He said, “I
would beg you to go anyway. Because our babies need you. Because I need you,
and I…” His next breath hitched. “I don’t know if I can keep you safe while I’m
down there. I don’t…” He glanced away, and scrubbed a hand over his mouth. “Every
awful thing that’s ever happened to me happened in that place,” he said,
quietly, through the gaps in his fingers. “I don’t want you to get sucked into
it.”
Despite all
the effort she’d put into shielding herself, a part of her softened in the face
of his expression, his posture, his tone. The clear evidence of the demons that
still haunted him, all these many years later. They’d stood over his dad’s and
his grandmother’s unsanctioned graves out in the swamp, the ones he’d dug
himself, and he’d clung to her, and his hot tears had slid down her cheek and
neck. He’d been vibrating, not only with grief, but with the fear that she
might, after everything, after marrying him, reject him for what he saw as his
weakness. His darkness.
She’d
thought, after eight years of marriage, that he’d learned his weakness was hers
as well. That she shared that darkness.
I think this installment, more than any of the others - including Part 4, which I'm currently working on - shows some of the strongest men at their absolute lowest, which gives the ladies a chance to shine as the true steel backbone of not only their individual families, but the club as a whole. Ava's gone Full Terminator...but the others are holding the Lean Dogs together while Ava has her own little stone-cold reverse breakdown.
I'm excited to talk about my favorite scenes in the debrief posts. I'm trying to hold off for a while to give everyone a chance to read...buy I might start tomorrow. Maybe Friday. While it's all still fresh in my head, at least.
If you hadn't heard, Lord Have Mercy Part III: Rising Sun is now live! You can find it at the links below.
