Page 62 of Hades

I was home. This place was the only real home I’d ever had since I was a kid. It was just too damn bad I couldn’t stay.

“Raven!” Macy’s voice called out and her small body slammed into me from the side before I looked up to seek her out. “Holy shit, girl! I’m so glad you’re okay.” Her hug was almost suffocating, but I sank into it, absorbing her warmth and her love.

“I’m fine, Macy. Promise.”

She pulled back and studied my face for a full minute. Her eyes were wide with an emotion I couldn’t quite name. “I’ll need a few more hugs before I can believe that, but you’re here and you’re in one piece.” Macy hugged me again, this time tighter before she pulled back. “You look like you lost your best friend.”

“Impossible,” I deadpanned. “She’s right here squeezing the life out of me.”

She laughed but it was more muted than I expected. “Okay fine, you look like you lost something else. Something that really fucking matters to you.”

I swallowed down a sob and nodded. “I’ll be okay, Macy.” If I said it enough times, I might actually believe it.

She tilted her head to the side as if that gave her a better angle to study me, before squeezing my shoulders. “Are you sure?”

“No, but I have to be because I don’t have any other choice.” Things were over with Hades. I was too angry to talk to Falcon. I was too big of a mess to deal with either of them, particularly when I had something else to worry about. “Can we talk later? I really would like to wash this day away.”

“Of course,” she screeched, wincing at her own volume. “Sorry, I just needed to hold you myself to know you’re all right. I’m so glad you’re safe, Raven.”

“Me too,” I whispered and then took off before she saw the tears I was too exhausted to fight any longer. Tears fell like summer rain once I was locked inside my room, turning to sobs once I stepped under the hot, steaming spray of the shower. I stayed in the shower, crying until the water turned icy cold. When I stepped out, my mind was made up.

It was time to leave the safety of the Steel Demons clubhouse and the comfort of the familiar. I’d caused the people here enough problems and I didn’t want to cause any more, on the off chance that Viktor’s successor showed up to make trouble. And there was the small matter of the baby. If I left, I could land someplace where nobody knew me and wouldn’t ask questions about the absent father.

I had a few dollars saved to help find an apartment until I found a job, which was my first order of business.

After I took a nice, long, dreamless sleep for the first time in years.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Hades

“You can’t avoid me forever.” Falcon stood with his arms crossed over his chest, brows dipped in a dark scowl and his whole stance screamed, don’t fuck with me.

It was too fucking bad for my best friend that he was the least of my worries. I took my time tearing my gaze from the grassy field where colorful flowers had popped up, and met his gaze. “Not avoiding you,” I told him honestly before turning back to the field that eventually met the highway. The truth was that I hadn’t thought much about Falcon since I watched Raven walk away from me without a backwards glance. She wasn’t just pissed off, which was a damn shame because I could deal with her anger. But hurt? I couldn’t deal with that. It gutted me completely.

“Bullshit.” He took a few steps forward and dropped down on the bench beside me with a heavy sigh, fixing his gaze on the cars zooming by in the distance. “I haven’t seen you since shit went down two fucking days ago, man.”

I nodded just to acknowledge his words. “I know, but I’m not avoiding you.” I’d been camped out at the clubhouse for days just to catch a glimpse of Raven, but I haven’t spotted her once. She hasn’t left her room, at least not as far as I could tell. She was actively avoiding me, and I couldn’t fucking blame her. “I have bigger things on my mind, I’m afraid.”

He let out a sharp, bitter laugh. “Raven.” It wasn’t a question, but he wanted answers. He wasn’t owed answers, but he was my best friend, and I was involved with his sister. Sort of.

Hopefully still involved.

“Yeah,” I sighed after a long, tense pause. “Raven.”

Falcon turned his head to face me, but I kept watching the cars on the highway. “So what the fuck is going on between you and my baby sister?”

I could’ve lied, could have told him it was none of his goddamn business, but that would cause even more tension, and I had enough to deal with. I decided to just give it to him the way we always did for each other, straight up. “I love her.” I didn’t have to look to know those three words took all the steam out of his anger.

Several long ass minutes passed in silence. Neither of us said anything because what was there to say in that moment? This was the exact conversation I didn’t want to have, what I’d been avoiding and what had, ultimately, cost me a future with Raven. “Fuck,” he finally settled on, blowing out a long breath and he shook his head as if that was the last thing he expected to hear. “You love her?”

I smiled. “Yeah.”

Falcon whistled low and shook his head again. “You sure? She’s a fucking handful.”

Another smile spread across my face, bigger than the last and eventually it turned into a grin. “I’m sure. Trust me, I thought long and hard about it, and the only conclusion left is that I fucking love her.”

“I want to be pissed at you, man. She’s my fucking sister.”