Raine Falling (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club)

by Marinaro, Paula

  Our grandmother had loved to knit. I remember holding my hands out and apart so she could slip skeins of yarn around them. Then I would help her wrap that yarn into a ball to be used later. My father’s laugh had been easy around her, and my mother smiled when she saw me sitting on Gram’s lap.

  Even though it would be another three or four years before my little life turned me into an official watcher, instinctively I had known at even that young age that my grandmother had secrets. And those secrets came from only good places. Secrets like how her house always smelled like warm vanilla, and how she had a magic closet that always contained an arrival gift for me. How when she put her hand on my mother’s tummy, she knew that the baby was going to be a girl. She had been sure that the baby girl would have the exact same shade of blue eyes that the three of us had. Jack, Gram, and I all had those eyes.

  I loved her and had never felt safer than when I was with her. I think we all felt that way. Being with Gram just made things better. She died of a stroke a month before my sister was born. Jack and Maggie named the new baby Claire after her.

  I remembered walking into that house after Jack died. Everything just the way Gram had left it. I had felt the little house wrap its arms around me. I had. I really had. Despite the somewhat remote location, I always felt safe in the house at the end of a long dirt road, with its overgrown garden and creaky porch steps. I had loved the house and it had loved me back. I had never really felt the need to make it my own because, with Gram’s things there, it had felt like a safe haven.

  Until the day when it didn’t. When nowhere seemed safe to me any longer. But that hadn’t been the little house’s fault. It had done its best. Now as crazy as I knew it would sound if I gave voice to it, the house didn’t seem glad to see me back. If nothing else, with its overflowing mail and its dying flowers and its closed curtains, it seemed to be screaming, Stay away.

  Something felt different about the house. Something was different. I couldn’t place my finger on it, but it was something besides the dried flowers and the overflowing mail. Or maybe I was just overwhelmed and overwrought and paranoid. That could definitely be it. I let it go and searched in my purse to get the keys. Damn. Since I hadn’t driven my own car in a while I hadn’t remembered to bring my set of keys.

  “Damn it,” I said out loud.

  “Problem?” Reno asked.

  “Yeah, I forgot my keys.”

  “Good thing we drove six hours to get here then,” he snickered.

  Reno, the dickhead, was back. I was actually kind of relieved.

  Claire leaned forward from the back seat and said, “We used to leave a key in the shed behind the house, remember?”

  Reno turned around and winked at my sister. “Good girl.” He smiled.

  Holy shit. Reno was either trying to annoy me, or he had a hard-on for my little sister. I really hoped he was trying to annoy me.

  Claire looked uncomfortable. Just then my cell rang. I looked at the number and it was Prosper. Smiling, I handed the phone to Claire.

  “Hello?”

  I watched as her eyes turned bright with tears and she whispered, “Been a long time, Prosper.”

  I decided to leave them to their conversation while I went to the backyard shed in search of the keys to the house.

  “Be right back,” I said to Reno. “I’ll go around the back and open the front door. When Claire gets done talking to Prosper she can come in.”

  He took a look at the house. “What’s up with the mail falling out all over the place? Didn’t you put a stop on that shit?”

  “Yeah, that is kind of weird. Maybe that’s what came in before I put a stop on it. Anyway, no one ever comes down here. I’ll be right back to open that door.”

  “I’ll come with.” Reno was moving to get out of the car.

  “No. Why?” I was opening the car door.

  “White-on-rice.” Reno was moving to shut off the car.

  I touched his hand to stop him from turning off the ignition. Then I pulled it back fast, realizing what I had done.

  “Don’t turn off the car. Let Claire relax in the air conditioning and finish her conversation,” I said.

  I turned to watch her. She was speaking in her quiet way with a small smile of wonder on her face. I knew that Prosper had put her on speaker and Pinky was joining the conversation. She saw me and raised her index finger to indicate that she would be just a moment longer. I shook my head to tell her to take her time and pointed to the house. She nodded her understanding. Then Claire was back to answering and asking questions.

  Reno took a minute to assess the situation. Things seemed cool with the house. When he looked in his rearview, Raine’s little sister was smiling into the phone. It had been a long day waiting. That was for sure. Reno put his head back on the headrest. He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the quiet noise of Claire’s soft voice talking into the phone.

  After what seemed like half of a second, he felt someone lightly shake him.

  “Reno?”

  It was Claire. Reno jerked awake and looked at the dash clock. A little over twenty minutes had passed since he closed his eyes, and Raine had gone into the house.

  “Yeah?” Reno was turning off the car.

  “Where’s Raine?” Claire asked.

  “Went in the house when you were on the phone,” Reno answered.

  “Yeah, I know that. But I thought she said she would be out in a minute. Seems more than a minute. I’ve been on the phone a while,” Claire said.

  “What she said was she was gonna find the keys and open the front door for you.”

  He had his hand on the door and was getting ready to open it.

  “Front door hasn’t been opened.” Claire had her hand on the door handle too.

  Reno got out first. Claire looked at the house. As much as Raine had tried to keep things from her, Claire had grown up in the same exact environment. Actually, things had been harder for Claire in some ways because she had that much less time with their mother and the quasi-home-life stability having a mother had provided.

  From an early age, Claire had watched Raine watch people. Raine seemed to have a natural instinct of knowing the good from the bad. Claire knew that and trusted Raine implicitly. Claire loved her with all her heart.

  Claire had also grown up being terrified of losing Raine. Terrified of losing her. So while Raine was watching for secrets, Claire had been watching for anything in a situation that was out of place or looked like it didn’t belong or could be a danger sign for Raine. Claire had been the one to find both loaded guns that their father had hidden in the house.

  Claire had been the one who had secretly gone to Prosper. She told him she was having nightmares when her mother was dying, even though she wasn’t. She had done that because even at the age of four-and-a-half, she had known that their home was becoming a place that wasn’t safe for her and Raine. Claire had also known that it had been important that somebody besides her small self knew that. After that, Prosper stayed at the house every night until their mother died. It was Claire who had done that. Claire had been looking after Raine in that way, almost as long as Raine had been looking after Claire. Only nobody knew it.

  Raine had handed the cell to Claire at the same time they pulled up to the front of the house. Claire had felt instantly that something was off. But then her sister had given her the phone and Prosper was on it. Claire had been swept back to another time and place upon hearing his voice. She had stopped paying attention.

  Now she did a full sweep of the house with her eyes.

  It was the curtains.

  They were never, ever closed. Gram had fitted the large front windows with three pieces of beautiful stained glass. Their grandfather had bought them at an auction. They filled up the front parlor window panes with jeweled shades of glittering crystal. When the sun shone through them,
the colors danced like a soft kaleidoscope against the dark paneling on the walls. In the evening you couldn’t see through them to the inside of the house even if the interior lights were on. The curtains on either end were really just to frame the stained glass and were never pulled.

  They were pulled now.

  Claire jerked open her door. She made a run past Reno towards the side gate that led to the back of the house.

  Claire felt an iron band wrap itself around her waist, lift her off the ground, and toss her about five steps back. The iron band stayed on her until she regained balance.

  “What’s got you running like a bat out of hell towards the house, Sugar?”

  Reno was standing too close to her. She stepped back. She pointed to the curtains.

  “Those are never closed, ever.”

  Reno’s eyes followed Claire’s shaking arm to look at what she was pointing at.

  “Never?” He raised a brow and was reaching for something in the waistband at the back of his pants.

  “Never!” Claire said with all the urgency she felt.

  “Get in the car.” Reno had a gun in his hand and was turning towards the back of the house.

  “I’m coming with.” Claire started to move with him.

  Reno turned on her, his face screwed up with frustration. Claire held her ground, but her face paled.

  “Raine might be in trouble.”

  Exasperated, Reno reflexively raised his free hand to run it through his hair. When he did this, Claire knew he was going to hit her.

  Claire recoiled. She moved her head back and out of the way quickly. But with great effort, she stood her ground.

  What the fuck was that flinching shit all about? Reno wondered.

  Claire colored, looked towards the house, and began walking quickly that way.

  Reno started to grab her arm, then thought better of it. So he stood in front of her instead.

  “You’re wasting valuable time, little sister. If Raine’s in trouble, I’m handling it. You being there, you’d just be in my way. Something else for me to worry about.” Reno stood his ground. “If I’m not outta there in five, you get the fuck out of here and press four on the cell. That’ll get you right to Prosper. You let him know what’s going on. You know how to drive a stick?”

  Claire nodded. Reno threw her the keys. “You feeling me, Claire? It goes bad, you get your little ass outta here.”

  Claire flushed but didn’t move.

  Jesus, her and her fucking sister. Never listened, neither of them.

  “Now move and get in the fucking car, Claire, or I’m going to change my mind. Then I’m going to pick you up and lock you in the damn trunk.”

  Reno took a step towards her.

  Claire moved quickly to the car. Reno threw the cell to her. Then he sprinted to the back of the house.

  CHAPTER 47

  I had left Claire and Reno in the car together, hoping it wasn’t a bad idea. Not sure what Reno was up to or if he was really up to anything. It could be that he had just been in a bad mood for the past month, and the six-hour trip to pick up my pretty little sister had turned that all around for him. Fat chance.

  Perhaps if I hadn’t been concentrating so hard on the perils of leaving Claire with Reno alone together in the car for what I thought was going to be five minutes tops, I would have paid more attention. I moved through the backyard, past the overgrown garden that looked parched and needed weeding. A flash of guilt shot through me. I made a promise that I would spend some time before we left to harvest some of the crops that were dying on the vines. Then I would give the rest of the plants a good soaking.

  I entered the cool, dark shed. It took me a few moments to locate the key. I knew it was hanging on a hook against one of the walls but there were several lines of shelves. They all held gardening trappings. There was potting soil and peat moss on the bottom shelves. The middle shelves contained seed starter flats, stakes, and spools of twine. The top shelves contained a variety of terra-cotta pots. Against the back wall hung a hose, a few spades, shovels of varying lengths, and two steel rakes. I checked quickly behind each of the tools in the back first and came up with nothing. Then I found it. The key that was hanging on a rusty hook behind the terra-cotta pots.

  I grabbed it and a pretty pot that I thought I would bring back to Pinky. I silently thanked Claire. It was uncanny, Claire always seemed to know where things were or if something was out of place. She was really observant about things like that. Someday I was going to ask her how she did it. For now I was going to get myself in the house and make some iced tea for Claire and me. And Reno, too, I supposed.

  I walked towards the kitchen door with my head down, being careful not to step on any of the vegetables that were sitting heavy on the dirt. I pulled open the screen door, still deep in thought. When I went to put the key to the lock, the door swung open, and I was pulled inside. The pot I was holding crashed on the cement steps, and the door slammed shut behind me.

  CHAPTER 48

  Reno saw the broken pot on the steps as he rounded the corner. His gun was drawn, and he was holding it with both hands for a steady aim. If what was going down in that house was what he thought might be going down, he was going to shoot to kill.

  “FUCKING WHORE!” Gino had grabbed me by the hair and was dragging me across the floor.

  Sweet Jesus! That hurt. I clawed at his hands trying to stop him. He let up only to hit me hard across the face and then pulled harder. I was forced to raise my ass off the floor and do a bad imitation of a crab walk. I knew if he kept dragging my limp body by the hair he was going to rip my scalp apart.

  Sweet Lord in heaven. How in the hell had I found myself in the hands of this madman again?

  As he dragged me across the house, I reached with one hand into my pocket for my cell.

  Nothing!

  Damn it! I left my cell in the car with Claire. Gino picked me up under my armpits and threw me on the couch. Then he sat down heavy next to me. The room was unnaturally dark, and I noticed then that the curtains had been drawn. That was it. The damn curtains had been drawn. How had I missed that?

  You dumbass!

  “What the fuck did you tell them, Raine?” Gino sneered at me. He still had a tight hold on my hair, and I saw that he was clutching a gun in his free hand. He forced me to look at his face. He was a mess. He had a red, raw Frankenstein-stitched gash that ran from the top of his hairline diagonally across his face to the tip of his mouth. He also had two black eyes and his nose had been broken. Somebody had hurt Gino badly.

  I heard something squeak in the corner. I turned to see the blonde who had been Gino’s girl and who had stopped him from cracking my skull open. Seems he hadn’t appreciated the gesture because she was trussed up like a Christmas ham. She had silver duct tape on her mouth, and her mascara was running down her face. Her hands were tied behind her back. Her legs were tied tight with some kind of cord at the ankles. She was bound to one of Gram’s dining room chairs. A clump of hair was missing from the side of her head and one of her eyes was swollen shut. She was trying to say something.

  “Shut up, cunt!” Gino screamed at her.

  She shook her head and tried to talk through the tape.

  He pulled me with him as he lunged towards her. He got close to her face and yanked the silver tape off her mouth. A thin layer of skin came off with it, and her lips began to bleed.

  “What the fuck could you possibly have to say, bitch?” Gino’s eyes were crazy and he kept wiping his nose. I noticed white powder stuck to his nostrils. Gino was higher than a kite. That and the adrenaline that had to be coursing through his veins made him one dangerous man.

  “I keep telling you, Gino. Nobody told anybody anything. Why are you dragging her into this?” Her voice sounded raspy and weak.

  Then her voice got softer. “You know I always look out for y
ou, baby. Let her go. We don’t need her coming between us. Me and you’ll work this out. You know I know how to keep you safe. Let her go, honey. We’ll get out of here and start all over again. You know how good I can make it between us, daddy.”

  Gino looked suspiciously at her. “I don’t know.”

  The blonde squirmed in her seat and thrust out her chest.

  “Come on, daddy. You know you want your baby girl,” the blonde said huskily.

  Ick. Ick. Ick.

  “You fucking hit me with a fucking gun butt. Then I woke up and you and this bitch here was gone.” Gino was oozing spittle from the side of his mouth, but his eyes were now on the blonde’s boobs. Full on.

  He pulled my hair harder to punctuate his point.

  “You know how jealous I get, daddy.” The blonde oozed sweetly, “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was just pissed seeing you with another woman.”

  “The bitch stole something from me.” Gino’s voice was getting whiny now.

  “I know, baby. We’ll get it back.”

  “Then some motherfucker trashed my house. Asswipes following me around. Parking their fucking bikes in front of my house. Asking Gianni about me. Now fucking Gianni wants me dead. Seems like somebody told him I beat women. Seems like somebody told him I rape women. They fucking broke my nose, cocksuckers. Then they fucking took a knife to me. Now they are looking to kill me.”

  He was saying this all in a sing-song voice. He was still holding on to my hair, but he seemed to have forgotten about me for a moment. His eyes hungry on the blonde’s tits.

  “They make me do it. Stupid fucking cunts make me hurt them. I don’t want to. I didn’t want to hurt you either, Glory.” Tears were streaming down Gino’s face now.

  How creepy. Soooo creepy.