Rituals (Cainsville 5)

"He needs time."

More silence. Then Gabriel said, "He needs privacy to react, Olivia. He thought he'd be fine with it. He is not fine with it. He realizes that now, and he doesn't want to get angry in front of us when he promised otherwise."

I said nothing.

"If he isn't ready to face us tomorrow, he'll call," Gabriel said. "Then he'll come around as soon as he's ready. He knows we need him."

"But that's what I don't want. If he's hurt and angry, and he's not okay with this, yet he feels obligated to stick around because of Arawn and the Cwn Annwn? That's even crueler."

"No, it's a reason to come back and focus. And doing that will give him the chance to see whether we can get past this."

--

I was doing the records search for a case when Lloergan's nails scrabbled against the linoleum. She didn't race to the door but stood in place, whining and shifting from paw to paw, looking anxiously back at me. A moment later, a headlight lit up the front window and the sound of Ricky's Harley vibrated through the house.

I glanced at Gabriel. He'd looked up from his laptop and turned to listen. He motioned for me to go to the door. I did, but I waited behind it until the knocker sounded.

When I pulled the door open, Ricky stood there, hands in his pockets.

"I'm an ass," he said.

"No, you--"

"Nope, I was an ass. Don't rob me of my moment. I shouldn't have taken off." He looked down at Lloergan at my side. "On you, either. I'm sorry."

"I should have warned you."

A wan smile. "How? Text me a heads-up the moment you realized something was going to happen between you and Gabriel? Or right after it did? Pretty sure that wasn't exactly a priority. I'm the one who showed up unannounced. Gabriel tried to take me aside right away. Even if he'd managed that, I'm not sure I'd have reacted any better. It's like seeing a right hook coming. You think you're prepared for it, but you're just not. You can't be." He paused and made a face. "My analogies don't ever get better, do they?"

"They make sense to me."

The smile touched his eyes. "That's what matters." He pulled his hands from his pockets. "Can we talk? You and me? Go for a walk or something?"

"I'm kind of under house arrest," I said. "Until the elders figure out what's up with the sluagh."

"Go on," Gabriel said, walking up behind me. "Don't go far and don't be long, please, but you'll be fine."

I nodded, and as I stepped out, Lloergan looked from Ricky and me to Gabriel.

"Better stay there," Ricky said to the hound. "I'll be back. I promise."

She grunted and returned to Gabriel.

As we walked down the drive, Ricky looked at his bike. "Could we...? Just outside town."

I was about to say that was fine. Then I had a flash of the night Matilda died, of her running to Arawn, Gwynn left behind as Matilda rode off with Arawn.

I glanced back.

Gabriel stood in the doorway. He nodded toward the bike. "Go on. Just not far, please."

"Twenty minutes tops," Ricky called. "And we'll be just outside the town limits, with our phones on."

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

We turned down the first country road and rode only until Ricky could pull over. Then we walked into the forest. We didn't go out of sight of the road. Just found a fallen tree and sat on it.

"I'm not going to say that was easy," he said after a moment. "Looking through that doorway. Seeing..."