“How do you figure?” Abel shifted to look at me as smoke blew out from the corner of hismouth.
“I’m a fucking basket case. I ran away from home to find a man that I can barely remember and wound up here in the middle of family drama and an MC. Pretty nuts, if I do say somyself.”
“Don’t you believe in fate?” His blue eyes were soft as he laced our fingerstogether.
“Don’t start getting all soft and mushy on me, Abel Hellock. Aren’t you supposed to be some sort ofbadass?”
He laughed a little. “Yeah, something like that.” He threw his half smoked cigarette on the floor and stomped it out. “Let me go throw a shirt on, Raine will freak if I’m not ready when sheis.”
Right then she came clambering down the stairs, swinging open the front door. “Daddy! Get ready! Miss Gilda and I want to scream down the slideagain.”
Abel tossed me the keys to his truck. “Start her up for me? I’ll be down in aminute.”
Spending the better part of the late morning and early afternoon at the park with Raine and Abel was the perfect lighthearted fun I needed to relax from the night before. We all ran, swung, slid, twirled, and screamed until Raine was begging for pizza and icecream.
“One or the other,” Abel teased, carrying Raine back to thetruck.
“Fine!Pizza.”
I hopped into the passenger seat and Abel made the throaty diesel engine groan tolife.
He grabbed my hand, a huge grin plastered on his face. “How does pizza sound toyou?”
I glanced back at Raine as she buckled the seatbelt. “I think it sounds like a deliciousidea!”
“Yay!” Raine cheered from thebackseat.
We got a large pie delivered to the house and after we ate, I put Raine down for anap.
Abel was sitting on the couch with two glasses of whiskey on the rocks resting on the coffeetable.
“Doublefisting?”
He glanced up at me from the box of Rave’s letters and paperwork that was sitting open. “I figured you might need a stiff drink after I saw allthis.”
I sighed and sunk into the couch next to him. “Thanks. You couldn’t be moreright.”
I took a nice slow sip, letting the amber liquid coat mythroat.
“Weren’t you supposed to head into work at some point today?” I propped my feet up on the coffee table and threw a blanket over mylap.
“Yeah, but this was way more fun. Sometimes you just need to playhooky.”
I didn’t know how to ask what I wanted to, but I needed to know. “Abel?”
“Yeahbabe?”
I stalled, rubbing my thumb over the edge of my glass, staring at the amber liquid swirling around the ice. “What happened to Raine’s mom and yours?” I finally spitout.
“Crickett, it’s just hard to talk about.” His eyes glassed over and his finger ran around the rim of his glass as he evaded the growing elephant in theroom.
I grabbed his hand. The contact caught his attention and his gaze snapped to mine. “I know it’s hard to talk about. We don’t haveto.”
He took a deep breath, chugged down his whiskey, shoved off the couch, and started to pace. “No, it’s time I finally talk about it with someone. Rave and I are the only ones that know the real story. It’ll be good to get if off mychest.”
While pacing he finally dove into the story. “It goes back to when I was fifteen. My parents split when my mom left my father for Rave. He had been here for a few years at that point and had just started running the bar with my uncle, Rich, my mother’s brother. My old man was the fucking president and that shit really didn’t fly but my mom marched to the beat of her own drum. They didn’t get married until I was eighteen, and Rave finally moved in. I guess he wanted the dust to settle with the club a little bit before he stepped on my old man’s toescompletely.”
He poured another three fingers of whiskey in his glass before continuing. “Raine was born shortly after their wedding. Her mom, Colleen, was seventeen, and her folks had kicked her out when I knocked her up. She moved in here and everything was fine. We were one big family. Rave and I even started to get along. It was rough in the club but everything seemed to be smoothingout.”
He paused and looked at me, his hands shaking. “I don’t think he was a bad person. I think he was driven mad from jealousy and a broken heart.” Abel cleared his throat, then took a long swig. “Raine was about a year and a half when it happened. I was working late at the garage and Rave was helping me. He had left his bike in the driveway and rode with me in my truck. I think Rave was the target but just happened to not be home. Anyway, my old man went into our house and shot my mom while she was cleaning up the dishes from dinner. I think Colleen took him by surprise. He shot her too before killing himself. The rest of the night is a fucking blur. The cops came to the garage and my world crumbled. The guilt that has buried itself inside of me and Rave will never go away. In one moment the only two women I’d ever loved were taken by the monster sperm donor who was the president of the club I had grown to love. It was all going to hell in a goddamnedhandbasket.”
I was paralyzed. I had no words.Nothing.
“Abel, I…” He sat down next to me, burying his head in the nape of my neck. I wrapped my arms around him. “I wish I knew what tosay.”
“Don’t say anything. It’s all in the past. I’ll never get over it, but it is what itis.”
