Page 2 of Butch

No.

He wouldn’t do something like that. While Butch had a physical side to him back then, he had never touched her when they grew up together. Not physically in a way that would harm her.

His touch was always gentle, protective, and caring. But he might have changed if he had known what happened to her. So much had happened since he left over eight years ago, and she didn’t want to disappoint him.

“I can’t…” Echo took a step forward, and frustration grew in Rae. Why was she so useless and couldn’t manage to hear a single sentence? “…Made you look… needs… pay. You… Butch, he… help you… sad… out you were… You didn’t wait…”

Rae put her hands up as the panic started to grow inside of her. She didn’t know what Echo was saying, but from the concerned yet heated look on her face, she knew it wasn’t good. “Please, he can’t know.”

That was the last thing she said before she bolted out of the building and ran down the street. Rae could hear muffled voices, maybe calling after her, but she didn’t pay any attention to them.

People looked at her weirdly as she ran down the street and quickly turned into an alleyway. Pulling her hood up, Rae leaned up against the wall and slid down, desperately trying to catch her breath.

Her ribcage screamed in pain with each deep breath. Her body had already been aching, and she knew with the running and all the heavy breathing, it was only going to get worse. Maybe she should have waited to visit their building for a couple more days, but Rae didn’t have anywhere to stay.

She had gotten off the bus and gone straight to their clubhouse, wanting to find Butch before her confidence ran out. Something deep inside her needed to find him… to see that he was doing okay before she could attempt to move on and whither away into nothing.

“So much for finding him,” she whispered to herself.

She should never have come here. It was a huge mistake, and now he was going to find out that she had come to see him.

“Everything is going to be okay,” she whispered to herself.

She just needed to get on another bus to a different city, find a job, and stay under the radar for the rest of her life. She was going to survive… She had to.

Rae pushed herself off the ground, keeping her hand on the building as she tried to steady herself. Everything was blurry in front of her, and her head was swimming. Blood rushed into her ears, making the little noise she could hear become almost impossible.

When was the last time she ate, drank, or even got a good night’s sleep?

Groaning, Rae walked out from the alleyway and slowly started to make her way toward the bus station, keeping her head down and her hood up the whole time. She didn’t need anyone recognizing her right now.

Which wouldn’t be many since she had never been to Springfield before. It was a little bigger than she thought it was going to be.

“It can’t go back to the way it was,” she mumbled as she passed the MC club building.

But she desperately wanted everything to go back to when Butch hadn’t left for the MC. She wanted them to live under the same roof so she felt safe again. She wanted to be able to sneak into his room in the middle of the night and snuggle up against him.

She wanted to feel his soft lips on hers, slowly waking her up.

No one had known that they were together before he left. The rumors that would have spread if people found out. They were step-siblings, and while people thought it was taboo for step-siblings to end up together, they had no blood relationship, and it wasn’t wrong.

“There’s no way he remembers me,” she reminded herself. “It’s been over eight years. He said he would come back for me, but he never did.”

Which meant he didn’t remember her.

Rae thought they’d had something special when he was still living with them. But apparently it meant nothing to him.

Tears filled her eyes as she stopped in front of the kiosk to buy the bus ticket. She just needed to get through this and away from this city before she could allow herself to break down. Because Rae knew that once she started, she wouldn’t be able to stop for a while.

All of her happy memories with Butch were resurfacing in her mind, making her not want to leave, but she needed to. She needed to get as far away from Butch as possible and lay low.

“One ticket to anywhere,” she whispered when it became her turn.

“Do… want… west?” the lady asked.

“West,” Rae instantly replied, wanting this to go by as quickly as possible. “Maybe Las Vegas.”

She had just come from the east, and they were probably already looking for her. Distance was going to be her friend right now and lying low. With how little money she had, it wasn’t going to be that hard.