27. Chapter 27
Rabble
R abble yanked the truck door closed with a solid thud, putting more strength behind it than necessary.
If he had his way, Rabble wouldn’t have left from his place at the kitchen bar in Skye’s home but he knew they both needed some level of distance.
He didn’t know if he could make himself drive away from the curb out front of her house either.
Make himself start the truck and drive away from her.
He contemplated sitting there all night, his eyes firmly glued to the house and its surroundings.
Would she be able to sleep soundly if she knew he sat out front?
Would she expect it from him, knowing him as she did?
Would it provide a sense of comfort to her?
At least he knew the answer to his ability to pull away from the front of her house, knew the answer as well as he knew his own name. He wasn’t strong enough to leave her completely tonight.
Pulling out his cell phone, he tucked the speaker between his ear and shoulder. “Hey, Dash.”
“Just a moment. Let me grab Dec.”
Through the phone, Rabble heard Dash leaving his room and pounding on a door.
Half a minute passed before Rabble heard both brothers through the speaker.
His knuckles turned white as he clutched and released the steering wheel in his left hand.
He straightened, replacing his shoulder with his hand to hold his phone so he could sit up and observe the hazy darkness of the night.
“What the hell happened after I went inside to find Skye?” Rabble wanted, needed, the missing information to settle into the cracks in the facts he already knew.
Dash’s calm and collected demeanor soothed a little of the savage edge that still clung to Rabble’s conscious.
As Dash delivered fact after fact, he kept to the specifics and left out the unnecessary details.
His near monotone voice provided a sort of unexpected peace, his unflappable responses differing greatly from Rabble’s and Declan’s more heated reactions.
Admittedly, Dash’s level-headed approach to their emergency encounters may very well be the primary reason any ridiculous plan of Declan’s usually went off without a hitch.
Declan interjected as he felt called to, usually to add some inconsequential detail that might have made Rabble roll his eyes if the mission had involved anyone else but Skye.
His Skye. From their combined reporting, Rabble gathered the details he missed during his search for her inside the monster house.
Rabble wished he felt like laughing and not growling when Declan described the colorful vocabulary of Mrs. Gayle Wellington from her jail cell.
“The woman truly has a way with curse words, like a well-educated truck driver. I mean, at times she made me blush.” Declan snorted as he joked.
“You recovered Dylan, I assume?” Rabble asked, knowing the answer already.
Dash wouldn’t have failed at bringing Dylan to justice. That worm of a man sat behind bars just as surely as Gayle and the other degenerate who had participated in Skye’s abduction and every moment of terror that followed.
“Dash is not fast.” Declan snorted, a little further from the speaker than he had been, likely putting space between him and his brother as he said, “He sure is persistent though.”
“What about Max?” Rabble asked.
“Oh, he’s beyond humiliated,” Declan said.
“We arrived in town at the most beautiful timing. It was closing time at the bar, so Gayle and Dylan had an audience watching as we hauled their cuffed asses into the sheriff's station. And when Mr. Mayor tried to reassure his voters, this was a misunderstanding, the sheriff threatened Max with a subpoena if he didn’t get inside for questioning. Oh, man. I wish you could have seen his red face. The gossip mill is going at full force.”
He should be rotting in jail with the rest of them.
Rabble scanned his eyes over the fading darkness again, snagging on the leaves fluttering in the trees and the grass swaying in the quiet breeze. Every single movement was a threat until Rabble decided otherwise.
“How’s our girl?” Declan asked, his voice as serious as ever.
“Our girl?” Rabble’s eyebrows rose in surprise.
He waited for the statement to make his heart jump or stutter.
Instead, it felt right. The words settled in like a salve to his angry heart, and he sighed in relieved reassurance.
His brothers would protect Skye with their lives, just as he would for anyone they chose. It was just a foregone conclusion.
“Don’t be an ass,” Dash said.
Rabble chuckled harshly, sobering as he recalled the hollow look in Skye’s eyes when he’d told her he couldn’t stay.
Everything she’d been through brought out a violence in him he desperately tried to stave off, not wanting to startle her.
He wished Dylan were nearby so he could smash the man’s face in.
He’d violated her space, creating memories that stained the home which should offer her nothing but comfort and peace.
“She’s…” Rabble’s eyes drifted to the cottage where the last of the lights had gone out. “I don’t know. She’s quiet and nervous. Withdrawn.”
Dash grunted. “It’s to be expected, nothing we haven’t seen with past clients.”
Rabble ground his teeth together, wanting to yell at his brother. This was Skye! She wasn’t just any client. Thinking of her in the same type of situation they helped women escape brought his fury roaring back, and he sucked in a breath through gritted teeth.
Rabble promised to keep them updated if anything happened and hung up the phone, hoping both brothers would get some well-deserved sleep.
In the quiet of the early morning, Rabble let his mind drift, even as he kept a watchful eye out.
He ached for the uncertainty that clouded her eyes now, the loss of innocence, and sense of security that everyone had before experiencing a violation like this.
Part of him hoped she’d ask him to stay, even knowing he wasn’t the right sort of person she needed, not with his temper flaring.
Regardless of what made sense and what didn’t, he wanted to hold her tightly, to protect her with everything he had to give.
For the first time since his confrontation with Max and Dylan in front of Elyza’s shop, Rabble let out a deep breath, and the worry in his chest loosened the slightest fraction.
Skye was safe. She was in her own bed tonight with Elyza nearby, and Kellyn and Bekah were both secure in their own homes.
Every time Rabble caught a shadow of movement that proved to be nothing more than the night playing tricks with him, he reminded himself there wasn’t any immediate danger, not even from Bekah’s ex-husband.
According to his parole officer, Edward Elnor had still been in California the night the intruder interrupted girl’s night.
He showed up for a piss test the same day on the other side of the country.
With him ruled out as the intruder, Dylan Santoro appeared more and more likely to fit the bill as the person who broke into Bekah’s cottage.
Shit would hit the fan in Shiloh Hills’ exclusive political circles, perhaps leaking into state politics as well, considering Dylan’s influential father.
But Rabble didn’t care. Let Max, Gayle, and Dylan go down in flames.
Hell, let Dylan’s senator father go down right alongside them.
As long as Skye was safe, they could all burn.
The early morning hours bled into predawn wearing by slowly.
Rabble’s eyes didn’t leave the cottage except to methodically move up and down the silent road, taking in every motion as the moon stretched shadows over lawns and down the street.
The first signs of the sun peeked at the very edge of the eastern horizon.
When Skye’s lights came on at three o’clock in the morning, then again at five, Rabble’s his heart broke a bit more.
It would be a long while before she would feel okay again.
He wished more than anything Skye didn’t have to face that harsh reality.
At least Elyza could help when the dark became too much.
As the sun ascended into the sky, the midnight blue gave way to pinks and oranges, then a more vibrant light blue.
He waited, letting the sky brighten into early morning before turning the key and starting the truck.
He tapped out a good morning text message to Skye and hit send before putting the truck into drive and pulling away from the curb.