Rain Shadow(33)

The television turned off in Dreygon’s cabin. Now I doubted that Angel was there. I walked across the yard to her cabin and climbed the steps. I hesitated, wondering if I should be waking her, but I needed to see her. I needed to let her know that I’d fallen asleep accidentally. I knocked but there was no answer. I tried again but she didn’t respond. Across the way, the two dogs were sitting in front of the kitchen steps.

I headed in their direction. A flash of lightning illuminated the porch. Angel was sitting on the bench that her aunt had always sat on. The cat was sleeping on her lap.

Her eyes were puffy from crying, but she forced a weak smile as she gazed down at me.

“I’m a heel. I was waiting for you but I fell asleep.” I climbed the steps and sat next to her. The cat leapt off her lap and hid under the bench. “When I try to fall asleep, I stay awake. But tonight I tried to stay awake and I dozed right off.”

“Maybe you’ve found a cure for insomnia.” She sounded frail in the shadows of the porch. She leaned her head against my shoulder. “I’m glad you slept.”

“Always the doctor. Always looking for a cure.”

“There’s no cure for this feeling of hollowness.” She laughed weakly. “I wonder what dimwit decided that time was the best cure. If that’s the case then I want to be catapulted a year ahead because this feels so shitty.”

“Yeah, it sure does.”

A crack of thunder shattered the quiet. “Cool thunderstorm, huh? Gracie always used to come over to my cabin and spend the night when there was thunder and lightning.” She laughed softly. “She would tell me that she was worried that I might be scared.”

Angel lifted her head and climbed into my lap. I held her securely in my arms. “It’s all changing, Luke. My world was always fucked up but it seems worse than ever now. Gracie was my one tether to reality. It’s like that one thread hanging from the sweater that you pull and you realize the whole damn thing is unraveling. Gracie was that thread.”

I kissed the top of her head.

“Don’t know how much this helps, but you’ve got me.”

She snuggled against me. “It helps a lot.”



After the beer, I’d gone back to my cabin thinking I had to get out of here in the next few days or this was all going to end badly, but Gracie’s death would make that even more impossible now. Angel would never want to leave her grandfather in the middle of this. But I was running out of time. Cash’s and Jericho’s line of questioning tonight proved that. If I didn’t get out of here soon, I was dead.





Chapter 13

Angel

I was surprised at how quickly I’d broken down my grandfather’s refusal to let me leave the compound. Gracie’s death and the turmoil in the club had taken its toll on him. It seemed I rarely saw him anymore when he wasn’t stoned out of his mind. With Griffin and the Bent for Hell MC dealing with their own problems, he had lifted the lockdown. It had taken a rather minor amount of pleading before he agreed to let me climb to the top of Angel’s Ridge with Gracie’s ashes. I planned to sprinkle them over the edge where my mom had fallen from. It just seemed right. Maybe somehow they could find each other again.

Luke met me outside of my cabin. He looked tired and tense, but that was usual for him lately. He’d had it with this place. He wanted to get back to his life, and it seemed he was more anxious than ever to leave. But it wasn’t feasible or safe at the moment. He’d been dragged into the business of the club without ever wanting it. He’d done it for me.

At first, Gracie’s death had made the notion of me leaving harder than before. But I finally felt closure after we’d held a rather unorthodox funeral, consisting of a group of Bedlam members sitting around, getting drunk and talking about her delicious chili and barbecue chicken. Everything was different now. Without Gracie, leaving here would be that much easier.

I pulled my backpack over my shoulder. I’d wrapped the blue urn that held Gracie’s ashes in a cloth to keep it from breaking. Candy and I had baked several of Gracie’s apple pies for the visitors who’d come to pay their respects. I’d wrapped up two slices and stuffed them in the backpack next to the urn.

I looked pointedly down at the gun in Luke’s hand. “I packed up Gracie and some pie, and you’re packing a weapon.”

“Your grandfather insisted. Should I leave it behind?”

I looked at him but didn’t need to say anything.

“Right.” He walked into my cabin and returned without the gun.

“Much better.” I took his hand. “Max shut off the wire fence. It’s a lot faster through the back.”