Page 5 of No Fear
She’d started to pull herself up to her feet, thinking being sprawled on the floor that she would be easier to kill but his words stopped her in her tracks. She hated when he called her Ray-Ray, making fun of her stutter, but it wasn’t the dreadful nickname that kept her on her ass, it was the fact that he was asking questions at all, talking to her instead of simply pulling out the gun she knew he kept tucked into the back of his jeans and shooting her point blank.
She nodded, deciding to play along since she couldn’t run or hide.
“Good girl.” Craig leaned against the doorway and crossed his arms over his chest, “Tell me, did you hear me talking to my friends a little while ago?”
She shook her head quickly, maybe a little too quickly because he narrowed his eyes at her.
“Don’t lie to me Ray-Ray.”
“I-I-I’m n-n-not.” She stuttered over the words, certain he would pick up on her unease and call her out again but of course he didn’t. She always stuttered when she spoke to Craig because he scared the living hell out of her. He didn’t know that she didn’t stutter with people she trusted. “I w-w-was listening to m-m-music.”
She pointed to the headphones on her nightstand to back up the lie. Craig glanced at the small earbuds next to her crappy old phone and then glanced back at her. He still looked suspicious but the tension in his shoulders was easing, no doubt because he remembered what he’d told her years ago. She was supposed to put on headphones if he ever showed up with any of the boys from the crew. It wasn’t safe for her to know what they got up to, in case the cops ever came around asking questions. She’d still been a kid back then and she’d nodded naively and done just that. She almost wished she really had put on the headphones the second she heard him come home earlier but she hadn’t.
“You weren’t eavesdroppin’ on me and the boys?”
She shook her head.
“Ray-Ray?”
“N-n-no.”
“Good.” He shoved back to his full height, “That’s real good because I don’t wanna have to hurt ya Ray-Ray. I don’t like hurtin’ ya. But I will and ya know I will.”
She nodded even as she cringed backwards to get further away from him. His cold, calculating gaze held hers for a long moment but she saw the pleasure begin to carve its way onto his face. He’d gotten what he wanted and gotten to scare her in the process so of course he was enjoying himself.
“If you did hear, you best keep it to yourself sis.” A cruel sneer twisted his lips, “Word gets out about me and my new friends and I’m gonna know exactly who snitched. You don’t wanna end up in the dirt next to that whore momma of yours do ya?”
Rachel bit off another whimper, “I-I-I didn’t hear n-n-n-nothing”
“We’re done here. Just remember what I said.” Craig checked the expensive watch on his wrist, the one she knew he’d stolen because he could never have afforded it, “I got plans tonight. Big fight night stuff. Bomar shit. You keep yourself outta the way cuz I’ll be bringin’ me back some sweet piece of ass.”
With that, Craig turned and sauntered from the room and Rachel was finally able to breathe again. She wasn’t dead. Yet. But the threat had been issued. She needed protection and Craig, her stupid, rat, traitor brother had been the one to give her all the information she needed.
There was a fight tonight. A Bomar fight. And despite the panicked, nervous breakdown she felt coming on, she knew that was where she’d find the Bomar boy she needed. So that was where she had to go.
