by Mia Hoddell
I glanced to my right, noticing the group of smokers once again. They now appeared intimidating, their boisterous laughter making me cringe into the wall.
My breaths were short and laboured, my eyes closing to block everything out. My legs became weak, buckling and causing me to sink down the wall and bury my head in my lap. I wanted to make myself as small as possible. The smaller I was the less I’d be noticed.
Chapter Thirteen
Teo
I walked back into the pub feeling lighter than I had in a long time. Although I was fully aware Raine was hiding something, all that mattered was she was on her way to being mine once more. I could deal with anything she threw at me as long as we were together. She’d reveal her secrets in her own time. What was important was she still loved me. I could work with that. It meant we had a chance.
Dustin had filled my seat in the booth and was laughing about something with Zeke. He glanced up at me the second I appeared, his laughter fizzling out when his gaze darted over my shoulder and around the bar. Once his eyes met mine again, his brows were drawn together in confusion.
“Where’s Raine?” he asked nervously.
“Outside; she told me she’d follow me in a minute.”
Dustin sprang out of the seat in a second, his fist clenched on the table to push himself up. “You left her outside?”
“She told me to go.”
“Shit. How could you be so stupid?” he cried, barely controlling the volume of his voice. Taking a step forward, he attempted to push past me, but Dustin had never been the stronger one between us. I held him in place by the shoulder, stilling his movement without using all of my strength.
“What’s going on?”
“You need to get out of my way,” he growled. Faster than I expected, he broke my grip and charged through the crowd towards the door. I followed in the path he created, catching up to him as he paused on the pavement. His head darted wildly from side to side in his search for Raine.
The instant Dustin found her, he rushed in Raine’s direction.
It took me a second longer to spot her even though I knew where she’d been. Her tiny figure curled up on the ground had my heart bursting with worry. Tendrils of icy dread licked at my veins, chilling me to the core.
I reached them as Dustin crouched down beside her.
“Raine, it’s me, Dustin.” He placed a hand on her back but she didn’t respond. “Raine, can you look at me? I need you to lift your head for me, sweet girl.”
Stabs of panic attacked my heart when Dustin still got no response. He had his hands on her shoulders, yet she made no move to acknowledge him.
“Raindrop, please. What happened?” I begged, reaching out to touch her when Dustin’s hand intercepted me. He glared at me and shook his head then returned his attention to Raine. She was trembling, her hands white from how hard she clutched at her legs.
“I need to get her home,” Dustin said without looking at me. “I’m going to pick you up, Raine. I’ll get you home.”
There was still no response as Dustin slid his arms beneath her. Cradling her against his chest, finally she unfurled to throw her arms around his neck and bury her head in his body.
“I’ve got you, sweet girl. You’re safe.”
I swallowed back the guilt, but I couldn’t stop the sickness. My chest became unbearably tight, my heart beating too quickly. I didn’t understand what had happened in the space of a minute. She’d been fine when I left.
“What’s going on, Dustin?”
“Not now, Teo. I need to get her home.”
“I’m going with you.”
“Like hell you are, you’ve done enough. She wouldn’t want you seeing her like this.”
“Well tough shit. I’ve already seen it and I’m going with you.”
Dustin looked torn, yet the need to get Raine home was stronger. “Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. I haven’t seen her this bad in a while.”
When we got back to their flat, Dustin went straight into her room. I expected him to place her down on the bed. However, as if it was a practised gesture, he crawled on top of it and lay down with her. Spinning her body so she was nestled right against his side, he kept one arm around her while the other ran through her hair. I hadn’t noticed before, but she was still shaking, only the trembling was now caused by silent sobs. Tears trickled down her cheeks and onto Dustin’s shirt.
She looked so tiny curled up against him, too vulnerable. My heart broke watching her as Dustin whispered soothing things into her hair.
“They were there again, Dustin. They wouldn’t stop…No matter how much I begged, they…they wouldn’t stop,” Raine choked out, her voice fragile and haunted.
“You’re safe now, sweet girl. No one’s ever going to hurt you again. I promise.” Dustin continued to stroke her hair back and she curled further into his side, clutching at him like a toddler scared to leave their parent.
Dustin glanced at me over the top of her head. “Can you get her a glass of water?”
I hesitated for a second, not wanting to leave for even the shortest amount of time. When Dustin frowned and shooed me from the room I left, not looking away from her until the wall blocked my view.
Only once I reached into the cupboard did I realise I was shaking too. My hand trembled in front of me, the glass quaking as I lowered it. Placing the glass on the counter, I took a deep breath, balling my hands into fists to still them. For a moment I screwed my eyes shut, allowing all of my thoughts to consume me.
What happened to her? Who hurt her and caused my Raindrop to become so broken?
I brought my fist down upon the counter, barely restraining my force at the last second. Tears pricked at my eyes as I exhaled, the pain in my heart too much.
It took me a moment, but I finally collected myself. Picking up the glass, I filled it and returned to the room. I was about to ask where Dustin wanted it when he held a finger to his lips and gestured to the nightstand. Raine had stopped shaking in his arms and her grip had relaxed, if only marginally.
Dustin reached for his phone in his pocket, a gesture I thought odd, then he turned the screen so I could read a message.
I need you to go to my room and stay there until I come and get you.
I read the message and shook my head furiously. How could he even think to ask that of me?
The second my eyes landed on Raine again, I stopped. An unfamiliar mark above her hip caught my attention. The material of her top had ridden up to expose a thin, jagged white line.
What the fuck is that?
I knew every inch of Raine’s body intimately and I’d never seen that before.
Noticing my distracted gaze, Dustin hastily pulled the material back down over it and thrust the phone into my face again to divert my attention.
Do it, Teo.
Dustin pointed angrily at the door so I only took the phone from his hand and typed.
Why can’t I stay with her?
He glared at me.
Really? Think of her! She doesn’t want you to see her like this and the last thing we need is her waking up and panicking all over again when she sees you. Get out!
I hung my head with a defeated sigh. I didn’t want to leave but I had to trust Dustin. He had more of the story than me, and I assumed he’d dealt with this kind of thing more than once if his practised actions were anything to go by, a thought that only twisted the stabbing pain even further into my heart.
I couldn’t barge in and take over. It killed me not to be the one curled up with her, but it was best for Raine.
* * *
An hour went by before the door to Dustin’s room opened and he walked in. He looked exhausted, deep frown lines marring his forehead. He threw his phone onto the bed without saying a word then collapsed against the door. I allowed him a second before I enquired how Raine was.
“She’s asleep,” he said.
“That’s good then, right?”
“Maybe.” He puffed out a
breath and dragged a hand over his weary face. “Probably not, though. It’ll more than likely be a long night.”
I waited for him to expand on his explanation. He didn’t. “You’re going to have to give me a little more than that, Dust.”
He crossed the distance between us and sat down next to me on the bed. The mattress jostled beneath me.
“I want to, really I do. Hell, everything would be a lot less complicated if she’d told you in the first place, but she doesn’t want you knowing. I can’t break her trust, Teo. You saw her earlier, she’s on the edge as it is.”
I focused my gaze on my hands, my shoulders slumping. I didn’t want to ask, yet I needed to know. “She told me she still loves me tonight. Is that the reason—?”
“No, Teo. It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
It was only a minor relief. “Is it why she broke up with me?”
“Yes, and I’m not saying anything else.”
I’d been going over it and over it inside my mind and things weren’t adding up.
“One more thing.” Lifting my gaze, I caught Dustin’s look of disapproval but continued anyway. “That line on her hip, it’s a scar, isn’t it?”
“You shouldn’t have seen that.”
“Dustin, just answer me yes or no,” I forced out through gritted teeth. The thought of anything harming Raine had my anger boiling, and I was barely restraining the explosion that wanted to happen within me.
“Yes.”
Though the confirmation came as no surprise, it didn’t stop it fuelling the anger and making my heart clench in pain. I wanted to smash something—anything—but none of it belonged to me. I resorted to pacing, my breath ragged and heavy.
“Listen to me, Teo. Now’s the time to leave if you can’t deal with all of this. If it’s too much, then go because she won’t remember you being here in the morning. However, if you choose to stay, you had better stay for good. I’m not going to let you give her false hope when she’s finally starting to get better.”
“This is getting better?” It took all of my strength not to roar. I pointed at the door furiously. “How bad was she to begin with?”
He ignored my question, fixing me with a piercing stare. “Are you going or not?”
“I’ve only just got her back, no fucking way am I giving her up again. No matter what has happened to her, I’m not leaving.”
“You had better remember that when all of this shit comes to light.”
* * *
I’d finally dozed off for what felt like minutes when murderous shrieks penetrated my slumber. I bolted up, searching the room for any signs of danger. All I found was Dustin pulling himself up and wiping his face groggily with his hand. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, almost hitting me where I sat on the floor. Dragging on his jeans, he was zipping up the fly when the cries came again, a high-pitched shrill so loud it could shatter glass. The instant my brain connected the dots to realise it was Raine, my breath caught and I scrambled from the sleeping bag. Fumbling with the zipper, I couldn’t get out of it fast enough.
A hand landed on my shoulder and forced me to still. I whirled on Dustin with a snarl, but he remained unmoved.
“Stay here.”
“Why can’t I be there for her?”
Dustin sighed in exasperation. “Do you even know what’s happening?”
My silence was enough of an answer.
“Then let me deal with this. I told you it wasn’t going to be easy, and you chose to stay. She’ll probably have my balls for letting you hear all of this, but you need to know and this is the only way I can think of to prompt her to tell you herself.”
Defeated again by my younger brother, who was going up in my estimations immensely, I sank to the corner of the bed and held up my hands. Not even looking back, Dustin exited the room, pulling the door shut behind him as another scream pierced my eardrums that was followed by a series of pleas. Each one sounded terrified, crumbling my heart a little more in the process.
Even though I wished I could comfort her, I was glad she had Dustin. If this was what she’d been going through for a year, the only positive was Dustin. It did make me want to wring his neck for keeping it from me, yet I understood why. If people could say one thing about my brother, it was that he was loyal to a fault. It was the reason his heart was so vulnerable to being broken.
I lay back on the bed, waiting for Dustin to get back. As the hours passed, it became clear he wasn’t returning, and I couldn’t battle my eyelids to keep them open any longer. Letting them drift closed, I fell asleep to worries over Raine.
Chapter Fourteen
Raine
My head felt like a tank, followed by a herd of stampeding buffalo, had run over it when I woke up the next morning. My eyes were sore and I didn’t need to look in a mirror to know they were puffy—I could feel the swelling already. Beneath me the warm body I was resting my head on groaned and shifted. Instant spikes of guilt speared me in the chest as pieces of the night drifted back to me.
Favourable images of kissing Teo and finally admitting my true feelings were rapidly quashed by all of the events that took place after. Most of it was fuzzy, and sections were missing, but I had enough to remember Dustin carrying me home and crawling in bed beside me after he’d saved me from the group hunting me in my mind.
Carefully sliding out from under Dustin’s arm so as not to wake him, I eased myself off the mattress. He deserved to sleep after everything I’d put him through, no matter how much I wanted to wake him up and apologise profusely. It was only when I’d pulled on my oversized hoodie I realised I could smell something sweet cooking.
A cool shot of trepidation travelled down my spine, making me stand a little straighter. I crossed my fingers, praying it was Nadine who’d come over even though I knew deep down it wasn’t. She’d been partying too hard when I’d seen her, and I could only imagine how much worse she was by the time we left. No doubt she was still in bed either asleep or nursing a pounding hangover.
I inhaled deeply, holding my breath as I crossed the room to the door. I yanked it open and strode straight to the kitchen. Even though I knew it had to be Teo, the sight of him hunched over our tiny cooker still made my steps falter. After everything we’d said and done, I really shouldn’t have been surprised. However, the mortifying end to the night added a whole new dimension to our relationship, leaving me unsure of where we stood with each other.
He must have heard my gasp because he spun to face me. The smile he flashed was tight and there were deep circles beneath his eyes. His hair stuck up in every direction possible, like he’d run his hand through it too many times, and I found myself wanting to smooth it.
“Morning. You hungry?” he asked hesitantly. The intense desire that had filled his voice last night was nowhere to be found. He now gazed at me as if I had a big “approach with caution” sign stapled to my head.
“What are you making?”
He stepped away from the hob so I could see, and my eyes widened in surprise, the corners of my lips tilting up as my mouth began to water.
“You remember?”
“Of course. I take it you still like blueberry pancakes?”
I looked at him like he was stupid. “Do you really have to ask?”
That drew a more genuine smile from him. “No, you’ve always had a sweet tooth.”
He turned back to the pancakes and I retrieved a bottle of orange juice from the fridge, pouring two glasses while he plated up the food. We moved to the sofa in the living room, where I placed the glasses on the coffee table and Teo handed me a plate.
“Thanks.”
It was stupid, but I couldn’t prevent the regret from making my expression droop and the sigh escaping my lips. I hadn’t had blueberry pancakes since the day before Teo and I broke up. It was what he cooked for me every Sunday morning when we were together, and I hadn’t been able to touch them since. I had tried once, and the wave of sadness it had cast over me was enough en
couragement to never try again.
“What’s wrong, baby?”
I peered up at him through my lashes with a weak smile and held back the tears. “I’ve missed your pancakes.”
“Was that all you ever liked me for? My cooking skills?”
“That and your takeout ordering skills.”
“Can’t argue with that. No one can order takeout quite like me.”
I laughed and returned my gaze to my plate, finally cutting off the first piece of pancake and bringing it up to my lips. As soon as the buttery, melt-in-your-mouth flavour hit my tongue, I moaned and closed my eyes to savour the taste.
“Are you sure that’s all that’s bothering you?” Teo asked.
Glancing up at him, it surprised me to see he’d already devoured one pancake. When the silence dragged on, Teo’s mouth tightened into a grim line.
“I saw everything last night, Raindrop.”
“Oh?”
“Really? Is that all you’re going to say?”
I placed my cutlery on my plate, the metal clanging. “What do you want me to say, Teo?”
“How about an explanation?”
For a moment I allowed the silence to linger, considering whether I really could tell him the truth. Teo wasn’t some random person. I’d known him most of my life, and we’d dated for two years. However, something still held me back. Telling him may not have affected his racing at that moment in time, yet it would have had other drastic consequences. I wanted nothing more than for everything to be out in the open. But how do you tell the person you love you left them because you share a twisted past with their biggest rival?
I knew Teo better than he knew himself. If he ever found out what had happened to me, he’d stop at nothing until the people responsible paid for their actions. Anger would consume him if the truth came to light, and I couldn’t allow that.
