The Fae Book 3: Butcher and Raine

Chapter 21 (Raine): Go To Bed

I had Butcher standing in front of me, telling me he was going to stay with me at night until the moon fae were sent underground, and my son kicking me from the inside like he was bored and had nothing else to do to entertain himself. I could only hope Butcher's son was going to take after the non-psychopath side of the family once he was out.

OK, first things first. I pressed my hand to my bump and pressed back where he was kicking. Sometimes that would make him stop or slow down at least. Sometimes, like tonight, it didn't make one bit of difference and the kicking continued unabated.

"You do that a lot," Butcher said, pointing at my perfectly round stomach. "You're always holding your belly or rubbing it. And it looks like you talk to it sometimes."

"Of course I always have my hands on the baby. Most pregnant women touch their bellies a lot or talk to their babies."

That didn't seem to clear anything up for him.

"Haven't you ever been around a pregnant woman before?"

"No. Not a fan of being around women to begin with, pregnant or not, so I never noticed the hand on the belly thing."

"Well, it's just a way to connect with the baby before he's born. Sometimes I press on the spot where he's kicking and he kicks back. Just a way to say hi, baby. Sometimes he's making me uncomfortable, and touching my stomach eases the ache. He can hear me, too, and he'll know my voice from the second he's born."

Butcher just looked at me blankly. 

"You should go to bed now," he said out of nowhere.

"It's eight," I told him. "I go to bed early since the pregnancy, but not this early. When I come home from work, I just flop down on the couch until it's time to go to bed."

"You should quit the yoga studio if working there makes you that tired."

"And live on what exactly?" I laughed at his suggestion. "That studio is how I pay my bills, Butcher."

Silver eyes studied me. "I'll give you money."

"Do you not realize I wouldn't take any money from you? As soon as I can figure out how to get that money back to you that you deposited into my account, I'll return every penny. Just know that I've been polite to you because Burr needs you around to get rid of the moon fae, but I haven't forgotten that you kidnapped me and held me hostage in Hotel Hell and threatened to kill me. You licked my tears and told me you liked the taste of my fear, and then you basically called me a slut and told me I probably didn't know who the father of my baby was because I slept with so many men."

Alexandre began kicking again, and I liked to imagine that it was a reflection of my irritation with his father. Pressing my hand against that busy little foot, I sighed when my little boy eased up. 

"Raine, you need to understand that I said that shit to get the truth out of you. It's a classic tactic when dealing with prisoners or hostages you're trying to get information from. We'd been watching your studio for a long time because of a tip we got from a previous guest. So we watched and saw the envelopes coming into the studio, saw you accept them but couldn't figure out what was happening with them. So, even after searching your studio all those times, we couldn't figure out where the envelopes were disappearing to."

"You mean after you had sex with me and took one for the team for all those weeks like a true martyr?"

The silver eyes pierced me again, trying to puzzle me out it seemed.

"It wasn't a chore, Raine, if that's what you're implying."

"Oh, Butchie, you have such a way with words," I mocked him. "My heart is all aflutter now, you silver-tongued devil."

"So now that you know I didn't mean anything I said, you can forget about it." 

The man was dense. Or completely clueless as to how women operated. "We don't just forget things. It's not how we work."

"How do you work?"

"As the asshole who messed up, you have to apologize, to start."

"Apologize for what? I'm trying to dismantle a drug ring, and you seemed to be a cog in the wheel, so we brought you in for questioning. It was nothing personal."

Oh, this man. "It was to me! It was pretty damn personal when you were running a knife over my skin while I was tied to a chair. It was completely fucking personal when you threw me in a jail cell, knowing I was pregnant, and left me to freeze."

"I gave you a blanket."

Smacking my head wouldn't do any good, and I knew from experience that smacking his head would result in me hurting my hand. How obtuse could one man be? How could he not get this, that he'd terrified me?

"I shouldn't have needed a blanket because I should have been home, safe and sound, in my own bed!"

"And you were, the next night." He was as calm as I was shrill.

"No, I wasn't. I went to Daisy's because I felt safe there since you'd taken my sense of security away from me."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Butcher tried to stare me down, but I was in a mood by now and crossed my arms and stared him down. I definitely was not remembering what his broad chest looked like, naked and sweaty, this afternoon. Even Daisy had remarked that it was like the longest lead up to a reverse harem porn video she'd ever seen.

"That is some serious muscle between the three of them," she said, twirling her finger toward the spot on the beach where they were talking in a huddle. "And the sweat making their chests and arms glisten? I'm a happy girl right now, and I'll be even happier tonight when I can take out all this happiness on Burr."

"Have you ever apologized to anyone?" I asked Butcher after we seemed to reach a stalemate in our staring contest.

"Never."

"You've never been wrong?"

Slight shake of his head.

"Done something wrong?"

Another shake of his head.

"Hurt someone who didn't deserve it?"

"No." He voice was flat and sure.

"You hurt me, Butcher!" That kind of erupted out of my mouth without permission, and even if he wasn't startled, I was.

"I didn't hurt you," he explained. "There wasn't a mark on you, Raine. Nobody touched you, and I made sure of that. I scared you, but that's it."

"You aren't normal, and I'm not even sure you're human at this point, but if you were either of those things, you'd understand that what you did was terrifying to me. You made me cry, Butcher, and I never cry. That alone should tell you just how much you scared me, and here's some insight for you: being scared hurts. So you did hurt me with both your words and your actions."

Something was working behind those silvery eyes but as to what, I was clueless.

"Go to bed, Raine." That seemed to be his refrain tonight.

Something was working behind my eyes, but I knew what it was. Tears of frustration.

I swiped at the wetness, and without another word, I stormed off to my bedroom.

Just as I reached my door, I heard it.

"I'm sorry, Raine."