Raine Falling (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club) by Paula Marinaro Read Free Book Online Page B

the Hells Saints come for whatever that was?
    I had nothing more to give them.
    I had nothing more.
    I had nothing at all.
    Not even a friend.
    That place is for a time when things are so dark that you cannot see the light coming through. That place is what we call a game changer, sweetheart. That means if there comes a time when you need that place, everything about your life will have to change because you know it just is not safe for you and Claire to be in it anymore. If and when that happens, you come find me.
    It had been twenty years since I had heard those words. In that time a whole lot of stuff had happened that had brought the dark raining all over Claire and me. That dark had been the stormy deep gray of a funnel cloud. The kind of dark that came with a warning bell. I had always been able to pull us back out of its oncoming path. I had always been able to move us towards the light at the end of it.
    The stuff that was heading towards us now was thick and heavy. It enveloped us, blotting out the sunshine and making it hard to breathe. I was lost in it. The more I tried to get us out, the more tangled we became. Or maybe I just couldn’t see it for what it was. Either way it covered us and was waiting to claim us. The deep dark cloak of the Grim Reaper was approaching. I was running out of time.
    Game changer. When Prosper warned me against that, I had been eight years old and had my whole life ahead of me. He was assuming that I would one day have something worth holding on to. I looked around me. Five rooms filled with a life that was not my life. We had inherited the house and all that was in it. I hadn’t as much as put up a picture. Everything I owned could fit into a single big suitcase.
    Shit, it was still such a big step. I didn’t even know if Prosper was still alive. But I knew if I used that address, we would get help. No matter what. Since all this shit was coming from a chapter of his club, there was a good chance that this could be sorted out.
    Still. Big Step.
    I sat down at the kitchen table to pour myself a cup of coffee and knocked the newspaper off the table. I bent to pick it up and saw the front page:
LOCAL TALENT KILLED IN HOME INVASION
After a call was placed to 911 reporting a disturbance at the home of former minor league pitcher Jamie Ryan, he was treated by paramedics at the scene. Ryan was later pronounced dead at Point General Hospital. Robbery is the suspected motive.
    I scanned the article looking for the date. There it was. He had been alive when we left him. I didn’t know how badly he had been hurt though. Had they gone back and beaten more out of him? Oh my God, did they find out that Claire knew something? I felt sure that’s why Diego had come back to the house. He was going to murder Claire because of something that rat bastard Jamie had told him.
    I knew it.
    I just knew it.
    Him leaving that money was what that was. Payment of a different color. He had tried to warn me that night. Something about my sister and me had made him pity us for maybe just long enough for me to get us safe from this. Maybe.
    Oh my God. They had killed Jamie. They were coming back to kill us.
    I grabbed my one big suitcase and packed it full of everything that I owned. I threw on a pair of worn button-fly jeans and a light-blue tee shirt. I pulled a brush quickly through my hair, avoiding the tender parts, and let my hair hang freely down my back. A pair of short black motorcycle boots were too heavy to pack so I wore them. Any attempt to cover the bruises on my face with makeup would be pointless and just look garish. However, I hadn’t left the house without mascara and eyeliner since I was eleven years old, so I gave myself a minute. I took a map from the drawer and a beer from the fridge. I stuck aviator sunglasses on my head and car keys in my pocket. Then I walked out of my life and locked the door firmly behind me.

CHAPTER 12
    M inutes after Diego left Raine, he hit the road. He had