Page 6 of Rebel
“Does it have to do with the guy who was mean mugging you through the windshield?” he asked.
“Yes, but I’ll get to that part. Let me start at the beginning,” she ordered. Bolt smiled and nodded. Rebel took a deep breath and let it out, going over in her mind where she should even begin. How did she tell someone something so dark and dirty about her past? She knew that she wouldn’t be able to get out of telling him her story now. A part of her wished that she had just stayed home when she couldn’t get hold of Jace. At least she wouldn’t have to tell a virtual stranger about her past.
The kitchen felt too small, the single buzzing bulb overhead throwing a harsh yellow glow on the scarred table between them. Rebel sat rigid, her hands locked in her lap, fingers twisting until her knuckles went white. She couldn’t shake the image of Kirk from her mind—his shadow in the parking lot, the way he’d looked at her like he’d been waiting all along for her to show up.
Across from her, Bolt leaned back in his chair, broad shoulders filling the space, arms crossed. He didn’t press her to hurry up and get on with it. He just watched her, steady and silent, like he could see through the walls she’d spent years building.
Her throat ached, but she forced the words out. “That man, the one you saw in the parking lot, his name’s Kirk. He—” She swallowed hard, not sure if she could get the next part out. She had never told anyone what she did to keep her and Jace alive with a roof over their heads when their mom died. “He used tobe a client.” Bolt’s jaw flexed, but he said nothing. His silence was worse than anger—it left her no place to hide.
“When Mom died, Jace was still just a kid,” Rebel continued, her voice trembling. “I had just turned eighteen a few days before my mother passed, so the state let me keep him. But everything was all on me. I had to be able to provide for him, and stripping wasn’t enough to keep us fed. Men from the club would offer more. A hundred bucks for an hour. They promised to get a hotel room so that no one would know.” Her breath hitched, but she pushed through. “I said yes.” Shame burned up her neck, threatening to suffocate her. She couldn’t look at Bolt, couldn’t stand to see disgust written on his face. All she could remember was seeing Jace’s smile when he’d eaten a full dinner, or the way he’d slept soundly knowing the lights wouldn’t get shut off. That was why she did it—but saying it aloud made her feel exposed and raw.
“So, Kirk was one of your clients that you met at the hotel?” Bolt’s voice was steady and low.
Rebel nodded, her chest tight. “At first, he was just another man willing to pay me for the use of my body. He was a way for me to put food on the table for Jace, and that was all that mattered to me. But then, Kirk started showing up everywhere—not just at the strip club. He started following me, and I wasn’t sure what to do. He’d be waiting outside after my shifts were over, and he’d follow me home. When I bolted myself in my shitty apartment, he banged on the door until someone called the cops, or I opened the door. I finally was able to quit the club when I got a job at a local clothing boutique. I thought I’d left him behind, but he found me again. He showed up at the boutique, and when my boss told me to get a restraining order against him, I couldn’t answer the question about how I knew my stalker, and they wouldn’t let me leave it blank on the form. How could I write that he was some guy that I had sex withfor money?” Her voice cracked, and she took a deep breath in, eventually letting it back out as she tried to steady her nerves.
The air hung heavily between them. So did the silence. Rebel braced herself for his judgment, waiting for him to push back from the table and walk away from her. Instead, Bolt leaned forward, his arms braced on the wood, eyes locked on hers. “You don’t owe me excuses,” he said. “But if that bastard’s after you, then he’s after us now. I promised Jace that I’d protect you, and that makes him my problem too. And for the record, I think that once this is all over and the dust has settled, you should tell Jace all of this. Your brother is the kindest man I know, and he wouldn’t want you feeling this guilt for what you had to do to survive. You took care of him, and that’s all that matters,” Bolt insisted.
Rebel’s breath caught, the weight of her secret loosening just enough to let her inhale. Relief mingled with fear in her chest. She’d only known Bolt for hours, yet his words anchored her, made her believe that for the first time in years, maybe she wasn’t carrying this burden alone anymore.
Bolt
Bolt watched her twist her hands in her lap, every movement tight and almost robotic. She was wound up so hard he half expected her to shatter. But when she started talking—about working at the strip club and the men that she had to endure just to make a living—what struck him wasn’t the shame that she had been feeling. It was the grit it must’ve taken for her to survive it all and take care of Jace in the meantime. She was probably one of the strongest women that he had ever met. Most people would’ve folded under that kind of pressure and those limited choices, but she hadn’t.
He leaned in, bracing his forearms on the kitchen table, his eyes locked on hers. She tried to look away, but he wouldn’t let her. He needed her to know he wasn’t going anywhere. Rebel didn’t seem like the type of woman who had a lot of people in her corner, and Bolt wanted her to know that was where he planned to stay—in her corner, helping her to get through all of this. “You are one of the strongest women that I know,” he said, his voice rough, steady. She barked out her laugh as though she didn’t believe a word of what he had just said to her. That stung a little,but he understood. She was waiting for his condemnation, not his praise, so it was going to take her a minute to catch up.
Her eyes flicked up to him, wide and searching, like she was waiting for disgust that never came. Something in his chest tightened. She wasn’t broken, not by a long shot. No, Rebel was fire—all edges and scars, and she didn’t even see how strong she was.
Before he thought better of it, his hand moved to cover hers where it rested on the table. Her hand felt small and soft against his calloused palm. She froze but didn’t pull away, and Bolt took that as a good sign. He let his thumb drag lightly across her knuckles. Her breath caught, and his damn heart felt as though it might beat right out of his chest.
“You’re not broken,” he told her, his voice dropping low. Her lips parted, soft and uncertain, and for a heartbeat, he imagined leaning across the table and tasting her. He hadn’t known her for a full day, but hell, if the pull between them wasn’t real. His gaze fell to her mouth, lingered there, and the whole damn room seemed to slow down around them. He started to lean in, and damn if she didn’t back away.
That’s when the sound tore through their little cocoon. Bolt’s cell rang, and Rebel reached for it. Bolt snatched it off the kitchen counter before she could get to it. “Is it Jace?” she asked, trying to look at his phone screen. He looked down to see Jace’s name on the screen, and a part of him wanted to lie to her. She was going to want to talk to her brother, and until now, Jace had been avoiding his sister. He told Bolt that talking to her would only put her into deeper danger, but he had a feeling that his friend was just trying to avoid his big sister’s wrath. He never told her about working for the FBI and having that conversation was going to be painful. Maybe Jace was smart to put it off for a bit, but he was going to have to come clean with his sister at some point.
“It is, and I’m going to take the call. You are going to sit quietly in case anyone is listening to the call,” Bolt ordered. The chance of the Dead Rabbits listening in was
good. He needed to make sure that Jace was alone and free to talk before he’d let Rebel start asking him a million questions.
“Hello,” he answered.
“I only have a few minutes,” Jace said into the phone. “I had to move locations again, and so do you.”
“Wait,” Bolt insisted. “What are you talking about? We just got here.”
“Is he okay?” Rebel said, standing from the spot in the corner of the kitchen where she had been listening to half the conversation. “What’s going on? Let me talk to him.” She held out her hand for him to give her the cell phone, and he turned away from her. First, he needed answers from Jace, and then, Rebel could catch up with her brother.
“The Dead Rabbits know that you are FBI. They made you, and you aren’t safe there anymore. Which means that Rebel isn’t safe either. They still don’t know that she’s my sister, but I can’t chance them finding either of you. They won’t care who the hell she is if they find her with you.”
“How did they find out I’m a Fed?” Bolt asked.
He could almost hear his friend shrug. It was his go-to move, and that thought made Bolt smile. “Probably the same way that they figured out that I’m a Fed. I guess that your leaving for your father’s funeral sent up some red flags, and now, the dumb fuckers were able to put two and two together, and they came up with you and me being undercover Feds.” He worried that his sudden departure would send up warning signs. He worried that going back in might be a problem, but now, he worried that not doing just that had only put Jace in danger and blown his cover.
“Fuck,” Bolt said.
“Yeah, you’re getting it now,” Jace said. “I need you to pack up and go into Savage Hell. Savage and Banshee are calling a special joint meeting. They’re going to figure out where you two need to go next. Ryder will fly you to the new safehouse. Don’t tell Rebel about any of this until you have her ass on the plane. My sister is stubborn and will give you a fight if given the chance.” Bolt knew exactly how stubborn Jace’s sister was. Rebel was currently jumping around him, trying to take the cell phone from him. If they weren’t in danger, he’d find the whole scene pretty damn cute.
Rebel reached for the phone, trying to grab it from his hand again, and he tugged it away. “Your sister wants to talk to you, man. She’s practically trying to rip my arm off.”
“No,” Jace shouted into the other end of the call. “I can’t talk to her right now. It’s not safe. Tell her that I love her and keep her safe, man. Remember your promise,” Jace ordered. He ended the call, and Bolt sighed, doing the same. He knew that Rebel wasn’t going to be happy with him, but when Jace made up his mind, there was no changing it. And for some odd reason, he had made up his mind to keep his sister in the dark and avoid her like the plague.
