𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐂𝐀𝐓 / / 𝐉𝐉 𝐌𝐀𝐘𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐊

CHAPTER 16

When Stella woke up the next day, JJ was still fast asleep, holding her tight. Whilst the boy could sleep through just about anything, she couldn't ignore the soft beat of rap music coming from the other side of her door.

Carefully, she pulled away from him untangling their limbs before climbing over his legs and sneaking into the bathroom. She sighed at the reflection of herself, not happy with the bruise on her wrist undoubtedly caused by Rafe, but the skin that pulled at her bones which made her look gaunt was nobodies fault but her own. If Richy was here, maybe she could convince him to go get her some food or something. She lifted JJ's sweater up that she still had on to inspect her ribs which where also bruised. It pained her to admit that Rafe did do a number on her, not as bad as JJ sure, but at least now she had valid reasons to show Barry to hopefully convince him to either stop selling to Rafe or beat his ass. As she brushed at her teeth, she thought about how satisfying it would be to use them knuckle dusters that Danny had gave her. The sound of Rafe's nose breaking would be like music to her fucking ears.

Throwing her hair up in a bun, she walked out of the bathroom to find JJ half awake. "What are you doing?" He asked with a hoarse voice.

"I just need to go talk to Bear about somethin', I'll be two minutes." She said, making her way towards the bedroom door. "Go back to sleep."

The boy mumbled something incoherent, turning back over and pressing his face into the pillow. Stella made a mental note to properly clean his cuts when he awoke, before slipping into the hallway. Her bare feet padded against the floor as she marched into the living area, determined to speak to her brother.

"What's up with you?" Richy asked, half flaked out on the couch next to Danny as the youngest Swayer came into view.

"Where's Bear?" She asked, face void of emotion.

"Wow-ho-ho," Danny perked up. "What crawled up your ass and died? You hungover or somethin'?"

"Don't fucking start, Danny. I'm not in the mood." She snapped. "Where is he?"

"I'm fucking here." Barry's voice sounded from down the corridor as he appeared from his room. He wandered down to their living area, stalking into the kitchen and picking up the jug of coffee. "All I can hear is your whining. What's wrong with you this morning?"

"You know your boy, Rafe?" Stella folded her arms across her chest. "He beat the shit out of JJ last and his friend nearly fucking killed Pope."

Barry sighed, pouring the hot liquid into a mug. "I'm failing to see what this has to do with me."

"Because he did this." She pulled the sleeve of the jumper up, show casing her bruised wrist. Purple finger marks stained her usually tanned skin. Barry's face became stern as the room fell to a deathly silence. "Oh and you don't wanna see my ribs, trust me."

"What happened?"

"He might be one of your best customers Barry, and one of the cool ones that's down to hang, but I am sick of his fucking shit! Fucking walkin' around like—"

Barry stopped her, gritting out his words. "Stella, tell me what fucking happened."

"Cornered me the minute I got there." The blonde sighed. Moving to lean against the sofa, she picked up the carton of smokes from the table and a lighter, sparking one up. "Said some shit about Pope fucking with Topper's boat, I told him to fuck off and reminded him of the bill he owed you."