27
Raine
Haven askedme to trust her as she took off to start her investigation. It's not the trust part that I'm having trouble with, it's the faith. I can't see a favorable outcome from her tearing through Mayor Leigh's office.
As I walk back through town toward Sutter for work, I run into a few gems—three old ladies sitting on a bench, clucking away. Their chatters stop as I pass and one of them squawks, "Get out of this town, you Neanderthal. I hope you rot in hell."
I turn to face the woman, doing what I've refused to do since the moment I walked away from the prison. "Excuse me?" I question. "Did you just tell a stranger to 'rot in hell'?" I press my hands into my hips as my head tilts to the side questioningly. It would have been in my best interest to ignore her, but I'm not sure I can keep ignoring this shit.
"You aren't a stranger, Raine Carson. This whole town knows you well." The gray-haired and wrinkle-warn woman seems a bit uncomfortable talking to me as if she thought I would ignore her and continue on while carelessly taking what she was dishing out. If I was the person they're painting a picture of in their heads, why would they tempt a convict with cruelty?
"Have you ever heard of forgiveness?" I ask the woman, spotting the golden cross hanging low over her thin, emerald sweater.
"Of course," she says, pinching her fingers around the cross.
"Well," I smile. "I forgive Haven Leigh for lying to me about her age, so, I think we can all move past this ifI'mable to." I realize I just threw Haven under the bus, but I believe it's something she would have said if she were standing here with me.
"Pardon me?" the woman asks, her voice softening to almost a whisper, while she leans toward me with her hand cupped around her ear as if she needs to hear what I said again.
I place my hands on my knees and lean in, meeting her glare. "Just because she's beautiful and well off, doesn't mean she wasn't once a liar."
The woman's fingers release from around the cross, and her hand flattens against her chest. "It's hard to believe a convict," she says, holding onto the last bit of cruelty I think she may have. "But, I always knew that family was a little odd."
"Well," I say, standing up straight. "We all make mistakes in life, some worse than others, but Haven learned from hers, and she isn't like the rest of her family, thankfully. She's a good person."
"How can you believe that if what you're saying is true? She lied to you and had you put into prison for years."
Puffing out my chest with a deep inhale, I press my lips together and look at the woman for a long uncomfortable second. "Like I said, ma'am–forgiveness."
I leave on that note, hearing their chatter pick back up. Whether they believe me or not, I don't care, but word spreads quickly in this town, regardless if it is truth or not.
Arriving at the bar a little early, I find Crow already hard at work, counting out cash. "Hey man," he says, dumping the wad into the register. "You're here early."
"Not much else going on," I tell him. "Put me to work."
"The kegs need to be changed out," he says.
People change a lot over the course of seven years, and Crow is the perfect example of this, but even after hanging around with thematuredversion of Crow this week, I can tell something crawled up his ass.
"Everything okay, man?"
"Yeah, fine," he says, dumping a few empty liquor bottles into a bin. I wait for a minute, wondering if he'll come out with it, but he doesn't so I head for the back door to get the kegs. "Kacee said you can't stay with us."
Fuck. "Did I do something to piss her off?" Because...I hadn't seen her since the other night when we ran into each other in the parking lot and she didn’t act like there was a whole lot wrong at that moment. On the contrary, she acted like she was kind of happy to see me.
Crow scratches the scar that cuts through his left brow, reminding me of the night some dude took a broken bottle to his face during one of the infamous bar fights here. "She asked where you were when I came home without you."
He told her I was with Haven,the child I raped. "So she thinks the same thing everyone in Cascade thinks of me?"
Crow nods his head in agreement, "Well, yeah. Do you know there wasn't a week that went by where your story wasn't published in the newspaper? It just kept reappearing to remind everyone of what happened to the mayor's daughter. Everyone has been mind-washed." Wow, that must have been painful for Haven to live with for seven years.
"You believe me, don't you?" I ask, wondering if I'm truly the only one who believes myself.
"Yeah, man, of course; you're my bro. I know you're not a rapist or nothing."So, why are you looking at me the way you are while saying this?
"Hmm," I say, pushing through the back door for the kegs.
When I return a couple of minutes later, Crow is still standing in the same place. "You know, even if you were aware that she was sixteen, I don't think what you did was wrong. I lost my virginity at fifteen, so what's the big deal?"
