“Mercy.” Her voice was breathless now. “What’s the matter?”
His cut was hanging off the doorknob, on the inside of the front door, and he plucked it up, shrugged into it. When he faced her, he did so decorated with all his patches, the stains and scars in the old leather. And his face hardened. The worship, the sweetness, the tenderness – all replaced by a professional steel. This was Mercy the extractor. Mercy the club man, the Lean Dog. Not her companion and protector, her lover and friend.
Ava felt her heart become a drum inside her chest, beating out a dire rhythm. Danger. Danger.
“I’m going back to New Orleans,” he said. “I’m moving back there.”
Her brain refused to compute that. “You hate New Orleans.”
“I’m heading out first thing in the morning.”
“But…you hate New Orleans.”
“Bob down there says he has work for me.”
“You love Knoxville,” she insisted. “You have work here.”
Mercy gave her one long, flat look. “I’m leaving, Ava.”
It hit her then. She surged to her feet. Her voice trembled. “You’re leaving me, you mean, right?”
This chapter is short, but anything but sweet. The heartbreak's been brewing since that first afternoon in Ava's bedroom, when Mercy gave in to temptation, and it's even more painful when it finally arrives thanks to what happened at Hamilton House.
This is why I love multi-POV storytelling. Thanks to spending time in Mercy's head, we know how much this is killing him. We grieve not only for Ava, but for him as well. Perhaps worst of all, neither of them has had the chance to share their grief over the miscarriage with one another.
I don't ever hate any of my own characters, but I come pretty close with Ghost in this instance. However...I wonder how many parents of girls Ava's age would have done something similar, hypocrisy be damned. It's a bad situation all the way around, and I think that's what makes it feel authentic. All that thorny, lose-lose energy results in honest reactions from characters, as opposed to "correct" reactions.
I agree with your feelings about Ghost. Even though you created him essentially, and on paper, he's still THERE... the feelings conjured up are so real! As a parent, I can empathize with Ghost's desire to protect Ava by getting her away from Mercy by whatever means necessary. BUT... as a child of parents who would have tried to protect me should it have been needed, it would gave been so hard to forgive them for keeping me away from my love. Your stories are written so well and I get so involved that I have to wake up and remind myself that it's still fiction! Thanks for having written these characters. (Can barely wait for Drake Chronicles!)
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