Re: quicklog, hotel: graham & jake
[Jake made it sound so simple. Once, Graham had been like him. He'd believed his daddy could fix all the problems in the world, that the good guys always won; he knew better now. The sheriff couldn't make everything better. The cops couldn't protect a little boy or his father. Small towns, they didn't know what real criminals were like. Evil was hypothetical, talked about in church, it wasn't a living breathing man or his daughter who held too much power in their palms. Jake didn't know. He didn't understand, and maybe he couldn't. Maybe he never would. He'd prayed to God every night that his son would grow up okay, that he'd be healthy and whole but God hasn't listened. He never did.]
Ain't that easy. If it was, I would've done it. You don't know what it was like, Jake. I worked for the man. I saw things I wish I ain't never seen. His daughter, she was just as bad. She had people. Her father's people, they could find me anyplace. After I left, she tried. She wanted me dead and I couldn't lead the men she sent to kill me to you, you understand that? [His head was pounding, searing, but he was desperate to make Jake see.] I was trying to protect you.
[What's the rest, he asked then. And God, the God that never listened, help him Graham had no idea how to say it. He went quiet for a stretch, leaned more of his weight on the railing. He wished he hasn't gone and ruined things with Clem; he wished she was there. Not Lore, not this time, but her. Together maybe they could've explained it but now, now he was on his own.]
You have a baby sister. [His voice was quiet, and he looked down at the stairs like a coward.] Half sister.