Valiant
Warmth spreads through me. “Yeah, I’m happy. I mean, I’m not going to rush anything, I’m still not sure he’s going to like all of me when he sees it, but I’m willing to at least try.”
“What are you talking about? He’ll love all of you. What’s there not to love? You’re incredible, babes.”
“You have to say that, you’re my best friend.”
She laughs.
“Baylee!” Rae calls. “I’m hungry.”
I roll my eyes. “So good to be home.”
Shania turns around and bellows back, “She’s not your damned slave, and you’re not a damned cripple. Get up and get your own food, Rae. Now.”
My mouth drops open.
“Wow,” I say. “And she takes that?”
Shania shrugs. “She doesn’t get a choice if she wants to eat. You can’t keep letting her walk all over you, honey.”
“No,” I say, nodding. “I’m starting to realize that. I know I have to start being harder on her, being away made me realize she’s dragging my life down, and I know that isn’t entirely her fault, but I’ve catered to her for too long, and I don’t deserve it.”
“No, you absolutely do not. She cannot go around treating you like this. You didn’t give her this life, her brother and she did. You saved her. You took her with you. You look after her and her unborn baby. You’ve done it all. She needs to show you some respect.”
Shania is right. I know it.
Jack and I spoke a lot about it on the drive home, and he was fairly firm in his words when he told me I can’t keep living like that, and that eventually I need to make Rae stand on her own two feet. I’m not her mother. Hell, I’m not even her sister. But I’m still doing the best I can by her and her baby.
When her baby is born and free to live a life away from the horror she’s providing, then I’ll get her the help she needs and put her in a place that is better equipped to handle her. I need to live my life.
I just need to breathe again.
“You’re right, and I’m going to start doing something about it. I lived like a doormat for too long, and for the first time in my life, I’ve met somebody that makes me truly happy, in a way I honestly never believed existed. I’m not going to let anything ruin that.”
“God, whatever this man has done to you,” Shania says. “I love him for it.”
I laugh softly. “Me too, sister, me too.”
“Now, get your butt out there and put that girl in her place. I’ve got to run, I need to be at work.”
I hug her tight. “Thank you so much again for doing what you did for me.”
“Not a problem at all. I liked bossing that spoiled little brat around.”
I laugh. “Love you.”
She smiles at me. “Love you, too.”
She leaves and I finish up unpacking my suitcase. Rae is silent, which is strange. She’s never silent. Certainly not when I’m around. Concerned, because she is a pregnant, drug-addicted teen, I go out into the living room to find her staring pale-faced at the phone in her hands.
“Rae?” I call, and she doesn’t move.
“Rae?” I try again.
“He ... he called me.”
I blink. “Who called you?”
She looks up at me from her phone. “York.”
My body goes stiff, my blood runs cold, and for a second, I can’t breathe. “W-w-w-what did you just say?”
“He called me.”
No.
God.
No.
“Rae, what did he say? I need to know.”
“He just said that we couldn’t hide forever, and he would be coming for us. Then he hung up.”
No.
My vision blurs, and I stand there for a moment, unable to move, unable to even breathe. No. He can’t have found us. He can’t have.
Calm.
Be calm.
If he found us, he would have come here. He would. No. He’s just somehow managed to track down our phone numbers. That’s all. That’s all. Right? Oh, God. What do I do? My chest seizes and my heart pounds, my palms sweat, and I can’t move, the only thing I can do is sit and stare at the ground, wondering how the hell I’m going to deal with this.
“Baylee?” Rae calls. “What do we do?”
I can’t move.
“Baylee!” she cries. “What do we do?”
What do we do?
What do we do?
If I go to Jack, he’ll flip out. But I can’t do nothing. If I go to the cops, they’re just going to put me on a back list, I know it, I’ve been through it, they’re not going to protect us. No. We need protection.
My head snaps up.
“Get in the car. We’re going for a drive.”
There is only one group of people that can help us.
And it terrifies me to have to lean on them, and ask them.
But there is no one else.
~*~*~*~
“Hi,” I say to the man standing at the gate to the Jokers’ Wrath Compound. “I’m here to see Maddox, if he’s in. I’m, ah, Jack’s girlfriend.”
I’m using Jack, but it’s the only way I figure they’ll let me in without me calling someone in the group and explain why I need to see his or her parents. No. I can’t involve any of them. It’s too dangerous. Maddox is the only person I can tell. The less people who know the better. But I have to do something.
I just have to.
I didn’t do anything the first time, and it nearly got us killed. I won’t risk that again.
“Yeah, I remember you. Baylee, right?”
I nod, smiling. “This is my sister, Rae.”
Rae has her arms crossed, and just glares at the biker at the gate. He shrugs her off and opens it, letting us in.
“Thank you,” I say to him, moving towards the clubhouse.
“He’s in the shed,” he calls after me.
I shift to the left and move towards the shed, where I can already hear laughter flowing out.
“Wait here,” I say to Rae.
She glares at me. “As if I was going to fucking go in.”
“Don’t speak to me like that,” I growl at her. “I’m here to get protection for both of us. If you’d rather find some on your own, then you can exit the gate the same damned way you came in.”