Page 31 of No Fear
“He what?” Colt gaped.
“I claimed her, publicly, before the fight. It was the only way I could think of to keep her safe since I couldn’t just get her the hell out of there.” He smirked when Colt eyed him, “Yeah, okay, and because I wanted to but that’s not the point. The point is, our bastard cousin put his hands on her and tried to keep her from me even after I announced to the entire place that she was mine and anybody that messed with her would have to deal with me.”
“Woah.”
“Yeah, so I may have threatened to take him down right there in front of his fan club. He probably wants to talk to me about as much as I want to talk to him right now but it doesn’t matter. We need to know what he knows. It’s the only way to protect Rachel so I’ll make the call.”
Colt frowned, “I don’t like it any more than you do but I agree. We don’t have another option unless Sky gets Rachel to spill all the details to her. Considering I didn’t know the girl had a brother, I don’t see that happening.”
“Me either and it’s not just that she’s shy. She’s been hurt before and she’s scared and every instinct I have tells me it’s the brother that hurt her. I know what it’s like when the people you’re supposed to trust are the ones that hurt you. She’s not gonna open up easily but she is giving me a chance. I don’t want to blow it but I don’t want her ending up dead more.”
He hated the reminder of what he and Rachel shared. Damage. Pain and scars inflicted by their own family members. He’d always known someone had hurt Rachel but he’d assumed it was a boyfriend. Finding out that it was most likely her brother made him sick to his stomach. He knew that kind of sickness and he could only pray that he was wrong.
Colt sighed, “I know you and Lincoln are at odds over me. I get that. But he’s not as bad as you think he is, Remy. He’ll help us. Trust me.”
“Since you have so much faith in him, why don’t you call and ask him to come down here? My phones still dead and even if it wasn’t, I doubt he’d pick up for me right now.”
“Good point. I’ll make the call. Stay here.”
“Where would I go?” He snorted as his brother turned and walked towards his office in the back of the studio.
“To have a cigarette.”
He scoffed at that even though he did want to have a cigarette. He wanted to have an entire pack of cigarettes. But he wouldn’t. He’d quit. Well, he was in the process of quitting. His brothers hated cigarettes. They had too many bad memories of Decker using them as ashtrays. They carried those scars and Remy hated that just the smell of smoke could make them sick with bad memories. So he was quitting but it damn sure wasn’t one of the easier things he’d done in his life.
He wanted a smoke but he needed his brothers in his life. He needed Rachel and she’d told him her mother died of cancer. He didn’t need a cigarette.
Colt came back around the corner, his cell to his ear. Remy watched his brother stand there silently with the phone to his ear and his amusement faded. Lincoln wasn’t picking up which was strange. As the head of an organized crime ring, he was pretty much always in touch in case someone needed him. The phone rang and rang and he and Colt stared at each other, wondering what to do if voicemail picked up right about the time it clicked over.
“What?” A hushed, hurried voice whispered with irritation.
“Link?” Colt hit a button to put it on speaker and the response echoed in the empty space.
“No, it’s the damn tooth fairy. Yeah, it’s me. You fuckin’ called me. Who’d you think was gonna pick up?”
Remy rolled his eyes, “Nobody for a second there.”
“Is that Remington?” Lincoln’s voice came through a little louder, as if they’d finally earned his attention.
“Yeah, it’s me and Colt.” He answered quickly, “We need to talk to you. Can you swing by the studio?”
“No can do, Cuz. I’m… temporarily unavailable.”
Colt shot him a questioning look but Remy shrugged. He could no more decode Lincoln than he could speak French. He’d lost the ability to read his cousin’s mind a decade ago when he left town. The Lincoln on the phone wasn’t the same Lincoln that had given Remy a ride to the Army recruitment office because he knew how badly he needed to get out of town and only wanted to help. This guy was someone else entirely.
“It’s important.” He tried again.
“I’m sure you think it is.” Lincoln put a hand over the phone and his voice was muffled as he spoke to someone else before he came back on a second later, “Look, I’m kind of in the middle of something otherwise I’d be more than happy to talk to you boys. I was gonna hit you up later anyway. Feel you out about that girl.”
Remy flinched, “What girl?”
“The girl from last night. What? You claimed somebody else in the last twelve hours?”
“Rachel.”
“What?”
“Her name is Rachel.” He grit out.
