Eli stood there long enough for two riders to enter the kitchen and then quietly leave again. The fight he had brought into the room had no place to land. At last he asked what Caleb had done for the club. Raina's expression changed so quickly that Eli recognized a familiar pattern: a door opening a fraction, then being held carefully in place.
"That's a conversation you deserve," she said. "But it isn't one I'm going to begin while you're angry about a bill and haven't had dinner." Eli wanted to demand it anyway. Instead he folded his arms and watched her as she returned to the inventory list, aware that the question had become larger precisely because she was refusing to give him a convenient answer.
Over the following days, the other riders began reacting differently whenever he mentioned his father's name. At first their expressions had been startled; now they seemed guarded, almost protective. A few offered small memories: Caleb could fix a motorcycle in a storm without complaining, Caleb once showed up with parts for a stranger who had run out of money, Caleb had an infuriating habit of finishing people's sentences when he already knew the mechanical problem. None said where he was.
Eli caught himself rehearsing the question at night. If Caleb was alive, why had nobody given him a phone number? If he had died, why hadn't anyone said so? He tried to imagine a third possibility, some situation in which his father had genuinely been unable to contact him for four years, but every version sounded less reasonable than the last. He hated that the club made him feel safe while keeping the largest fact in his life outside his reach.
The school finally called after Raina's number appeared on Eli's updated emergency contact form. Principal Marjorie Hale had noticed that his attendance had become erratic long before the Ironbound Riders entered his life, but a new cluster of missing assignments had forced the issue. According to the school record, Eli had missed forty-seven days since September, including days when he stayed home to care for Darla and days when he simply could not face being asked questions he could not answer. His assignment completion rate stood at thirty-one percent.
Raina found Eli beside Boon's workbench when the call came. The mechanic had him checking a component against a drawing, a task that demanded concentration but not physical risk. She waited until he set it down before explaining the principal wanted a meeting at nine the following morning. Eli's expression became so guarded that Boon looked up immediately.
"Forty-seven days," Raina said quietly. "That's what she told me." Eli looked down at his hands. He explained that some absences were from before he had started coming to the compound, when Darla could not get out of bed and he had stayed home because there was no food or because he feared leaving her alone. He admitted that a few had happened because he found the workbay easier than the classroom and made the wrong choice about where to go.