Page 47 of The Fence Between Us

She practically fell into her bed, tugging the heavy blankets up to her ears while Rabble called and spoke with Elyza from the other room. His muffled voice lulled her as she lay still, feeling the weight of the blankets pressing her into the softness of her sheets. Five minutes later, the front door opened and shut. Elyza’s quiet voice drifted through the house, and Skye let a sad smile form on her lips.

Heavy footsteps neared, and Rabble spoke up, making sure she knew who approached her door. Peeking out from under the blankets, she found Rabble a foot away, kneeling beside her bed.

“Elyza’s here. She’s set up on the couch.” His throat bobbed. “I have to go, but I’m always nearby, Skye.”

With her lip quivering, she nodded and closed her eyes, the slight pressure of a featherlight kiss grazed her brow. Then hisboots grew quieter, followed by the front door opening and closing. The click of the lock sounding so final.

She burrowed back into the cocoon she’d made herself and let her tears soak into her cotton pillowcase. Concealed from the world beneath her many blankets, Skye let sleep carry her away.

Chapter 27

Rabble

Rabble 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 mademeblush.” 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. Hewished 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.”

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