Free Fabio's Remorse (Hell Raiders MC Book 5) by Aden Lowe Page B

me to question everything. The man had called me 'Teach'. That meant he knew where I worked. The stupid Board of Education website would give him anything he needed to find me. My photo was there, my school, my work email, and my first and last names. With that information, anyone with a brain could find me.
    And I had no doubts as to my assailant's intelligence. He possessed the cunning of a predator, and the ability to terrorize his prey. Now that he had my phone number, he wouldn't stop. Men like him got off on the fear they generated in others, and he knew exactly how much he terrified me.
    The local news came on, and a headline scrolling at the bottom of the screen caught my attention. I turned the volume up. The anchor came on, wearing her serious expression, the one they reserved for the worst news.
    "In a press conference today, Pike County Sheriff George Gormann advised the public to be especially alert. Four women have been beaten and raped during home invasion robberies in the past eleven days."
    The male co-anchor took over. "According the Sheriff Gormann, the suspects struck as lone females entered their homes after dark. He says all women should be especially careful when approaching their door at all times." The woman started speaking again, giving phone numbers people should call if they saw anything suspicious.
    I sat there, numb. I wasn't the only one. They were doing it again, hurting other women the same way they did me, and now they were killing them. My stomach churned suddenly, and I bolted for the bathroom just in time. I vomited until my chest ached and my stomach felt as if it had turned inside out. I felt sorry for those other women, and jealous at the same time. At least they didn't have to live, cowering in fear all the time.
    The blessed numbness subsided, and I felt their hands all over me again, felt them inside me, felt them tearing my heart out all over again. Shivering, I stripped and climbed into the shower and turned the water as hot as it would go. I stayed there, sobbing in the corner, until the water ran cold and the shivers returned.
    By the time I climbed into my bed, guilt hit. If I reported when they hurt me, would they have been caught? Would it have prevented them from hurting those other women? Could I have saved them?
    Sleep refused to come that night, and when my alarm went off, I climbed out of bed, stiff and sore, and exhausted. Until now, work had been my only solace, my only safe place, because I didn't think they could find me there. I'd been a fool to think I might have a haven where they couldn't reach me.
     
     

11
    Fabio
    The time as a Hell Raiders Prospect passed fairly quickly for me. Kellen stayed true to his word that I wouldn't get the kind of hazing some did. For the most part, bringing up the rear on runs was about the worst of it. A couple of the newer members gave me shit at first, but the others set it right. They were only treating me the way they had been, so I didn't make a big deal out of it.
    When Kellen and Crank told me they were bringing my status as a Prospect to a vote, my heart sank right through the floor. Asking all the other Hell Raiders to consider me a brother seemed like a cross between salvation and damnation. They could either save me by agreeing to place that kind of trust in me, or damn me by refusing.
    The bastards left me to cool my heels in the living room while they decided my fate. I felt about like a prisoner on death row waiting for an eleventh hour phone call from some suit in an office to let me live a little longer. At that point, all I could do was pray, and try to remember if any of them had anything to really hold against me.
    Over an hour later, Crank came out scowling. "Kellen says get your ass in there."
    Fuck. The vote must have gone against me. My heart pounded in my ears as I stood and headed for the big conference room where the Raiders held church. They were going to make me turn in my Prospect patch and get the hell