Chapter 3
RAELYNN
It had been a couple of hours since Butch had found out Rae was partially deaf. Things hadn’t changed much at all. He was still looking at her with the most tender eyes, like he had when they were in high school.
I don’t care that you’re deaf in one ear and partially in the other.
That was what the note he had given her had said when she asked to leave again. How he knew what she was thinking was beyond her. But Rae still needed to leave so Edmund didn’t find her and him together, and Butch ended up dead.
She needed to protect him at all costs.
Butch waved his hand in the air, gaining her attention. He held a whiteboard and quickly wrote on it before turning it around.
You always wear your emotions on your face. Me finding out about this doesn’t change anything. I still want you.
Raelynn re-read those last four words over and over. Did he mean he still wanted her like they had been when they were in high school?
They had dated back then in secret. She had been the happiest girl ever, but then he had given the news that he was joining the Springfield Sinners and would come back to visit and take her away when she graduated from high school.
A bunch of horse shit, if anyone asked her. He never did, and she had been thankful when she had broken up with him before he left, no matter how much it had hurt.
But she hadn’t done it for herself, but for him. He was about to be on the road a ton, and she didn’t want him to be tied down to her. No matter how much he explained that it didn’t matter, and he would always want her, she had still broken up with him.
That was when he’d promised he would come back in a year to take her home with him, whether or not she had a boyfriend.
She didn’t, but he never came, and then she was thrust into Edmund’s house with no means of escaping.
How did this happen?
She sighed and shook her head. There was no way she was going to tell him.
I want to know what happened. I want to know who it was so I can go after them.
And that was why she didn’t want him to find out. What was he going to do to Edmund? There was no way he would be able to touch Edmund without landing himself in jail for the rest of his life.
Little Fairy, I want to know.
Her eyes fluttered shut after she read the nickname he had given her all those years ago when life had been so much different.
Rae desperately wanted to hear those words from his mouth just one more time. It had been her dream since he’d, but she never expected it to actually happen.
Something she thought would never happen since she had lived with Edmund.
“Can I please just leave?” she asked for the tenth time. “I really need to go before he finds me or figures out that I’m with you.”
Butch shook his head once again. It was the same thing over and over again. She would ask the question, and he would always tell her no. She had hoped that with her asking so many times, he would finally give up and allow her to leave, but that hadn’t happened yet.
“Butch, please,” she begged. “I need to leave.”
He wrote on the whiteboard and held it up for her.
You aren’t leaving until you tell me who did this. I want a name, and I want to know everything he did to you. Then I’ll consider allowing you to leave.
Rae clenched her teeth together as she took inhaled through her nose. She was getting nowhere with Butch, but what did she expect? He had been very stubborn in high school, and it didn’t seem like it had changed.
Butch’s head turned, alerting her that something was happening behind her.
She hated this. She hated that she trusted Butch to keep her safe right off the bat, but she still had the itching sensation to be on guard.
It took everything in her not to move to the corner of the room so she could see everyone and anyone who came in.
It would require her to get out of bed, and Butch was sitting right next to her, so she couldn’t. She had tried several times, and he always positioned his body so she couldn’t get off. It was frustrating as hell. All she wanted to do was yell at him, but she held back each time.
Rae didn’t know how he was going to react, and she didn’t want him to do something bad and taint her memories of him.
The doctor walked around the bed and stood next to Butch, grabbing the whiteboard.
How long have you been deaf in one ear?
She sighed. “Three years, I think.”
She watched their faces closely as she said those words. Rae wasn’t expecting them to look so shocked, nor was she expecting the anger on Butch’s face.
And you’ve never had any type of assessment to see whether you could get anything to help you hear?
Raelynn shook her head. “Never. He wouldn’t pay for it.”
She hated saying those words, but she had been at his mercy for years. With no job and unable to go outside, she didn’t have any money to her name. The little she had when she escaped was what she had stolen over time.
Butch started talking to the doctor, and Rae tried to catch what he was saying, but he wasn’t facing her, so she could only make out insignificant words.
“Wa-wait,” she stuttered, fear coursing through her.
What were they talking about? Why did they both look so angry?
Butch glanced over at her, and his face dropped every trace of anger.
“What are you saying?” she found herself asking, hoping they would be honest with her.
Butch took the whiteboard from the doctor and started writing. Rae twisted her hands in front of her as nerves took over. What was he going to say?
She had never felt this way before in front of Butch, but it had been eight years since she had last seen him, and she didn’t know how much had changed. Was he the same boy she knew before, who was a man now, or had he changed drastically?
I was telling him that I want to find whoever did this to you and make him pay.
Her mouth hung open as she read the words, not expecting him to say that. Rae thought he would agree with Edmund or be mad at her for allowing this to happen.
The doctor took the whiteboard back.
How did you lose your hearing?
Rae shook her head. There was no way she was telling them that information. With how Butch just reacted to Edmund refusing to take her to the doctor… She didn’t know how he was going to react to how she lost her hearing.
We can pull your medical history if you would prefer.
“It won’t be on there,” she whispered and winced when a murderous look crossed Butch’s face again.
It was the same one Edmund would have when she didn’t hear everything he had said. The same one as whenever she got dinner wrong or how he wanted a certain thing done in the house; it never ended well for her.
What do you mean it won’t be on there? Butch wrote.
“I wasn’t seen in the hospital,” she replied, looking at her lap. It was leaving her in a vulnerable state, but she couldn’t bear to see their faces and what they were thinking. “He had a friend check up on me. A doctor.”
Rae never enjoyed it when his friends came over.
Sometimes, he would allow them to get in on the abuse.
There had been way too many times when she thought she was going to die.
If his doctor friend was there, he made sure she never got close to dying and would pump her with all sorts of drugs to help.
The whiteboard appeared next to her hands as Butch held it.
I want to know his name. Full name and address.
Her head snapped up, and she groaned as it started to throb. She was going to be sick if she kept this up. Butch grabbed a bowl and held it under her face, giving her an encouraging look.
“Use,” was all she managed to hear as he talked.
Rae shook her hands and pushed the bowl away. If she was going to puke, she would find herself in the bathroom before she could do it anywhere else.
You’re still the same. Thinking about having to clean the bowl after being sick.
Tears pricked her eyes as she read those words from Butch. He remembered her aversion to puking in anything but the toilet because growing up, she was the one who had to clean it up afterward, and it would only make her throw up again.
You won’t have to clean it up, so use it. I’m going to take care of you from now on.
Raelynn was quick to wipe away the tears that streamed down her face. It didn’t look like he had changed at all, but she couldn’t help but feel a little worried. Worried that he was putting on a show so she would trust him, and then he would do something to hurt her.
“I’m okay. I don’t need anyone to take care of me. I’ve been doing it for a long time now,” she whispered, looking up at Butch and the doctor.
She had been doing it ever since he left to join the Springfield Sinners. He had been the only one to look after her, to be her Daddy, but once he’d left, everyone ignored her, and she had to put her big girl panties on and figure things out.
I know you’ve been taking care of yourself since I left, but you don’t have to any longer. I’m here, and I’m going to take over. I know it must have been exhausting to do that all these years.
A sob left her lips, and she buried her face in her knees, and she wrapped her arms around her legs. Her body was protesting the position she was in, but she couldn’t care right now. Butch just knew the right thing to say to her to make sure she was doing what she should or to make her feel better.
Someone picked her up and held her against their chest, rocking them back and forth. She knew who it was—Butch. She could feel the rumbling in his chest as he talked, to her or to the doctor she didn’t know. She imagined he was whispering sweet nothings to her, like he had all those years ago.
Rae cried into his chest, gripping hold of his shirt as he ran his hands down her back. She had missed this, him holding her tightly and making her feel safe.
Safe.
Something she hadn’t felt in eight years. And all it took was being back in his arms to feel it once again. Butch pulled her away from him and held the whiteboard so she could see it.
You’re mine. You aren’t going anywhere. I want his full name and his address.