Chapter Sixteen

Grim

"W here is that fucking bastard?" The back of my shirt was drenched with sweat as I raced around the house. I knew he was the reason Bailey had been acting differently. And after Poe filled me in on his run-in with her earlier, I figured Raine was fucking with her hard.

I took the stairs two at a time, heading all the way up to the third floor. "There can only be one psycho in this house and that motherfucker is me ," I called out. "Come out and face me, fucker."

Saint caught up to me just as I barreled through the first bedroom door. "What the hell are you doing, man?"

I spun on him; my jaw clenched. "I need to have words with Raine right fucking now."

"Bailey wouldn't want this, Grim," Poe rasped as he sprinted around the corner.

I seriously thought a vein was going to burst in my neck. "Look, if Bailey wants to be with him, fine. But if this asshole is forcing her to then nah, that's not gonna fly with me."

Saint shook his head. "If she says she can handle him, then we have to trust her."

Had everyone lost their fucking minds? "Bailey is our little fox. Our good girl. Who the fuck does Raine think he is claiming any right to her?"

"He claimed her first," Poe murmured.

Every muscle in my body tensed. "What the fuck did you just say, Poe?"

"You heard me." He went and sat down on the bed. "Raine pushed her into the door. He wanted her to let us out. He's the reason we're free."

No fucking way. "So we owe him now or something?"

Saint leaned against the doorway, taking up the whole frame. "No, we don't. Poe's just pointing out that Raine has every right to pursue her the same way we did. And if Bailey is okay with that, then we have to be too. No matter his methods."

I was going to break something if I didn't exhale soon. "I need a fucking drink." I blew past Saint, shoving him out of the doorframe before charging downstairs.

When I got to the sitting room, my adrenaline surged again as I locked eyes with Raine. A sleazy smirk pulled at the corners of his lips. I looked him up and down, taking stock of his tall frame. We were at eye level, but his body was bigger than mine. His eyes were a shade of bluish-green, like sea glass. And his sandy blonde hair was tousled with a slight wave to it. Tattoos covered almost every inch of his body that I could see. He leaned casually against the bar in a white T-shirt and jeans.

I was ready to spit fucking venom at this asshole but a part of me didn't even want to believe he was real. Now that we were face to face… I was speechless.

"Grim in the flesh," Raine drawled. "Here, brother, I heard you might need this." He held out a glass of whiskey.

"I'm not your brother." I snatched the glass from his hand, knocked the whiskey down my throat, and offered the empty glass back to him. "Another."

Raine chuckled as he poured me a refill. "So what's got your panties in a twist? You jealous? Kind of ironic actually."

I took the glass and backed up a few steps, so he was out of strangling reach. "What are your intentions with Bailey?"

Raine plopped himself down on the couch, relaxed and at home like he owned the place. I guess technically he did. "I know she calls you daddy but now you actually sound like one. Is this where you give me the birds and the bees talk?"

The look of amusement on his face was infuriating. "Fuck off. You know what I'm asking. Bailey has been through a lot, and she doesn't need you toying with her."

Raine's eyes darkened. "You have no idea… Don't you want to know why I find this ironic?"

I forced my muscles to unclench and took a seat across from him on the opposite couch. "Not really but something tells me you're going to tell me anyway."

"For starters, you, Poe, and Saint were fucking my wife in my bed. Before she murdered you like she did me, of course. So, no hard feelings mate. If anything, that bonds us, don't you think?" Raine leaned back, draping his arm across the back of the couch. He looked so fucking smug.

I mimicked his movements as I glared back at him. "Ah, yes. Bonded by poison and pussy. So you're the jealous one, is that it? Pissed that your wife crawled into bed with us before your dead body was even cold? Now you want a piece of Bailey to even it up."

Raine shook his head. "I didn't want my fucking wife. She was fucking crazy. What I want with Bailey has nothing to do with any of that."

It was my turn to chuckle. "I don't believe you and I definitely don't fucking trust you."

He shrugged. "Fuck if I care. You're just pissed that there's a part of Bailey that you can't reach. And I can."

The way he said her name stirred a possessiveness in me that I hadn't felt in a long time. "I won't let you hurt her."

Raine stood abruptly, his eyes full of malice. "That's for Bailey to decide. You three may have awakened her dark side, but I'm the one who can show her how to embrace it. She's caught between two worlds, her old life and this one. Let me help her leave the past behind for good."

He wasn't making sense. Every word out of his mouth was vague or cryptic. And yet a part of me knew that he spoke some sense. Bailey had grown distant and withdrawn. There were things she was keeping from us. I stood from the couch and stalked over to him till I was just inches away. "You might be right, but I still don't trust you."

Raine leaned forward, our noses almost touching. "In time, we'll all be one happy family. You'll see, Grim. And when I'm done breaking her open, you'll thank me for what you find inside."

My pulse fluttered. Something about the way he looked, the tone in his voice, stirred something deep inside me. A longing. Raine and I weren't that different. He was slightly more unhinged but our taste for darker things was the same. The thought of Bailey stretched out between us, naked and trembling, made my cock swell .

I knocked back the rest of my whiskey. "As you said… we'll see."

Poe and Saint crept in and poured themselves a drink as well. "You two playing nice now?" Saint grumbled.

Raine and I didn't break eye contact. I nodded. "For now."

Poe froze mid-sip. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Saint looked up as if he were expecting someone to crash through the ceiling.

Raine's nostrils flared. "I hear them. Someone's out front."

Just as he said it, the sound of muffled laughter rang out. "Fuck." I raced through the house, toward the front entrance with the guys at my heels.

I turned into the foyer just as a loud crash erupted. "What the fuck?" I yelled.

My hair blew back off my face as the cold wind from the broken window rushed in. Glass covered the marble floor.

Saint growled as he mobbed through it, his boots crunching as he stomped over to the window and looked out. "They're gone."

Poe ran his hands through his dark hair as he surveyed the mess. "Probably just a stupid prank. Fucking asshole kids."

I looked over at Raine, the both of us seething. "No." I shook my head. "This was something else."

Raine gazed around the room until he spotted what they threw. He reached down and picked up a brick with a note attached to it. He clenched his jaw as he read it aloud. " Freak … This is a message for Bailey."

I yanked open the front door and barreled out into the front yard, scanning the neighborhood like I was searching for a lost dog. There was no one in sight. I looked at the other houses to find their windows still very much intact.

As I charged back into the house, Poe was already sweeping up the glass. "Raine's right. Someone is fucking with her . "

Saint sighed as he peered out the window again. "Why hasn't she said anything to us?"

Raine snickered. "Because she's afraid you'll lock her up and throw away the key. Open your fucking eyes. You aren't paying enough attention." He raised his voice.

Poe leaned against the broom. "She told you that?"

Raine kicked some of the glass. "Bailey hasn't told me anything. She didn't have to. I've been watching in the shadows for a long time. Long enough to see the war going on inside her."

A desperate need to see her face gripped me. "Why would someone target her?"

Raine shot me a glare. "Fucking ask her. Do you know anything about her past? Hmm?"

Saint shot forward. "Oh, and you do?"

"I know more than enough. Too much. I've seen her in her darkest moments when she thought no one was there." He sank down to the bottom of the stairs. "She's not—"

All four of us flinched as the front door burst open. Bailey's eyes widened at the sight of the glass, the broken window, and finally us. Her breath hitched as she spotted Raine. "What's going on? Please tell me you aren't fighting with each other."

That need to see her was now replaced by a need to chain her to my bed and never let her out of my sight again. I ripped the brick from Raine's hands and handed it to her along with the note that was attached. "I think you need to start talking."

" Freak ," she murmured. She crumpled the note and threw it. "That's what I am, right? A fucking freak." Tears burst from her eyes.

Poe shot me a glare as he rushed toward her, wrapping his arms around her tiny frame. "It's okay, love. Let's get you something to eat."

He started to walk her toward the kitchen when Saint stopped him. "Stop coddling her. Everyone in the sitting room. Now ."

The conversation had shifted from worry to anger back to concern for Bailey's safety. But we were talking about her like she wasn't in the room. Raine was the only one who kept quiet. Doing what he did best, observing. Maybe he had the right idea after all. You learn more from listening than you do talking. I should know because I wasn't one for talking much either. Except for me, it was different. The thought of opening up made me physically nauseous. So how could I really judge anyone for doing the same?

But it was Bailey who finally commanded the room. She stood in front of the hearth, and everyone shut up. "This is exactly why I didn't want to say anything to you," she started. She tucked her blonde hair back into a ponytail and plopped down on the floor in front of the fire. "I knew you would overreact."

I sucked in a sharp breath. "Overreact? Bailey, someone threw a brick through our front window."

She wrapped her arms around herself as she shivered. "Nothing like that's ever happened before. I'm sorry."

Poe joined her on the floor. He took her hands in his. "How long have you been harassed like this?"

Bailey snickered. "Since forever. This town has hated my family since the day we moved here… They've always called us freaks. My parents were morticians. They opened up Bishop Mortuary here in Wickford Hollow. I don't remember much about them. I was so young when they died. All I know is that they had a lot of money. Enough that I never have to work a day in my life, ever. When they died, I was put in Wickford Orphanage. The nuns weren't unkind, they just kept their distance. People either hated me or feared me simply because my family was different. "

An ache began to fester in my chest as I watched her recount what were clearly her most painful memories. I softened my tone, realizing my need to control everything was making me look like an asshole. " Little fox …" I didn't know what else to say.

She dabbed at her eyes with a cocktail napkin. "I felt so alone until I met Maureen. She accepted me for who I was. And because she was popular, the other kids eased off me. I even had a boyfriend for a while. But one night… everything changed.

My ex and I were fooling around in his truck. I started to touch myself in front of him. He was turned on at first but then he got angry. He didn't believe that I was a virgin. One minute I was living a normal life, and the next, I was labeled the town slut."

Raine leaned forward, his eyes darkening. "And what did you do about that, Bailey?"

She tilted her face toward the fire, her eyes flickered with the light from the flames. "I proved them right."