The better part had taken longer to arrive. "She's all right now," Ghost said. "She's in Portland still. She's got a good life. I know," Ray said.
"I've kept track. " Ghost looked at him sharply, not interfering. Ray said, "Just knowing, making sure Ghost was quiet for a long time. You should have told me. " Ghost said, "At the time. You should have told me what the decision was going to cost. There wasn't time," Ry said.
"And I knew you'd say no. I would have said no, and the other outcome would have been worse. " "I know that, too," Ghost said. "I've always known that, too. " He looked at his hands. Hands of a man who had lived in ways that left marks. "Doesn't mean it didn't cost me things. " No.
Ray said, "It doesn't. " Silence. Then Ghost said, "Laura asked about you last time I saw her. She knows pieced it together eventually what happened and what you were trying to do. She doesn't hold it against you. " Ry said nothing. "I do. " Ghost said some less than I used to.
"But some that's fair," Ray said. "I didn't come here to settle it," Ghost said. "I'm not sure it settles. Came because what Harrove is building toward if he decides you're a threat he can't manage quietly, it won't stay clean. " "And your daughter is here. " Ry looked at him. So Ghost picked up his coffee cup.
What's the plan? The article ran Thursday, not in the Nashville paper in the Greystone Falls County Register, which Ry had not known existed until the digital notification appeared on his phone at 7:00 in the morning. Local business owners passed Ray's questions. He read it in the garage before opening. Read it twice.
It was carefully written. Carefully was the word. There was nothing in it that was technically false. It mentioned his years with the Hell's Angels. It mentioned a weapons possession charge from 1994 that had been dismissed.
It mentioned the name Ironside and placed it in a context designed to be unsettling. It did not quote any named sources. It ran alongside a file photo of the garage taken from the street. He sat with it for a few minutes. Then he called dot.
Seen the paper? He said sitting in front of me right now. She said it's unsigned. That means it was submitted as a community letter with editorial endorsement. Which means someone on the register's board approved it.
There are three people on that board. Let me guess, Ry said. Bo Hargrove's former law partner, Hargrove's brother-in-law, and a woman named Carol Pittz who chairs the county planning committee. Dot paused. The planning committee that approves all Harrove Jason development proposals.
Ry said he's not even trying to be subtle. He doesn't think he has to be. Dot said he's done this before and it's worked before. Earl Fletcher, the zoning opposition in 2015. The Mandel family in their orchard in 2019.