Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Twelve Years Before
Raine
“ Q uit acting like you give a crap about what I’m doing!” I can hear the tremble in Luke’s voice.
I had every intention of staying here with my bedroom door cracked open, but knowing that Luke is on the verge of tears has my feet moving toward the living room. Luke has his back to me. He’s clenching and unclenching his fists.
This is bad.
I look over at Mom, who's sitting on the couch, tension written on her face. She notices me then and flicks her head, silently telling me to leave, but I don’t listen. I’m not leaving Luke, especially with how fiercely Davis peers down at him.
“You will not speak to me that way in my house!” Davis hisses, the words weaved together in a threat. “Go to your room before you regret your actions.”
“No!” The sound of Luke's shout makes me flinch. My mother does the same and stands up quickly, moving toward me.
“Raine, go to your room,” she whispers in my ear .
It’s not a room in this house. It’s a prison cell. Davis wants us to be trapped with nowhere to go—a punishment I’ll never understand. But I refuse to leave Luke, so I shake my head and stay planted.
“I’m done with you,” Luke says before shoving his way past his father and grabbing the knob of the front door.
Davis reaches for Luke’s wrist, but Luke is quick to escape, making his way out the door before Davis can grab him a second time.
“If you walk out that door, don’t you dare come back!” Spit flies out of Davis’ mouth, like snake venom, the words sounding just as deadly.
“I don’t plan on it.” Luke’s words are just as lethal, and even though I know he didn’t mean to, they hit me like a blow to the chest.
He’s leaving me?
How can Luke leave me here? Alone ? I can’t be here without him. If he’s leaving, so am I!
I rush toward the front door, not missing the way my mother’s fingers brush my arm in an attempt to stop me. Before I can open my mouth and shout for Luke to wait for me, Davis’ broad chest meets my face. I crash into him, and before I can move backward, he grips my forearm tightly and yanks it up. I hear a pop in my shoulder and grit my teeth as pain shoots down my arm and into my back.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he practically hisses like the serpent that he is.
“You can’t keep me here!” Now my voice decides to tremble, but I blame the pain, not the panic currently rushing through my veins. “I want to go with Luke.”
“See, the thing is, I can keep you here. And if you try to leave, there will be consequences. We don’t want that, do we?”
I look over at my mother, who has made her way back to the couch, and beg her silently to put a stop to all of this. To, for once in her life, fight for me . Instead, she cowers, keeping her eyes on the ground, running a shaking hand through her messy blonde hair. Davis laughs beside me, knowing that my mother isn’t going to help me, before releasing his grip.
“Now be a smart girl and go back to your room.”
I want to run. I want to chase after Luke and beg him to take me with him. Beg him not to leave me here with this monster. But I have a better idea. I turn without looking at either of them and run to my room. I shut the door softly behind me, grab my cell phone, and pull on a thick jacket and a pair of tennis shoes. It takes me a while to push open my window without creating too much noise and remove the window screen before hopping out and landing in the bushes.
I run toward the street, ignoring the sting in my lungs from the cold air and the pain shooting down my arm, and I search wildly for Luke in the dark until I finally see movement across the street.
“Luke!” I whisper-yell, air puffing from my lips. He stops in his tracks and looks over his shoulder at me. I make my way over to him, and without second-guessing, I slap his arm.
“Ow! What was that for?” he asks, rubbing against the spot dramatically, even though I know it didn’t hurt him through his thick jacket.
“You left me back there.” I hadn’t noticed the tears until I hear them in my voice. “Why would you leave me with him?”
His face falls, defeat pulling down his shoulders, and he runs a hand through his messy black hair. “I can’t do this anymore, Raine. I can’t deal with him. I’m done. I’m sixteen and can make my own decisions for my life, and I’m finally choosing what’s best for me.”
“But what about me?” I say, hating how weak I sound. “Luke, I can't live there without you.”
“Then don’t,” he replies, his eyes lighting up with an idea. “Go live with your grandparents.”
As if I hadn’t thought of that before. I would love nothing more than to live with them. To wake up feeling safe every day, to be able to help them throughout the week rather than just the weekends. Especially since Davis moved in. But I didn’t want to abandon Luke or my mother.
Before my mom met Davis, things weren’t as bad as they are now. She still had a drinking problem, but our relationship wasn’t as strained. So, I stayed for her. And once Davis moved in, I stayed for Luke. If Luke is gone and my mother couldn’t care less about how Davis is treating us, why should I stay?
“What if your dad follows me and makes a big deal out of it? I don’t want to cause my grandparents any problems,” my worst fear slips out. Luke eyes me for a moment before replying.
“What can he do? He doesn’t care about us. We’ll be doing them a favor by leaving.” Luke waves a hand in the air, like this isn’t a big deal, and I want to believe him.
“What about my mom?”
His brows furrow in confusion. “She made her choices, Raine. It doesn’t mean you have to suffer right along with her.”
My gut is telling me otherwise. Part of me doesn’t want to leave her alone with Davis. What if I leave and my choices end up hurting her even more than she is hurting herself? But in a way, Luke’s right. She has chosen this for her life, and I’m done suffering. I refuse to live here without Luke. I’m choosing to listen to him and ignore the sickening feeling that’s swashing inside my stomach.
Headlights shine toward us, and out of reflex, I move to stand behind Luke. An unfamiliar red car pulls up beside us. Luke opens the passenger door and hops inside.
“Where are you going?” I protest, placing a hand onto the door to keep it open.
I look inside the car and see that it’s Jake Himswell from school—one of the punks Luke has been hanging out with lately. I roll my eyes at the sight of him and the fact that I can smell weed flowing from his vehicle. I glare at Luke.
“Really?” I question, not understanding why Luke chooses to hang out with a guy who used to bully him in middle school.
“I gotta go. Call your grandparents,” is all he says to me before he wiggles the door free from my grasp and shuts it in my face. He doesn’t give me the chance to beg him to take me with him. I watch the car drive away, and my heart breaks from Luke’s betrayal.
I was upset at first when Davis moved in. However, knowing that every other week Luke would be there with me brought me a sense of relief. All of that vanishes along with the red headlights of Jake’s car.
I stand on the sidewalk, frozen in place, not knowing what the right thing to do is. I know I don’t want to go back inside the house so my only option is to leave. I could crash at Olivia’s house, but I really don’t want to cause her family any issues. At least my grandparents are family and will understand my situation better.
I make my decision and pick up my phone to dial Ryland’s number. As the phone rings, I walk down the street, pulling my jacket closer to me and putting distance between me and them . I can see the tiniest hint of snowflakes trying to fall from the sky as my breath puffs out from my lips with each fast-paced step I take.
“Hey, Rainbow. What’s up?”
The sound of his voice is like soothing ointment over a wound. Luke left me bleeding, and I know I can count on Ryland to help bandage me up. He’s the one person I can always rely on. And besides Luke, he’s also one of the only people who understands what I’m going through.
“I, uh…” I clear the dryness from my throat. “Could you come pick me up?”
I hear shuffling in the background—a click of a lamp, feet hitting the floor, fabric moving around. “What’s going on?” he asks.
I exhale, hating to relive the last twenty or so minutes, or the fact that I know how upset he’s going to be at Luke. But right now, I’m upset too, and it would be nice to have someone on my side for once.
“Davis and Luke got into an argument. Luke left, but Davis wouldn't let me leave too, so I snuck out of my window and chased Luke down, only for him to leave me on the street and take off with Jake Himswell.”
I can hear his teeth gritting together. “He did what?”
“It’s fine,” I lie. “I don’t want to go back there. Could you?—”
“Where are you?” his voice rings with urgency, and I can hear the jingling of his car keys.
I look around in the dark and can barely make out which street I’m on. I know at the end of this road there is a Dollar General store. I tell Ryland to meet me there before we hang up. Fifteen minutes later, I see Ryland’s dark-green Honda Civic pull into the parking lot. I rush toward it, wincing as the pain in my shoulder grows, and hop inside.
Ryland spent his summer working for his Pops and was able to save up enough money to purchase this slightly beat-up used car. It needed to be fixed in several areas, and last month, they were able to get her running. Today, I am incredibly thankful for it.
His familiar scent floats in the warm air and finally I feel safe. I relax against the seat, welcoming the sense of security before I turn to face him. I open my mouth to thank him, but before I can get the words out, he reaches for my face and pulls me toward him.
For a split second, I think he’s going to kiss me, and all sense of calm is replaced with the pounding of my heart. It’s not a rush of panic, more like a surge of adrenaline. Of want.
But instead of kissing me, he runs his thumbs over my cheeks, wiping away the evidence that I cried earlier. His hazel eyes look almost black in the shadows of his car. They dance around my face, studying me for a moment before he finally speaks.
“I’m going to punch Luke in the face for leaving you.”
“Not before I can,” I add, a grin pulling against my lips. I don’t miss the way his eyes flicker to them, just for a moment, before returning to my face.
“It’s freezing out, and he just left you? What has gotten into him?” He releases his hold on me and pulls out his phone.
I reach my hand out to stop him but hiss as pain shoots through my shoulder. Ryland’s eyes snap to mine, a sudden urgency within them. He drops his phone and reaches over to tug my jacket off.
“I’m fine,” I say, but he ignores me, determination written on his face as he removes my arm from the fabric.
I try not to wince, but my face fails me when my arm moves toward him. His eyes search my face, silently apologizing before he’s back to examining me. I peer down at the skin on my forearm as Ryland traces his fingers around a very purple bruise I didn’t know was there.
“I’m going to hurt him,” he says through his teeth, releasing my arm before gripping the steering wheel.
“I’m fine, Ry.”
“No, you're not, Raine!” he shouts. It’s the first time Ryland has ever raised his voice at me, and I blink back the shock.
“I’m sorry,” he’s quick to say, releasing the steering wheel and taking my hands into his. “I know what it’s like. To have someone who abuses you like he does. It’s not okay. You don’t deserve this. And I can’t believe Luke...”
My heart sinks, knowing Ryland’s history with his father and how he’s still healing from it. I squeeze his hand, bringing his attention back to me, and I do my best to give him an encouraging smile.
“We’ll deal with Luke later, but for right now, I’d like to go to my grandparents’. ”
“You’ll leave your mom?” he asks, knowing that I never wanted to leave her behind. But I have no choice. She should want me to be safe, and this is the only way how—at least until I’m eighteen and can finally move away from this town, far away from him .
“I have to.” I shrug, wincing for a third time.
“Okay, then.” He nods and shifts back into his seat before putting the car into drive.
We pull into the driveway of the farmhouse, and nervousness settles into my stomach. I haven’t told my grandparents the truth of what has been going on at home—how bad Mom’s drinking has become or how Davis treats me. But I know they can sense it. I’ve shrugged off their questions, wanting to somewhat protect them from the truth, but also not wanting to cause any issues with my mom. Tonight, the truth will set me free.
Or so I hope.
I catch the glimpse of light coming from behind us, and when I turn around, I see a vehicle at the bottom of the hill. The color drains from my face, and when I look over at Ryland, his expression matches my own.
“Davis,” I croak.
Ryland acts fast, shifting his car into reverse and turning us around within seconds. He drives fast down the driveway, causing gravel to dust around us, and I pray my grandparents don't wake up from the noise.
Midway down the driveaway, Ryland jerks his steering wheel to the left, driving through the grass in order to miss the vehicle that passes us by. Just when we think we can make a break for it, at the edge of the road, a black truck pulls out in front of us and blocks our way.
Ryland swears under his breath and punches the steering wheel. My breathing picks up as fear grabs hold of me. What was I thinking? I shouldn’t have listened to Luke, and now I have put the people that I love in danger.
“Ry, I’m sorry,” I cry.
He looks over at me, confused, before we both jolt in our seats from the tapping on his window. A man in a black jacket is standing outside of Ryland’s door, and I turn to see Davis standing outside of mine. He’s practically snarling at me as he tries to open my door.
“Open the door!” he shouts through the glass, and I can’t believe this is happening.
“Don’t,” Ryland pleads, but I have to make the right decision in order to keep him safe. “Raine!”
I unlock the door and swing it open, but as I move to step outside, Davis yanks me from my seat. My shoulder feels like it’s on fire from the pull, and Davis drags me toward his truck. I catch a glimpse of Ryland chasing after us.
“Ryland, don’t!” I scream, but he doesn’t listen.
“Let her go!” he shouts, causing Davis to stop in his tracks and turn around to face him.
God, please don’t let him hurt Ryland. Please keep him safe.
“Go home, kid.” The man in the black jacket grabs Ryland’s shoulder and shoves him back.
“I can’t. Your stupid truck is blocking the way. And I’m not leaving here without Raine.”
Davis’ cold eyes scan Ryland up and down before an evil laugh escapes his disgusting lips. I catch the sour scent of alcohol on his breath, and it makes my stomach want to hurl. “Please. What are you going to do?”
“I’ll call the cops!” Ryland shouts and balls his fists together, nostrils flaring in rage.
Now, both Davis and the other man bark out in laughter, and Ryland’s face falls. Davis tightens his grip on my injured shoulder, and it takes everything in me not to cry out in pain. I bite my lip, close my eyes, and pray again.
“Go ahead, kid. I’m sure the cops would love to know that you helped a child run away from home. In the meantime, I have a little girl to return to her mother.”
Ryland looks at me, and I can see the panic in his eyes. I know he won’t leave me, and I love him so much for it. But I need him to leave and get far away from Davis. I inhale a breath and try to muster up as much courage as I can.
“It’s okay. I shouldn't have left my mom. It’s better that I go back home.”
‘But—” I hate how Ryland’s face falls, his arms dropping in defeat at my words, but it’s better this way. This way, he stays away from Davis’ wrath.
“You heard her. Now leave,” Davis growls as he takes a step back, pulling me with him.
I feel the heat of tears stinging my eyes, and I try my best to blink them away. I hate how heartbroken Ryland looks right now, knowing that he isn’t able to protect me. But I know if I cooperate with Davis, allow him to believe that I want to go back home, he’ll let Ryland go.
The man in the black jacket hops back into his truck and drives back onto the main road, vanishing into the night. Ryland, however, doesn’t move a muscle, his eyes stay firmly on mine. His breath comes out in quick puffs of clouds, dissipating as fast as the hope in my chest.
“I’ll be okay. I’ll call you as soon as I get home, okay?”
Sensing that there’s no other way around this, Ryland nods and returns a heated glare at Davis before turning and hopping back into his car. I release a breath as I watch him drive down the driveway.
“Get in!” Davis shouts and shoves me toward the passenger side door.
He watches me closely until I’m inside and is quick to lock the doors once he’s in the driver's seat. I half expect Luke to be in the backseat or that we would go after him next. However, Davis lets Luke go, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Why did he have to come after me, but Luke is allowed to do whatever he wants?
Once we pull into the driveway, Davis turns off the car and twists toward me. “Here is how this is going to go down. You’re going to climb back into your window and act as if you’ve never left this house. Do you understand me?”
What?
“You will not speak of this again. And you sure as hell won't be trying to run away again. Do you understand?”
I bite the inside of my cheek, keeping the words that I wish I could say to him inside, and instead, I frown at him. He can’t keep me locked in this house forever. Can he?
“If you try, I’ll start with that little boyfriend of yours. I know where he lives, where his grandfather works, and can make him wish that he never met you. And if that doesn’t work, then I will start slowly destroying your grandparents’ farm and?—”
“I get it!” I cut him off, not wanting to hear any more of his sickening threats. “I won’t run away again.”
Please just let me go to my room.
“And if you even think about getting the police involved in this, think again, sunshine, because I got men on the inside, and there isn’t anything the police can do to me. So, you’re better off keeping your mouth shut and keeping your mother happy. Understand?”
I nod because it’s all that I can do. He gives me a humph before I hear the door unlock. I’m quick to remove myself and rush toward my window. He watches me, making sure that I get back inside before he shuts his door and walks into the house. As I close my window, I make sure to push my dresser in front of my bedroom door.
I don’t care that he can keep me here. It doesn’t mean that I can’t have a barrier between him and me. Once I feel like I’m safe, I pull out my phone and dial Ryland’s number again. He picks up on the first ring.
“I’m outside.”
“What?” I whisper, covering myself with pillows in hopes that it’ll keep them from hearing me.
“We can run away. I’ll get you far from here, I promise.”
I close my eyes and can picture how perfect that would be. But it can’t happen. Davis will never allow that to happen. And that realization finally crushes me.
“Ry—” I say before a sob escapes my lips.
“Raine, please.” I can hear the fear in his voice. “I can’t stand the thought of not being able to protect you.”
“He threatened your family. He threatened my grandparents and their farm. He threatened you. I can’t…” I exhale, trying to find the right words. “I have to stay. It’s the only way to keep everyone safe.”
“He can’t do anything if he’s behind bars. We can go to the police, show them the bruise on your arm, and they’ll arrest him for abuse. You’ll be safe.”
“But he said the police can’t touch him.”
“What?” he says in defeat.
“The police won’t help. I have two years until I’m eighteen. I can put up with him until then.”
I hear the jingle of his keys in the background and the loud exhale he releases out of frustration. “You shouldn’t have to do that.”
“I know, but it’s the only choice we have right now. Okay? Just promise me you’ll get home safe and let me know when you get there.”
“I really don’t want to leave you.”
Luke, who I consider more than a best friend…he’s family…left me behind tonight. But here is Ryland, someone who has made such a large impact on my life in a matter of a few years, refuses to leave me. I’m falling for him .
I’m in love with Ryland.
I want to tell him, but I keep the words lodged in my throat. Instead, I say, “I know. Thank you. You came to my rescue, and I’m forever grateful for you.”
“Yeah, some rescue it was.”
“I mean it. I’ll take you up on that getaway when I’m a legal adult,” I promise, meaning every word. I have two years to form an escape plan, and I’m going to make sure I get as far away from here as possible. It’s not just for myself anymore.