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He doesn’t say anything, but he does let out a long, pained breath.
“You did the right thing, man,” I assure him.
“I know that,” he mutters quietly. “I don’t give a fuck that he’s dead.”
I nod, glad that he’s not suddenly having regrets about his shitty father.
“So what’s up?” I ask hesitantly, aware that our burgeoning relationship might not have grown to this level of deepness yet.
He pauses, making me regret even coming in here. Alana should be sitting in my place talking to him about this.
I am not qualified to deal with anyone’s issues.
I can’t cope with my own most days.
I’m considering getting up and walking away, attempting to pretend this never happened when he finally opens his mouth.
“Looking him in the eye like that. Hearing him talk about Alana as if she’s nothing. It made me realize how badly I’ve fucked everything up.” He sighs and I feel pain in it right down to my black soul. “I’ve let her down, J. All I’ve ever tried to do is what I thought was right. I never should have let her stay in this fucked-up town.”
“Nah, man. You’ve done everything you could.”
He pushes from the bed in a rush, anger and irritation swirling around him like a storm.
He walks toward the curtain-covered window and stops, staring at the darkness with his shoulders pulled tight.
The wounds on his back are healing nicely. Apparently, Jude was more than just a snitch because he patched him up good.
Doesn’t stop me from wincing. Mav is doing a good job of covering up how much pain he’s still in, but there’s no way he’s not suffering.
“I should have driven her out of town that first night I found her trying to escape and taken her somewhere they never would have found her.”
“They’d have found her,” I say, pointing out a fact he already knows.
“There’s a chance they wouldn’t.”
“Mav,” I say, scrubbing my hand down my face. “Instead of standing here and regretting things that are long in the past, why don’t you ask her?” I suggest.
I know for a fact that she’ll tell him what he did was right.
Yes, taking her away from all of this and trying to hide her would have been the safest option. But he did what she wanted.
She wanted to be here. She wanted to have the opportunity to find out the truth, to put an end to the men who hurt her.
She’d have no regrets, and it would rip her apart to know that Mav is beating himself up about the decisions he made to keep her safe and make her happy.
“She wants revenge.”
“And you’re giving it to her. One of the men who’s haunted her entire adult life is gone. Because of you.”
“Should have happened years ago.”
“I can’t argue with that, man. But we all know that we need to be smart. We can’t run around town taking out our leaders. Their allies would have us as worm food in a heartbeat.”
“Could still happen,” he points out.
“I trust Reid,” I say without any doubt. “He knows what he’s doing.”
Mav’s head drops low and his shoulders finally relax.
