Snowbound with the Santas (Forbidden Fantasies)

32. Rayne

32

RAYNE

“ F rankie!”

He doesn’t listen. It’s like a switch has been flicked inside him and he’s deaf to all attempts to stop him. Frankie flies at my Uncle Cecil and tackles him down into the snow with a cry. Elbows jerk and fists fly as he punches Cecil repeatedly in the face. It’s like something out of a movie and I’ve walked in halfway through because none of this makes sense.

My mother stumbles back in shock, so I reach out to catch her, and she flinches at my touch.

“Oh, Rayne, where have you—Cecil, what are you doing?”

To everyone’s surprise, my uncle fights back. He punches Frankie and catches him on the jaw. Frankie’s head snaps back as Archer leaps forward. I expect him to pull Frankie backward and scold him, but things get even more insane when Archer ends up joining the fight. A full-on brawl ignites on the snow between Frankie, Archer, and my Uncle Cecil. Fists fly, legs kick, and elbows strike soft flesh, causing all sorts of grunts, cries, and yells. Frankie swears like a sailor and so quickly that I’m barely able to decipher exactly what he’s saying,

Thankfully, Nick flies out of the truck, but Lodge Security gets there first before he can reach the three fighting men.

“You fucking fuck!” Frankie screeches as he’s hauled upward. “I’m gonna kill you, you hear me! I’m gonna kill you!”

Despite security holding him back, he’s doing everything he can to reach Cecil. Archer is restrained too, although he calms down a lot faster than Frankie does. Cecil is helped out of the snow by two more security guards who begin dusting the snow off his jacket and offering him tissues to stem the flow of blood from his busted nose. Blood trickles down from his eyebrow as he waves off those trying to give him attention.

“I’ll kill you!” Frankie snarls, kicking up the snow as he’s dragged away. “I swore I would!”

“Hey, now!” Nick tries to intervene with the officers dragging Archer and Frankie toward the lodge. He makes contact with one security officer who violently shoves him away.

“Step back, sir,” the man barks.

“Wait, there’s just been a misunderstanding?—”

“Nick?”

Nick is cut off by a screech and he turns to face a woman who has emerged from the crowd with her face twisted in fury.

“Amanda?”

“I should have known,” Amanda snarls. The wrinkles on her face deepen as she prods Nick in the middle of his chest. “I knew as soon as I came here that it would take less than five minutes for me to see that you were up to no good.”

“Amanda, what the hell? I haven’t done anything—wait, why the hell are you here?”

“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know!” Amanda sneers, tossing her brown hair over her shoulder. “I knew if I came unannounced, I would get a glimpse of what you are really like. All this pathetic drivel you’ve been feeding the case officer about how you’re a changed man. A better man. And look!” She indicates to Frankie, who is still screaming bloody murder about Cecil even as he’s dragged into the building. “You’re surrounded by dangerous hooligans like that!”

“Cecil! Oh, Rayne?” Mom pulls my attention away from Nick’s argument with his ex-wife and she seems to be having trouble deciding whether to greet me or tend to Cecil.

“What is it?”

“That’s how you greet me?” She throws her arms around me, but the hug is as brief as it is tight. “You’ve been missing for weeks! I thought you were dead, do you know that? I was so distraught trying to work out how I was going to grieve for my daughter!”

Despite the shrillness of her voice, she doesn’t hold my attention. I try to calm her with one hand on her arm while looking over her shoulder at Uncle Cecil. He’s still stemming blood flow with tissues while conversing with two of the security guards. Nick and Amanda’s argument is growing in volume too, with added hand gestures. Although from here, it seems most of it comes from Amanda while Nick stands there trying to speak but getting cut off at every turn.

“Rayne!” Mom screams my name so loudly that I jump out of my skin.

“What?”

“Are you even listening to me? You go missing for weeks and now that I have you back, you’re not even listening to me! You know, this is just like you, Rayne. Always so selfish!”

“Mom!” I grasp her shoulders. “I wasn’t missing. Okay, I was, but I was safe, okay? I was looked after.”

“Oh, while your running away stunt ruins my Christmas, is it okay because you were safe and cared for? Well listen here, missy. I wasn’t. I wasn’t cared for. I was distraught. My Christmas was in shambles. You ruined everything, you stupid, stupid girl!”

Mom’s screaming now, and I immediately retract my hands. “It’s not like that?—”

“What is it?” Cecil finally notices and rushes over, but even his hand on her shoulder isn’t enough to stem the flow.

“You’ve embarrassed me! You’ve embarrassed your uncle. The entire family was looking forward to seeing you and instead, all we get is you making it about you once again. You know, for a girl who claims to want to avoid the spotlight, you certainly have a unique way of being the center of attention! And to make matters worse, that Ashton has been saying some awful things about you!” Her face begins to turn purple. “Vicious, vicious lies!”

“They’re not lies.”

My blood runs cold. Ashton emerges from the crowd with his hand in his pocket. He adjusts his glasses and smirks. Even the sight of the tape across his bruised and swollen nose isn’t enough to dampen the fear that rises at the sight of him.

“Oh, Ashton, please,” Mom snaps. “Now is not the time for more of your pathetic stories.”

“Stories?” Ashton smirks, and his voice is still slimy despite the muffling from his nose. “I think you’ll find?—”

“You bastard!” Nick’s fist slams so hard into Ashton’s face that his glasses fall off and land a few feet away in the snow. “You twisted son of a bitch!”

“Nick!” Amanda screams.

Further hell breaks loose as Nick pummels Ashton into the snow, delivering blow after blow until the two nearby guards drag him off. Ashton lies in the snow in a daze, clearly taken off guard, and I watch with a heavy heart as Nick is also dragged off by security, snarling obscenities at Ashton’s crumpled form.

“ Those men are the ones who were taking care of you?” Mom reaches for my arm. “Those monsters kidnapped you, didn’t they? Oh, you don’t have to say anything, dear, I can tell. No wonder you’re in such a daze. To be locked up for weeks at the mercy of men like that. You really do pick them, don’t you? First, Ashton and his terrible lies and?—”

“Enough!” I snap, withdrawing from her completely.

She can say what she wants about me, but those men? The ones I’ve come to care for and love? I can’t stand it. Just listening to her makes my skin itch like my bones want to jump out.

“Those men are some of the best men I have ever known, do you understand? They are kind and decent, and they have saved my life. They didn’t know me and they’ve shown me more kindness than anyone else I’ve ever met.”

“Rayne,” Uncle Cecil says, but I silence him with a glare.

“Don’t. I don’t know why Frankie attacked you, but I know he had a damn good reason.”

“You’re stressed,” Mom says hurriedly. “You’ve been caught up in?—”

“No!” This has dissolved into insane confusion, and as Ashton climbs to his feet looking as smug as all heck, something inside me snaps. “Ashton is telling the truth. I was driving that night.”

Ashton’s face goes blank, and my mother chokes.

“Rayne! Don’t you say such things!”

“It’s true.” Silence falls. “He drugged me so I didn’t know what I was doing, but it’s the truth. I was driving that night. I killed those people. And I am done running away from it.”