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Moses drove, and Valentina sat in the passenger seat.  As the two cars pulled up alongside, Carson, driving the other car, called over, “Be careful!  Protests passed through here!  Opportunists!”

“Yep!” Moses called back.

“Pass it on to the others!?”

Moses waved his assent.

Carson pulled ahead a bit more.  Moses let him, moving to the right-hand lane, rolling down his window.  As another car pulled up, Valentina had a clear view of Addi, sitting in the back seat with her hands bound, bandage on part of her face.

Moses relayed the same info.

They had four cars, and had split up the people.  Addi, her dad Tony, and Uncle Andre were in the three cars.  Mia and Carson were in the lead car, and they didn’t bring any people because they wanted to be free to talk strategy.

“Are you some kind of badass or something?” Jermaine asked, from the back seat.  He was one of the Kids she’d brought in, which was a whole complicated thing.

Valentina was caught off guard by the question.  It came out of nowhere, and it brought up so many different thoughts and feelings, all of them confused in some way about how that sort of question could even be aimed at her.  She was decidedly average looking at best, with a too-small chest and too-wide hips that would only ever look good if she was underweight, which she could not sustain.

Jermaine looked like the sort of guy who knew what went into being a ‘badass’.  He was in his early twenties but hadn’t lost those long-limbed proportions some teenage guys had, had a mop of curly, glossy black hair, and had that combination of swagger and that permanently set jaw that suggested he was always prepared to be sucker punched or something.  Valentina had seen that combination of traits while growing up.

Though Jermaine also had an air of disrespect that wouldn’t have worked with her dad.  Sometimes guys would be invited to eat with the family and they’d be clearly out of their element.  Maybe, knowing her dad, intentionally so.

Addi’s dad sat in the back seat, beside Jermaine, silent, watching her through the mirror.

“Why are you asking?” Valentina asked, aware it had been a second since he’d asked.  She felt overly conscious of how she was dressed- hair in a ponytail, a t-shirt with bands of different color at the collar and sleeves, and jeans.  She felt like a kid who’d dressed how her mom had told her to.

“You’re Davie Cavalcanti’s kid.  That’s something.”

“I don’t belong to him, I don’t… I don’t think I got anything from him.  He mostly ignored me, except to treat me like shit.  Fuck him.”

“I get that.  Fuck him, yeah.”

“I don’t think it’s important,” Moses said, from the driver’s seat.  “Being a ‘badass’.”

“Mia… heh, feels weird to have a name for her,” Jermaine said.  He was just tall enough that, even with Valentina’s seat pulled all the way forward, he sat sort of diagonally, legs spread, one arm draped along the top of the back seat.  “She gets stuff done.  There are only three people I’ve ever listened to, you know?  That comes from respect.  It’s important.”

Seeing segments of him in the reflection, the definition in his arm, his hair, his eyes, and how big his hand was, with his general confidence, it sent a electric thrill through the core of her body.  A very bad thrill that she would absolutely, one hundred percent never act on, even if he was the opposite of who he was in personality, and interested, and a gentleman with her.

Because she was who she was, and thinking in that direction made her think about how she’d been with the soldiers in the Cavalcanti house, and there was other stuff going on, and she didn’t know who she was or what she was doing.  Any of those things could take five-ish years to figure out.  Years with quiet and without the other stuff in the way.

But she was lonely and she really wanted a hug, and the fact she didn’t have anyone with her in the car that she could lean on made that feeling worse.  She could imagine his long arms wrapped around her in a hug, hand stroking her hair, or-

Or nothing.

Something about him appealed to her in a dangerous way, that tugged on some string in her belly that was attached to groin and heart.  She shifted position, crossing her legs as much as she could with her knees touching the dash.

She pressed lips against tongue to wet them, because her mouth was dry, and then said, “Which three people did you listen to?”

“Leader of my old gang,” he said.  “Mia.  My dad… for a little while.”

“Not Davie or the other Cavalcanti leaders?”

“Never dealt directly with them.  Hey, did you really slice up that girl’s face?”

She was caught off guard by the question.

“I’m not proud of it,” she said, avoiding looking back at Addi’s father.

“She fucked your life up, right?”

“Who’s telling you this stuff?”

“There was discussion.  About you, about the situation.  Wondering if you were legit.  Not, you know, a meeting.  More constant talk.  People overheard Highland yelling at you, then passed it on.”

“Great.”

“We decided to stick it out, mostly because Highland was around.  Then after he wasn’t, MIa was around.”

“Some didn’t stick around,” Moses said.

“Are you thinking of going?” Jermaine asked.

“No.  It’s money and I’ve got a debt to repay.”

“To Mia?”

“To her too.”

In the rearview mirror, Valentina could see Jermaine’s head bobbing.

He met her eyes in the reflection.  “But you cut up her face, right?”

“Yeah,” she said, quiet.  The memory of that scene flashed through her mind.

Was there ever going to be a day when it didn’t?  Should there be?

“With my dad, I listened because I had no other choice.  Until I got taller, and I started to be able to fight back,” Jermaine said.  “I didn’t win every time, I was still a little punk, I still stopped listening to anything he had to say.  He lost that respect from me.  He got pissed at me once, I wasn’t doing my chores, he took a swing at me with a baseball bat while my back was turned.  Said to make dinner, do the dishes, tidy, and he’d take me to the hospital for my arm when everything was done.”

“I’m sorry,” Valentina said.  She could imagine the younger Jermaine.

Jermaine snorted.  “I was boiling water, emptied sugar and jam into it.  Heard about that from friends.  Prison thing.  Makes it sticky, but still boiling.”

“Yeah,” Valentina said, uncomfortable.

“Put some drain cleaner into it, and poured the mix over him while he sat in front of the TV.  I tried to get his face, but most of it ended up in his lap.”

“Oh my god,” Valentina murmured.

“I won.  Beat him.”

“Your dad lost, anyway,” Moses said, quiet.

“What did you do after?” Valentina asked.  She wasn’t sure why she asked.  Maybe she needed to make Jermaine make sense.  If he was a bad person, then that wasn’t the worst thing, because it helped put all feelings of attraction away.

“I got my shit from my room and went to my friends.  Didn’t even look at my dad.  They splinted my arm.  Things kind of went to shit after that, I think they knew I didn’t have anywhere else to go, so they pushed me.  Then a little while after that, Mia.  I left.  New start.  I never did end up finding out what happened with my dad.”

“Mia said he ended up at the same hospital she worked at,” Valentina said.

“Oh yeah?  Love that,” Jermaine said.

“Lost one leg.  And his, um, parts.”

“You can say cock and balls.  Nobody here’s going to blush.”

Valentina shifted position.  She’d been right in the middle of her feelings of attraction dying, and then he tugged on that string.

Addi’s dad was silent, staring.

“Or are you blushing?  Did I make you shy?”

“Jermaine,” Moses said, his voice a warning.

“What?”

“Respecting her is the same as respecting Mia.  It’s as simple as that.”

Jermaine sniffed, smiled, then turned his focus to the window.  Valentina could see a bit of his face in the side view mirror, illuminated when they drove past fires or when they turned onto a road that ran along the curve of a hill, the moon mostly unobstructed in shining on them.

“Whenever I think about that moment, the jam water, my dad in front of the TV, I’m all, ‘fuck yeah, fuck you’.  Punch the fucking air.  Feels good.  I kept wondering, did I kill him?  Or fuck him up so bad he can’t have sex?  Or was in only some scars to remember me by?  Too much water, not enough stick?  He really lost his leg, cock, and balls?”

“Yeah.”  The very basics were in Mia’s notes, but Mia had told Valentina the full story as a warning about who some of The Kids were.  Jermaine being one of the dangerous ones.

“Fuck yeah,” Jermaine said, voice soft.

He was grinning, teeth showing, still looking out the window.  She was pretty sure he didn’t realize she could see him.  And that he wouldn’t care much if she could.

There, okay.  Feelings put firmly away.

Hopefully.

“As a heads up, Jermaine?” Moses asked.

“Yeah?”

“If Andre Cavalcanti is to be believed, Valentina’s sister- is it okay if I call her that?”

“Yeah,” Valentina said.  “I don’t know her all that well, but yeah.  Basically.”

“Yeah.  Thanks.  She was hurt while in captivity.  Probably badly.  Don’t bring up that shit with your dad, Jermaine.  Especially around Mia and Carson.”

“Mia’s not a pussy.”

“No, and neither is Carson.  But they’re pissed, they’re upset.  Bringing it up in the wrong way or treating it like a joke is a good way to get on their bad side.  Don’t.”

“I will take that under advisement, Mr. Moses, sir,” Jermaine replied, in the tone of someone who was not taking what he was hearing seriously.

“This is my neighborhood,” Tony said, breaking into the conversation.  He ducked his head a little. “It looks like things have gone downhill.”

“Yeah.  The group ahead is slowing down.  Sit tight,” Moses said.

Carson took a minute before pulling over and parking by the sidewalk.  The others followed suit.  Carson used the camera-detecting device to sweep the street before motioning.  Everyone got out of the cars.

Jermaine offered a hand to Valentina as she got out of the car- a bit easier when she could push the seat back more.  Then he went over to where the others were.  Michelle had ridden with Ben, Rider, and Addi.  Kenny, Julito, and Rosales had ridden with Uncle Andre.

Jermaine hugged Michelle from behind as she walked over to the group, and used his long legs to take loose steps, almost on either side of her, the hug around her shoulders pulling her upper body left and right with each step he took.

“You open your door,” Mia told Tony.  “No funny business.”

“I’m not like you, I don’t trap my house.”

“Does that change any aspect of what I just said?” she asked.

Tony walked up the stairs.  Carson went with him.

“We were thinking we’d leave you here once we’ve given the place a once-over, visit his office.  We’ll see what we can get,” Mia said.  “If he cooperates, we leave them chained up somewhere for other members of the family to find, in their own house.”

“It’s not about that,” Tony said, as he opened the door.  He glanced back at his daughter.  “They’ve fortified.  This is a massive group, one that incorporated dozens of small to medium size ones, and annihilated the ones that wouldn’t bend the knee.  If he’s at his house, most of his people will be there, protecting that property, protecting him.  Keeping your daughter prisoner.  There’s no magic word I can give, no secret door, nothing like that.”

“Inside with you,” Carson said.

The property was large enough that the neighbors weren’t really in view, and the house interior was nice, if somber, with elegant, darker wood paneling.  It looked like it would be dark even with the lights on, but with only the scant light coming through the windows, and the light of three flashlights and a bunch of smartphones on flashlight mode, it was darker still.

“Kids?  Sweep the house,” Carson said.  “Make sure there are no guards or anyone left behind.”

Jermaine and the others went ahead and did just that.  Carson went with them.

“You won’t find anything like what you want,” Tony told them.

“Do you realize what’s likely to happen if we don’t?” Mia asked.

“I have an idea.  I want you to know I’m not being malicious.  If you do decide to kill us, I hope the fact I’m not fighting you means you’ll make it swift.”

Mia drew her gun, and pointed it at his head.

“Woah!” Ben spoke up, stepping forward.  Valentina startled, too, both at the gun and at Ben’s voice behind her.  Her heart hammered.

Tony’s head bent to one side, ducked down, eyes on the floor, gun in his peripheral vision.  As the gun moved, he cringed more.

“You’re not a soldier,” Moses said.

“I never claimed to be, sir.”

Moses snorted air at the ‘sir’.

“You enabled them,” Mia said.

“I did.”

“Is there dirt on Davie?  Did he do things as a child?”

“Yes.  More as a teenager than as a child.  A lot.  The files are in my office.”

Mia motioned.  “Moses?  Watch Addi?”

“Of course.”

“Especially around them?”

Meaning Ben and Rider.

“Yeah.”

“We’re not a danger.  Believe it or not, I’m pretty good at the investigation thing,” Ben said.  “I found you.”

“After we’re gone.”

The door to the office was at the end of the hallway, not too far from the dining area, which was at the far end of the hall.  Valentina was pretty sure she’d been here once, but it would’ve been when she was a kid.  Because it was close, she ventured behind the group.

On their way there, they passed Rosales, who had just checked that end of the house.  The girl gave Valentina a long, wary look as she passed her.

“It won’t achieve anything,” Tony said.  “Even if you found something to dig into, he’s too insulated by now.”

“Weaknesses, things to prod at,” Mia said.  “People, places, and things he values.  Things he comes back to, patterns.”

“The bodies- in the basement,” Valentina said.  Her words hitched as the mental image of the limbless body in the basement jumped into her head.  She cleared her throat slightly and tried to clear her mind’s eye.  “He values them, I think.”

“Yeah.  The trick is getting to that.  Where is the generator in that house?  Assuming he’s getting his power somehow…”

“I have no earthly idea,” Tony replied.

“Sexual assault.”

“He pursued an ex-classmate after she moved schools.  He dropped in on her, then when she rebuffed him, he assaulted her.  I wasn’t the lawyer for that.  My mentor was.  After a second incident, his father got upset, and he changed tacks.”

“Incident reports here… different locations.”

“He had to change schools after bullying a student to the point of attempted suicide.”

Mia rifled through papers, eyes scanning each.  “Still wanted power over people.  Different form.”

It made Valentina think of Addi.

Lit by flashlights, Mia looked like she had in the computer room.  There was a desperation in her expression, a tension to the muscle, a clench in her jaw, that went with this.  When her means of getting to grips with a situation was this.

“Several incidents a year.  No incidents in August.  Where does he go?”

“Hatch Creek,” Tony replied.  “It’s a lake, despite the name.  The family has cabins there.  He got up to just as much trouble there, but the family money goes a long way there, so less came of it.”

“That would be the sort of place he’d keep mementos, records, private things.”

“Perhaps.  It doesn’t matter.  Twelve years ago, contamination from chemical runoff ruined the lake.  Unswimmable, dangerous to drink the tap water.”

“Two years after the deregulation and defunding of the EPA.”

“Yeah.”

“All the more reason to check.  A cabin in an area nobody goes to, with memories attached to it.”

“It’s gone now.  They leveled all the cabins and put up fencing, specifically to avoid contaminants from the area being taken out.”

“I want to independently verify that,” Mia said.  “Because this would be a choice moment, after cooperating with us so far, for you to introduce a lie that derails us.”

“I can verify,” Valentina said.

Mia raised her head.

“I went there as a baby.  I’ve seen pictures.  Including before and afters of the cabin.”

“Thank you,” Mia said.  “Damn it.”

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s good.”

“As I said,” Tony commented.  “He’s a man of few weak points, and he covers those points well.  With a literal army, I’d say.  And things that would be weak points for others are things he embraces.  With audacity, even.”

“The lake’s a pretty far distance, too,” Valentina remarked.

“There might be someone I could have hired, if I could get to a working phone,” Mia replied.

“Upstairs is clear,” Carson said, as he approached the door.

“There’s information here, I don’t know how to use it,” Mia said.  “If we had phones, I’d call people, see if there’s a thread.  If we had time.  We don’t have time.”

“We can check the office,” Carson said.

“You’ll find things there about properties the Cavalcantis own, business, taxes, there are documents laying out payment structures, paper and digital both.  With my car keys, there’s a small key with a black rim around it.  Use that to get into the cabinets.  And none of it will matter,” Tony said.  “A year ago, a piece of that would have derailed him.  I’m not telling you that to discourage you, I just don’t want you to be disappointed and then take out that disappointment on me and my daughter.”

“We won’t be long,” Carson said.  “Moses, Valentina, watch things?”

“Have at it, Ben,” Mia told Ben, pushing folders across the desk.

“We should do something about Addi.  We can cuff her to the railing.”

The staircase traced a curved quarter-circle from the smack-dab middle of the wood paneled ground floor to the side of the second floor, where an ‘L’ of hallway looked down on things from more railing above.  Carson was gesturing at the side of the staircase.

“I know I don’t get any special favors, but I’d like to ask, please cuff me to my bed.  There’s a metal headboard.”

“Addi,” Tony said.  “Think two steps ahead.”

Addi looked at him, and she looked momentarily bewildered.

“There are several very dangerous teenagers here.  You don’t want to be bound to a bed and unable to defend yourself.”

“I’m tired,” Addi said.  “My face hurts.  Is it really that much better if I’m in the middle of everything?”

“Valentina?” Mia asked.

“Be kind,” Ben cut in.

“The bed’s fine,” Valentina said.  “You won’t be attacked.”

“Don’t drag your feet,” Carson said.  “Let’s check.”

Valentina went with.

Addi’s room was very ‘princess’ style, and the bed itself had a headboard of metal bent into decorative curls and painted silver.  It connected to the pillars that held up a canopy.  Carson checked it over, giving it some firm, full-body tugs, then lifted up the mattress, checking there was nothing around it.

“Can you give us anything, Addi?” Carson asked.

“No.  You already used my account to start shit online.”

“Lie down.”

She sat on the bed, then set head on pillow, hands above her head.  Carson connected the cuffs to the metal.  There was some leeway for her to change position, but not a ton.

“We won’t be long,” he told Valentina.  “Are you okay?  Do you need anything?”

“I want this to be over.  I want him stopped.  I want Ripley to be okay.  She was a good kid.”

“She was,” Carson said, meeting her eyes for a long few seconds.  “I”m suspicious that us going to the office like this might be more important for a quiet moment and space to think, away from people and prisoners, than it is for what we might dig up.”

Valentina nodded.  She felt better about them going, hearing that.

“It’s been a lot, without much time to sleep.  If you need to rest, rest.  If you think you can get information out of them, I won’t say no.”

“I don’t want to be that kind of person.”

“Okay, that’s fine.  Then be careful.  Tony Arcuri was right, this is a vulnerable position for a girl to be in, and The Kids are… some of them might be dangerous.”

Valentina nodded.  She’d picked them when desperate for hires and they’d just been names on the list.  She hadn’t realized the implications of who they were, and that, if Mia and Carson had been in her shoes, they wouldn’t have brought them in.

“Rosales wants to please and goes with the flow.  Michelle is tougher, but make sure…”

He led her out of the room Addi was in.  Valentina glanced back to see Addi lying with her head on a pillow, staring at the wall, before the door partially shut and blocked her view.

“…make sure nobody’s pushing her buttons.  There are many and they’re easy to press.”

“Okay.”

“If you left her guarding Addi and Addi started taunting her, it could get bad.  But she’s your best bet for guard, otherwise.  Jermaine and Kenny are dangerous in very different ways.  Julito is a good second pick.  Maybe together with Rosales.”

“Alright.”

“You be careful too,” he said, giving her a meaningful look.  “With Kenny and Jermaine.  I saw him helping you out of the car.  He’s… not a choice Mia and I would support.  Not like the boy with the Horse Piss Ranchers would be.”

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t- choose him.”

Carson waited one beat too long before saying, “Sure.  Good.”

Had she been that obvious?  Or was Carson that perceptive?

She hoped he couldn’t see her flush in the gloom.  “I’m attracted to him but I have a brain.  And way too much other stuff going on.”

“Glad to hear it.  Moses is trustworthy but he’s not someone used to being pushed back against.  In a pinch, The Kids will back each other up first.  If things fall apart, back him up.  He’ll need it.”

She nodded again.

He kissed her forehead, which felt really weird.  But it also didn’t feel sketchy.

Purely weird because it felt like a dad thing.  And because he looked so sad for a moment there, and he… wasn’t a guy who looked sad a lot.

Her heart ached, as he took the stairs two at a time on his way down.  “Mia.”

Mia was packing up some things she’d pulled out, and crossed the hallway with long strides.  Valentina watched from the railing.

“Valentina and Moses are in charge,” Carson said.

Then they were gone, taking Andre with them.

This might be were Carson floated the idea of this being a lost cause to Mia, and dealt with the emotional aftermath, away from everyone.

Unless they could find something.

“Michelle?” Valentina said.  “Guard the door.  Let her sleep, but look in enough that she’s not pulling something.  Julito, pick someone and keep an eye on the guy.”

“Can we steal their stuff?”

“Sure.  Whatever.  As long as you’re focused on the job.”

“And so long as it doesn’t slow you down,” Moses said.  He was cuffing Tony to the staircase.  “If you’ve got three bags each and you’re taking a minute to get loaded into the car, the Hursts won’t be happy.”

“If you’d said no, we’d be looting stuff when you weren’t looking, anyway,” Kenny said.

“I figured,” Valentina replied.  “Tony, are you going to kick up a fuss?”

“I am going out of my way to not kick up any kind of fuss,” he said.  “I am cooperating to the best of my ability.  Again, I hope you remember-”

“Yeah,” she said.  She had to walk partially down the stairs to see Rider.  He was standing in the door to the office.  “Progress?”

“Looking over it all,” Rider said.  “He owns judges, he owns police.  He owns licensed marshals.  I don’t know what we could find that would break it all open.”

“Then Natalie and Ripley die, and it’s your fault,” she said.

“We’re not the bad guys here.”

“You brought the Cavalcantis back into this,” she said.  “Do you think you’re the good guys?”

Ben emerged from the office.  He gave her a long, serious look.  Wordless.

“What?” she asked.  “If you’re good at the research thing, keep researching.  You won’t achieve anything by giving me puppy dog eyes.”

“I convinced you not to torture Addi Arcuri.”

“I convinced me,” she told him.  “You were one source of input among many.  You don’t get the credit.  It would have fucked everything up.  Tony would be kicking up a fuss, we’d be fighting every step of the way.  And she loses value as a hostage.”

“Yeah,” Ben said.  “Sure.”

She was picking some of her words with the notion that there were Kids who’d be in earshot to hear them.  It surprised her how comfortable it felt.  Was this how it was for Carson?

Rider gave Ben’s shoulder a light push, and he went back into the office.

“Check on the hostages?” Ben asked Rider, quiet.  “I’m fine.”

Rider nodded.

On the staircase, Julito and Kenny were talking.

“They gayed up the middle east, right?”

“Did they?  I thought that was mind game shit.”

“If it was, it was mind game shit that worked.  Nah, with how gay things got, that worked.”

“But that’s the mind game.  What’s the term?  When you give someone a fake drug and they convince themselves it works?”

“Placebo,” Valentina said, as she walked past.  “Like when you give someone a drink and tell them it’s alcoholic when it’s not, and they act drunk.”

“Private school girl knows.  It was a placebo.  Mind game.”

“It can be more than a mind game,” she said.  “Placebos can work, kind of.”

“Why don’t we give them all the time, then?”

“Who knows?” she asked.  She had a sense of why, but it wasn’t worth getting into a long debate.  She felt very tired, and this conversation wasn’t helping that feeling.  “Why are we talking about this?”

“I’m getting around to that,” Kenny said.  “But- wait, lawyer man.  Were you around back then?  Chemical weapon that turned the Arabs gay?”

“See,” Julito said, “I’m saying it didn’t, or if it did, it was a tiny number and that started the ball rolling.  Chemical weapons don’t even reach that far.”

“They do, that’s why they’re so goddamn effective.”

“The way it really worked is anyone could say they were affected by the bomb, and how are you going to handle that?  By the time they figured it out, they lost control over the situation, guys were sucking dick left and right.”

“What the hell are you two talking about?” Michelle asked, from upstairs.  Jermaine, also upstairs, laughed.

“It affected the women too,” Kenny said.

“I’m saying it didn’t affect anyone, it’s mind games.  It was a regular amount of gay, but they had permission.  It was a culture bomb.”

“How much gay do you think is regular, Julito?”

“It was very a two thousand and five thing to do,” Valentina said.

“What?” Kenny asked.

“The attitudes of that time, look at movies from back then… nevermind.”

“I will nevermind.  Hey, I was asking, were you around then, lawyer man?” Kenny asked, prodding Tony.

“I was around back then,” Tony said, with restrained patience.  “I didn’t pay much attention.  It seemed like a stunt, some desperate attempt to throw them off, when they kept attacking us, and didn’t really do anything except make the fundamentalists angry.”

It became increasingly clear Kenny wasn’t going to get around to a coherent point.  It was two guys shooting the shit.  Little more.

As long as they were talking about that, they weren’t getting up to trouble, at least.

What sort of culture bomb would blow up her family?

She doubted there was one.

Rosales was at the other end of the house, either looting or… maybe making a late bite to eat.  Jermaine had moved upstairs, presumably to loot, but had moved down the hallway toward Michelle.

Valentina ascended the stairs for a better view, to check things were okay.

Jermaine sat with Michelle, her back to his front, his arms around her again.  One hand had had slid down the front of her shirt.

“Guys,” Valentina said.

Jermaine left his hand where it was, and gave her a bit of a shit-eating grin.  There was something in his eyes that made her feel like this was purely for her.  She wondered if Michelle felt the same way.

She walked over, and he pulled the hand out before she got to them.

“You good?” she asked Michelle.

“Yeah.”

It was very hard to read Michelle’s body language.

“Is our hostage asleep, and what position is she sleeping in?” Valentina asked.

“Um.  Yes, on her side?”

“Do you know, or are you asking?”

“Last I checked, she was.”

“Is she facing the door, or facing the wall?”

“Wall.”

Valentina stepped over Michelle and Julito’s feet- Julito was long-legged enough that even sitting behind Michelle, his feet were about as far forward as hers were.  She cracked the door open.

Addi lay on her side, facing the door, wide awake.  The light from the Valentina’s flashlight shining through the cracked door made the whites of her eyes very visible in the gloom.

“You up to anything?” Valentina asked.

“Fuck you,” Addi muttered.  The position of her arms, attached to the bed, meant she was saying the words into her upper arm.

Valentina shut the door.  “Split up.  If you’re distracting each other, you’re not being good guards.”

“Two is better than one,” Jermaine said.

“Not if you’re like this.”

“Three is better than two,” he said, unwrapping an arm from Michelle and patting the ground beside him.

She shook her head.

“Damn,” he said.

But he got up and he went downstairs.

Valentina let herself into Addi’s room.  “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Little fucking late for that, you bitch.”

“Be good, Addi!” Tony called up.  He’d probably heard the biting tone of her words.  “We’re almost through this, I think!”

Addi glared at Valentina.

Valentina needed five seconds, like Carson had implied might be the case with Mia.  Being here, Addi glaring at her, was easier than being out there, feeling on guard around The Kids.  Who were older than her, who could get out of control so easily.

She looked around Addi’s room.  The walls were a pink-and-cream wallpaper, a faint fleur-de-lis pattern repeating.  There was a cluster of pictures around a vanity mirror on the desk, a scattering of makeup products in the space around a little white laptop with a mouse plugged into the side.  There was just enough space cleared for careful mouse movement, but Valentina couldn’t imagine using the computer much without knocking bottles over onto the floor.  It would have driven her crazy.

Some clothes were laid out on flat surfaces or hanging on the back of chairs, but it was fairly neat.  They probably had a maid.  Dusty rose carpet.  One music poster from a singer Valentina didn’t know.  One poster that was for some show in Paris, with a half-silhouette of a woman filled in with cityscape and lights.  Coin toss whether it was there because of the romanticism of Paris and the idea of it, or if Addi had actually gone.

It felt very normal.  A bit young, but normal.

Valentina used her phone light to look at pictures on the wall.  Faces she recognized from school.  Some school activities.  Addi didn’t have the Cavalcanti curse of only really being able to associate with Cavalcantis without things getting complicated.  So she interacted with a lot of their year.  Almost an opposite to how things had ended up for Valentina.  Or for Gio, really.  As if that was a different her.

“He’ll win,” Addi said.  “You won’t get the kid you’re trying to rescue.  You’ll run.  He’ll find you.  Because he has those kinds of resources.  He’ll bring you home.  Because he has those resources too.  He’ll put you in that basement.”

There weren’t a lot of books, just one narrow bookshelf, which was close to the vanity, and the narrow ledge between the spines of books and the edges of the shelves served as more space to put products and random makeup tools on.  Valentina hadn’t paid a lot of attention to that in recent years.  Somehow this little roller thing was in fashion now?

Aside from a top row of books that might’ve been bought in childhood and kept for the memories, the books themselves seemed to mostly be books bought for school, kept because they were classics and suggested class.

“I wonder if he’ll let me visit,” Addi said.  “Gio.  Look at me.”

Gi- Valentina did her best not to.  She looked at the clothes.  She knew the stores they were bought at.  She’d been there with friends, before.  That much hadn’t changed in the time her life had unraveled.

“Psycho girl, psycho dad,” Addi said.  “Look at me.  Gucci girl.  Gio.”

“You’re not worth it, Addi, and that’s not my name.”

“Gucci gang,” Addi said, whispering the words.

“Left all that behind.”

She felt so sad, sifting through this… this version of a life she should have had.  Where she could’ve been a princess with a princess room and a dad that cared.  Was there a world where she could’ve handled things better, won her dad’s affections, and… it would all be different?

“You change your name and you think you’re different, you’re past it all?”

“Do you want me to hurt you?” Gio asked, wheeling on Addi.

Addi fell silent.  She stared Gio down.

“What?  You wanted me to look at you.  Got something to say?  Some biting words that’ll get to me?”

“I wanted to look you in the eyes, that’s all,” Addi said.

“Right.”

“You’re not different.”

Was Addi just trying to get to her?  Or was she trying to distract?  Or… what?  Did she want to get hurt?  Was this whole dynamic so perverse that Addi would be okay with getting cut again if it meant she won some psychological victory?

She closed her eyes, trying to center herself again.

I should check on The Kids.

At least the worst thing they could do was in this room, and being here meant they weren’t doing that.

Valentina exited the room, walking past Michelle, who was now sitting with back to the railing, facing the door, and checked.  Rider was in the hallway.  Ben was presumably still in the study.  The boys were still talking about gay bombs, now with Jermaine as part of the conversation.  Rosales was eating half of a sandwich.  She’d given half to Julito.

“Kick her in the cunt.”

Valentina looked down at Michelle, who’d just spoken.

“A solid cunt punt is very satisfying,” Michelle said.  “It got me kicked out of my last foster place.  I didn’t actually get into another before turning eighteen.  A year in shitty limbo with twenty other shitty kids in the system.  But it was worth it.”

“If I did it, I don’t think I’d stop kicking.”

“Been there.  When I was younger.”

Michelle half-twisted to look at the group of four downstairs.

“You good?” Valentina asked.

“Being around them is like coming home.”

“I’m not sure what home feels like.  It might be what it’s like, being with the Hursts.”

“Nah,” Michelle said.  “I’ve seen you with them.  They’re… good for you.  Give you confidence.  They give you power.  But they’re not your home.”

“And those guys are, for you?”

“They’re my home, but they’re… none of that other stuff.  So when I’m done, I’ve got to go.  Then I’ll spend the rest of my life aching for home again.  Trying to find something like it that’s not going to fuck me up.  Gotta, or I’ll end up like my fucking mom.”

“The foster mom you cunt punted?” Valentina asked.

Michelle smirked.  “Nah.  Bio mom.  I stay with them, I end up like her.”

Valentina didn’t know the full story, but she didn’t need it either.  “You’re probably the smartest one of the bunch, figuring all that out.”

“Nah.  That’s the scary shit.  I’m not.  Means that when I’m with them, I’ve gotta do the dumb thing or the thing they want me to do, and there’s only so long you can live like that before you disappear.  Mostly disappear.  ‘Cause sometimes you surface, I guess, and those are the moments you’re meanest, or craziest, or stupidest.  Makes you want to disappear again.  And that’s you, rest of your life.”

“I know… parts of that.  Disappearing.  Fighting to surface.”

“Cutting her face?  That was surfacing?”

“No.  No.  I threw myself at Cavalcanti guys.  Soldiers.”

“Were they any good?”

“No.  Didn’t get that far, mostly.  Cutting Addi was… disappearing again.  Worse than.”

“Huh.”

“Can I trust you, Michelle?”

“Probably not.  I don’t trust me.”

Valentina frowned.

“Being honest.  Don’t cut my pay or anything.”

“Want me to keep Jermaine away from you?  I’d tell Mia and Carson to do the same,” Valentina said, quiet.

“Doesn’t matter.”

“The…” Valentina put a hand at her collar, flat, and slid it in the direction of her chest.

“Doesn’t matter,” Michelle said.  Her expression was flat.  Flatter than it had been all conversation.  “None of that sort of thing matters.  So.”

She said it with such emphasis, then the ‘so’ felt like a half-formed thought.  A follow-up that never came.

Valentina frowned.  So.

“I’m going to keep you two separate.”

Michelle shrugged.  “Your call, boss.”

“Are they still talking about that down there?”

Michelle’s body jittered with a silent chuckle.

“If you need a break, call Julito and Rosales over.  Just them.  Say I said so.”

“Yeah.”

Valentina almost went back to check on Ben.  But instead, she returned to Addi’s room.

Addi was still awake, lying on her side.  “Fuck you.  Get out of my room.”

She wasn’t sure why she’d come back.  She’d wanted an insight into who Addi was, and she… hadn’t gotten that.  That something so huge in her own life couldn’t be reflected in Addi’s living space?  She wanted the books to all be books about psychopaths.  Or research into psychological manipulation.  She wanted there to be signs of something more perverse at play.

“You’re so pathetic.  You lost it on me, but you couldn’t even own it.  Oh, you’re the bigger person?  You called off the dogs?   Didn’t torture me?”

She opened the closet.

Nothing.

“You cut my face open, you bitch!  You’re all the worst parts of your family, and you can’t even own it.”

She didn’t get Addi.

She could get Michelle.  She could even get Jermaine.  Or Ben.  She could get Carson.  or Mia.  She felt like being around them, she grew as a person, or she found skills she didn’t know she had.  Maybe because she’d groped for so long in the dark, looking for any cue.

Maybe not at all.  Maybe being traumatized and abuse hadn’t given her anything at all, and this was latent, natural talent.

Maybe she’d never know.

But it frustrated her.

“When your dad gets you, he’ll cut worse than your face.  But maybe I’ll put in a special request.  Tell him where to cut.  Or maybe he’ll let me use the knife.”

Valentina, in the midst of walking over to look at old, cherished toys in the corner, by the light of the flashlight, paused.

She looked over at Addi.

“Oh, did that get your attention?” Addi asked.

She seemed so defiant.

Valentina didn’t get Addi.  She didn’t get her dad.  Maybe she got things from them, and that was responsible for the viciousness, but she didn’t understand them or where they came from, or how they were what they were.

She went over to the desk, and opened the laptop.  Was there any charge?

There was.

It was immature, but she pushed the bottles and containers of makeup off the desk so she had space to move the mouse.  While the computer booted up, she used her foot to kick containers out of the way of Addi’s reach.  Addi would have to use her feet, but… it wouldn’t be good if some makeup stick or something got used as a lockpick, or if a glass container broke and gave her something she could use to slash a throat.

The computer booted.  There were lots of photos.

She wasn’t interested in those, much.

Email.

She’d already looked through Addi’s phone.  But if she thought about it, her dad provided the phone.

Other correspondence.

An error message flashed as she opened the email.  No active connection.  No new mail would be loaded.  It didn’t matter.

A search for her father’s email turned up nothing.

She selected ‘all mail’.

Six email chains.  All were gathered under a filter of ‘boring family shit’, set so it wouldn’t pop up on the main lists of emails.

The first was one where Addi had been CC’ed on wedding plans.  She’d come from a vacation straight to the wedding between Davie and Valentina’s stepmom.  Years ago.  She’d been young enough that an older cousin had handled that, but she’d been CC’ed anyway.

Five were Christmas emails.  A picture, a rundown of recent life events across the family.  Some had a bit of discussion of family plans.  Addi hadn’t participated in any of that.  2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019.

And one email chain about fundraising for a school event.  Six hundred and eighty-three messages, collapsed.  It took the computer a few seconds after Valentina un-collapsed it before it opened.

Past the first few messages, where Addi had asked how many boxes of something or other she could get away with asking for, and said she’d messaged her dad and Andre, the topic turned to Giovanna.  Maybe because it had been around the same time, that email near the top.  Maybe because they knew it’d be weird if they corresponded this much about it.

Lots of status reports.  Reports on Valentina’s state at school.  Her reactions.

Fifty or so messages deep, there were questions about so-and-so’s daughter.  Could Addi get dirt?  What about engineering a compromising position?

What if Davie supplied a drug to be slipped in a drink?  Could they make it look like she drove after drinking?

Yes, Addi replied.

He wrote back to say he’d look in on the drug tests.  There wasn’t much follow up past that.

More questions about Valentina.  Then two weeks break.

I’m bored, Addi wrote, interrupting the break.

Pick someone in your school for me.  Student.

Eula Mendoza.  Popular girl.

Her father’s a friend of the family.  Someone we don’t like that much.

Dan Yarbrough.  The son of the stunning weather woman, who got international attention for her charm, humor and looks.

Destroy him.

Is this a test?

Yes.

What do I win if I pass?

Figuring that out is part of the test.

That wasn’t even a hundred entries deep, as Valentina skimmed.

She skimmed more.  Stopping only to glance at words, or catch the texture of a sentence.  Nothing sexual.  Nothing romantic.  But… she could see the progression in other directions.

Maybe five hundred entries down, a picture of a man tied to a chair.  Snapped mid-cry.  Snot ran from the man’s nose to his chin.  The cloth tied across his mouth was bloody.

Where do I cut him?  What do I take from him?

Don’t let me deny you your fun.

I’m interested to see what you’d say.

Valentina shivered.  She moved her chair.

So Addi, now silent, had a view, head set on her pillow, the entirety of her illuminated by the glow of the screen.  Addi’s eyes were on the image.

Addi sighed, and she seemed more relaxed than Valentina had ever seen her.  Like she could fall asleep.

“He groomed you.”

“Nah,” Addi said.  “None of that bullshit.  He loved me.  More than he loved you.”

“What was the end goal?  Was he supposed to marry you, you’d be his third wife?”

“Fuck off.  It was never like that.  It was love.  Actual love.  He saw me for who I was, I saw him.  Neither of us flinched away.  I was more like a protégé.”

“Were the tears earlier fake?  About the face?  The whining?”

“You fucking cut my face open.  You think they weren’t real tears?  But now you know.  I know him better than just about anyone.  I know how badly he’ll mutilate you, and how he’ll have doctors keep you alive while he does it.”

“And I was part of the test?”

“You were background noise.  You were one way he checked to see what the family would tolerate.  But you know he was doing worse than cyber bullying his kid.  Why is this a surprise?  You’re not that important, Gio.  Not attractive enough or good enough at anything to be useful.  You disappointed him.  You bored him.  You flinched, you showed weakness, when he showed mean.  And I didn’t flinch or look away.”

Valentina stared down at Addi.

“Whatever you do to me, it’s not going to impress him.  It won’t make him flinch.  It won’t make him change what he does.”

“He groomed you,’ Valentina repeated.

“You’re so small.  You found my emails.  Big whoop.  You clearly still don’t understand.”

Valentina nodded.

She stepped out of the room.  The hallway wasn’t much brighter than the room had been, but she felt like there was more oxygen out here.

“Watch her,” she told Michelle.  “She might act up.”

“Okay.  Figure something out?”

Valentina nodded.

The guys were still on the same topic.  Rosales had stepped away, and was talking to Rider.

“Guys?  Bring Addi’s father up.  And cuff his hands so they’re in front.”

“Do we need to be worried?” Rider asked.

“What did you do?” Tony asked.

Valentina felt enough emotions, she realized, that she wasn’t really up to trying to explain.  Words wouldn’t do it.

So she waited.  She let him stew, as they got the cuffs off the railing, moved his hands around- stopping to reassert their grip on him, when he got impatient.  Cuffed his hands in front.  They walked, Julito on one side, Kenny on the other.

She pointed.

She’d wanted to slow roll this, but then she heard the commotion.

Michelle.

I should have called for Rosales and Julito.

“Slut!”

“Shut up!” Michelle screamed.

She punched Addi in the bandaged part of her face, and not for the first time.

Tony, with hands bound, tried to pull Michelle off, which just made the guys who were managing him pull him to the floor.

“God, you’re not even good enough to be a Cavalcanti,” Addi taunted.

“Why are you agitating them!?” Tony called out.

Valentina joined in, helping to pull Michelle away.  Michelle elbowed Valentina in the throat.

Side of the throat, at least.  No smashed windpipe.

Clusterfuck.

Then, Addi thrashing and kicking, pulling on cuffs until it looked like she’d pull her hand through, leaving skin behind, Tony struggling to get to Addi, while two guys tried to hold him still- the scene froze.

Tony saw the computer.

Addi saw him see, and went still.

And from there, Valentina touched shoulders, motioning.  Tony walked over to the computer, scrolling, to read the messages surrounding the image.

Valentina left him and Addi in the room.  She checked on Michelle, who stormed off, with Moses following to make sure she wasn’t doing anything too reckless.

And then they settled.

She put Julito and Rosales in charge of watching the door.

Ten minutes later, they were still at it.  Tony said some things, quiet, intense, Addi responded.

Valentina went downstairs.  If she’d been alone, she would have wept.  From emotional release, at figuring things out, when she’d been so torn up about it, before.  And at… the size of this.

But she wasn’t alone.  The Kids wouldn’t brook that kind of weakness.

So she made a tuna salad.  The interior of the fridge was still cold enough the mayo hadn’t gone bad.  The blackout hadn’t been that long ago.

“What’s going on?” Ben asked.  “Did you find something?”

“Did you?” she asked.  She wasn’t sure why she was being stubborn and pushing back.

“Not really.”

Valentina nodded.  “I found correspondence between Addi and my dad.”

“Is it useful?  Something we can use?”

“We’re using it now.  Tony’s looking at it.”

Ben started up the stairs.

“Don’t interrupt them.”

He frowned at her.

“It’s better if you don’t.  Because if you do, he’ll be mad at the interruption.  And you aren’t who we need him to be mad at.”

“I’m not?” Tony’s voice came from upstairs.  He’d overheard.

Valentina, tupperware of tuna salad in hand, stepped out of the kitchen and craned her head up.  She saw Tony’s expression, and it looked terrible.  Like he’d seen his daughter butchered like the people in that basement.  But it was worse, in many ways.

“I was there for the initial request to Addi, that she target you.  I drew a line, after. That she could get involved with the social media aspect, correcting Nicholas’ image, then drop it.  Reading those first few messages, I realize now how relentless it would have been.”

“Is this you trying to win me over?” Valentina asked.

“I’m not thinking along those lines.”

“Did you read all of it?”

“I- no.”

“You need to.”

“I know.  I know, I don’t want to, but I know I have to.  I read enough… I got the gist of it.  I didn’t want Addi to target you.  Not just because you were relatively innocent in all of it.  I didn’t want her in proximity to a man like Davie.”

“But it happened, you didn’t know.  You weren’t paying attention to her or to me.”

“I’ll live in the worst kind of horror for the rest of my life, because of that, Giovanna.”

“You knew what kind of person he was.”

“I did.”

“But now that it hits you at home, it’s different?”

“Are you going to get mad, if I say yes?”

“No,” she said.  “I’m not sure how much ‘mad’ I have in me.  But you might deserve what you’re experiencing right now.”

“I want to die,” he said.  “And I can’t, because she needs me.”

Addi said something from the room behind him.

He looked sadder, hearing that.

“I need, um,” he started.  He shut his eyes, swallowing hard.  “I need to walk away.  I need Addi to come with me.  The rest of my family too.  I’ll take some money.  It doesn’t have to be all.”

“You want to disappear.  You need Mia’s services.”

“I- I might be able to handle it myself.  I don’t want to ask for too much.”

“Addi told me he can get to me, wherever in the world I am.  He can’t do that with you?  With her, his pet project?  When she might be trying to get in touch with him, every second you’re not looking?”

Tony was holding himself so rigid that his head shook visibly, even from downstairs, in the light of flashlights.

The house flashed, bright, everything thudding into motion as air conditioning came on, appliances started running, and all the lights turned on.  The alarm system beeped with a high pitch.

People had drawn guns in their alarm.  Now they stood there.  Everything looked different in the light, all of them standing in the narrow hallway, outside Addi’s room.

Tony looked so much worse.

“You need Mia.  You know the price.”

“I can’t get you to him.”

“Figure it out,” she said.

“I might be able to make him budge from where he’s set up.”

The power flickered.

“Will that be a problem?”

“That’s the reason it works.”

“What works?” Mia asked, as she came in.

“A way to make him budge,” Tony said.  “Every expense in the upper echelons of the family that was over a certain amount passed under my nose, for tax purposes.  I looked into it, to know if I should hide the expense, I don’t know if he knows I know-”

“No, that might not work,” Mia said.

She didn’t seem that broken up about it.

Carson strode into the center of the hallway and tossed a box aside.  Some papers scattered.

He didn’t look too upset either.  Better than when they’d both left.

Valentina descended the stairs.

“Tony’s cooperating?” Carson asked.

“Yeah.  Figured some stuff out.”

“You?” he asked.

She nodded.

“I’m proud of you,” he said.  He gave her a kiss on the top of her head, which caught her off guard.  Mia caught her more off guard by pulling her into a hug.

Isn’t this home? Valentina thought.  Isn’t this good?

She’d really needed a hug like this.

Still hugging Valentina, Mia explained, “I just got a message.  Sent from one of Davie’s doctors.  There’s a dragon in the bottom of the bookshelf.”

“Is that a reference to her secret bookshelf?”

“Ripley’s in the ducts, she’s pretending we snuck in and got her out,” Mia said.  “We have a very small window of time.  If he’s realized, which I wouldn’t put past him, we have less.”

The lights flickered again, and then they died.  They were plunged into a darkness deeper than before, because many of them had turned off flashlights and phone lights.

Carson clapped his hands, and many people startled.  Mia, still holding Valentina, didn’t.  “Very small window of time, people!  Move!  Tie up the Arcuris.  Leave them behind, assuming they cooperated.”

“No,” Tony said.  “Not if the place might burn.  Give us new identities and an escape, let me get help for Addi, I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

Mia looked down at Valentina, barely visible, with many lights aimed in the wrong directions.

“Yes,” Valentina said.

Mia hugged her tighter for a second, then released her.  “Then come.”

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