“I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich earlier. Rori and I had lunch together. You sure you’re going to be okay?” She watched as Raelin moved slowly towards the stairs and followed. She stopped when a thought occurred to her. “Wait Raelin, does Del know what happened?”
Putting her hand on the banister, Raelin pulled herself up on the first step. “No, my and Jasper’s cell phones were destroyed. We’ll just have to hope that she comes home soon. I’ll talk with you later, okay?” Stubbornly, she made her way up the stairs, stopping often to catch her breath until she was sitting on her bed. Carefully, she pulled off her clothes and got inside of the shower, determined to wash herself clean. Afterwards, she pulled on a comfortable button up shirt and crawled into bed, smelling Del on the sheets. Only then did she give herself permission to cry.
j
Del gripped the steering wheel tightly as she drove, the highway was all but deserted at this hour of the morning, and she was making good time. She’d gotten to New Orleans and headed straight to the F.B.I. headquarters wanting to get in and get out.
After getting through security, she was ushered into an office with the lead agent on the case. She’d explained everything she’d known and they told her they would do what they could to shut it down. She’d told them about Jenny, the drawings, and her own encounters with the townsfolk, giving them a clear picture of the situation.
Once they’d allowed her a break, she’d immediately tried to contact Raelin. Getting no answer, she’d tried Jasper’s phone with the same luck. Her stomach twisted with dread and she knew something was wrong. She’d marched back into the Director’s office, telling them she needed to leave. Something wasn’t right and she needed to get back to Leroy.
They had tried to get her to stay, but she wasn’t having it and finally they’d let her go, as long as she took two agents with her for support. But the Director advised that the agents should follow Delaney’s lead as she was the one most familiar with the situation.
Del glanced to her right and saw that the older agent was sound asleep. He’d introduced himself as Jake Sumners, a senior agent who’d been with the bureau about ten years. He was handsome and well built, but broody and he hadn’t said much since they’d met.
A quick flick of her eyes towards the rear view mirror revealed that the woman in her backseat was also sleeping. She was young, a new agent, but top of her class at the academy. She had introduced herself as Kasey Spaulding and she’d been sharp eyed and ready to go from the beginning. As serious as she’d been at their introduction, her face carried none of the professionalism in her sleep.
Her face was handsome, dark nearly black hair framing porcelain skin, a strong jaw, and high cheekbones. Her eyes were closed now, but Del knew that her dark gaze was sharp, perceptive and felt like it was looking right through you. She’d towered over Del, who’d estimated the agent at least five foot ten, because Del needed to crane her head back just to catch her eyes. She was clearly athletic, with a trim but toned build, and combined with her height and the serious look on her face, she might have been intimidating if Del had been anyone else. Overall, the girl made for a striking sight, but still in Del’s eyes, no one held a candle to her Raelin.
That thought brought her back to the present as the sinking feeling in her stomach intensified. She needed to get back to Raelin. Something wasn’t right and she couldn’t shake the feeling that something had happened to the brunette while she was away.
Pressing the gas a little harder, Del once again concentrated on getting back to her witch as fast as she could.
j
Del swerved to the side of the road in front of Jasper’s shop, startling the two agents out of the sleep they had fallen into. She approached the shop slowly, gun drawn and gently pushed on the door. It was locked, but the window was broken so she reached in carefully and threw the deadbolt. Finally gaining entrance, she motioned to the two agents to follow quietly. She looked around, seeing obvious signs of struggle, furniture had been damaged, tables knocked over and chairs broken.
Seeing a light coming from underneath the office door, she took up a position to the side of it. She motioned for one of the agents to cover her back and for the other to open it. As soon as he did so, Del moved into the room, gun ready. She froze when she saw Jasper at the small sink in the back of room, looking at a cut on his face. “Jasper, what happened here?”
Startled, the man stumbled as he turned around, but the blonde quickly reached out to steady him. “Delaney...you’re back.” Looking over her shoulder, the man smiled as he saw the two agents. “Oh good, you brought help.”
“Yeah, they didn’t give me much choice. What happened? I rushed home when I couldn’t get a hold of you or Raelin,” she paused, that sinking feeling she’d gotten earlier returning; her brows knitting together. “Why couldn’t I get a hold of her? Where is she?”
“She’s at home...now wait a minute.” Jasper held up his hands as Del advanced towards him. “She came to see me with a map and a deed showing that the Kingsleys own most of the town, and evidently have done so for a couple of generations. Anyway, someone saw her come in here, and soon a crowd pushed their way inside, complaining about her hanging out with you and your investigation into Jenny’s disappearance, that an outsider wasn’t welcome. She tried defending you, saying that you were asked by someone to come here, but they didn’t believe her. I backed her up, but they just wanted her blood. They destroyed both our cell phones and hurt her pretty badly before Chief Brito showed up to arrest a couple of them.”
“What the fuck Jasper, you told me you would protect her. I trusted you to keep her safe. Damn it, I never should have left in the first place,” she paced the small office like a caged animal, knowing that this wasn’t the man’s fault, that yelling wasn’t going to fix things. She turned around and looked at the two agents who had accompanied her. “You two stay here. I need to get to the house.”
She rounded on Jasper again, glaring and trying to control the anger she knew was misplaced. “Tomorrow I expect all three of you at Raelin’s house. I want to see those maps, and I want to know exactly why Sam Brito showed up when we all know damned well he was the one that told the townsfolk Raelin was in on everything. Am I clear?”
“I’ll call your cell before we come out. Rae has the papers at her house. She said that she could protect them better there than I could here.” Jasper reached out to touch her arm, but at her glare, thought better of it. “I tried to protect her, but there were so many of them and she kept trying to get outside. She wouldn’t even let me go home with her. I’m truly sorry.”
Del deflated a little, her anger still present, but no longer directed at the man she knew would have done anything in his power to protect an innocent. She felt tears welling up and fought them down, not willing to let the two F.B.I. agents see her break down. “I’m sorry Jasper. I’ve been on edge the whole drive home. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, but for now, I just need to see her. I need to go take care of her. It’s about time someone was there for her...god knows, no one else in this town cares.”
He nodded his head and watched the young woman all but run out of his store. Turning to the two agents who were standing, watching everything, Jasper took a deep breath. “Well come on, you two can bunk in my spare bedroom.”
j
Del paid no regard to the speed limits as she blew through the town. She’d known something was off all afternoon, and not being able to get a hold of either Raelin or Jasper had only further set off her nerves. Pulling into the yard in record time, she jumped out of the Jeep, sprinting for the door, not even willing to take the time to lock her gun away.
Pushing on the door revealed it was locked, and she furrowed her brows. Looking around she tried to think of where a spare key would be stored. She glanced around quickly and spotting a plant on the corner of the porch, she lifted it and found a false bottom. Finding the key, she nearly dropped it as she slid it home; pushing the door open to find that sh
e was greeted by a very angry cat.
“Rori, where is she? The bedroom?”
The cat arched his back, hissing and slowly advanced towards the blonde. He was about to leap when Jenny’s voice stopped him cold.
“It’s not her fault Rori...behave.” Jenny slowly got up from the sofa where she was laying. “Boy, I’m glad you’re back.”
“Jenny, is she okay? I need to see her.” Del was nearly frantic by this point; the lack of sleep and fear of what she would find when she saw Raelin was clouding the logical part of her brain.
Motioning towards the stairs, Jenny winced as she moved towards the blonde. “She’s hurt pretty bad. I think she has a couple of cracked ribs, a black eye, and a split lip. I don’t know if there’s anything more, because she won’t let me near her. She wouldn’t even let Rori in the room. I don’t know how she made it from town, but I heard her fall when she came through the door. That’s how I found out she was hurt. See if you can help her Delaney. Please...this is all my fault.”
Del caught the guilt in the younger woman’s voice, and reached out to hug her gently, minding the damaged ribs of the younger girl. She needed to ground herself before she went up to help her witch. “It’s not your fault. None of this is. They were out for blood and if it hadn’t been Raelin, it would have been me. If anything, I shouldn’t have left. Do you need help getting back to bed?” Del was trying her best not to burst into tears, but falling apart wouldn’t help anyone and knowing her panic and fear would disrupt the energy of the house, she did her best to clamp her emotions down.
“No...go on up. I’ll be here on the sofa with Rori...you take care of Rae.”
Del helped the woman settle, and turned to the stairs. Pausing, she turned to look back at the cat who was still glaring. “I’m sorry Rori, I didn’t mean for this to happen.” Not waiting for a response, she all but ran up the stairs, stopping outside the door to the master bedroom. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm the mix of anger, fear, and guilt raging through her. She’d find who did this and make them wish they’d never met her.
Slowly, she pushed the door open and stepped inside, sucking in a breath when she spotted the brunette in the bed. The room was dark, but the full moon was throwing enough light into the room for Del to make out the swelling of her left eye, and the cut on her lip, stark red against the unusually pale face of her lover.
“You came back,” Rae’s voice floated on the moonlight.
Hearing Raelin’s voice broke her resolve and she moved to the bed. Kneeling next to it, she felt the first tears fall over her cheeks. “I rushed back when I couldn’t get a hold of you. I am so sorry this happened. Did you really think I wouldn’t come back?”
“No...I knew that you would come back, I didn’t know if you would come back for me. Or that you would even want to be with me now.” Raelin’s eyes were dark.
Del felt her chest tighten at the witch’s words, sorrow filling her. “I want nothing more than to be with you. I did before I left, and even more so now that I realized how much I miss you when we aren’t together. The entire time I was away, all I could think about was getting back home as fast as I could. I even agreed to bring two agents back just so I could get out of there faster. I drove like a demon to get back because I was worried when you didn’t answer your phone. They wanted me to stay the night.”
“So you saw Jasper’s?” her voice was barely above a whisper.
“Yes. I stopped there when I saw it trashed. I was in such a hurry to get to you after Jasper told me what happened that I ditched the agents there and broke every traffic law there is to get out here. I was pretty harsh to Jasper. Anyway, we can talk about all of this later. I’m more worried about you. Are you okay?” She so wanted to reach out and comfort Raelin, but she was no longer sure where she stood. Raelin seemed quiet and she knew Raelin was tempering her feelings so that she would have a hard time sensing her mood. Del began to realize that Raelin may very well be blaming her for this whole thing, and knew she’d be right in doing so.
“Where is your gun?”
Del paused a moment, realizing in her haste to get to Raelin, she’d not taken it off as she normally would have when she was at the house. “I’m sorry; I was in such a hurry to get in here that I forgot to lock it in the Jeep. I wasn’t thinking about anything, but getting to you. “
“No, it’s okay. Put it where you can see it, but take it off right now.”
Del nodded and unclipped the holster from her torso, setting it next to her on the floor near the head of the bed. “Is that better?”
“I need to tell you something, and I need you to remain calm. If you can’t, I’ll need you to leave because I won’t be able to handle it.”
“Okay. I’ll do my best.”
“The men...they told me to tell you to get out of town...that if you didn’t…worse things would happen to me.”
Del felt the anger bubble up and had to work very hard to clamp it down for Raelin’s sake. “Who were they?” she asked tightly, her hands clutching handfuls of the comforter on Raelin’s bed.
“The men from Jenny’s drawing, but there’s more I need to tell you and I don’t know how.” Rae almost shrank away from the fury that she felt coming off the blonde.
Del caught Raelin’s retreat and took a deep breath, trying to push back the anger. When she’d gotten it mostly under control, she caught Raelin’s gaze, trying to read anything to prepare for whatever came next. “I’m sorry, I’m trying very hard to stay calm, but you can’t ask me not to be angry when someone I love is hurt. Especially not when there’s something I can do about it. You might as well tell me and get it done with. I can tell by the way you are acting that I’m not going to like it, so I want it out there and done with so I can start taking care of you.”
Raelin stared at her with the one eye unblinking. It was some long moments before she whispered. “They put their hands on me,” she swallowed a couple of times before she continued. “They didn’t rape me, but they went into detail of what they were going to do if you didn’t leave.” Rae’s hand crept out to cover Del’s. “Please don’t leave.”
It took several moments for Del’s brain to actually allow the words to sink in. It took several more before she had tempered the urge to leave right that minute to hunt the bastards down and shoot them. She looked at Raelin’s face, seeing the fear and hurt there and it nearly broke her. ”I can’t promise that. I can only promise that I will never willingly leave you again. I will not leave unless I absolutely have to and only as a last resort. If it’s the only thing I can possibly do to keep you safe, then I need to take that chance. I love you Raelin and I can’t bear the thought of anything else happening to you.”
“If you can push the hate and the guilt aside, I would really like for you to get into bed, but if you can’t, I need to ask you to sleep in the other room.” Raelin held her breath, hoping that the blonde would be able to work through her emotions so that she could help her start healing.
Del closed her eyes, pushing away the anger and letting the love she felt for this woman come forward. She remembered how she felt that very morning, waking up to next to Raelin and knowing there was nowhere she would rather be. Letting out the breath she’d sucked in, she pushed the negative emotions away with it, until only her concern, love, and the need to make Raelin better remained. “Okay, I’m all right now. I’m going to get undressed and crawl carefully in next to you; tell me if it hurts okay? I’m going to try not to jostle you or anything.” Del quickly shed her clothes, using the time to further calm her thoughts.
Returning to the bed, she pulled the sheets away, and slowly slid in next to Raelin, being careful not to press her weight against the injured woman. She slid a careful arm across Raelin’s waist, her hand resting on a firm stomach, pressed her nose into dark curls, and placed gentle kisses against her head.
Raelin held her breath as she watched the blonde rid herself of the anger and guilt, then released it as Del got undressed and
climbed in bed behind her. As Del’s arm settled around her waist the brunette allowed herself to relax for the first time since the attack. Just the simple act of the detective holding her was replenishing the spent power that Rae had used to block Jasper from seeing the attack. The guilt the man would have had would be too much for him.
Threading her fingers with Del’s, Rae sighed, “I love you.”
Del closed her eyes, resting her chin against the crown of Raelin’s head. She felt Rae relax against her, probably for the first time since she’d been attacked. She buried her nose into dark waves, letting the smell of the witch’s shampoo soothe her. Feeling Raelin’s fingers entwine with her own she squeezed them affectionately. ”I love you too Darlin’. Rest now, we can talk more in the morning if you want. The only thing I want you worrying about is getting better. I’ll be right here beside you all night, keeping you safe. So relax. Go to sleep love. I’ll still be here in the morning,” Del whispered, her thumb rubbing small circles against Raelin’s stomach.
Rae was glad that the detective couldn’t see the tears running down her face as she felt Del’s love surround her. She laid in silence for a long while, listening to breathing of someone that she thought she would never find. Del’s gentle breath tickled the hair on her neck, and that along with her gently rubbing her thumb over Rae’s knuckles, gave the witch courage to speak.
“Jasper doesn’t know everything that happened.” Rae swallowed to get the lump out of her throat. “When I realized what was happening, I blocked what he could see, because he wouldn’t be able to handle the guilt of not being able to protect me.”
Del was quiet for a moment, thinking over what her next words would be. ”He already feels bad. I’m not sure I helped much when I lost my temper with him. He cares a great deal for you Raelin,” she paused a moment, realizing that Raelin probably already knew what she was going to tell her, but was likely waiting for the blonde to tell her first. “He’s F.B.I. you know. He sent me to New Orleans to get help from the Bureau. I came back here with two agents. They stayed with Jasper at the shop.”
Insight Page 19
