Page 84 of The Grief We Hold

Atom and Smoke shake their heads.

“Hey, Wraith,” Don, one of the prospects, calls out when he sees me.

I like him. While Taco was definitely first in line to be patched in, Don was a close second. Ex military, a purple heart, and deadly in hand-to-hand combat. I have my eye on him as part of our growth plans.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“It might be nothing, but…I heard you and the black-haired woman from the diner were, you know…hooking up and shit.”

“What is this? High school gossip?”

He winces for a moment, as if having second thoughts about even approaching me. “Nah. Could be none of my business, but I was at the diner doing cleanup this morning.”

Concern hits me square in the gut. “Is Raven okay?”

“Physically, yes. But I heard Margie threaten her. Told her she had to stay away from you, or she’d lose her job because Margie’s your mother-in-law. Said she’d fire her anyway if she told you about their conversation.”

Fuck my life. I suppose I should have known this moment would come eventually.

“You sure you heard right?”

Don nods solemnly. “Margie didn’t know I was in the kitchen washing my hands. I could hear every word clearly. There’s no chance I misunderstood.”

“Thanks for telling me. You did the right thing.”

I need to go and check in on Raven, then set some new ground rules with my mother-in-law.

“Umm…there was more. She told Raven you were too wrapped up in looking after her to do your job properly. That you let the club down and that Butcher was on your ass about it.”

“That’s a fucking lie. How did Raven take it?”

“At first, she said Margie needed to talk to you. But she finally said she refused to discuss her personal life. She left shortly after that. Today wasn’t even her shift, apparently. She’d just gone to help out, and even told Margie she didn’t expect to be paid.”

“Thanks for letting me know.”

I march back into the room and grab my keys and wallet. “I gotta go.”

“Need help?” Atom asks.

“No.”

I drive like a man possessed, wishing I’d gotten Raven’s cell phone number so I could call her. I ignore the unfurled leaves and the freshly sprouted fields as I speed by. Even the mountains do little to lift the crushing pressure on my chest.

While I don’t expect Raven to have done something reckless like leave town without speaking to me, I check out the bus stop as I drive by, just in case, and am relieved she isn’t there.

When I reach her apartment, I knock on the door loudly, then step back and look up at the window, just in time to see her step away.

“Raven,” I yell. “Let me in.”

It takes a minute, but the door opens. “Wraith,” she says, her face schooled in what I’m sure she thinks is some cool, calm facade. But I don’t buy it for a second.

“Did Margie try to tell you to stay away from me at the diner today?”

“It’s been a rough day,” she says. “Can we do this some other time?”

I shake my head. “No. I need to know if Margie told you to stay away from me.”

“She told me she was your mother-in-law. Are you still married to her daughter?”

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