Page 96 of No Fear
He’d always hated that she took the big bedroom before he moved in. He hated her for so many things. But she’d left all of her things here. Her books and clothes and old photos. And she knew if she opened that door and he’d destroyed everything that she would probably cry even though she kind of already hated him too.
Finally, with nothing else to do, she pushed the door open and stepped into her old room. And her breath caught because the room was completely untouched. Nothing was out of place. Her closet was still in shambles from where she’d pulled out clothes for her emergency bag the night she’d gone to Skylar’s and then to the barn. Her bed was neatly made. Her headphones were even still on the nightstand where she’d left them.
Was it possible? Had it really only been a little over a week since she was here? This place didn’t feel like home at all. Nothing here looked like it belonged to her and she smiled softly when she realized why that was.
She wasn’t the same girl that had lived here. She’d changed. She’d grown up. She was stronger now. She was actually living, making choices and deciding her own life. She had a job she adored, friends she cared about and a man she loved. She had a family, a real family that cared about her, for the first time in her life.
She was happy.
Rachel sat down on the bed and lifted the only framed picture she had of her old family to look at it. For most of her life she’d stared at this picture and tried to figure out where it all went wrong. Now, looking at it, she could see it had always been wrong. Because nobody had looked like they wanted to be there, together, not even in this old photo.
Her father was scowling at the camera. Craig was half out of focus, as if he’d moved at the last minute, maybe trying to escape. Her mother was looking down, at her, instead of at the flash. And little Rachel, barely four years old, was crying.
It was the only family photo she’d ever been able to find so she’d framed it despite the awfulness of the image. That was how much she’d longed for a real family. She’d wanted it so badly that she’d been willing to stick with Craig no matter how badly he treated her but she knew now that wasn’t family.
Now she knew what real family meant. She was part of one. A rag, tag band of outlaws that barely liked each other some days but still had each other’s backs no matter what. They loved and hated and hurt and protected each other all at the same time. And she was one of them now.
Maybe it was all the stress of this day catching up with her. Maybe it was just her emotions finally winning out over her brain. But the tears began to fall again and Rachel could do nothing but curl up in a ball as the sobs began to wreck her. They weren’t giant, heaving, empty sobs like they had been when she thought she’d lost Remy. They were just sad, dejected tears for the girl she’d been. For the girl she hadn’t known she could become. For the girl that was finally part of a real family and felt loved for the first time in her life.
There was no telling how long she cried before the tears finally ebbed. It was late and she was tired and she was curled up in her bed. So she fell asleep. She only jerked awake some time later when a strange sound caught her subconscious. Between the hangover of a little bit and not nearly enough sleep and her emotional upheaval, her eyes were swollen so she squinted them shut and tried to listen.
She’d have sworn she heard… footsteps.
“Oh God…” She whispered as she hurriedly rose from the bed and rushed toward the door but it was too late.
By the time she reached it a large figure filled the space, blocking her way. She barely got a glimpse of her brother in the dim yellow light but it was enough to understand that cornering him had been a mistake. Because she was cornered in here with him until someone showed up to save her. And Craig hadn’t come home to talk to her. He’d come home to kill her.
“You little bitch.” He hissed a moment before his hand streaked across her cheek, whipping her sideways so hard that she fell into the wall and would have gone to the ground if he hadn’t wrapped a hand in her hair and jerked her back upright, “You think you can just come back here after what you did?”
“Craig, please…” She whimpered as he jerked her around by her hair.
“Don’t you fuckin’ say a word. You already did enough of that!” He screamed in her face and then shoved her hard enough that she went sprawling back onto her ass. “You think I don’t know you been runnin’ your whore mouth, Rachel? Tellin’ shit you were never supposed to know?”
Her vision was blurry and her face stung from the painful slap she hadn’t expected. Oh and she should have expected it. Her eyes were crusty from the earlier tears and her nap and fresh tears sprouted to make her vision blurry. She tried to crawl back, to get away from him, but he bent over and grabbed her hair again, making her scream.
“What’d you tell them, Rachel?”
“Everything!”
He landed another hard slap to her face and she reeled as the world spun around her, making her nauseous. Momentarily, she thought she should have lied but when he shook her until her teeth rattled she knew there was no point. He hadn’t really been asking anyway and this way, at least she wasn’t a liar.
“They know everything? Ha! You don’t know shit so how could they?”
“Fuck you, Craig.” She hissed as she kicked at him, landing what she hoped was a solid knock in his kneecap but he only pinned her legs beneath him, straddling her and holding her down, which set off every survival instinct she had.
She flailed madly against him but it was no use. He had at least a hundred pounds on her and most of it was muscle. He was strong, too strong. And he was wild and ravenous for her pain right now. She glared at him but he didn’t even look like her brother right now. More like a mad animal with wide eyes and snarling lips and it hit her then that he was probably on something.
He definitely wasn’t sober.
“You grew a backbone while you were gone. I think I kinda like it. Say it again.”
She bit her lip to stifle a cry of pain as he slapped her again and laughed like a maniac.
“Fuck me? Fuck me? Yeah, okay.”
“Stop it!”
“You gave it up to that Bomar boy didn’t you? That piece of shit got between your legs, didn’t he? All that time makin’ sure you saved it for someone special and you gave it to him like a groupie whore.” Craig snarled, ripping at her clothes and true fear curdled in her belly.
