Campbell_Book One

Chapter 23




February 2003

Los Angeles, West



“Juan, you’re doing it all wrong!” Rika squealed as he pushed the Scrabble board to the ground, tucked her under his arm and carried her to their bedroom. “You can’t do that.”

“It’s a stupid game,” he chuckled. “I have a game that I’m better at.”

The last five months had been the best of Rika’s life. In Juan, she’d found a family. Love. Support. It was so overwhelming that sometimes she’d find herself crying with happiness for no reason. She remembered reading about soul mates in a philosophy book at summer school, and decided that Plato was probably right about their soul splitting at some point, no matter how absurd she and Juan would look fused together in person.

“Can we go to San Fran soon?” she asked, after her body stopped vibrating from his attentions. “I want to see some of my friends.”

“Your dorky math camp friends?” Juan joked. “Sure, Baby. Whenever you want. Not today though, because Connor’s coming over.”

She gave him a bright grin. “Why are you still working for Connor?”

“Because he pays well, and it’s easy.” He pulled the blanket up and looked at her body. “Your boobs are getting bigger.”

“They hurt lately,” she said with a shrug. “I read that can happen when you’re pregnant so it’s a good thing we’re not having sex or I’d be freaking out.”

“Me too,” he agreed. “This girl I grew up with just had a baby and she almost died. Someone had to learn how to stitch—”

“Stop,” Rika cringed. “Don’t. We both know what happens.”

“Someday I want you to have my babies. When we’re much older.”

“How many?”

“Two,” he said, pulling her on top of him.

“How about one?”

“You hated being an only child. Two, at least. Maybe three or four. Maybe I’ll shackle you to the bed and we’ll have twenty.”

She rolled her eyes. “Two, maybe.” Her mouth met his and she slid her tongue ring along the roof of his mouth. “All those kids and I won’t have much time to put my other talents to use.”

“Two’s great,” he chuckled. “Someday I’ll stop working for Connor. Someone will take him out and everything will change.”

Rika nodded, nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck. “Hopefully for the better, because it can’t get much worse than those shitty movies he’s making. Maybe we should—”

They both jumped when the doorbell rang, quickly dressing to meet their dinner guest. Rika rolled her eyes as Juan opened the door and greeted his boss with a hearty handshake.

“Great place,” Connor said, looking around their large living room. “Rika, how are you?”

“Fine,” she said, putting on a smile. She didn’t like Connor. She thought he was a self-centered egomaniac, and he always looked at her like he felt sorry for her, which was infuriating. “I’m…I’ll go start dinner.”

She listened from the kitchen as Connor berated Juan about them moving into the house

“…I just think you’d be better off in your parent’s house, you know? More comfortable.”

“I’m pretty comfortable here,” Juan replied abruptly. “Just because I couldn’t have lived here before doesn’t mean I shouldn’t now.”


“You don’t feel like a fraud?”

“Nope,” he said with a shrug. “No more than you should, since you didn’t exactly earn the money for your parents’ house.”

Rika couldn’t help but interrupt. “You’re really putting that class shit on us? There’s no one to live in these houses. We had to bury the guy that was here and f*cking fumigate the place.” Rika cringed at the corpse that had been in the back yard under a tarp when she’d first started coming over. “Besides, my parents lived in a house a lot like this, and your dad hadn’t done a good movie in almost a decade. If you want to start comparing bankbooks, I’m game.”

Connor looked taken aback by her forwardness. “Well, aren’t you a firecracker.”

“Aren’t you an a*shole,” she muttered, making her way back into the kitchen.

“That’s my girl,” Juan said brightly, without a hint of an apology.

Rika waited for Connor’s response, but instead of replying or commenting, he changed the subject and turned his attention to Juan.

“So, how’s the flying going?”



November 2012

Los Angeles, West



Lucy kissed Tal’s cheek before slipping out of the bedroom and making her way downstairs and out into the backyard. She needed a few minutes to think before the emotionally charged situation she knew she was bound to find herself in once Bull and Zoey arrived. She’d insinuated her breakup with Zoey to Tal, more than once. Unless Lucy’s silence and comatose state had somehow convinced her otherwise, Zoey thought they were still together. Struggling, but together.

She knew Bull was unlikely to tell Zoey otherwise, even after their dream conversation. He usually wasn’t one to interfere in her relationships, not since they were fourteen, when Lucy had taken the competition factor out and decided that she liked women exclusively.

All bets were off now, however, since he’d caught a glimpse of her interest in Tal. She’d seen the early indications of that when they’d been in Grove.

Tal’s backyard was a masterpiece in urban gardening, nearly every inch of it covered in something useful and mostly edible. She assumed it was Leah’s handiwork. She stretched out on a lounger and looked over the pool.

They came from very different worlds.

The patio door slid open. “I made coffee,” Leah said, raising her eyebrows at the intruder in her sanctuary. “There’s enough for you, but Tal will have to make his own.”

“Thanks,” Lucy replied, wrapping her sweater around her. “That’s really nice.”

“I made it anyway,” she said with a shrug. “No big deal.”

“You and him are close,” Lucy said, looking at her. “I know that.”

“You seem to think you know a lot more than you do,” Leah replied, her brow furrowed. “You come in here, and you think that a week in the woods together makes you an expert on him.”

“He saved my life out there.” Lucy neglected to mention how he’d aided her much more recently than that.

Leah crossed her arms and frowned. “So repay your debt and help us with Connor, then leave.”

“I’m not here to stay. I have this little territory called Campbell? Perhaps you’ve heard of it?” Lucy raised her eyebrows. “It’s straddles your measly little universe.”

She turned and went inside, closing the door behind her. A minute later, a large cup of coffee was deposited on the table beside the lounger.

“I’m sorry about your brother,” she muttered. “I lost my sister in the early days.”

Tal’s cousin, Lucy remembered. “He was my twin.” She squeezed her eyes shut but a defiant tear escaped. “How do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Get up in the morning. Breathe.”

Leah sat on the edge of her lounger and clutched her mother’s coffee mug. “I think about her every day; what she’d be like, what she’d look like. I imagine how life would be different, and then I remember how important it is to live, for her.”

“And the boy who killed her? What about him?”

Leah’s expression changed, and Lucy realized that she had completely disregarded her as an intelligent woman, because it was easier to see her as a sniveling, whiny girl. “He’s got a kid now. I check in on him now and then. Make sure it mattered to him, what he did. If it hadn’t?” She shrugged. “His life would have been different. It would have been shorter.”

“What if Connor did take Tal? He could have—”

Leah leaned in. “Why do you think I slept with him? Do you think I had some illusions of grandeur with that little shit? That I thought I needed him to live? Gaining someone’s confidence after a lifetime of disdain has its price.”

“So you knew? You know.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I didn’t know what it all meant then. I know more than I want to, but exactly what I need to. He blamed it all on you, you know. To justify it. Why it happened.”

“Where’s my brother?” Lucy whispered, her heart pounding.

“I don’t know,” Leah replied honestly. “But I can show you where he died.”



***



When Tal woke up later that morning, it was to the phone beside the bed ringing. He hadn’t meant to stay with Lucy, but he’d fallen asleep and the prospect of moving and waking up alone had kept him in place. She was gone, a rumpled blanket in her place. She hadn’t cried until she was moments from falling asleep, and she’d tried to hide it from him but he’d known right away, and when she’d buried her face in his chest and fallen asleep, after murmuring ‘thanks’, he’d never felt more useful.

The more Lucy talked about Cole, the angrier he was at Connor, and not just because Lucy was upset. Cole was, as far as Tal was concerned, an innocent in a game he’d never been good at. Connor had, knowingly or not, unleashed the beast that was Andrew Campbell, and that was, from what Lucy had told Tal, a grave mistake.

“Hello?” he answered gruffly, rubbing his face to wake up.

“All’s good on the eastern front,” Connor said brightly. “Good morning, sunshine.”

“Hey, buddy,” Tal said, rolling his eyes at his phone. “What’s up?”

“How’s Rika?” he asked suggestively.

“What…oh,” Tal rolled his eyes. “She’s great. I…should have got to know her a long time ago.”

“That tongue ring always made me curious. There’s only one reason a woman—”

Tal laughed to shut him up. “Come on. It’s not like that.”

“You always did see yourself as more of a lover than a f*cker, Bauman. So here’s the deal. I need you to release a hundred grand. We’re trying to buy some support and everyone in Phoenix seems to need a kitchen appliance of some sort.”

It was the call Tal expected, with an extra dose of bullshit.

“No,” he said, smiling to himself as he said it. He knew this conversation should have happened years earlier.

“Ha ha,” Connor laughed. “I’m going to send someone over for it. We’ll need cash. You get a better deal if you pay—”

“I mean it. No.”

“What the f*ck, man?”

“I’m cutting you off. This is it.”

“You’re cutting me off? It’s my—”


“It belongs to the kids of West. It’s not yours. I don’t think this is a good use of it.” It felt incredibly good to finally put it out there. “No.”

“You don’t think that defending ourselves is a good use of money?” Connor shouted through the phone. Tal bit his tongue and reminded himself that he didn’t want Connor to know that he knew who was likely responsible for their kidnapping, which had most certainly not been a good use of money.

“It’s not happening, Connor. You’ve asked for a half a million dollars this week. There are hungry kids out there. Cut your losses.”

“A week with that f*cking communist bitch and you think—”

Tal knew he’d make it about Lucy. “I’ve thought about this for a long time. There are better ways for us to operate—”

“You’re done,” Connor said with finality. “You’re done here.”

The line went dead and Tal pulled himself out of bed, knowing that it would take at least a day for Connor to make good on his threat. It wasn’t much time, but it would have to do. He dressed and bounded down the stairs, but found the house empty. A short note on the kitchen table explained.



Gone to the office with Lucy. Back later.



Under different circumstances, Tal would have found himself refreshed by Leah’s note and pleased that they were both making an effort to get to know one another. However, he doubted that was the case, and the unknown reasons for them going anywhere together made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He wasn’t left with much time to work through his concerns, however, as a loud knock on the door drew his attention. He looked through the peephole to see Bull staring in at him.

“We’re f*cking exhausted. Open the door.”

Tal did, and he and Zoey, bags in hand, staggered into the foyer.

“Where are we sleeping? We almost got creamed by some sort of fruit truck ten minutes ago because I was half asleep. We need to rest,” Bull said, flopping down on the couch.

“We’re dethroning Connor. Soon,” Tal said, avoiding eye contact with Zoey. “Probably in the next day or so.”

“Do you have your proof?”

“Nope, but we don’t have time for that. He’s out, Rika and I are in.”

“Who?”

“My second.

“Tal, where’s your bathroom?” Zoey asked quietly, her eyes dark as she peered around his house.

“There’s one just down the hall, second door,” Tal replied.

When she vanished and closed the door, Bull’s expression darkened. “Where’s Lucy?”

“She’s out with my cousin.”

Bull raised his voice, and Tal knew he had the same concerns that he did. “Why is she out with your cousin?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Tal said, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his pyjama pants. “I woke up and found a note saying they were out. At my office. I can call there. I have to go to Rika’s house to finalize a plan for this Connor thing—”

The look on Bull’s face was not reassuring. “You need to calm down and think here. Do you trust your cousin?”

A calmness came over Tal, as he realized with certainty that he did trust Leah. “Yes.”

“Why would she take Lucy to your office?”

Tal reached for the phone and dialed the studio. No one answered. He wasn’t surprised. “I don’t know. Lucy’s an adult—”

“Lucy’s had a mental breakdown. She’s not exactly in the right mindset to be making good decisions. Get me a coffee, and we’ll go find them.”

“What’s going on?” Zoey emerged from the bathroom rubbing her eyes.

“Zoey, go get some sleep. I’m going to…Tal and I have some things to do,” Bull said gently.

“There’s a room off the pool, down the hall. You can sleep there,” Tal said, as he grabbed her bag and led her there. She looked relieved when she saw the bed.

“I…I’m not used to Bull’s hours,” she admitted. “And I’m a little homesick. I just…I just need a nap.”

Tal nodded, feeling her exhaustion in his bones. “We’ll wake you up in a bit.”

He closed the door, and immediately the phone started ringing.

“Tal, someone came for us,” Rika said, her voice clear. “Now, we shot them—”

“Come over here, please,” Tal said, hoping his voice echoed her calm tone. “We need to move fast.”

“On our way.”

Tal started the coffee and shook his head at Bull, who had his coat on, ready to go.

“Can’t go now. Lucy and Leah, they’re on their own—” He ducked as a window smashed. “You good with a gun?”

“We can’t just leave her—”

“She’s tougher than you think. Leah’s tougher than I think. They’ll be fine.” Tal nodded towards his father’s office. “Wherever they are, it’s probably safer than here.”

Bull begrudgingly followed Tal into his office, and his eyes went wide as a bookcase was pushed aside and to reveal a rather extensive gun collection.

“This used to be a wine cellar,” he noted. “I don’t really like wine.”

“What’s happening here?”

“I cut Connor off financially about an hour ago, and he told me I’m out. I assume he’s going to try and kill me so I don’t continue to be a problem.” Tal spoke with a calm decisiveness he wasn’t sure he had in him.

“Oh.” Bull eyed a large assault rifle. “So you like guns, huh?”

“I hate guns. I hate them more than anything except dying.” Tal reached for a revolver. “Which I’m not prepared to do right now.”

“I’ll take the closest thing you have to a hunting rifle,” Bull announced. “And if anything happens to Lucy, I’m going to shoot you with it as soon as we’re done. Somewhere painful.”

Rika, flanked by seven of the biggest kids Bull had ever seen, arrived about ten minutes later, her young children in tow.

“Where’s the safest place for them?” she asked, a frown on her face. “I should have gone to San Fran this morning, Tal.”

“We probably all should have,” he admitted. “But this will be over quickly.”

“One way or another,” Rika grumbled, looking around, her eyes settling on the broad man posing with an assault rifle. “Who’s that?”

“That’s Lucy’s second, Bull.” Tal smiled at her kids. “Can you girls be quiet?”

They both nodded.

“They can go with Zoey, Lucy’s—”

“Girlfriend,” Bull declared, shooting Tal a dark look. “She’s sleeping down the hall.”

Rika nodded and took them out of the room, leaving Tal alone with more testosterone than he’d ever encountered in one place.

“So we need a plan,” he told them. “We need to take Connor down.”

One of the kids, who made Bull look like Tal in comparison, said gruffly, “You think he’s coming here?”

“I think he’d want to make sure the job is done,” Tal replied.

Rika’s companion nodded. “Then you find out where he’s landing, and you get there. Fast.”

“I’ll go,” Bull said. “I want to do it.”

“Get in line,” another of Rika’s companions said. “Juan was like a brother to me—”


“He almost killed the most important person in my life,” Bull roared.

“Can we not fight about this?” Rika said, more gently than most in her position would have. “First, we need to take him out, and then we can decide who he f*cked up worse.”

Tal glanced at himself in the mirror by the door. All the memories of his father preparing for his own death flooded back. The canned goods that had lasted over seven years. The gold from the safety deposit box. The two months he’d spent meticulously teaching Tal and his brothers the lessons that should have taken a decade to properly be absorbed.



Always trust your gut.



“Bull, you and two of the Mexicans go.” Tal said authoritatively to the crew Rika had brought with her. “You have two seconds to decide who. Rika, go get a gun, and call who you need to call to take the phone lines down. I don’t want him being able to call anyone.”

She nodded and vanished to Tal’s office, and he turned to face Bull and the two largest, angriest looking kids from Rika’s group.

“You’re going to Van Nuys airport. Don’t take a direct route, shoot first and ask questions later. Do not shoot Connor. Fatally.”

“Okay,” Bull nodded, picking up the rifle he’d lent him. “I have your number.”

“The phones won’t work, but I’ll be here,” Tal said decisively. “Go.”



***



The studio was larger than Lucy had imagined. Leah grabbed her hand and squeezed it as she waved to two armed guards at the front gate from her Jaguar.

“Connor sent me to pick up some stuff and check in on things,” she said brightly.

“Who’s she? She kind of looks like—”

“She’s in the space movie.”

“There’s a problem with the phones. We’re working to have it resolved,” one of the guards said. “Power’s still up though, so no problems with shooting. What’s your name?”

“Laura Black,” Lucy said, without missing a beat and smiling as the guard wrote her name in a book. “I’m from—”

“She’s from Seattle,” Leah interjected. “She’s got the same measurements as the girl—”

“The one with the lion?” The second guard winced. “You’re still doing that scene?”

“We’ve got it figured out now. It won’t happen again.” Leah winked. “Come on now, don’t scare her!”

The three of them chuckled. “How’s Bauman?”

“Home, snoring away,” Leah said with a sigh, as she pulled away from the gate. “This war….”

“I hear we’re winning!”

“Of course we are!” she shouted back. “Back in a bit.”

“What do you do here?” Lucy asked curiously as she rolled up the windows.

“Everything lately. When politics became more important than movies, I got the toy that none of the boys wanted anymore.” She reached into the backseat and handed Lucy a beret. “Keep your face off the security cameras. I don’t know who’s watching. There’s been so much bullshit flying lately that I’m surprised they let me in.”

“Why are you doing this?”

Leah pulled into a parking spot with her name on it. “I’d like to sleep at night.”

Their first stop was a third-floor office with Leah’s name on the door, full of movie memorabilia and electronics, the newest Lucy had seen in years. She stood in the doorway, tense as Tal’s cousin rifled through her desk.

She was fairly sure she could handle herself with Leah, as long as it was a fair fight. She hadn’t expected her to pull a gun.

“I’m not going to shoot you, you ass,” Leah muttered, laying the gun on her desk as she passed her an envelope. “Here. I had them developed. I wasn’t supposed to look, but I confronted Connor about it.”

They were the same pictures Lucy had been sent. She looked quickly then dropped the envelope on her desk. “What…” Lucy stammered, her mind racking

“Connor told me a lovely story about how Campbell had abducted my cousin and he’d managed to grab Lucy Campbell’s twin so we could negotiate and get him back. Imagine my shock when Tal called and said he was with you, and he was fine. He should have called earlier.”

Lucy had asked him not to call earlier. Her heart thudded in her chest.

“Why? What would have—”

“Because I wouldn’t have helped Connor kill him if I’d know,” she said simply. “I would have stopped it, however I had to. Your brother was a nice guy. A bit misguided, but a nice guy.”

Lucy lunged over the desk and grabbed the girl, pinning her to the floor. “You f*cking bitch,” she hissed, her hands around Leah’s throat. “F*cking idiotic—”

“If you kill me, you’re never getting out of here alive,” she gasped, fumbling for the gun. “And even if you did, Tal would never forgive you, and this will never end.”

Lucy released her throat , but remained on top of her. “Do you have any idea the problems you’ve—”

“Yes,” she wheezed. “I know exactly the problems I’ve caused, and I’m trying to make them as right as I can. See that over there?” She nodded at a simple cardboard box. “His things are in there, if you want them. I saved them.”

Lucy grabbed the gun off the desk and stood, cautiously aiming at Leah. The girl was physically weak, but Lucy had gained new respect for her. She knew that, for Tal, Leah would have done exactly what Lucy had to get Cole back.

The box had her twin’s old hoodie, boots and jeans in it; his wallet with some tattered Canadian money, and her mother’s wedding band, which he’d always worn around his neck on a chain. Even from a distance they smelled like him, and Lucy was overcome with emotion.

“You asked why I’m doing this. You brought Tal back.” Leah said, sitting up and rubbing her neck. “We’re as even as—”

“As we could ever be,” Lucy replied, sliding her mother’s band in her pocket. “Where did he…?“

Leah nodded and stood, accepting the ruler of Campbell’s hand to steady herself. “I’ll take you there.”

The two girls walked silently over to a small prop shed about ten minutes from the main building in a bit of lawn, and Leah removed a key from on top of the doorframe and opened the door.

The smell of blood and death was overpowering. They both gagged.

“I thought someone would have cleaned this up by now,” Leah whispered, pulling a string and lighting up a bare bulb to reveal a great deal of blood splattered against the wall. “Connor was supposed to—”

“Where is my brother?” Lucy asked, her fingers tracing the blood on the wall as tears streamed down her cheeks. “I…I need to take him home.”

“I don’t know.” Leah took a step outside the door to get some air. “Connor knows. I didn’t ask. I didn’t…” Her face screwed up as tears streamed down her face. “I never wanted to be a part of any of these games. I just wanted to make movies, and live my life without any more death, and now, it’s just…” She wiped her eyes. “It doesn’t stop. It’ll never stop.”

Lucy took a step outside and drew a deep breath. “He’s gone…he’s really….”


The last person she expected to find comfort in was Leah Schmidt. Leah wasn’t naturally warm, and it was a challenge for them both, figuring out how to properly react. She held Lucy though, stroked her terrible haircut, and did her best to calm the gut wrenching sobs the girl was emitting.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…” she whispered. “We can’t do this here though. Not with you looking like him, and whatever is happening with Connor and Tal. We’ve got to get out of here. Tal, he’ll be wondering.”

“He was here when Cole was here,” Lucy choked.

“He didn’t know, Lucy. He didn’t. None of this would have happened if he’d know. This,” she nodded at the shed. “It’s nothing to do with Tal.”

“But—”

“No buts. Do you really think—”

“He should have paid more attention.”

“I think we’re all guilty of that.” Leah reached for her hand. “We have to get out of here.”

Lucy lingered, and peering into the shed once more, the walls familiar from the pictures she’d been sent. This was it. Closure. As good as it got.

“We should go,” she mumbled, clutching her mother’s ring in her pocket. “My people are probably waiting.”

Leah nodded. “Let’s go.”



***



“We’re never going to be friends,” Lucy said quietly, as they sped out of the studio lot. “I know you have ulterior motives.”

“Of course I have ulterior motives,” Leah huffed. “No one sticks their neck out if they don’t. Tal doesn’t know about what I just showed you, and—”

Lucy nodded in agreement. “Today isn’t the day. You’ll tell him when—”

“Connor will tell him when we’re pulling out his fingernails. He’ll implicate me, and you’ll already know that, but you’ll keep your mouth shut,” Leah said.

“You won’t tell him why we were here?”

Shaking her head, she put her blinker on. “I didn’t do it to win brownie points with him. He can figure it out on his own.”

Lucy watched Leah out of the corner of her eye for the rest of the drive, as she tried to decipher Tal’s cousin furrowed expression while they drove road after unfamiliar road, seemingly in circles at times.

“Can you see that black Range Rover anywhere?” Leah finally asked. “It’s been following us.”

Lucy glanced back in the rearview mirror. “No. There’s nothing behind us.”

“We can’t go home now. Not any normal way,” she muttered. “They’re trying to grab me and probably you for collateral, and I’m sure they’ve got the roads blocked up.”

“For someone that doesn’t like politics, you sure know your strategy.” Lucy looked in the rearview and flinched when the black SUV pulled back in behind them. “So what do we do?”

“I’ve got a full tank of gas and I know this city better than anyone. How are you with a gun?”

“Good,” Lucy nodded confidently. She’d always shot tin cans better than any boy.

“We shoot out the tires on that one then and try to get as close to the house as possible. I know a way.”

Leah swerved onto the highway and eased her car into the far lane. Traffic was light and she took advantage of that, getting far enough ahead that it was just themselves and the black Range Rover.

“Do you think you can make the shot from here?”

“You’ll have to slow down if I’ve got a chance.” Lucy twisted around in the seat and Leah pushed the sunroof open. “If I can’t get the tires?”

“Aim for the windshield. Shoot the driver if you have to. Just stop them.” She sped up and then put the brakes on, putting the SUV as close to them as she could.

Two shots later, the SUV’s occupants were sitting ducks on the freeway.

“Whooo!” Leah shouted, speeding up again as Lucy sat down again and buckled up her seatbelt. “We’re not done yet, but that was f*cking awesome!”

It took a minute for Lucy to get control of her breathing, the rush of what she’d done lingering in her throat. “Did I kill the driver? I think I killed—”

“I don’t know. You shattered the shit out of his windshield.” She beat on her steering wheel enthusiastically. “Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

Driveways were ducked into and they drove in so many circles around the hills that Lucy thought she was going to be sick. She’d never seen so many houses on such small pieces of land. Finally, they came to a small house with a drive-in garage, which opened automatically when Leah pulled up to it.

“I lived here for about a year when I was seventeen,” she said quietly. “When Tal and I went our separate ways for a while.”

“It’s a cute place.”

“I get lonely easily,” she admitted. “It’s like everything’s worse when you’re alone—”

“I’m the same.” Lucy unlocked the car and found her legs like jelly and her shoulder aching from shooting the gun. She turned around in the small garage and followed Leah out the back door, and looked straight up the side of a hill. “So I’m guessing it’s up.”

“Up it is,” Leah nodded. “It’s about twenty minutes and then we should end up in our backyard.”

The two women started up the hill, pushing through the vines and greenery in silence. Leah lead the way, moving things aside for Lucy as they trudged onward.

“I want to ask you,” Lucy gasped on the steep incline, “about when he was…but—”

“What good would that do?” Leah said, glancing back at her wistfully. “You know it wasn’t nice, and there’s nothing you can do to change it.”

She was right, Lucy knew. She also knew anything Leah told her would just make her angrier, and she was angry enough, at Connor and Leah, but also at the universe for putting her in her present situation.

“His death won’t be for nothing. I can do something about that,” Lucy grunted as her foot slipped and she nearly twisted her ankle.

“I can see why he likes you. He’s a sucker for a bleeding heart.” Leah pushed some tree branches aside.

Lucy decided that Leah was as kind as her cousin, but she didn’t give her the satisfaction of admitting it out loud.

When they finally cleared the fence at their house, Leah and Lucy were immediately met with a huge dead kid, half in the pool, tinting the swimming pool red. She pulled Lucy behind the pump house and the two of them slumped down.

“Good news is that’s not Tal. Is that any of your people?”

Lucy shook her head. “No. My people are a girl about your size and a guy about that height but not so…fat.”

They both listened for a minute and heard nothing.

“Do we check the house?”

Lucy shook her head. “It could be a trap.”

“We can’t stay out here forever. You got that gun still?”

Lucy pulled it out of her back pocket. “It’s got what? Four bullets?”

“There’s more in the house, if we can get there. Just…” she nodded towards the screen door. “We’ll go slow.”

The patio door was open, as was the front door. Leah pulled both shut quietly and locked them. “Guns are in Tal’s office behind the bookcase,” she whispered. “Grab as many as you can.”


The guns weren’t the only thing she found in the gun room. Lucy gasped as she opened the door to find Zoey and Rika’s two little girls stuffed in the tiny room.

She muffled Zoey’s sobs into her shoulder as she embraced her so hard she thought she might break them both.

“They came, and they took them, and there were shots,” she sobbed. “And I thought you—”

“I’m okay,” Lucy promised. “Oh, Zoey,” she squeaked, kissing her, her hands on her face. “You’re okay.”

She nodded, resting her head on Lucy’s shoulder. “I’m just…I’m not cut out for any of this. I want to go home and make you dinner and do the laundry—”

“Two more dead on the front lawn,” Leah announced, blinking at Lucy and Zoey. “Oh. Hello.”

Lucy didn’t let her go. “This…she’s Zoey. One of mine. The kids are—”

“Rika’s.” Leah nodded, kneeling down to see the littlest one. “Where are Tal and your mom?”

“Someone came and took them,” the littlest girl squeaked.

“Any idea where or who?”

“Mommy said to tell you to hurry,” the older girl piped up. “And that my uncles were going to get Connor on his plane.”

“They went to meet him at the airport?”

She nodded. “Before.”

Lucy and Leah exchanged a look. “So if they have them, they probably don’t give a shit about us,” Leah said with a shrug. “So now what?”

“Where would whoever took them take them?” Lucy wondered out loud. “Any guesses?”

“Just one,” Leah replied, her face clouding over with rage. “Strap as many weapons on as you can. We’re going back down the hill.”