Page 122 of Sinful Skulls
Daisy doesn’t shy away from the dark like she used to. She faces it head on.
She pats my head like a good boy. It makes me want to spank her ass, but it will have to wait until we’re home. I don’t want to get struck down by the woman behind me.
“It’s taco night at the warehouse,” she coaxes, lowering herself to the ground beside Raffe. Tacos were Rachel’s favorite.
He holds the bottle up in front of her face. “Sorry, but I already have dinner plans.”
She stares at him for a long moment.
“Do you think Rachel helped you get on your feet just so you could sit at her dead ones, sloshed out of your fucking mind every night?”
Ouch. What is she doing?
Raffe bangs his head back against the tree. “I wish Dirk and Jesse would have just let me rot in my wheelchair back then. I wish I never would have fallen in love with her!” he yells, his spit flying everywhere.
He doesn’t ruffle her feathers. She just watches him calmly as he continues.
“As a matter of fact, I wish Dirk would have left me in a gutter back in LA.” He tries to jump to his feet but does a damn sloppy job of it. He stumbles a few times before he rights himself.
Daisy stands slowly and follows him. He falls to the ground between Jackson’s birth mother’s grave and Rachel’s. “It should be me.” His fists punch the dirt. “I should be the one buried here. Not them.”
She stands behind him as his rage erupts. He continues to spew the most unhinged shit I’ve ever heard.
“She haunts me, you know?” Raffe begins to rock himself, his gaze bouncing along the edge of the cemetery like he’s waiting for a ghost to step from the trees.
I stand up and grab her arm, pulling her away, but she stops me.
“It’s okay,” she whispers. “You can go on to the warehouse. We’ll be there soon.”
“I’m not leaving you with him like this,” I say, trying to reason with her.
“Go.” She pushes me away. “I’ve got this.”
I don’t know why, but against my better judgement, I walk away.
When I get on my bike, I look back to find him in her arms, sobbing.
It’s the first time I’ve seen him cry over his wife’s death. At first, I thought he was just being incredibly stoic, but a few weeks later he turned to the bottle. The club’s been coddling him ever since, because damn, the dude just lost his wife.
Maybe we were all too deep in our own pain to see that he needed a little push. She pushed him alright.
Right over a cliff.
When I get to the warehouse, things aren’t much lighter. Everyone is sitting around with a drink in their hand. Even Grandma Maggie is throwing one back.
Elizabeth yells from the kitchen, “The food is all set up outside!”
No one moves. “Come on guys. You’ve got to eat,” I tell them. “You don’t want to hurt her feelings, do you?”
A few of them groan, but everyone starts to make their way to the back door.
“Jesse’s downstairs,” Dirk slurs as he passes me. He tries to go down after her, but I direct him toward Billie Rose.
“I’ll get her. Go get some fucking food in you.”
Elizabeth pats me on the back. “Thank you for your help. I don’t take offense to it. Everyone is just missing Rachel extra today.”
“Yeah, I guess. Daisy is out at the cemetery with Raffe. He was in a bad way when I left. Hopefully she gets him back here soon.”
