and I thought… Oh God, are you okay? Did he hurt you? Oh your face, baby…”
“Jesus fucking Christ.” Another voice cut Remy’s off and they slowly pulled apart until she could see Ford standing in the doorway, a gun in his hand and a shocked and horrified expression on his face, “It looks like a goddamn crime scene in here.”
“Because it fucking is!” Remy growled at him, “Where the hell were you?”
“I saw something and went to check. Shit. I…” Ford ran a shaky hand through his hair and then shook his head, “We can’t talk here. We’ve gotta go. All that noise, somebody’s gonna call the cops. You gotta get out of here.”
Rachel swallowed past the bile in her throat and winced at the pain it caused, “I-Is he dead?”
“Yeah, he’s dead.” Remy cupped the back of her head and forced her to look at him, “I had to. He was going to kill you. You know that right?”
She nodded, though the entire thing felt like nothing more than a dream right now.
“Seriously, you gotta go. Now. I’ll clean this up but if you wanna stay clean. You go. Now.”
“It w-w-was self-defense.” She shook her head at Ford, “W-we don’t have to hide it.”
“Honey,heshot him. Not you. That’s not self-defense.” Ford explained slowly, as if he were talking to a child.
“But…”
“But he’s a Bomar. Do you understand? Cops find him here with a dead guy and a murder weapon and he’s going away, Rachel. He’s going away for a really long time if you don’t get out of here right now.”
She met those serious blue-green eyes and saw the worry in them. That was for her. She was coherent enough to know that Ford was worried about her. He was worried about all of this, the entire situation, but he was worried about her too. And that made her heart crack open and the tears start again because her own brother had tried to kill her but Ford, an ex-con Bomar boy, was trying to save her.
“Ok, come on baby. I got ya.” Remy guided her up and then swung her into his arms.
“Gun?” Ford asked.
“Oh the carpet next to the bastard.”
“I’ll take care of this. You take care of your girl.”
“I will.” Remy started to walk past but she shot out a hand out and caught Ford by the edge of his shirt forcing them to stop or jerk him after them.
“What?” He growled.
“Th-Th-Th…” She whimpered when she couldn’t get the words out and Ford winced and patted her hand gently.
“Don’t thank me. I should’ve been here and he’d never have touched you. I’m sorry, Rachel.”
Remy hauled her out of the trailer before she could tell Ford it wasn’t his fault. Craig must have tricked him, circled around, something. Ford had been trying to help. She didn’t doubt him for a second. And now he would be left to clean up her mess, all of them would because this hadn’t gone anything like what she’d planned.
Remy quickly put her into the passenger seat of a car she didn’t recognize. She had no idea where it had come from or how they’d gotten it. She had no idea how they’d gotten here at all.
He climbed into the driver’s side and started the engine before looking at her, “You’re going to be okay, baby. I promise. You’re going to be okay.”
Her bottom lip trembled and she curled into a ball as the tears broke free again, “I-I-I wanted to be strong. I didn’t want to cry. I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for.”
“I was so scared I was going to die.”
“I know. Me too.” Remy reached over and squeezed her leg gently, “There’s nothing to be scared of anymore.”
As he drove them out of the trailer park, into the dark of the abandoned streets, she leaned back in the seat and thought about that for a moment. He was wrong. They may not have to be scared of Craig anymore but now they had a whole new list of things to be scared of.
Remy had killed a man to save her. Ford was covering it up. But even if the law didn’t figure it all out, what was going to happen to them now? She didn’t know and that definitely scared her.
