by Kat Kenyon
As the rain comes down, my shift ends and I’m still waiting for the next shift, ready to chew off an arm if I don’t get food soon, so when I see Beth come through the door, I’m not thrilled to see her, so much as I’m happy to see her.
Ignoring whatever weird thing she’ll say or do, I don’t wait for her to settle in, I just wave at her and yell bye, rushing to cover the long distance and get food before class starts.
The deli is packed and warm, and it takes forever to get my wrap and bottle of water. With no chance to even crack my water, I don’t have time to run around the two giant stone quads, but I know I can cut between the buildings and cut my time.
Stuffing the bottle into the outer mesh section of my bag, I grimace at the rain. The grass I have to cut across is high and soaked, and my flats are fabric. Not that it makes much of a difference, given I walked out my door with only a thin skirt to change into this morning. I’m such an idiot.
I am not going to be late on the first day.
“Fuck it.”
Heading for the small gap between the two buildings Bay and I cut between all the time, the grass scratches against the top of my feet, soggy from days of rain. The concrete of the sidewalk is a welcome relief from the muddy mess that now clings to the bottom of my shoes.
Turning into the alley, it’s narrow and is only accessible by the small golf carts that campus staff run around in. The buildings block some of the wind, and even today it’s the perfect shortcut between where Bay and I lounge around in the grass on nice days and the rows of individual college buildings.
Not lounging today.
With the dark clouds and the tall buildings, the alley is gloomy, but I’m practically jogging, not that it’ll make a difference. My skirt and shoes are already saturated.
Wet shoes are so gross.
The squish is so nasty. I’m almost sorry I didn’t pick being late when I have to slow down because there’s a shattered window all over the ground.
Tiptoeing around it and moving my way around other debris, I’m only halfway down the alley when I feel a heaviness thicken the air. Then a crack of thunder hits, and the sky opens wide.
Great, I’m gonna get hit by a downpour.
I’m about to run for it, when a sharp pain blasts into me. The blow to the side of my head is sight-stealing for a split second, and knocks me into the brick wall, making me drop my bag and my wrap.
Before I can breathe, I’m forced against the wall, my skin tearing against the rough surface as a hand snaps my face around.
“You made me do this. I wasn’t a monster until you made me one. You fucking changed me, Rayne!”
I try to scream. He punches me so hard I almost black out. I feel something get stuck down my throat right before his hand goes up my skirt.
I panic.
The thunder cracks again, and I fight. Hard. Trying to scream.
He hits the back of my head, slamming my cheek against the side of the building again right as I see a crack of lightning.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Tyler Blackman
My phone will not stop going off. I have the damn thing on vibrate, but even then, it’s noticeable. Whoever it is, wants me now.
It better not be my fucking dad.
Not the best impression for my first day, but I have a whole semester to make it up, so I stand with my bag and sneak out as it vibrates again. When I get out to the hall, I pull out my phone and see ten texts from Vin, texts from Tate, and calls from both, as well as calls from Tegan. All since eleven.
Why the fuck are they calling me for two hours?
Vincent…
He’s supposed to be in class with Rayne at eleven…So, why the fuck is he calling me?
No. No…no…no…
I press her number and wait.
Come on, pick up.
She shouldn’t be in class right now, and it’s still fucking ringing. Voicemail.
Come on, baby. Come on, baby, pick up!
I try again. Voicemail. My hands shake as my phone rings again. It’s Vin.
“Where is she?”
“She never showed. Ty, we can’t find her!” He sounds scared, and he should be.
I already know what’s happened.
They were supposed to keep him off campus!
“Keep looking.” I hang up on him and call Tate.
“Did you call campus police?” I ask, the phone shaking against my ear as I race down the stairs.
Her tears tell me she knows what I do. “Yeah, they said they’d keep an eye out.”
“Which means they aren’t looking.” I know they don’t care, they never have.
“Right.” She hiccups.
Fuck, just fuck!
“Have you talked to Kinnerk? Maybe he has an idea.” My hand slams into the staircase door.
“No, when the CP blew me off, I just started searching.”
“Talk to Kinnerk,” I tell her, racing out of the building. “Call Bay, the two of them have been all over this campus together. If anyone else knows where she might be, it’ll be him.”
“Okay.”
I hang up on her. I’m running, heading to the dean’s office. He’s going to get the CP moving.
I know she didn’t skip class. Which is what I tell the dean.
I remind him this problem festered under his watch. This is his fault, and he’d better find her—He’d better, or else the threat backed by my granddad’s name will be carried out.
He let him stay. He let him off, and now she’s missing.
It only takes minutes for him to call the CP and order them to search, and I have a new message from Tate that Bay recommends looking between the applied arts and computer sciences buildings. It’s a shortcut they use.
I message back that I’ll check that, while he checks the parking lots. The fucking rain and thunder are ridiculous as I run, and I hope I’m wrong.
I hope we’re all wrong. But I know we’re not.
She’s out here somewhere.
When I come up on the alley Bay mentioned, I notice only a few classroom lights lit on the first floor. There’s a dumpster and some large deliveries stacked against the brick walls. I don’t see anything. I see some glass reflecting a quick flash of lightning.
Please no…
Reflecting the same light is a shoe. A silver cloth flat.
Oh God…
I’m moving.
Under piles of cardboard. Her face is torn and bleeding. Her hair…
Fuck, there’s so much blood!
When I check to make sure she’s still breathing, she whimpers inaudibly.
“Baby.” My heart stops when she doesn’t move. “Baby, it’s me.”
Cold skin under my hands looks torn up when I slowly touch her. “Rayne.”
Torn lips open soundless in the rain. Cut lids squeeze, tears mixing with the blood running down her face as she tries to say my name.
“Don’t talk. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
Knowing I have to pick her up, I look to check to see where else she’s hurt, and realize it’s worse.
Much worse.
Her torn skirt and the bloody underwear under her.
I almost throw up.
I’m going to fucking kill him. Once she’s safe…
But right now, I take off my hoodie and wrap it around her, then I call the only person on campus I trust right now.
“Kinnerk, I have her, but it’s bad, man,” I choke out as tears start.
“How bad?”
“I’m going to fucking prison. What do I do? What’s my next step? She’s not really conscious.”
“Has she been raped?”
His question is quietly horrified and doesn’t come close to the reality. My throat closes while I struggle not to vomit.
And it happened to her, not me, her!
“Whatever you do, don’t go to campus police or to the campus clinic. Campus police are here to protect the fucking college, not her. They haven’t done shi
t before, and they won’t start now. This’ll get buried. It’s against policy, but take her straight to the hospital. Make it Metro. I’m calling ahead. I have a friend there.”
I hang up and leave everything but my keys and my phone. When I wrap my arms around her, she flips out, trying to fight back blind. I whisper in her ear to keep her calm, promising I’m here.
She’s not aware, but she isn’t completely knocked out either.
My beautiful doll is so broken.
I struggle to see through tears that won’t stop on our way to the truck. I carry her all the way. I don’t stop. I know my hand hurts, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t talk to anyone, and if anyone got in my way right now…I’m homicidal.
I’m able to cover her with a throw in the backseat of the truck for the ride to the hospital. It takes thirty minutes. Thirty minutes where she cries out for me. For me to come. For him to stop. Or just screams, that rip me apart with her.
It only gets worse when I pull into the ER and they try to touch her, and she shrieks. Her eyes aren’t open, but she knows it isn’t me. I struggle with my cast to get her out without too much damage to either one of us. I’m not going to let anyone upset her more than is absolutely necessary.
“Tyler?” A small black woman in a nurse’s uniform waves me in and directly to a bed.
“I’m Evie. Michael’s friend. I don’t do check-in, but he asked that I meet you and stick with you tonight.”
And she does.
She gets us through the paperwork and guides us back to an exam room. It’s a torturous process for someone who’s been beaten and is in horrible pain, and I want to scream the entire time.
When I ease Rayne onto the exam table, it’s the first time I’ve put her down since we’ve arrived. As soon as I do, her eyes pop open and she panics. Her hands, just as damaged as the rest of her, flail, searching for me. Not focused. She’s trapped inside her head.
Our tears are endless.
She fought him. She wouldn’t look like she does if she hadn’t. She fought then, and I’m going to make sure she keeps fighting. I won’t let him break her, and I won’t ever leave her.
“Shh.” I gently touch her grasping hands and she latches on to me. I know she hears me because she calms down. “Baby.”
I break, as she tries to crawl into me. Taking a big breath, I gently move my hands to the battered face I love so much.
“Rayne.”
Finally, her eyes focus on mine. Not incoherent. Not lost in her mind. Much, much worse, and my heart shatters with hers. I feel her horror and fear.
“Hold on tight, I’m here.”
“He…” Her tortured cry dies off, eyes squeezing shut.
I press a whisper of a kiss against her forehead. “I don’t give a fuck what he did, you’re mine, you’ll always be mine.”
“Tyler.” Her broken voice and broken hands reach for me.
“I’m yours. Always yours.”
Chapter Forty
Rayne Mathews
I answer when they ask.
I let them take the samples.
As long as Tyler holds me.
As long as he doesn’t leave.
When the officers try to make him leave, I lose track. My hands are bandaged when I find him wrapped around me again. He’s rocking me and whispering in my ear, “Don’t you dare give up on me. You aren’t dead, and you won’t die. You aren’t allowed to go. You belong to me. You’re mine. Mine, Rayne!”
I feel his tears on my shoulder. He’s shaking behind me and it stuns me. This doesn’t feel like life, but he’s right, I’m not dead yet.
“You don’t have to fight if you aren’t ready, so I’ll fight for you,” he promises, his lips gently brushing my hair.
Pain shoots through my fingers and up my arms as I clench his forearms and squeeze until I lock eyes on him. I let the pain from the damage to my body block out the disgust and dirt.
“I have you,” he whispers.
He came. He came like he promised.
When I thought I’d die, he came.
So, now I’ll try to believe again.
I’ll let him hold on for me.
Chapter Forty-One
Tyler Blackman
She’s sleeping when Mom shows.
It’s been hours, and I didn’t know who else to call. I know I can’t call her mom, and she doesn’t want to see anyone but me. She’s barely holding on.
I didn’t get there in time.
“How is she?” Mom asks. Her whisper sounds like a sonic boom, yet it’s barely louder than the monitors.
I don’t feel like I can speak. Not for myself, let alone her, so I simply shake my head.
Rayne’s IV is pumping her full of fluid, antibiotics, pain meds, sedatives, and God knows what else. I know it had to be done, but the initial attempt was horrifying. She only let them when I asked her to, but asking her to do anything she doesn’t want made me want to purge my insides.
Mom moves to stand at the foot of the bed. “What have they done?”
I know she means well, but this is not a conversation we’re having in here. I kiss Rayne’s hand as I stand and head for the door, and I make sure the sound is as quiet as I can when it closes.
“Honey, you’re a mess!” Her whisper-shout makes me turn on her, but then I look down.
I see why she sounds horrified. My shirt is covered in water-diluted blood.
Her blood.
Proof I failed her.
“Honey, I’m going to get you some clean clothes.” Mom starts shaking and turns away.
“I don’t care.” The way I look means nothing.
The only thing that matters is in the room behind me.
“You can’t stay like that. You’re going to get too cold.”
Mom has tears in her eyes when she looks back, and I can tell she wants something to do, and that’s good. Because I’ve had time to know what I need her to do.
“Mom, if you want to do something for me, then you’ll help her.”
“I’d help her anyway.” Her hand comes to my cheek. “She’s family now.”
“Good.” I can feel all the pieces of my girl in my arms, broken like china, all the shattered, jagged pieces of her mind in my chest. “Call Granddad. I want that son of a bitch and I want the school.” I breathe in her screams and breathe out her tears, even when she’s quiet. “I need a security team on her so when I’m not with her, she knows she’s safe.” I can see her fragmented self in her blue eyes.
I don’t know how to fix that. I didn’t break her, so how do I fix her?
The tears come up again and my body shudders. I don’t have time for this, but I can’t lock it down.
He hurt her so bad!
“We’ll help her. We’ll be here, honey.” Mom’s arms come around me and I need her to hold on to me, so Rayne can hold on to me. She’s the single most important thing in my life. Whatever she needs from me, I’ll do it.
And annihilate anyone else who comes for her.
• • • •
“How’s she doing?”
It took days to get her out of the hospital, and we’ve been here two nights.
Tate calls every day because she loves her, too. She wants to come and check on us, but I told her no. I tell everyone no.
Rayne’s clear about one thing: she doesn’t want to see anyone. At least not yet. She’s okay with the security team as long as she doesn’t see them, but that’s the extent of her ability to deal with people.
She’s letting me take care of everything. She had the attorney Granddad hired for her write up a power of attorney, giving me rights over medical and financial decisions, scaring the shit out of me.
Not that I don’t want to take care of her, I do. It just freaked me out because it seemed like she was giving up, like she can’t make decisions. They finally explained it only applies when she can’t, and she told me she doesn’t trust anyone else. We are what she’s trusting in. I am. So, I signed.
Be
cause she’s mine.
“She’s down by the ocean right now.”
Granddad rented a house with a private beach and security ready before we left the hospital. It was a good thing because news broke and campus became a madhouse. They can keep them out of the buildings, but it’s been impossible to keep them off campus, private property or not.
“It’s cold today, what’s she doing out there?”
“Whatever the fuck she wants,” I snap.
The truth is, I don’t know what she’s thinking. She isn’t talking. It’s to be expected, I guess. I won’t presume to know how she should act.
I mean fuck, her body is still black and blue, ribs broken, her face—God, she’s still in a massive amount of pain. And she was—
If I can barely say it to myself, how the hell is she supposed to deal with it? I won’t be making demands. My only request is she let me take care of her. That’s it. And she’s letting me so…
“Ty, I’m just worried.”
So am I.
“Yeah. Listen, when she’s up to it, I’ll let you know. And thanks.”
Hanging up, I stare out the window at the hunched-over figure in black at the edge of the wet sand.
She goes down there twice a day and just stares. She never wants me to go with her, but when she’s inside, she curls up in my lap and shakes, not letting me get too far away. The nights aren’t any different. She wraps me around her like a blanket against the cold that’s seeping into her.
Each night she asks, “Do you still love me?”
I struggle with how to let her know how much, how to make her feel it. So, I do what she asks. I do what I can, when what I want to do is hunt that fucker down and kill him.
The cops are looking for Gabe but can’t find him. He’s just…gone. His parents aren’t broke, but they don’t have the money to keep him on the run indefinitely.
If the cops don’t find him soon, I’ll find him first.
Chapter Forty-Two
Rayne Mathews
Sliding into the bath, I let the water heat the skin that froze out on the beach. I haven’t felt the weather the last couple days, but I feel…cold.
