Chapter 6
RAELYNN
Raelynn so badly wanted to call him Daddy again.
She wanted to be Little with him once again and be carefree, but she hadn’t felt that since he left.
She couldn’t let her guard down when it was only her mother and stepfather in the house.
The one time she had, she’d ended up in Edmund’s house for the next seven years.
Butch wrote on the whiteboard before turning it over. Come on, Little Fairy. Talk to me. Tell me about your life after I left.
“After you left,” she whispered before chuckling. “You left me behind and didn’t come back for me, like you promised. You didn’t want me anymore. Why didn’t you just tell me that?”
The first year, she had hope that he would come get her out of this hellhole. She’d counted down the days until her graduation when he would come and get her, but he never showed up.
“I texted you, called you, but you never picked up. I tried looking you up to find an address so I could send you a letter or go to you when I graduated if you were caught up in something,” she continued to talk, not looking up at him.
She needed to get this off her chest. “I kept telling mom and your dad that you were coming to get me and to not get any ideas, but then graduation came, then my birthday, and right when I was going to move out to try to find you, everything changed.”
Rae carefully wrapped her arms around herself, trying not to rip out the IV that was still in her hand. Tears were now streaming down her face, and she hated herself for crying in front of him. How pathetic could she be to cry so much in front of a person?
What happened after? He wrote, not talking about why he didn’t come and get her.
Anger coursed through her as she looked up at him.
“I was sold!” She raised her voice. “That’s what happened next. Your father and my mother decided they didn’t want me in their house any longer, so they sold me to him.”
Rae, I went back for you the year you graduated.
It was a couple of months after your birthday.
I came looking for you, and they told me that you had run away.
I’ve been searching for you every day, trying to figure out where you had gone.
They kept telling me that you ran away and didn’t want to see any of us any longer.
It was hard for Raelynn to read it through her blurry vision, but Butch kept it steady as she read. Just like the patient man he was eight years ago, letting her take her time to do anything.
“Why didn’t you come sooner? Why didn’t you try to fight them harder, asking where I was?” she asked, her voice cracking. “I was living in hell all those years, only a couple of streets away from where we went to high school. Why didn’t you come?”
Butch wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her toward him. Rae nuzzled her head between his shoulder and neck, wanting to be as close as possible as she sobbed for the second time that day.
“Why?” she asked. “Why?”
She had seen her mother a year after getting sold and asked about Butch.
She wanted to know whether he had still come for her, to see if he was going to save her from the nightmare she was living in, but she had said he never come.
The heartbreak she had felt in that moment.
Rae had cried just like she was now, getting one of the worst beatings of her life and passing out.
Butch held her against him, gently patting her back to help her calm down. She could feel the vibrations from him talking to her or someone else. After some time, she pulled away from him and allowed him to wipe the tears from her cheeks.
I did press them for where you were. I punched my father in the face when he said something bad about you.
I interrogated them and asked neighbors if they had seen you.
I had one of our best guys investigate you to figure out where you ran off to, but he kept hitting dead end after dead end.
It was like you had just disappeared off the face of the earth. He wrote.
She had.
“I never left the house,” she whispered. “He wouldn’t allow that.”
Rae had only seen the sun through a single window for the last seven years, never actually feeling it on her skin. To feel the gentle breeze flow right past her, giving her little goosebumps.
Butch’s head snapped to the door, and she shyly looked over to see a tall, scary-looking man in the doorway, holding a bowl. The man gazed at her and gave her a small smile, making her flinch and tighten her hand around Butch’s shirt.
Her eyes stayed on him as he walked further into the room, handing Butch the bowl.
Not once did her eyes leave him. Every alarm was going off inside her brain to not turn her back to this man.
He had a little glint in his eye, the same one Edmund had whenever he was going to do something bad to her.
“I—” She stopped herself, her heart rate increasing as the man sat down.
What was he doing? Why was he staying in the room?
Butch cupped her face and attempted to make her look at him, but she wouldn’t budge. She needed to keep her eyes on this man. What if he decided to do something to her when she wasn’t looking at him?
“Fairy,” she heard Butch say.
Her eyes quickly darted to him to find concern written all over his face. Her knuckles were white from how tightly she was gripping his shirt.
He started to speak again, and she looked at his mouth. He was repeating the same word over and over again.
Sa?
What was he trying to say?
Butch’s hands were still cupping her face, keeping her looking at him.
“Safe,” she finally heard.
Safe. Was he telling her she was safe?
Rae pulled her face out of his hands and looked over at the man. He was slouched in the chair now, his hands on his legs, almost as if he was showing her that he wasn’t going to do anything.
“Safe,” she repeated, and Butch nodded.
He let go of her face and started writing on the whiteboard. She wanted to tell him to talk. She was sick and tired of him writing on the whiteboard and not being able to hear his voice, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to understand him if he didn’t use the whiteboard.
Maybe she should take Butch up on his offer of paying for her to get something to assist her hearing… even if Edmund was still a risk. At least then she could have some normal moments in her life with the love of her life.
Reaper is here to ask a couple of questions about who is after you. Can you answer them for him?
Her eyes went wide, and she shook her head. There was no way she would give them any information for them to go after him.
No.
“Too dangerous,” she replied and shook her head once again. “Don’t want you to get hurt.”
She would rather go back with Edmund for another seven years than see Butch get hurt. Rae would protect him with her life if it meant nothing happened to him.
We can keep ourselves and you safe, but we need to know who we are dealing with. We need to be prepared, so can you tell us who he is?
“No.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
Okay. But when you’re ready to tell us, let me know. Right now, I’m going to tell him the little you’ve told me.
Butch looked over at Reaper, and they started talking. Jealousy coursed through her as she watched them interact, wanting everything in the world for it to be her and Butch.
Why couldn’t life be easy?
Reaper nodded and turned toward her, giving her a small smile. He picked up the whiteboard and started writing, making her eyebrows pinch together in confusion.
I’m going to find him, and we’re going to make him pay ten times for what he did to you. You’re Butch’s woman, and now you have over fifteen men behind you, ready to defend and protect you. You’re our family now.
She re-read the sentences several times when he got up and left the room.
“Did he really mean that?” she asked Butch.
He was holding the bowl as he nodded.
“Why?” she asked. “Why do they keep saying that we are together? Why do they keep saying I’m family and that they are going to protect me? They don’t know who is after me and how powerful he is. They don’t know anything about me at all. They’ve just met me. None of this is making any sense!”
Rae gripped her hair and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down. This was all becoming too hard for her, and she didn’t know how to respond to any of them.
Butch gently took her hands and pulled them away from her hair. Tapping her nose, she looked at him. Butch made hand movements, pointing at her, then him, and then putting his hands together.
They were together.
“Back in high school. We haven’t seen each other in over eight years,” she pointed out.
He nodded before grabbing the whiteboard once again. Rae clenched her jaw as she waited for him to finish writing.
We are a family. When someone finds the person they love and want to spend the rest of their lives with, that person becomes part of the family. They don’t need to know you long to make you part of the family.
“They don’t know me at all.”
They don’t, but they know that I’ve been searching for you. They know I had to leave you behind and that I went looking for you. They know that I’ve been searching for you every single day, not giving up. Everyone knows you’re important to me, and they are going to make sure you’re safe.
Tears pooled in her eyes, and Butch wiped them away before kissing her forehead.
Let me feed you, and then we can do whatever you want.